Audio clip
Jay Baron
The nation’s move toward greener, safer, more fuel-efficient cars may help make the marketplace ripe for Volkswagen, the head of a U.S. automotive research center said Thursday.
“Germans are good at making high-quality small cars,” said Jay Baron, chief executive of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich. “Volkswagen is known for that.”
But VW also faces pitfalls when it opens its new auto assembly plant in Chattanooga in early 2011, Mr. Baron said.
He said launches of some auto plants in the South have had bumps.
“You’re entering new turf,” he said. “Do you have the supply base and trained work force and everything else it takes to launch a plant?”
Mr. Baron, who was in the city to address the Chattanooga Engineers Club, said in an interview that VW has aggressive sales goals.
The company wants to boost U.S. sales of VW and its luxury brand Audi to 1 million cars a year by 2018, triple the current number.
Mr. Baron said concerns about green, fuel-efficient cars have been more dominant in Europe than the United States.
German powertrains are among the best in the world, and the new clean diesel engines are impressive and one answer for improving fuel economy, he said.
VW officials say they expect 30 percent of the vehicles made at the plant will have clean diesel engines.
In other VW developments Thursday:
n Chattanooga-based builder EMJ Corp. has partnered with paint shop contractor Walbridge to inform area subcontractors about the work that will come available while constructing the plant.
Jim Sattler, EMJ’s chief executive, said about 175 local subcontractors attended a meeting.
He said there will be plenty of opportunities for local workers since VW has pledged to use at least 30 percent local labor while building the plant.
“We are not assuming this group will get the body and assembly work but it is recognition that the local people are prepared,” Mr. Sattler said. “We are really encouraged by this because there is a lot of work that will be initiated by Volkswagen.”
Staff writer Brian Lazenby contributed to the story.
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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