Volkswagen and Passat charge ahead

With the Volkswagen plant at Enterprise South industrial park playing an important role now in Chattanooga's economy, it is excellent news that sales of the Passat, which is built at Enterprise South, and Volkswagen sales overall are growing rapidly.

Here are some recent figures, as reported in the Times Free Press:

• The redesigned Jetta and the locally built Passat helped Volkswagen's overall sales grow by 41 percent this November compared with the previous November.

• The 6,000-plus Passats sold last month made up more than a fifth of Volkswagen's total November sales of about 28,000 vehicles.

• Since the Chattanooga-made Passat hit the market about two months ago, sales of the vehicle have exceeded the total number of Passats that Volkswagen sold all last year.

• Only Chrysler, with sales growth of 45 percent this November compared with November 2010, surpassed VW's sales growth over the same period. VW topped Hyundai, Nissan, Ford, General Motors, Toyota and Honda.

It's great that VW decided to put its manufacturing facility in Chattanooga. And it's fantastic -- for our people as well as for the company -- that the cars being built here are going over so well with the public.