Posted on 07/15/2008 7:52:36 AM PDT by wolf78
Volkswagen announced this morning that it would build a manufacturing plant in Chattanooga, Tenn. where it will build a vehicle specifically for the North American market. The plant will employ 2,000 workers from the tri-state area and is expected to invest $1 billion in the local economy.
The plant is an integral part of Volkswagen's plan for expansion in the N.A. market, with sales expected to crest 800,000 units by 2018. The 1,350-acre site will produce 150,000 vehicles annually – specifically a midsize sedan – in 2011.
(Excerpt) Read more at autoblog.com ...
PA enticed VW to build cars here several decades ago. As soon as the subsidies expired, they skipped town.
Wonder how much ROI the folks in TN will see for their ‘help’ in getting VW to locate in Chattanooga?
ETA: The article does not specify how much ‘help’ they got, just vague stuff:
“Volkswagen of America received an attractive, comprehensive package of incentives for the new facility from Gov. Bredesen’s office and the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. The statutory incentives are tied to job creation and capital investment. Additional support includes assistance for public infrastructure and job training, each designed to ensure the local economy best leverages Volkswagen’s investment to benefit the local work force and ensure the facility’s success.”
This is another reason the Big 3 are getting killed (aside from UAW goons, incompetent management and bad designs) - how do you compete when other states are subsidizing the competition?
I’d be interested to see a breakdown (in terms of cost per vehicle) as to just what these subsidies add up to. I’m betting it’s in the thousands per car range.
This is assuming, of course, that the eco-nuts allow them to build.
Being an hour from Chattanooga in Mid TN, this is welcome news for us still surviving/succeeding in the manufacturing sector.
You must be near Ooltewah ;->
VW would make a fortune if it built and marketed 60+ MPG Rabbit TDIs out of this plant.
You need to go NW instead of NE to find me. hint: The Nursery Capital of the World.
oh, so people won’t have to go very far when their VW’s entire electrical system goes kaput in the first 5000 miles. that’s convenient.
Bugs Bunny: [Disguised as Confederate soldier] Coronel, the Yankees... the Yankees, they're in Chattanooga. Yosemite Sam: Chattanoogee? Charge! [Cut to a stadium, where the Yankees are playing an exhibition game against Chattanooga; Sam has the Yankees held up in their dugout] Yosemite Sam: The first dang Yankee to step out of that dugout gets his head blasted off.
.
Unfortunately YouTube removed this 1953 cartoon called "Southern Fried Rabbit" because they though it racist.
Funny cartoon. Sad ending though... not surprising.
I'm glad someone remembers that.
GM plays the subsidy game with the best of them. In 2003, they got $8 million from Wisconsin to stay in Janesville. GM got the state to write out any employment guarantees. The plant is closing.
And Sony followed suit (in the same plant, no less!)
Of course these tales are long forgotten and the politicians who ‘worked hard’ for such deals (using taxpayer $ as bribes to get companies to relocate) have either retired or moved on to bigger and better swindles.
Governments have no business subsidizing any companies. Permitting states to do piuts them against one another, all to the benefit of foreign firms. Bottom line is more cash-flow out of the country.
You can still see this cartoon on Youtube. I have the old VHS tapes of the banned Looney Tunes, all the war propaganda black and whites, etc.
A thousand years from now Bugs Bunny will still be the best cartoon ever made.
“GM plays the subsidy game with the best of them. In 2003, they got $8 million from Wisconsin to stay in Janesville. GM got the state to write out any employment guarantees. The plant is closing.”
$8 million is a drop in the bucket.
http://www.siteselection.com/ssinsider/incentive/ti9906.htm
“Alabama’s $158 Million for Honda: Initial Embrace
Marks Dramatic Shift from 1993’s Mercedes Tiff
What a huge difference seven years make: That’s the dominant theme thus far in the aftermath of the $158 million incentive package that Alabama put together to land Honda’s $400 million, 1,500-employee plant. Honda (www.honda.com), with a substantial assist from Alabama’s incentives, will build a massive, 1.7-million-sq.-ft. auto production facility on a 1,350-acre tract in Lincoln, a city some 35 miles east of Birmingham.
The upbeat mood that’s greeted the announcement stands in stark contrast to the brouhaha of 1993, when the state provided $253 million in incentives and tax breaks to land the DaimlerChrysler investment in Vance, Ala., some 30 miles west of Birmingham. Though it ultimately yielded the first U.S. Mercedes-Benz plant, which now employs 1,700, that deal landed in hot water only months after it was forged.”
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/october96/southern_auto_10-14.html
“The strategy of offering cheap land, cheap labor, and sizeable tax breaks has worked well for the southern and southeastern states, but it is getting expensive. In 1980, landing a new Nissan plant cost Tennessee $11,000 per job created. In 1985, recruiting the Saturn Corporation cost the state $26,000 per job. In 1992, it cost South Carolina more than $68,000 per job to bring in a BMW plant, and the estimates range from $150,000 to $200,000 per job for the Mercedes Benz plant in Alabama.”
I couldn't find it today. Is it still there in full length? I found two short clips.
FWIW, the Vance/Tuscaloosa area is still in relatively good shape financially.
VW wasn’t the healthiest of auto companies in the 1980’s. Are you suggesting Pennsylvania was somehow entitled to the plant, or that VW was obligated to keep it open?
How can that be???? Aren’t we in a depression?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.