Volkswagen to choose Turkey, not Romania, for its new car factory

German carmaker Volkswagen will build its new car factory in Turkey and not in Romania, to produce Skoda and Seat models startig from 2022, according to Turkish newspaper Habertürk, cited by online portal Sabah Daily.

“As a result of efforts to convince the German car giant to invest in Turkey for more than a decade, Volkswagen has decided to open a factory in the country that will employ 5,000 people annually and produce Skoda and Seat models. Volkswagen made a choice between Bulgaria and Turkey for factory investment,” the newspaper reports.

AutomobilWoche, the German car journal, reported that Turkey’s fund of knowledge in automobile production played a part in Volkswagen’s decision.

The Volkswagen plant in Turkey will become operational in 2022. Volkswagen’s decision to invest in Turkey followed the normalization of relations between Turkey and Germany.

The tension in bilateral relations abated following President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to Germany in September, bringing momentum to investments, according to Daily Sabah.

In November, German portal Automobilwoche wrote that Volkswagen is planning to open a new factory in the Eastern Europe and the potential locations are Bulgaria, Turkey and Romania.

The Volkswagen trade union in Germany is fighting for control over the new factory with Skoda, the Czech division that wants control since the new factory will produce Skoda Karoq and Seat Ateca.

On November 18, Volkswagen AG head Herbert Diess said the carmaker is looking for a new multibrand factory in Eastern Europe, whose production is expected to start after 2022.

At the new East European unit, which will have between 4,000 and 5,000 employees, will be produced SUVs Skoda Karoq and Seat Ateca, which are currently manufactured at Kvasiny, Czech Republic.

The need for such a unit increased after Volkswagen confirmed that it would transfer the production of the German Passat model to the Skvas factory in Kvasiny (Czech Republic), as the largest global carmaker accelerates its investments in zero emission cars.

The Volkswagen plants in Emden and Hanover (Germany) would be transformed for the production of electric vehicles by 2022.

The board of VW employees announced the leadership that they want the factory to be controlled by VW’s passenger cars division. Chairman of the VW Supervisory Board, Hans Dieter Poetsch, said the group has not yet made a decision on the brand that will run the factory.

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