New Volkswagen Plant Under Construction in Chattanooga, Tennessee

With news of bailouts of Chrysler and General Motors in order to prevent bankruptcy, and in spite of all the news of slumps in manufacturing and sales of automobiles in the United States, Volkswagen will soon be opening a new 1.9 million square foot assembly plant in Chattanooga, TN, at the cost of $1 billion. The plant will be featuring a brand new look for the Volkswagen automobile, which is a highly guarded secret that is known only as NMS (new midsize sedan) which will be the first vehicle to roll off the assembly line in Chattanooga in 2011. It is believed that Audi, which is Volkswagen's luxury brand will be the second type of vehicle to be produced in the new facility.

Volkswagen began searching for a site for its new manufacturing plant in 2007 and the people in Chattanooga were very pleased and excited to be chosen by the Volkswagen organization after recently being passed over by Toyota. It is expected that the Chattanooga Volkswagen plant will fill approximately 2000 positions (1400 hourly employees and 400 salaried employees) along with thousands of related jobs that could present themselves due to the needs of the automobile manufacturing industry.

Although Volkswagen recently announced its United States sales fell 14% in December, 2008 from sales in December, 2007, the company is moving ahead with its plans to complete the new facility in Chattanooga. Volkswagen Group Chairman, Martin Winterkorn, said, "The automobile will always be an essential part of the American way of life. We believe in a promising future for Volkswagen in the great car nation that is America."

Chattanooga is the fourth largest city in Tennessee. According to U.S. government statistics, the average salary is $33,593 and the average median income is $32,174. Chattanooga is experiencing an unemployment rate of 8.6% (national average 6.9%).

On Monday, January 12, 2009 Volkswagen unveiled a 3-D artistic presentation of the Chattanooga plant which includes not only the assembly facility but also a paint shop, a body shop and a separate training center. Work on the $40 million training center is scheduled to start soon.

Needless to say the Volkswagen offices which are already up and running in Chattanooga, have been swamped with applicants looking for employment. Construction on the new facility has already begun but it is not expected to be completely finished until 2011. Equipment installation in the paint shop began in 2008 and a trial run of the assembly's plant system is expected late in 2010 with production scheduled for 2011.

Volkswagen currently has manufacturing plants around the world. Besides the United States and Germany, facilities are found in Belgium, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and the United Kingdom.