Turkey, Poland race for Volkswagen bid

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet

Volkswagen Tiguan cars are pictured in a production line at the plant of German carmaker. REUTERS photo

Volkswagen, which plans to make a factory investment in Europe to produce a new light commercial vehicle, remains undecided between Turkey and Poland, according to Turkish Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan.

Under government pressure to make an investment plan, Volkswagen will announce its final decision regarding its latest investment in the near future. Çağlayan said Volkswagen was considering Turkey for the location of its investment for the new product.

“Currently, they are trying to decide between Poland and Turkey. They remain undecided. They put irrelevant logistic costs on us in the figures they were given. Some groups in Europe are trying to block it, but it’s beyond dispute that we’re ahead of them. We expect the results in May,” Çağlayan said.

“I explained to them why they were weak in the Middle East, and how we would contribute to them. Now they are considering Turkey for the new light commercial vehicle they will produce. We will see what happens next month,” Çağlayan added.

Volkswagen, which decided to increase its investments after the high profits it achieved in 2012, added 10 new factories to its investment plan following their decision to invest 50.2 billion euros.

Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn announced that seven of these 10 plants would be set up in China, and one would be established in the U.S. for SUV production. However, he refrained from giving a location for the remaining two, which led to some assumptions that they would be Turkey.