Archive for June, 2011

Volkswagen is known for its ingenuity. Afterall… VW’s engineers came up with VW Bug and even Volkswagen Up!. But the pictures that recently surfaced on the web from China are more along the lines of “what were they thinking!”.

VW Cube & Sphere Designs

Volkswagen recently rolled a brand for its eco-friendly initiatives: Think Blue. In its own words Volkswagen is going beyond “green” to build a better car in a plant. The idea is that Volkswagen will use state-of-the-art equipment and green technology to manufacture vehicles in its new plant in Chattanooga.

About the Chattanooga Plant

• LEED-aggressive facility
• State-of-the-art waterless paint process to minimize emissions and waste
• LED lighting and six-inch mineral rock wool panel walls to reduce energy consumption
• Built on decommissioned military site to minimize construction impact
• No destruction of untouched nature
• $1 billion investment in cutting-edge plant
• Lessons from 66 years of VW manufacturing and 62 plants across the world
• More than 12,000 new jobs created

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Think Blue Video

Volkswagen is not the only automaker going after BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries but it certainly means business.  Below are some high-level updates regarding Volkswagen’s investment in Russia:

• VW is one of six automakers said to invest between $4 and $4.5 billion into production in Russia
• VW is expected to contribute around $1 billion
• Much of investment is expected to go into building new factories for Russia-VW joint projects
• Joint ventures are required to manufacture up to 350k new vehicles to be eligible for discounted import duties until 2020
• Russia’s car market should represent about 3.5 million vehicles by 2015

More details of the deal are expected to become available after June 1. Source: WSJ

Bloomberg News reported earlier this week of Volkswagen’s multi-million dollar sponsorship of Museum of Modern Art in NYC. This announcement comes at the time when Volkswagen is said to actively pursue an expansion strategy into the US market. Exact amount of the sponsorship is not being disclosed.

More about Volkswagen expansion

Just recently, Volkswagen vouched to become world’s biggest automaker. It’s growth is expected to come from aggressive expansion across the US and international markets. In line with the growth plan, Volkswagen unveiled a $1 billion factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee.