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Volkswagen mulls building Audis at VW plant
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Europe's biggest carmaker Volkswagen (VOWG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) is considering building the Audi A3 compact in its main plant in Wolfsburg instead of in Ingolstadt, Germany's Der Spiegel and Automobilwoche reported on Saturday.
The move would help cut the substantial losses generated at its under-utilised Wolfsburg plant, the largest assembly plant in the world, where the group manufactures its best-selling VW Golf compact on the same platform as the A3.
Audi built nearly 225,000 A3s last year, with the overwhelming bulk of these produced in the premium brand's main plant in Ingolstadt, where altogether about 510,000 A3s and A4s were assembled last year.
Despite opposition from Audi Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn due to the higher unit labour costs in Wolfsburg, Automobilwoche reported the group's supervisory board had authorised management to examine the possibility this past week.
Neither media reports clearly stated whether the entire production of the A3 would be shifted to Wolfsburg, nor did they report whether VW planned to manufacture them at in-house wages or at its lower-paying subsidiary Auto 5000 GmbH, where the Touran minivan is currently built at a fraction of the cost.
According to Volkswagen, labour costs per effective working hour last year were 54.69 euros at its six western German plants, 40.65 euros at Audi and 30.13 euros at Auto 5000.
VW's traditional six western German assembly plants suffer from productivity deficits of up to 50 percent compared with the company's rivals, in other words requiring twice as much time to build a car as others. European capacities at the brand's assembly plants are only 80 percent utilised.
Neither Audi nor Volkswagen would comment on the reports.
Der Spiegel reported further that VW's Golf assembly plant in Brussels could still be closed despite Thursday's denials from management, since the brand plans to cut production time for its flagship compact model by a fifth.
The weekly magazine moreover wrote that a plant in Brazil, where three factories build cars for the group, was in danger of being closed, entailing massive job cuts.
Industry trade publication Automobilwoche added that Volkswagen planned to sell its steering parts operations in Brunswick to a supplier, cut jobs in its Hanover foundry and spin off a part of its gearboxes production into a joint venture.
Source
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Europe's biggest carmaker Volkswagen (VOWG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) is considering building the Audi A3 compact in its main plant in Wolfsburg instead of in Ingolstadt, Germany's Der Spiegel and Automobilwoche reported on Saturday.
The move would help cut the substantial losses generated at its under-utilised Wolfsburg plant, the largest assembly plant in the world, where the group manufactures its best-selling VW Golf compact on the same platform as the A3.
Audi built nearly 225,000 A3s last year, with the overwhelming bulk of these produced in the premium brand's main plant in Ingolstadt, where altogether about 510,000 A3s and A4s were assembled last year.
Despite opposition from Audi Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn due to the higher unit labour costs in Wolfsburg, Automobilwoche reported the group's supervisory board had authorised management to examine the possibility this past week.
Neither media reports clearly stated whether the entire production of the A3 would be shifted to Wolfsburg, nor did they report whether VW planned to manufacture them at in-house wages or at its lower-paying subsidiary Auto 5000 GmbH, where the Touran minivan is currently built at a fraction of the cost.
According to Volkswagen, labour costs per effective working hour last year were 54.69 euros at its six western German plants, 40.65 euros at Audi and 30.13 euros at Auto 5000.
VW's traditional six western German assembly plants suffer from productivity deficits of up to 50 percent compared with the company's rivals, in other words requiring twice as much time to build a car as others. European capacities at the brand's assembly plants are only 80 percent utilised.
Neither Audi nor Volkswagen would comment on the reports.
Der Spiegel reported further that VW's Golf assembly plant in Brussels could still be closed despite Thursday's denials from management, since the brand plans to cut production time for its flagship compact model by a fifth.
The weekly magazine moreover wrote that a plant in Brazil, where three factories build cars for the group, was in danger of being closed, entailing massive job cuts.
Industry trade publication Automobilwoche added that Volkswagen planned to sell its steering parts operations in Brunswick to a supplier, cut jobs in its Hanover foundry and spin off a part of its gearboxes production into a joint venture.
Source
