• Volkswagen is getting closer to making a decision regarding the two plants it's planning for North America.
• One of those is a battery-cell factory, and it could be built in Canada.
• The U.S. plant will handle construction of the new Scout-badged electric models.
There were more internal discussions at Volkswagen this past Friday regarding the company's plans for the two new plants it plans to build in North America. Which hopefully means a decision is edging closer.
Widespread reports have for some time indicated that one of the plants will produce vehicles, the other battery cells.
The decision-making supervisory board is going to approve a U.S. location for a plant that will make vehicles under the new Scout brand. Volkswagen wants to increase its market share in the United States by 10 percent, but to that end, it needs more models, and have more of them built domestically. The effect of a local presence is hard to overestimate. One only has to drive through Tennessee to see more Nissan vehicles than anywhere else in the country, and that’s because the company operates a plant there.
Volkswagen has a presence in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where it has seen the same effects. But that is its only American facility that produces actual models for individual U.S. consumers (the company has other plants for other divisions).
As for the battery plant, discussions are still ongoing and no decision has been made. We know that Volkswagen has already had talks with the Canadian government on this subject, and Canada remains very much in play as a location for the factory.
In December, Volkswagen boss Oliver Blume said the company had begun looking for a site for a battery cell plant in North America, mentioning that Canada was “a logical option” because of its raw material resources.
“We are still working hard to find a suitable location for our first gigafactory in North America and are in good, constructive talks,” a Volkswagen spokesperson said Friday, confirming that no decision has been made yet.
We’ll be following this closely, of course.