Volkswagen is stepping up efforts to reduce costs at its namesake passenger car brand to offset shrinking demand in its home region of Europe, where new-car sales are sliding to a 20-year low.VW sees the need for further belt-tightening over the coming months at all levels, in all departments, in all regions and at all plants, the company said.
Volkswagen will not grant immediate union recognition to its U.S. workers and may take months to reach agreement on a German-style works council for its Tennessee plant, company officials said today.
Talks with the UAW are likely to continue into next year, said Sebastian Patta, human resources chief at the Chattanooga factory.
Volkswagen plans to start selling electric cars in the United States in 2015, the New York Times reported, citing a Volkswagen official.
A Tennessee state legislator is trying to prove that the governor promised Volkswagen AG additional incentives if the company kept the UAW out of its two-year-old Chattanooga plant.
Volkswagen expects production of vehicles based on its new MQB modular assembly architecture to soar in the next few years, Chief Financial Officer Hans Dieter Poetsch told a German newspaper.
