Report: Audi to build U.S. assembly plant

[quattroholic]

Report: Audi to build U.S. assembly plant
Originally posted to quattroholic.com at 3:14 PM EST. Monday, July 11, 2011



A report published today by Autoweek has confirmed that Audi is indeed planning to build vehicles here in the United States. The report notes that in addition to a U.S.-based assembly plant, Audi is considering building an engine and transmission plant here, all in an effort to facilitate the brand's growing North American demand. Details are still being hammered out but a final decision of location, model line and capacity should be made within the next 3 years. More after the jump.

We feel this is good news for both North American consumers and the Audi brand as a whole. Considering Audi's U.S. demand continues to see rapid growth, an American plant should help alleviate the long wait-times some buyers have been experiencing. As CEO Rupert Stadler points out: "Our dealers currently ask for more cars than we can deliver, our delivery times are still too high." Stadler continued in an interview with Autoweek: "It is totally clear that we need new production capacity in the U.S., the question only is when."

We imagine the new U.S. plant would produce popular models such as the A4, A3 and Q5 and most likely be located near VW's new plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. But still, this news begs an important question, would you be more or less inclined to buy an Audi if you knew it was assembled in the U.S.? Or, would it have no impact on your decision?

Source: Autoweek

[a2gtinut]

i would NOT buy a car made in US.

[belinko]

I wouldn't buy an Audi made in the US by some ex-detriot union workers.

This is just like the big Japanese car makers having plants here. I guess built in USA may appeal to most consumers that would be purchasing the above mentioned models. I think the enthusiast crowd would differ.

I'd rather have mine assembled by Hans & Dieter on any day of the week, wait longer and have it shipped from germany.

[Levinoss08]

It still has to be built to Audi's standards so I don't think it'll be that bad guys.

[nycion]

i would NOT buy a car made in US.

X2! It's all in the culture and mentality of the people that put this things together...

[2001 a6 4.2]

X2! It's all in the culture and mentality of the people that put this things together...

X2

[belinko]

It still has to be built to Audi's standards so I don't think it'll be that bad guys.

Then you might as well make Auid's in Beijing, China next to the Hyundai facility or Tijuana, Mexico where they already make non US VW models.

It's all marketing and PR. 'mericans want 'merican built. More jobs less carbon foot print. Bull shit I say.

If there was a manufacturing benefit they'd already be making cars here.

It's just like Suzuki and Honda make all of their ATV's here in the states, because majority of sales are in US and the ATV crowd wants 'merican built.

[AudiA8D2]

Could this potentially lower the costs of Audi's in the states? Since they won't have to ship the cars from Germany.

[Anthony]

Then you might as well make Auid's in Beijing, China next to the Hyundai facility or Tijuana, Mexico where they already make non US VW models.

It's all marketing and PR. 'mericans want 'merican built. More jobs less carbon foot print. Bull shit I say.

If there was a manufacturing benefit they'd already be making cars here.

It's just like Suzuki and Honda make all of their ATV's here in the states, because majority of sales are in US and the ATV crowd wants 'merican built.

Audi does have a plant in China, but I believe they're only sold within the Chinese/Asian market. This is to both meet the demand within the region and to avoid major transport/shipping fees. Also to clarify, vehicles made in Volkswagen's Mexico plant are indeed sold in the United States, such as the Jetta (and soon the all-new Beetle).

Volkswagen has extensive plans to sell a lot more cars, worldwide, as many as Honda and Toyota. In order to do that, more manufacturing plants are necessary. Hence their new US plant in Tennessee. Same thing goes for Audi. They're selling more cars than ever before, especially in North America, and so a plant here in the US just makes sense in keeping up with demand and keeping their costs down.

[GrapeBandit]

I wouldn't want an American built AUDI either.

FAIL

[LennyLenihan]

I will take an American built Audi. It is still German engineering, nicht?

[bangoman]

If it means getting an A3 or A4 with TDI and quattro, I'm in.

[belinko]

Audi does have a plant in China, but I believe they're only sold within the Chinese/Asian market. This is to both meet the demand within the region and to avoid major transport/shipping fees. Also to clarify, vehicles made in Volkswagen's Mexico plant are indeed sold in the United States, such as the Jetta (and soon the all-new Beetle).

