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.
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09/04, 9:00 AM
posted by:
Commodore
Feel bad for the people of Michigan. They are bleeding jobs.
09/04, 9:12 AM
posted by:
Madcapp
Moving your headquarters is a quick and easy way to shed jobs, because many will not be willing to relocate. That’s what this is all about.
09/04, 9:34 AM
posted by:
Brendino
Why metro DC though? It can’t be cheap to run a business there.
09/04, 10:28 AM
posted by:
ottacontrol
mexico
09/04, 10:28 AM
posted by:
ottacontrol
arent they german
09/04, 10:33 AM
posted by:
cookie4me
It doesn’t make sense. If you want to downsize, downsize. Making a move to an area with a substantial higher cost of living just to shed work force doesn’t make sense.
09/04, 10:38 AM
posted by:
Deanster
What a great idea, I didn’t know that was legal! Excellent!
09/04, 10:43 AM
posted by:
autonut
Beginning of the end: moving headquarters to DC to save cost is absurd. FIAT executed exit strategy in US market much smarter: they stopped selling poor quality cars they could not sell (ditto Reno, Citroen, …).
09/04, 10:46 AM
posted by:
meanpants555
Interestingly, Porsche North American HQ is located here in Atlanta.
09/04, 11:07 AM
posted by:
global_lightning
The Cost of Living difference between Detroit and DC is 37%. Plus DC suburbs have never met a tax they didn’t like.
If one’s a good employee (one that VW should keep), the they should have no problem finding another job where they are now. If one’s a mediocre employee, then they will have a greater incentive to relocate. This is just an updated version of the Quality Drain associated with poor downsizing, because VW is giving up control of who stays. Just fire the under-performers and give the survivors a modest pay increase to ease their pain.
09/04, 11:32 AM
posted by:
TomF
It’s sure as hell not going to be any cheaper for them to office in the Dulles Corridor. That’s some of the priciest real estate in America.
09/04, 12:18 PM
posted by:
Get Real
“….will decline to relocate..??????? ”
Who in their right mind wouldn’t get out of Detroit.
EVERYONE is leaving Detroit, so will the employees.
I feel sorry for what Detroit was and what it is today.
09/04, 1:27 PM
posted by:
CTS DRIVER
now they are closer to the politicans asses they will be kissing for cafe standards.
09/04, 3:26 PM
posted by:
Htay5500
fairfax county is the fastest growing county in the country (I believe) but at least VW didnt come to MoCo MD. pricey places to start with.
10/21, 1:43 PM
posted by:
WTFVW
I just found out about your new concept for applying the thermoelectric energy converts in cars and all i can say is what the ****?
you make Audi which is a car company that lives by the slogan “excellence in engineering”. but this this pathetic attempt to apply thermoelectric technology is more then disturbing to me .( it has actually ruined my day, THANKS.) i do not know if your engineers understand the concept of “engineering is about improving “good” ideas”, not just attempt to apply patents you purchase from outside sources without improvement. the improvements to this idea are so numerous it it actually makes me sick that they are not added. So i will list just the major and obvious ones in hopes that you actually care about good engineering and not just use it as an advertising slogan, much like so many ****ty American car manufactures. ( and yes i am American i am actually from Texas)
1.) apply the thermoelectric plates where the heat difference is the highest, under the hood with one side actually touching the engine. considering that the heat difference is where the power comes from and that the engine it self will stay hot for a much longer time then the exhaust will, this is one of the biggest mistakes that you made from the start.
2.) use the power properly, add an electrically driven turbo ( it will not place an extra load on the alternator this way) improving gas millage Horsepower and emissions. use the power to replace the alternator ( dislodge/ remove from the pulley system on longer drives.) same concept applies here as above.
3 use the natural properties on thermoelectric material ( when one side becomes excessively hot the other side freezes over this can be applied in the cooling of the engine and the air conditioning ( effectively removing the ac all together)
these are just the main ” holly **** did they even consider the bluntly obvious” things. there are many other ways to apply this concept as well but i hope that you go back to your engineers and talk about the concept of “engineering is about improving good ideas” in depth.
a thoroughly disgusted lover of Audi
Brian M Blow!