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Volkswagen is holding cars at US ports amid tariff turmoil. Audi, the luxury arm of the world's second largest global automaker, has confirmed it's in a high-stakes holding pattern triggered by President Donald Trump's 25 percent tariff on imported vehicles. The affected cars arrived in the US the same day Trump announced the sweeping levies. Now, they sit idle as VW considers its next move. Executives are thought to be hoping for either a presidential U-turn or a chance to negotiate a lower rate. It's the latest shot across the bow from VW. The company said it will display new...

A Malibu resident is telling his story about how he captured a now-viral photo of a Volkswagen Bus that survived the deadly Palisades Fire. “Get out of the house, now! There’s a massive fireball heading your way,” Pacific Palisades resident Matt Baker said of a friend calling him to give him this urgent warning as the fire started. “I stayed in the danger zone far longer than I should have. I was determined to make sure all my neighbors safely evacuated,” Baker said about staying to fight the flames.

A VW van sits among burned out homes, Jan. 9, 2025, in Malibu, Calif. Mark J. Terrill/AP Photo Preston Martin figured the retro blue Volkswagen van he slept in for a year during college was a goner, given that he parked it in a Malibu neighborhood just before the Palisades fire ripped through, reducing homes and cars to rubble and charred metal. So the surfboard maker was stunned to find that the vehicle survived. Not only that, a photo of the vibrant bus taken by an Associated Press photographer was circulating widely on television and online, giving viewers a measure...

W is considering axing as many as 30,000 jobs as it scrambles to save billions of euros amid a slowdown in the car market, German media has reported. The carmaker recently announced it could close some of its German factories for the first time in history as it struggles to reinvent itself for the electric era. Analysts at Jefferies said VW is considering closing two to three facilities, with as many as five German sites under threat, putting 15,000 jobs at risk. That job losses is feared to have doubled to 30,000, according to Manager Magazin, a leading German business...

Ford is unveiling its newest electric vehicle this week. Ahead of its official debut, Ford teased the new EV, claiming “the legend is back.” Ford confirmed the new EV will be revealed on Wednesday, July 10, 2024. The new EV will follow Ford’s electric Explorer as the automaker’s second model based on Volkswagen’s MEB platform. The first all-electric Explorer rolled off the assembly line at Ford’s new Cologne EV plant in Germany last month. It was the first of a 2020 deal with VW to use its platform as it looks to revamp sales in the region. Described as a...

The unionization vote at the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee has been certified by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), according to a Tuesday announcement from the manufacturer and the United Auto Workers (UAW). Workers at the Chattanooga plant voted two weeks ago, with 73 percent, or 2,628 staffers, in favor of unionization, and 27 percent against, representing 985 employees. “Volkswagen and union workers around the world have a long history of successfully building vehicles together, and we are jointly committed to a strong and successful future at Volkswagen Chattanooga with the UAW,” the automaker and UAW said in a joint...

The last time Alyssa Milano was accused of being smart, it was 1991 while playing her role in “Who’s The Boss?” Since then, she continuously says and does things that reveal just how lacking she is in the mental department. Her latest entry for the Darwin Awards was an attempt to virtue signal against Elon Musk. He owns Tesla. He now owns Twitter and he’s letting people back in who Milano doesn’t agree with, therefore it makes sense to her feeble mind to “give back” her Tesla. Her reasons are ludicrous: I gave back my Tesla. I bought the VW...

We’ve seen a lot of climate change protesters in this country. They’re usually incredibly annoying, doing things like blocking traffic by linking themselves together on the highway or gluing their hands to something. Last week as we reported, we saw these two people throw soup at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers and glue themselves to the wall. Context pic.twitter.com/GCLHATIdW7 — spicymayo (@spicymayo18) October 14, 2022 The young woman with pink hair is bordering on hysterical as she tries to convince people of the importance of their actions. The usual reaction to people like this has been to cut them loose or free...

The German carmaker is replacing its Currywurst with vegetarian alternatives. After nearly 50 years, Volkswagen will no longer serve its famous made-in-house sausage at its Wolfsburg production plant. In 2019, the Volkswagen butcher’s shop still produced 7 million curry sausages. Volkswagen is cutting its meat production for the sake of sustainability, and it makes sense, but people are losing it over the announcement. As Politico put it, for some folks, this is just “the Wurst!” It flies in the face of decades of sausage-eating tradition. Currywurst production has been ongoing at VW since 1973 The sausage is such a VW...

Volkswagen of America issued false statements this week saying it would change its brand name to "Voltswagen," as a way to stress its commitment to electric vehicles, only to reverse course Tuesday and admit that the supposed name change was just a joke. Mark Gillies, a company spokesman, confirmed Tuesday that the statement had been a pre-April Fool's Day joke, after having insisted Monday that the release was legitimate and the name change accurate. The company's false statement was distributed again Tuesday, saying the brand name change reflected VW's switch to more battery-electric vehicles. Volkswagen's intentionally fake news release, highly...

