The idea of Volkswagen coming to Guelph is more than an item on the Christmas wish list, with Guthrie saying he has talked with the city’s economic development department about what would be needed to have a vehicle production facility in the city.

Barbara Maly, the city’s manager of economic development, says while her staff has not been in direct talks with Volkswagen as of yet, they are looking at what sort of things the company would need in a new facility, such as land and services.

“The first step would be just seeing what their requirements are,” she says.

One thing a vehicle production facility would likely need a lot of is land.

Toyota’s production facility in Cambridge covers 280,000 square metres on 1.62 square kilometres of land. Volkswagen's sole North American production facility, located in Chattanooga, Tennessee, covers 180,000 square metres on a six-square-kilometre parcel of land.

With large parcels of land likely needed, Guthrie says the viability of Guelph hosting a major production facility would likely depend on when Volkswagen wants to get shovels in the ground.

“A lot of it has to do with timing, the timing of serviceable employment lands versus lands that we don’t have that are serviceable yet, but are coming online,” Guthrie says.

However, both Guthrie and Maly say that a future pitch to the German automotive maker may not come in the form of a single-city proposal, but instead a regional one, similar to Toronto Global’s recent bid for the new headquarters for Amazon.

That bid included 10 potential sites for the company’s new headquarters. While there were no proposed sites in Guelph, the city was included in the bid as a regional partner and potential asset, with a report highlighting the University of Guelph and the Ontario Agriculture College, Hillside Music Festival and Truleaf Sustainable Agriculture’s planned vertical farming facility.

While Toronto Global’s bid made the shortlist for candidates, Amazon would go on to split the new headquarters between Crystal City, Virginia, a suburb of Washington D.C., and Queens in New York City.

“Part of winning these types of business opportunities is not always about it solely coming to Guelph. It’s about the region as well,” Guthrie says.

“Maybe the facility doesn’t have to be here, but Guelph offers a lot … of the other spin offs of what a business or facility like that would require.”

Maly says her department’s staff are in the process of reaching out to a number of potential partners in a future bid.

“This would benefit the whole region,” she said of a potential vehicle plant in the area.

Thomas Tetzlaff, spokesperson for Volkswagen Canada, declined to comment, saying he was unable to provide any information beyond what Keogh stated in Los Angeles.

The Volkswagen Group, which includes Audi, Porsche and Lamborghini, among numerous other producers, had previously announced that it intends to bring an electric car, priced at between US$30,000 and US$40,000, to market by 2020. While the vehicle would initially be produced outside of North America, the plan is for production to be brought to this side of the Atlantic.

The automotive giant also announced last month that it intends to spend approximately US$50 billion on electric car development, as well as autonomous driving and other new automotive technologies, by 2023.

Volkswagen's sole North American plant in Chattanooga employs approximately 3,500 people.

Speaking with reporters in Los Angeles, Keogh said bringing electric vehicle production to Chattanooga is an option.

Automotive manufacturing is nothing new to the surrounding area. Currently, Toyota’s manufactures four vehicles between its Cambridge and Woodstock facilities, employing more than 8,000 people.