Volkswagen Group to invest €50 billion in car division

Volkswagen Group (VW) announced that in the next three years it would invest €50.2 billion (US$66.4 million) in its car division. Out of the total investment, €39.2 billion (US$51.8 billion) will be spent on real estate and equipment. Sixty percent of the company’s budget for equipment expansion project will be used for upgrading its Porsche factory in Leipzig, Germany. The company also plans to build a new Audi plant in Mexico to increase the production of automatic transmissions.
VW is moving from a 5-year planning strategy to 3-year planning to allow the company to respond faster to changing market conditions.
The company said that for the first 10 months of 2012, compared to the same period in 2011, consolidated sales of VW went up by 10.2% to 7.5 million vehicles, primarily in Asia. In Western Europe, sales fell by 2.7%, while sales in Germany rose by 3.5%. In Russia, sales of VW for the 10-month period of 2012 were up by 46% to 260,985 vehicles, according to data from the Association of European Businesses. (November 26, 2012)