A Volkswagen official said Monday that a photo of a car circulating on some Chattanooga TV stations is not the new mid-size sedan it plans to make at Enterprise South industrial park.
“It’s not the NMS,” said Jill Bratina, VW Group of America’s director of corporate communications.
The owner of the photography company which supplied the $350 photo to the stations said the body of the car is a modified Jetta on the planned new vehicle’s chassis. It also may hold some components of the new car, said Brenda Priddy of Brenda Priddy & Co.
She said the vehicle is “a test mule” with the modified Jetta body on the NMS platform.
The photo, made in Europe, said Ms. Priddy, shows the front of a black car being loaded onto a transport vehicle.
Frank Fischer, who is the plant manager for the planned $1 billion Chattanooga facility, said the new car is still under development and will be a little bigger than the mid-size Passat.
“It’s in the design phases,” he said. “It’s not there yet.”
Mr. Fischer said the vehicle is not supposed to be a car made for Germans.
“It’s much more designed for an American market,” he said. Mr. Fischer said he imagined it could be suitable for Europe, but “we’ll have to see. I really like the design of it.”
The first concrete for the 1.9 million-square-foot plant is to be poured this month or December, according to officials.
The facility is to employ about 2,000 people while making 150,000 vehicles as it starts operation by early 2011.
Mike Pare, the deputy Business editor at the Chattanooga Times Free Press, has worked at the paper for 27 years. In addition to editing, Mike also writes Business stories and covers Volkswagen, economic development and manufacturing in Chattanooga and the surrounding area. In the past he also has covered higher education. Mike, a native of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., received a bachelor’s degree in communications from Florida Atlantic University. he worked at the Rome News-Tribune before ...
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