Volkswagen plans to pick Mexico as the site for an engine plant to serve its assembly plant in that country and the automaker's Chattanooga factory, according to a report.
Automotive News reported Tuesday an announcement could come as soon as today.
Last month, Frank Fischer, chief executive of VW's operations in Chattanooga, told the Times Free Press he didn't expect the engine plant to come to the city.
"We said, 'Please do it,'" Fischer said in August. "We were supporting it." But VW officials were looking at manufacturing capacity and consumer demand in locating the plant, he said.
Mexico had been named by VW's top brass as a potential site for the engine plant. VW's plant in Puebla, Mexico, has an annual capacity of 525,000 vehicles. Chattanooga's is to produce 150,000 cars a year.
J.Ed. Marston, the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce's vice president of marketing, said earlier that local officials wouldn't be surprised if the city did not land the VW engine plant.
But he said a successful launch of the Chattanooga plant early next year could provide chances for the facility to grow.