Volkswagen has extensive plans to sell a lot more cars, worldwide, as many as Honda and Toyota. In order to do that, more manufacturing plants are necessary. Hence their new US plant in Tennessee. Same thing goes for Audi. They're selling more cars than ever before, especially in North America, and so a plant here in the US just makes sense in keeping up with demand and keeping their costs down.

Agreed. I'm also sure that if/when they do open a factory here it will be a spectacular sight.

I just like the idea of having a german car made in germany or for example a Smith & Wessen made in the USA or a Hummer H1 made in the USA.

[C4.Style]

Nein, ich will nicht. Deutschland nur!

[Scotty@Advanced]

Could this potentially lower the costs of Audi's in the states? Since they won't have to ship the cars from Germany.

Supply and demand if people are willing to pay a price for a new Audi then they will pay that price regardless if the cars is made in the USA or in Europe.

[cha777]

People are buying Spartanburg built X5's worldwide so much to the point that there is a national shortage in the US of X5's!

As far as Audi is concerned, I would rather have them built in Chattanooga than Mexico (personal bias: I live 10 miles from the VW plant in Chatt).
What shocks everybody is how few people a modern car plant employs. The Chattanooga plant, for how massive it is, only employs about 2000 people. The REAL engineering is the programming of the robots that build 95% of the car. The statistic that I heard on a BMW factory tour was that if the process was 100% automated, that remaining 5% of work that would be taken from humans would itself require so much engineering it would not be profitable to build the car in the first place. These guys are pros; they have whittled the assembly process to the LEAST amount of human interaction and only allow human interaction in the process when it would otherwise be non-profitable.

[cha777]

Could this potentially lower the costs of Audi's in the states? Since they won't have to ship the cars from Germany.

Not really....remember where they are getting the lion's share of the parts from. A Chattanooga (for example) built A4 would cost the same as an identically built Ingolstadt assembled replica. The cost savings comes in the exchange rate and duty on the completed product and would protect against market fluctuations of currency.

[Scotty@Advanced]

Not really....remember where they are getting the lion's share of the parts from. A Chattanooga (for example) built A4 would cost the same as an identically built Ingolstadt assembled replica. The cost savings comes in the exchange rate and duty on the completed product and would protect against market fluctuations of currency.

I read somewhere that building the new passat in the USA versus in Germany is going to save something like 9 grand per vehicle. However the new passat will have a MRSP 7,000 less than the old German made passat.

Also going non union is savings but loads of money too.

[B72011]

I say who gives a rat's a$$ where they're built. With Audi's already $hitty record for reliability, can things possibly get any worse? Hahhhaha

[VZWalex]

I say who gives a rat's a$$ where they're built. With Audi's already $hitty record for reliability, can things possibly get any worse? Hahhhaha

wow ... I think this one wins the most ignorant comment of the year award!!! Admin .. please give him his prize!!

[VZWalex]

you know .. after reading all of the post's I realized that most of the answer NOT ALL where really stupid little kid answers. If adults would have answered most of the replies would have been like .... thats gonna be good news for our unemployment, or an engineer graduating from college looking for work, .... a business major or chemist, interior designer .... and all the blue collar jobs that go with it .... I think AG is making a very smart decision by building a plant here ... it will help AG grow as a company and bring much needed jobs to a local community.

[C6Q]

Pointless to argue...

[Greg Nelson]

1. American corporations, where most of our parents were employed throughout the years, are these days accumulating huge amounts of cash, NOT hiring workers in NA, giving extremely small wage increases (if any) to employees, and out-sourcing as many jobs as possible to low wage countries - to their shareholder benefit.
2. Audi parts for our rides are fabricated throughout the EU countries to save fabrication costs.
3. Building Audis in Tennessee - not a problem, build quality will be strictly controlled by Audi I am sure. My Apple products (all built in China) work flawlessly b/c Apple strictly controls manufacturing process on site. Sure Audi will do the same.
4. Stop complaining about UAW workers going to potential Audi Tennessee plant - UAW has already given away huge amounts of salary/benefits in recent years to save their jobs. Anti-worker folks here should be far more concerned with government employees and their guaranteed jobs/pensions at local/state/federal level - school teachers excepted.
5. Now a manufacturing engineer, formally a worker/technician - without workers/consumers economy stagnates, Economics 101.