Volkswagen Chattanooga soon will start playing in the automotive world’s Super Bowl as it launches assembly of its first electric vehicle, said the plant’s chief executive.
“We’re going to catapult ourselves into production of one of the most technologically advanced cars that Volkswagen has to offer,” said CEO Chris Glover in a recent interview at the factory in Chattanooga as the plant readies to build the battery-powered ID.4 SUV.
The plant is hiring 1,200 more employees, which will put its headcount at more than 5,000, from a pool of more than 7,000 applications which have come in mostly the past couple of months, said the factory CEO, who came on board earlier this year from a VW facility in Mexico.
That wealth of job seekers will help give Glover what he termed “the ammunition to fight for Chattanooga for some future expansion.”
While the plant expects to produce about 150,000 vehicles this year, Glover said he’s hopeful of doubling that number in two years with production of the ID.4 and the existing Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport SUVs.