FILE - In this Nov. 16, 2011 file photo, Jonathan Browning, left, president and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America, and Frank Fischer, head of the Volkswagen production facility in Chattanooga, Tenn., pose with a Volkswagen Passat and the award it received as Motor Trend Car of the Year for 2012 at the Los Angeles Auto Show. Volkswagen of America Inc. said Wednesday that its sales jumped 26.3 percent in 2011 on strong demand for its top-selling Jetta models and redesigned Passat sedan.DETROIT - Volkswagen plans to sell 500,000 cars in the United States this year, and Chattanooga's mayor said the city stands ready to help the automaker's new Hamilton County plant "stay ahead of the curve."
"We've lived up to our promise of getting the plant up and running," said Mayor Ron Littlefield on the eve of the start of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
Jonathan Browning, VW Group of America's chief executive, said in New York in a briefing with reporters that the German automaker plans to sell more than
500,000 cars this year, according to Bloomberg. That would be up from 444,192 in 2011.
"We see continued recovery in the U.S. but a slightly slower than we would have said a year ago," Browning said.
Volkswagen is continuing to ramp up production at the Chattanooga auto assembly plant that assembles the all-new Passat and employs about 2,500 people.
For more auto show coverage, see Monday's Times Free Press.