Hamilton County will make a run for a Volkswagen drivetrain plant, Mayor Claude Ramsey said Monday.
He said Enterprise South industrial park has the space, the county has the work force and state and local governments would compete with other sites concerning financial incentives.
"This would be another very important piece," Mayor Ramsey said. "We need jobs and hope to attract as many as we can."
Analysts and others have raised prospects that VW will need an engine or transmission plant in North America to help serve its Chattanooga auto assembly factory that's to start running in about a year.
A VW official said a drivetrain plant at this time is "speculation" and it's focusing on the local assembly site's startup. Chattanooga's 2 million-square-foot plant, which is to build an all-new VW sedan, initially will obtain its engines from existing facilities in Mexico and Germany, officials have said.
But, Mr. Ramsey said there's space at Enterprise South to hold another plant that's the size of a drivetrain factory.
He said there's "absolutely enough work force" to man such a plant, and that the city, county and state would put up the kind of financial incentives needed to compete for such a facility.
The county mayor wouldn't discuss specifics relating to incentives, but "we'd be competitive. We'll pursue locating those kinds of facilities here."
State and local governments already have committed incentives worth an estimated $577.4 million for the VW assembly plant.
Richard Beeland, Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield's spokesman, said the mayor couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
J.Ed. Marston, the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce's vice president of marketing, said it would work aggressively with the state to bring a drivetrain factory to Chattanooga.
"There is a great deal of space at Enterprise South," he said.
Mr. Marston said the company already has 1,340 acres available. A memorandum of understanding between VW and state and local governments calls for another 1,200 acres to be made available to VW for expansion.
The Chattanooga plant, expected to make 150,000 vehicles a year and employ about 2,000 people, has "massive expansion possibilities" and could make even more, said Frank Fischer, chief executive of VW's operations locally.
Officials have said that Audi production could work in Chattanooga, but at a later time.
Stefan Jacoby, CEO of VW Group of America, has said that success at Chattanooga's factory is vital to the car company selling more vehicles in the U.S.
"We can't sell 800,000 cars (in the U.S.) without producing on local terrain," Mr. Jacoby said.
VW SALES
VW is aiming to about double U.S. sales to 400,000 in the next few years and then sell 800,000 vehicles by 2018.