BRIEFS: Union courts VW

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP):

After decades of getting the cold shoulder from automakers in the South, the United Auto Workers union is courting the region's newcomer, Volkswagen.

UAW southern region director Gary Casteel told The Associated Press that the Wolfsburg, Germany-based automaker has traditionally had an organised work force globally and that makes executives and employees at the new Chattanooga assembly plant "more willing to talk to unions about representation".

Volkswagen has started sending 2012 Passats to dealers for test drives and displays until the cars built by some 1,900 employees at the US$1 billion plant go on sale in late September.

Casteel said the UAW has had some VW workers in Chattanooga reach out to them and there have been discussions with VW executives.

Auto industry seeing new life

DETROIT (AP):

Volkswagen opened a plant in Tennessee last month with 2,000 workers. Honda is hiring 1,000 in Indiana to meet demand for its best-selling Civic. General Motors is looking for 2,500 in Detroit to build the Chevy Volt.

Two years after the end of the Great Recession, the auto industry is hiring again - and much faster than the rest of the economy. As an employer, it's growing faster than airplane manufacturers, shipbuilders, health care providers and the federal government.

The hiring spree is even more remarkable because memories of the US auto industry's near-death experience are fresh. In 2009, General Motors and Chrysler both got government bailouts and entered bankruptcy, and auto sales hit a 30-year low.

Kia marks milestone

WEST POINT, Ga (AP):

Executives at the Kia Motors manufacturing plant in West Point say the 300,000th vehicle has rolled off the assembly line.

The milestone came Thursday, when a silver Sorento crossover utility vehicle was produced.

Company officials say production has been ramping up rapidly at the plant, near the Georgia-Alabama line.

The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reports that expansion at the facility is projected to push its annual capacity to 360,000 vehicles.

Mass production at the West Point plant began on November 16, 2009.

BMW to buy ING's car division

BERLIN (AP):

Automaker BMW AG says it is buying a car leasing unit of Dutch bank ING Groep NV for €637 million (US$912 million).

BMW said Friday that its international fleet management division, Alphabet, will acquire ING Car Lease in a deal expected to close in the fourth quarter.

Alphabet chief Norbert van den Eijnden says that "in the growing European fleet management market, ING Car Lease is the perfect fit to complement the activities" of the BMW subsidiary.

ING Car Lease manages 240,000 vehicles in eight European countries, and has some 1,200 employees.

ING has been revamping its business since it was bailed out by the Dutch state during the 2008 financial crisis, and plans to separate its banking and insurance arms by the end of 2012.