Skip to main content

Some of Volkswagen’s electric models will wear a ‘Made in the USA’ label

VW I.D. Buzz Concept Image used with permission by copyright holder

Volkswagen is making a huge investment in its Chattanooga, Tennessee, factory to bolster its electrification offensive. The Wolfsburg, Germany-based firm will expand the site over the coming years to build electric vehicles, it announced on the sidelines of the 2019 Detroit Auto Show. The expansion will cost $800 million, and it will directly create 1,000 jobs.

As of 2019, the Chattanooga factory builds vehicles developed in America, for America, like the Passat — which is getting a thorough redesign for the 2020 model year — and the seven-seater Atlas. The expansion will enable the plant to produce battery-powered vehicles built on the modular MEB platform that will underpin over a dozen models around the world. It’s too early to tell which models or how many cars will be added to Chattanooga’s roster because Volkswagen is still at the planning stages of the expansion.

“For us, it makes obvious sense to choose Chattanooga,” Scott Keogh, the head of Volkswagen’s American arm, told Digital Trends during a roundtable discussion. He added electric car production will start in 2023. Most of the cars will be sold in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, but Volkswagen is open to the idea of exporting some of the production run overseas. The final decision depends on the models built in Chattanooga, and the demand for them from abroad.

Volkswagen will launch its electric car offensive in America before it finishes expanding the Chattanooga factory. That means it will import the first next-generation electric vehicles it sells in the United States from a factory in Germany. Officials have previously hinted the U.S. market wouldn’t get the production version of the I.D. hatchback concept revealed in 2016, though Keogh didn’t rule it out. Other upcoming electric cars include a crossover previewed by the I.D. Crozz concept and a modern interpretation of the emblematic, rear-engined Bus inspired by the I.D. Buzz concept (pictured).

Electric cars aren’t the only new products Volkswagen will build in Chattanooga. The firm will also add the five-seater version of the Atlas it previewed with the Cross Sport concept at the 2018 New York Auto Show. Keogh told Digital Trends the model is scheduled to begin arriving in showrooms in early 2020, meaning it will likely break cover before the end of 2019. His team is also preparing an additional crossover positioned below the Tiguan for a 2021 launch, though we don’t know where it will be built yet.

Editors' Recommendations

Ronan Glon
Ronan Glon is an American automotive and tech journalist based in southern France. As a long-time contributor to Digital…
VW will finally unveil its electric ID.Buzz production model in March
An autonomous Volkswagen ID.Buzz prototype.

Volkswagen is finally ready to take the wraps off one of its most anticipated EVs. The Volkswagen ID.Buzz electric van will make its public debut March 9, VW CEO Herbert Diess tweeted Thursday, ending five years of buildup.

The original ID.Buzz concept was unveiled at the 2017 Detroit Auto Show, and drew positive attention for retro styling referencing the classic Volkswagen Type 2, also known the Microbus. VW confirmed plans for a production version shortly after the concept's unveiling, and gave a peek at a cargo version in 2018. Argo AI is also using ID.Buzz prototypes for autonomous-driving development work, in anticipation of an autonomous mobility service launch in Hamburg, Germany, that's tentatively scheduled for 2025.

Read more
2021 Volkswagen ID.4 AWD first drive review: Gaining traction
A 2021 Volkswagen ID.4 AWD front three quarter view.

Volkswagen launched the 2021 ID.4 electric car earlier this year with an ambitious mission: To take on popular gasoline crossover SUVs like the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4 in a bid to capture the heart of the new-car market. However, the ID.4 was missing one thing.

One of the main reasons buyers choose crossovers over sedans and hatchbacks is the availability of all-wheel drive. At launch, the ID.4 didn’t have that. VW said an all-wheel-drive ID.4 was on the way, though, and now the wait is over.

Read more
Inside the lab teaching Volkswagen’s born-again Bus how to drive itself
volkswagen unveils argo ai powered id buzz ad electric van

Previewed by the heritage-laced ID.Buzz concept, Volkswagen's born-again Bus will arrive in 2022 with a few cool tech tricks up its sleeve. It will be fully electric, it will ride on the MEB architecture already found under the EVs like the ID.3 and the ID.4, and it will spawn an autonomous shuttle scheduled to start carrying passengers in 2025. Argo A.I. is helping Volkswagen teach the Bus how to drive itself, and Digital Trends got an inside look at the project.

Volkswagen unveiled the first ID.Buzz-based prototype on the sidelines of the 2021 Munich auto show. Fully draped in camouflage to mask its final design, the van is fitted with an armada of sensors, radars, cameras, microphones, and lidars that paint a digital picture of the world around it. Argo A.I. — which Volkswagen and Ford jointly own a stake in — argues its technology is highly advanced: its lidar can detect and avoid potholes by scanning the road surface, and it can see objects that are about 1,300 feet away, even if they're dark (like a black car). Powering this hardware requires tremendous computing power, several backup systems, and a mammoth amount of data.

Read more