Passat changes
Updates for 2016 model:› New sheet metal, wheels, headlamps and taillights› More premium interior with an enhanced instrument panel› Full suite of infotainment options› Drive assistance featuresSource: Volkswagen of America
In Volkswagen’s biggest 2016 model update in America, workers at the automaker’s Chattanooga plant are assembling test cars for the first-ever makeover of the Passat sedan.
“It’s perfecting the process,” said plant spokesman Scott Wilson. “We’re building [updated] Passats more and more.”
The actual production switch to making new Passats which will be sold to customers is expected to take place soon, according to VW. The official market launch is slated for early this fall as the vehicle is sold as a 2016 model.
The facelift is seen as a key one for VW as the Passat accounts for nearly 25 percent of total 2015 U.S. sales for the German car company. The Passat changeover is the first since the Chattanooga factory started producing the U.S. version of the vehicle in 2011.
The Passat’s makeover will boast new sheet metal, wheels, headlamps and taillights, said Volkswagen of America. Also, the update will hold a more premium interior with an enhanced instrument panel, according to the automaker.
In addition, the car will offer what VW calls “a full suite of infotainment” along with driver assistance features.
Wilson said the new Passat’s look is still a secret in the plant.
“They’re covered even within the halls,” he said.
The updated Passat will not be based on VW’s innovative platform called MQB. The new production technique is part of the $900 million expansion that VW is undertaking at the plant to support assembly of a sport utility vehicle in 2016.
The process, which VW is rolling out at plants worldwide, enables it to design models ranging from a three-door hatchback to an SUV virtually sharing the same front axle, pedal box and engine positioning, despite varying wheelbase and external dimensions, according to industry experts.
It features a greater degree of plug-and-play modularity and parts commonality than at Toyota and General Motors, generating a lot of savings to the carmaker.
Dr. Matthias Erb, who heads the Chattanooga plant’s new North American Engineering and Planning Center, said his fledgling facility is supporting the ramp up of the new Passat.
He said there are small adjustments to the new vehicle which are carried out at the plant, adding that it “still has some parts in there that might have to be exchanged.”
Erb said VW is changing its approach in the U.S. in that the company is shortening the production life cycles of its vehicles. He said Europeans like cars which look similar over many years, while Americans have a different view.
“[Europeans] want to maintain a certain level of how modern the car looks. We’ve learned Americans think a little bit different,” Erb said.
Christian Koch, who heads VW’s Chattanooga operations, last week told new employees at a ceremony about the importance of the new Passat and the midsize SUV the plant will start assembling in late 2016.
“You’re entering the workforce at a crucial time in our history,” he said.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.