Volkswagen will announce the relocation of its North American headquarters from Auburn Hills, Michigan to the Washington D.C. suburbs, according to a new report. VW’s Auburn Hills facility currently employs about 1,500 workers. Volkswagen is expect to make the announcement during a news conference this Thursday.
VW was reportedly exploring option in North Carolina and New Jersey but finally settled on Dulles, a fast-growing strip of housing and corporate headquarters near the District’s largest airport. Dulles is already home to a number of high-tech firms such as AOL.
The German automaker has been unhappy with its North American operations, losing about $2.4 billion over the last 5 years. VW hopes the move will reduce what it calls a “bloated” workforce as it expects the majority of the 1,500 workers will decline to relocate. When Nissan relocated its operations from Los Angeles to Nashville, Tennessee last year, only about 30% of workforce decided to make the move with the automaker.
Even amid a lopsided exchange rate, VW continues to import all of its vehicles from Europe, Mexico and other parts of the world.
