WOLFSBURG, Germany (AP) -- Volkswagen AG, Europe's largest car maker, must first decide which vehicle to make before building any factory in the United States, said Bernd Osterloh, Volkswagen's employee council chairman.
In an interview with reporters at the car maker's headquarters on Wednesday, Osterloh said the actual product was far more important than the location. But he said that Volkswagen's Jetta or Passat models could easily fit the bill at a U.S. facility.
Volkswagen has said it wants to have a U.S. manufacturing facility in production by 2010 and is in the process of deciding where. Alabama, Michigan and Tennessee have been named as being in the running, and Volkswagen has said it will reveal more details by July.
Volkswagen has said the surging euro has pushed plans for a new production facility forward. The 15-nation currency has been hitting record highs in recent weeks against the U.S. dollar, making goods exported from Germany more expensive in the U.S.
Volkswagen only has about a two percent market share in the U.S., and closed its last facility there in 1988.
''Either we say goodbye to the United States or we invest in it,'' said Osterloh, whose position as top employee representative makes him a key person at the company. In the long run, Volkswagen said it wants to sell about one million cars in the U.S., while currently only 500,000 cars are being sold.
Volkswagen wouldn't say what it would spend on the facility or how big it would be, but normally such factories have to produce at least 120,000 vehicles each year, according to the company.
The company has said in the past it could also make models of other brands such as Porsche or Audi at the new plant, but probably not until 2015 at the earliest. Porsche holds 31 percent of the shares of Volkswagen, while Audi is a Volkswagen subsidiary.
Volkswagen shares were flat at euro187.27 (US$290.27) in Frankfurt morning trading.