Staff photo by Dan Henry/Chattanooga Times Free Press – December 01, 2010. Enterprise South complex including Volkswagen, VW, Erlanger, and Amazon. Aerials from Hamilton County and Bradley County.Volkswagen opens a new era in America today as it unveils the first photos and the name of the midsize sedan that will be produced at VW’s Chattanooga production plant.
“It is the Chattanooga car,” said Frank Fischer, who heads the German automaker’s operations in the city. “People from Chattanooga have built the vehicle and set up the plant.”
On Monday at Detroit’s North American International Auto Show, the country’s most prestigious, VW officially will display the car some industry analysts are calling “the Toyota fighter.”
VW CEO Martin Winterkorn will use a restored downtown Detroit fire hall as the venue for showing off the initial images of the car.
Fischer said the car is the cornerstone of VW’s growth strategy to nearly triple sales in the United States and help the company surpass Toyota as the world’s No. 1 automaker before 2018.