Volkswagen May Leverage Idled Ford Factories To Build Audi Models In US

Making Audis in the U.S. could help Volkswagen Group protect almost $800 million in profit that its luxury-car unit reaps from the world’s second-biggest automotive market.

Audi generated 5.06 billion euros ($5.7 billion) of global operating income last year, excluding items, making it the biggest single contributor to Volkswagen’s overall profit. About 700 million euros of the brand’s earnings before interest and taxes, or 15 percent of its total, comes from the U.S., estimates Michael Dean, an analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence.

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OneOfOne - 12/7/2018 10:23:25 AM

-4 Boost

no one will buy an american made audi. not to mention how expensive they will be to make.

atc98092 - 12/7/2018 11:16:32 AM

+12 Boost

Well, they buy American made BMW and Mercedes models. I don't see why that wouldn't apply for Audi as well.

skinny - 12/10/2018 12:37:49 PM

+1 Boost

Mercedes-Benz, BMW, makes cars in the US that sell well. Lexus makes the ES350 here, the RX350 in Canada. Acura makes cars here. They seem to sell well.

mre30 - 12/7/2018 12:39:52 PM

-1 Boost

Ford should become the "Magna-Steyer" of USA - a contract auto manufacturer that owns the plants and runs the employees but builds vehicles on contract outsourced basis for other manufacturers.

countguy - 12/7/2018 1:09:10 PM

+2 Boost

They would build their suv/cuvs in us and leave the high performance coupes and sedans overseas, which would be good.

skytop - 12/7/2018 1:15:49 PM

+2 Boost

So I guess the Ford built Audi cars will then be known as Fraudli cars.

PUGPROUD - 12/7/2018 3:11:42 PM

0 Boost

Short term win win for both companies though VW will get the better of this deal in the longer term.

EVisNow - 12/7/2018 4:03:00 PM

+1 Boost

And long term: death of Ford.

MDarringer - 12/7/2018 6:35:00 PM

+1 Boost

VW is the one more likely to implode.

TomM - 12/8/2018 3:53:53 PM

+1 Boost

Financially - both are still on shaky footings - but the fact that VW has a large ownership by the Government makes it more likely to survive.

THe question is - will FORD eventually fall enough out of the control of the FORD family to become available on the market. I think it will take another generation of the family before that really is an issue.

MDarringer - 12/13/2018 8:13:56 AM

+1 Boost

Other way around, dumbass.