The Greatest Car Factories in the World

The Bugatti factory in France is more like a workshop than a full-blown manufacturing facility. There are only 20 people in total that build the 1500-horsepower Chiron, each at individual stations within the building - no conveyor belts here.

The Koenigsegg factory is built on the remains of a Swedish air force base, using a hangar to house its manufacturing facility and the adjacent runway to conduct high-speed testing. The small team uses advanced tech to construct its carbon-bodied cars, and 3D printing to create otherwise difficult-to-manufacture items.

Most new cars are made with metal frames and high-tech machinery - but not Morgan. The folks behind one of the oldest operational car brands in the UK use wood (yes, wood) to form chassis structures. Contributor Peter Egan visited the Morgan factory a while back, and he loved it.

Pagani's factory in Modena doesn't just specialize in building the Huayra - it also offers restorations for the company's older Zonda. Every piece used to construct Paganis is designed to the highest standard, resulting in some seriously lust-worthy cars.

Nestled in Affalterbach, Germany sits the factory responsible for turning out Mercedes-Benz's highest-performing models since 1976. Affalterbach is the headquarters of AMG, where each of its hand-built engines is assembled. Originally run by a couple Mercedes tuners, the company is now known as Mercedes-AMG and is wholly owned by Mercedes-Benz.

Many of the factories on this list are responsible for building every car that company makes. The Corvette factory in Kentucky, on the other hand, builds only one car - Corvettes. After starting out being assembled in Flint, Michigan, the Corvette's assembly was moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 1954. Production then moved again when the Bowling Green factory was built, and more than 30 years later, it's still building nothing but GM's iconic sports car.

While Crewe, England is where Bentley currently produces its cars, the factory dates back to 1938 when it was built to produce Rolls-Royce aircraft engines. After World War II, the factory was converted to produce cars. Over the years, it produced both Bentleys and Rolls-Royces, but when Volkswagen bought Bentley, the Crewe factory switched to only building Bentleys.

When BMW purchased Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, it needed a new location to produce its vehicles. A location across from the Goodwood Circuit in England was chosen, keeping Rolls-Royce as a British brand despite the new German ownership. Rolls-Royce says its factory and headquarters were designed to blend into the surrounding area thanks to the sedum plants growing on its roof.

For a company like Lotus that emphasizes its cars' on-track performance, a factory with a test track is a huge benefit. In 1966, Lotus moved to Hethel, England, where it had access to a local airfield. Over the years, Lotus developed the airfield into its own test track. While Lotus is currently owned by the Chinese car company Geely, it's still located in Hethel.

It's been nearly 100 years since Mazda was founded in Hiroshima, Japan, but it's still headquartered there today, right on the Hiroshima Bay. Back then, it was called the Toyo Cork Kogyo company, and while its cars were always called Mazdas, the company didn't officially take the Mazda name until the 1980s. What makes it amazing is that this factory survived the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima during World War II thanks to a bomb. The story is crazy.

For a small town in Italy, Maranello is quite well known thanks to Ferrari being headquartered there. While Enzo Ferrari originally began business in Modena, he moved Ferrari's operations to Maranello in 1943. The company and its factory have remained there ever since.

Named for Saint Agatha of Sicily, Sant'Agata is the home of Ferrari's chief rival, Lamborghini. Founded in 1963 with the specific purpose of challenging Ferrari, Lamborghini is still building its cars in the same place more than 50 years later. For a supercar company founded by a man who got his start building tractors, that's an impressive run.

When Ferdinand Porsche first started his company in Stuttgart in 1931, Porsche did not actually build its own cars. From tanks for the military to the original Volkswagen Beetle, Porsche has a history of building quite a few vehicles that don't bear its name. It wasn't until the Porsche 356 came along that the company really hit its stride. These days, you'd never guess by looking at the factory that it traces its roots back to the 1930s.

While many automakers are involved in racing, very few exclusively got their start there. The company's founder Bruce McLaren was a Formula One driver who got the idea that he could start his own team in 1963. He was successful, headquartering his company in Woking. But the company didn't get into building road cars until the 1990s when it wowed the world with the McLaren F1. Now the Woking compound houses the entire McLaren Technology Group.

Along with Porsche, Volkswagen's history dates back to the 1930s. Wolfsburg was chosen as the location of the factory that would build the "people's car," the Beetle in 1938. The fallout from WWII nearly killed the production of the Beetle, but Volkswagen slowly built itself back up. Today, the facility in Wolfsburg is much larger, but you can still see the original little factory where the Beetle started.