Volkswagen is expanding its industrial footprint in the US. Company bosses have decided to award the production of a new midsize SUV to the Chattanooga plant in Tennessee. A total of approximately US$900 million will be invested in the production of the newly developed, seven-passenger SUV. About US$600 million will be invested in Tennessee.

Apart from investing in the production of a new vehicle, the Chattanooga location is to receive a new design and development centre. Volkswagen says the objective is to identify customers’ feedback in the North American market and to feed such data more expeditiously into existing and planned vehicle models. This will lead to the creation of approximately 200 qualified designers and engineers working in Chattanooga.

This latest decision is another element in the investment programme that the Volkswagen Group has launched in the region. From 2014 to 2018, the Volkswagen Group will be investing more than US$7 billion in the US and Mexico. It is Volkswagen’s goal to deliver 800,000 vehicles in the US by 2018.

At Chattanooga, the new SUV will be integrated into existing plant structures. While existing areas in production will be used for the assembly, a total floor space of 50,000m² will be added to the existing production facility.

The SUV, which is based on the CrossBlue concept vehicle, has been developed especially for the North American market. The CrossBlue made its global debut at the 2013 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

Source: Volkswagen

Tags: car design, Chattanooga, CrossBlue concept, manufacturing, SUV, Tennessee, USA, Volkswagen