factory

Wards Auto began tracking North American light-vehicle production capacity utilization in 2005, and last year produced the highest amount on record: 97.8 percent of available production was utilized, an improvement of 9.3 percent versus the year before. The number represents straight-time ...

For a division whose sole purpose is to remove the understatement from its parent company's cars, AMG headquarters in Affalterbach, Germany are nondescript. From the outside it might almost be easier to believe that the small complex makes spatulas or spreadsheets, as opposed to some of the ...

Automotive assembly plants have a reputation of being crusty, grungy places – often in stark contrast to the new cars they're assembling. But the truth is that modern auto plants are surprisingly clinical in their cleanliness. These days, you can almost hear company officials boasting that ...

Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne, whose refrain is "We're willing to engage in discussions with anyone else" when it comes to making deals to achive a larger economy of scale, has opened another front according to a report in Reuters. When the deal was announced for Alfa Romeo to codevelop a roadster ...

Automotive News reports Audi may make a decision on where the automaker plans to build a North American facility as soon as Wednesday of this week. The Volkswagen supervisory board is already scheduled to meet on April 18, and an unnamed source claims the new plant is on the agenda for ...

It was only a few weeks ago that Mercedes-Benz CEO Dieter Zetsche laid out his global sales vision for the brand, aiming to be the world's Number One luxury automaker by 2020 with 2.7 million annual sales. One component of that plan is building another plant in North America, and a report by the ...

Size still matters, but the quest to be number one is also getting more headlines. Mercedes-Benz is the latest to stake its future on taking the top slot, with CEO Dieter Zetsche aiming to be the world's largest premium maker by 2020. The specific number is 2.7 million vehicles sold that year, ...

The United Autoworkers Union is struggling – and it is the first to admit it. With its membership dwindling after three decades of workforce cuts by Chrysler, Ford and General Motors, the union has pinned its future on organizing one of the transplants. Efforts to convince workers at ...

The Detroit Free Press reports that, of the 267 automotive plants that have closed in the U.S. since 1979, 128 have reopened with a new purpose. Astonishingly enough, 40 percent of those reopened sites were purchased between 2008 and 2010 as General Motors and Chrysler underwent restructuring, ...

Back in 1999, Porsche settled on the location for a new factory in Leipzig, Germany. It opened its doors in 2002 with production of the Cayenne, and further expanded in 2009 to gear up for the Panamera. As of November, 2011, the assembly plant has built some 420,000 vehicles, but that's just the ...