According to an inside source, Volkswagen is currently exploring the possibility of expanding its plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to accommodate the production of an electric pick-up truck and the much-anticipated ID.Buzz microbus. The automaker had gradually lost its market share in North America before last year but is hoping to make a comeback as the push for electrification of the auto industry continues.
Volkswagen has already announced that the conflict in Ukraine is pushing the automaker to move operations more into the U.S. and China and said it has plans to spend over $7 billion in the U.S. throughout the next five years. The company is also still aiming for 50% of North American sales to be electric by 2030.
This week, German magazine Manager Magazin reported that Volkswagen is also considering building an entirely separate new plant in the U.S. that could produce 600,000 vehicles annually. Stakeholders reportedly said that the new plant might be built next to the existing one in Tennessee, and they indicated the company might be considering making a battery cell plant in the U.S. eventually.
Right now, the manufacturing plant in Chattanooga is Volkswagen’s only U.S.-based plant,. It currently produces the ID.4 electric crossover and Atlas and Passat vehicles. While the ID.Buzz microbus may eventually be built in the U.S., but it will initially be imported from a plant in Hanover, Germany.
The company declined to comment on the matter.
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