Volkswagen AG is moving its North American headquarters from Michigan to northern Virginia so it can attract a skilled young work force and get closer to its customers, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

At a dinner party Wednesday night, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm reportedly tried to persuade Volkswagen American CEO Stefen Jacoby to keep the company in Michigan.

"The governor is always making the case for Michigan, and she will continue making the case for Michigan," Granholm spokeswoman Liz Boyd said.

The German automaker currently employs about 1,600 people at its headquarters in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills and in nearby Rochester Hills.

"I think she is a day late and a dollar short," Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson said. "He's going there to drop the bomb. He said he's leaving and he's going to take a thousand jobs with him."

The company will bring 400 jobs and will invest about $100 million as it shifts operations to Herndon, Va., the newspaper reported. The move is expected to eliminate 400 positions, leaving 600 jobs in suburban Detroit.

The office of Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine said he would make an economic development announcement Thursday near Dulles International Airport.

A spokesman declined to say if it was related to Volkswagen's plans.

Volkswagen of America's new president and chief executive said that northern Virginia's good schools, skilled workers and proximity to Dulles International Airport made it an attractive site.

"For a young talent, 35-years-old, to come here with his family ... is a very important factor," Jacoby told the Post. "By reducing this organization by 30 percent, you need even more talents, more creative people, more motivated people."

Volkswagen decided in early 2006 that it wanted to move to the East Coast, which Jacoby indicated was home for most of its customers.

"You want to work in an environment where you see your customers, where you see your cars on the road," he said. "You don't want to work where you basically see only American cars of the Big Three."