Back in July 2008, we were thrilled when Volkswagen announced it was building a new assembly plant in Chattanooga, TN. Of course, any new assembly plant is big news to us, but a new automotive plant? Well, that’s peaches and cream, as a British friend likes to say.
By any measure, the facility has been a great success. Barely two years after it opened, the plant has already produced more than 250,000 Passat sedans. (In contrast, VW’s previous U.S. assembly plant, in New Stanton, PA, produced 1.15 million vehicles during its operational lifetime from 1978 to 1988.)