Volkswagen is planning new North America factory for electric vehicles

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Volkswagen VOWF_p.DE decides where to find a new factory in North America to build electric vehicles to the US market, the German automaker's new head of America said on Wednesday.

Scott Keogh, newly appointed CEO of Volkswagen Group of America said that a new factory was needed to build a vehicle yet to be revealed under the brand Volkswagen, priced between $ 30,000 – $ 40,000, due in 2020.

"We are 100 percent deep in the process with "We need an electric car factory in North America," and we are holding these conversations now, "Keogh said journalists at the Los Angeles Auto Show.

An electric car that could wear Silicon Valley's Tesla Inc. ( TSLA.O ) is part of the huge investment in electric vehicles that Europe's largest automaker plans to produce.

Volkswagen announced earlier this month that it would spend almost 44 billion e unrest in developing electric cars, autonomous driving and new mobility services by 2023, while exploring cooperation areas with the US automaker Ford Motor Co. [ UN ).

In order to meet a production timeline for 2020, the new electric car will initially be retrieved outside the United States, Keogh said, but will then be produced at the newly chosen site.

Volkswagen's existing American factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where Passat and Atlas are built can be an option as there is enough space in that facility, but it will not necessarily be selected, Keogh said.

Tesla has so far captured the largest part of the US electric vehicle market, but a number of new models will hit the market from German automakers and others over the next two years.

For Volkswagen, although it is behind Tesla, it's not necessarily too late to capture an American market that provides a "big opportunity," Keogh said.

"The market timing is actually quite perfect," he said. "You must have this crossed off," Can you get the costs low enough to produce a car for that price point, earn enough money, have the ability of this technology that this is a car we want to put into the market and have the acceptance on the market? "he said.

" And when all these things cut it, it's ideal when you want to throw the arrow. "