California announced new rules Friday for its state vehicle fleet to reduce pollution and reward automakers that are siding with it against the Trump administration. Officials immediately barred state agencies from buying any sedans that only run on internal combustion engines, with exemptions for certain public safety vehicles. The state has about 40,000 vehicles, about 8,400 of which are sedans. Starting next year, it will require state agencies to buy only from companies that recognize California’s authority to set greenhouse gas and zero emission vehicle standards. Only BMW, Ford, Volkswagen and Honda have decided to back California and endorse stricter...

Workers at Volkswagen’s plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, voted Friday night against forming a factory-wide union, handing a setback to the United Auto Workers’ efforts to gain a foothold among foreign auto facilities in the South. The vote of hourly workers began Wednesday and concluded Friday. Preliminary results show 833 employees voted against representation and 776 voted for it, the German automaker said in a statement. VW said about 93% of the roughly 1,700 eligible employees voted. “Our employees have spoken,” Frank Fischer, president and CEO of Volkswagen Chattanooga, said in the company statement. He said results are pending certification by...

Volkswagen has been thinking about bringing a compact pickup truck to the U.S., and it might want to hurry up. Custom car body outfit Smyth Performance has unveiled a conversion kit to turn a VW New Beetle into a pickup and it’s already the Massachusetts company’s best seller. According to Motor 1, the first 100 kits were sold out during a pre-order period at $2,990 a pop. It's compatible with the New Beetle that went out of production in 2011 and features an aluminum step side bed with a retro flair that suits the car’s styling. Smyth calls them "utes", using...

The oldest surviving sports car built by Porsche, and first to wear the brand’s name, is heading to auction this summer and expected to sell for a historic price. The Type 64 was the third of a series built by Ferdinand Porsche and his son Ferry between 1939 and 1940. Based on the chassis of the KdF-Wagen, which was also designed by the elder Porsche and would spawn the Volkswagen Beetle, the Type 64 was originally built to compete in a race from Berlin to Rome that was canceled after the outbreak of World War II. By then only one...

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Volkswagen is investing $800 million in its plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, a move that will add 1,000 jobs to the factory, the company announced Monday. It plans to build electric cars there. Volkswagen's investment in Tennessee comes weeks after General Motors announced plans to close three North American plants and shift its production focus away from sedans, to free up money to develop to electric and self-driving vehicles. The move also comes amid talks between Volkswagen and Ford about pooling resources to make the next generation of vehicles. The new Tennessee jobs and production should begin in 2022, according to the company's statement. "The US...

According to the seller, this Beetle was purchased new in Beaverton, Oregon, in 1964 as a backup for the owner's 1957 Beetle; the car cost $1757 when new. Apparently, he never needed it, as it was promptly put into storage and never licensed, insured, or driven, and was only moved once: after two years of keeping the Beetle in a friend's storage unit, the owner constructed his own building and moved it there, where it sat from 1966 to 2016. The 23rd mile on the odometer rolled over as the Beetle was pulled out of storage, and the original battery...

In a significant symbolic blow to the Iranian regime, the Volkswagen Group — the world’s biggest selling car manufacturer last year — has reportedly agreed to end almost all of its operations in Iran, in line with the restoration of U.S. sanctions on Tehran. The news was disclosed by U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, who since taking up his Berlin posting in May — he presented his credentials on the same day President Trump announced the U.S. was exiting the Iran nuclear deal — has been encouraging the host government to isolate Iran and urging German companies to stop...

German magazine Wirtschaftswoche said U.S. President Donald Trump aimed to push German carmakers out of the United States, and that he told French President Emmanuel Macron he wanted to stop Mercedes-Benz from cruising through New York. German carmakers control 90 percent of the U.S. premium auto market, with BMW owning the Rolls-Royce and BMW brands while Daimler has Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen controls Bentley, Bugatti, Porsche and Audi. The Trump administration has opened a trade investigation into whether vehicle imports have damaged the U.S. auto industry. Citing several unnamed European and U.S. diplomats, the magazine said on Thursday that he told...

It resembles a car park at an enormous open-air venue - but it is actually a knock-on effect of the Volkswagen emissions scandal. Dramatic aerial pictures show row after row of diesel VWs and Audis sitting in the baking California sun, awaiting either repair or destruction in their desert graveyard. This is just one of 37 storage areas the firm has around the US, housing almost 300,000 vehicles. In addition to the pictured site in Victorville, other facilities include a disused suburban football stadium in Detroit and a former Minnesota paper mill. The German company needs plenty of space because...