The redesigned Volkswagen Passat has been a decent seller since its debut in 2011, but sales have apparently dropped off enough that the automaker is trimming some of the employees from its Chattanooga, TN assembly plant. According to Automotive News, Volkswagen will be cutting shifts and laying off 500 contracted workers in response to slowing sales.
Jonathan Browning, Volkswagen North America CEO, has said that workers at the company's Chattanooga, Tennessee manufacturing facility will decide if they want union representation. Browning made the comment while speaking to reporters at the New York Auto Show, according to Reuters. Browning also made it clear that the
In December 2011, the Volkswagen plant near Chattanooga, TN was certified LEED Platinum. That's a difficult level to reach – as we described at the time – but the one billion dollars the company spent there fit snugly into the VW corporate storyline: we're going to make cleaner cars at cleaner plants. We're going to reduce CO2 emissions by
Volkswagen product planners have been making more concerted overtures to North American customers over the last year or so, and their efforts appear to be working. On the strength of new Jetta and Passat models tailored specifically for U.S. customers (read: larger and less costly), VW is poised to reach its best sales year since 19
The United Auto Workers group isn't backing down on its efforts to unionize the new Volkswagen manufacturing facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee, according to Automotive News. The union is currently asking workers at the facility to sign a petition of support for organization.
How well is Volkswagen doing with its new made-in-America Passat? What if we told you that sales in February were up 14,523.2 percent? Okay, perhaps that isn't the best measure of performance, given that there wasn't actually a 2011 model year Passat. But VW moved 8,189 of the midsize sedans last month after selling 6,318 in January.
The good people of Tennessee are no doubt thrilled to have a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga. The facility already features well over 2,000 good-paying manufacturing jobs, and now the German automaker is bolstering employment by another 200 full-time VW staffers, boosting the employment total to 2,500 full-time and temp workers.
Today in New York City prior to the start of press days at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Volkswagen of America Inc. President and CEO Jonathan Browning laid out ambitious plans the VW Group and Volkswagen brands have for the United States.
The United Autoworkers Union is struggling – and it is the first to admit it. With its membership dwindling after three decades of workforce cuts by Chrysler, Ford and General Motors, the union has pinned its future on organizing one of the transplants. Efforts to convince workers at Jap
Nestled in the hills outside Chattanooga, TN squats a large, brand new Volkswagen plant. Fresh and shiny, the collection of buildings houses the people and robots that turn delivered parts and materials into brand-new 2012 Passats, the first of which was just sold to a young man in the tech industry in California. VW is having good success with the sedan, with year-to-date sales up nearly 60 percent
Today, Volkswagen's manufacturing plant in Chattanooga, TN was officially named a Platinum LEED-certified facility. This makes VW the first automaker to reach the notoriously difficult highest level of LEED certification.
When Volkswagen opened its new Chattanooga factory, there were lots of questions about what else it was going to build there, since Passat volume wouldn't come close to soaking up the facility's 150,000-unit capacity. A three-row crossover was often mentioned as another model, with Jonathon Ramsey
We're not strangers to the allure of Craigslist. The classified ad site is our go-to distraction when it comes time to contemplate our next project vehicle, and we've been tempted by the occasional decommissioned Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor more often than we care to admit. As one Chattanooga, Tennessee man recently found out, those vehicles may be more trouble th
According to a senior source inside Volkswagen of America, the German automaking giant is considering bringing production of the next generation Golf to North America. But why? And where?
Ask anyone in the country to name the state that they believe is the best place to build automobiles. We'd wager that Michigan would be the first state uttered by most – it's the home to Ford, Chrysler and General Motors, after all). The correct answer, however, according to Business Facilities, is Tennessee, which has been crowned the champ with regards to automo
Just when we thought the four-year drama of a U.S. factory for Audi might be clearing up, we're back to the muddy. Not even two weeks after a Detroit outlet reported that the decision has already been made to build an Audi plant in the States, German Manager Magazin quotes Audi boss Rupert Stadler as saying he'd like a factory in Mexico for production o
After four years of 'will-it-won't-it,' a report from WDIV Local 4 News in Detroit indicates that Audi has finally decided to build a plant in the U.S. According to that source, questions remain about where to build it and what to build there, but its future is certain. However, Four-Rings boss Rupert Stadler indicated "those decisions will be made in the next 36 months," leading us to believe there's yet a ways to go.
The United Auto Workers has been trying for the past 30 years to unionize plants operated by foreign automakers in the South, but to date, there has been absolutely zero success. There are many reasons the UAW has consistently failed over time, including allegations of intimidation and fear tactics from transplant management. Some foreign automakers won't even hire former union employees for fear that the new hire could help organize the facility. And then there is the fact that unions aren't ne
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