Speaking to Automobilwoche, Martin Winterkorn, Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen, has indicated that the OEM is contemplating using its factory in Puebla, Mexico, as another production site for the new Golf.
Winterkorn was quoted as saying: “The decision will be made this year,” adding the company will deal with the important question of additional production “in a matter of just a few weeks.”
To date, mainstream Golf output has been confined to the company’s main German factories in Wolfsburg and in Zwickau.
Previous speculation has suggested that VW’s new Chattanooga, Tennessee plant in the US could become a production source for the Golf in the dollar zone, but Winterkorn highlighted the lack of available capacity at the facility, which currently produces the Passat model for the North American market.
Winterkorn noted: “Chattanooga has exhausted its capacity. If we expand there, an SUV that ends up roomier than the Tiguan would have a good shot.” Following the recent addition of a third shift, the plant will have increased capacity in 2013 to produce 180,000 vehicles per year, over 30,000 above its original capacity.
Automobilwoche has speculated that production of the seventh-generation Golf in Puebla, which currently assembles the Beetle and Jetta models, could begin at the end of 2014 or in early 2015 at the latest. It also added that there is a high probability that the model will be marketed overseas under the Golf name – and not as the Rabbit, as was once the case in the US.
The new Golf is based on the VW Group’s new Modular Transverse Matrix (MQB) platform, first seen in the new Audi A3. The MQB promises considerable manufacturing cost savings and improvements in product quality. The modular approach applies both to the construction of the cars and to the production facilities, making it simpler and cheaper to establish new plants.
The Puebla plant commenced production of the new Beetle in July 2011 and currently is the global source for this model. It also produces the Jetta and the Golf estate model, which has been mainly exported to Europe. Puebla also manufactures engines for the American continent and a new 330,000-unit annual capacity engine facility is currently under construction at Silao, in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato. From 2013, the new plant in Silao will supply engines to the plants in Puebla and Chattanooga. Output at Puebla in 2011 totalled about 510,000 vehicles and 596,000 engines.
More than 50 parts suppliers are located within a 50-kilometre radius of the Puebla plant, with 20 of the most important suppliers located in industrial parks next to the facility, allowing just-in-time delivery to the assembly line. Volkswagen has a total of around 230 suppliers in Mexico and Volkswagen de México sources about 50% of its purchasing requirements from these suppliers.
The VW Chief Executive Officer views the Volkswagen brand as still being “significantly underrepresented” in the US market, although sales in the first nine months of 2012 rose 37.2% to 323,089. Total sales of the Golf, Golf R and Golf GTi models were 32,408, 19.8% up from the 2011 total of 27,042. Total Jetta sales were 127,028, versus 136,988, down 7.3%, while Passat sales amounted to 83,662, versus just 4,893. Jonathan Browning, President and Chief Executive Officer, Volkswagen Group of America, commented: “Tracking over a 37% increase year-to-date is a strong proof point that our products are on more shopping lists and gaining acceptance in the market. As we enter the fourth quarter of the year, we expect to continue our pattern of outperforming the industry.”
The American Passat, the Jetta, and the new Golf are viewed as important pillars of Winterkorn’s strategy for growth in the US market.
In early September, sister-brand to Volkswagen, Audi, confirmed that its new plant in Mexico will be located at San José Chiapa, in the State of Puebla, with construction work due to commence on production buildings in mid-2013 and a target production start in 2016. Audi will build the successor to the current Audi Q5 SUV model at the new Mexican plant, with a planned annual output of 150,000 units. Once agreements have been signed, work will begin on preparing the site before the end of 2012.
