Volkswagen has opened its US$27m technical centre in California to expand its engineering capabilities.
The test centre in Oxnard, 100 km north of Los Angeles, initially be staffed by 50 VW engineers and technicians with an additional 250 from the Group’s Audi, Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini brands added later.
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David Geanacopoulos, executive vice president for Volkswagen’s US unit, said: “The expansion of our global research and development footprint in the United States reinforces our ongoing commitment to this market and will help to position us as a high quality brand here and abroad.”
The Oxnard facility is part of a US$4bn programme aimed at boosting VW’s market share in the US, where it is still behind brands such as Toyota, Honda and Hyundai.
VW brand sales are up 34% this year following the opening last year of its US$1bn assembly plant in Tennessee which makes the new Passat sedan.
Its new California test centre has laboratories for emissions and parts analysis, a workshop and a dealer service and training centre,.
VW also has an R&D facility in Auburn Hills, Michigan and a proving ground in Arizona.
