Volkswagen is pursuing an extreme cost-cutting plan to help insulate the company from a global crisis, but officials and an analyst say the forces leading to the crisis put the German automaker’s plant in Chattanooga in a strong position.
The mood at a recent local launch of the 2027 Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport, the two SUVs made in Chattanooga, was celebratory. North America is a top strategic focus for Volkswagen, and the Chattanooga plant is its only vehicle assembly facility in the U.S.
In remarks, Volkswagen officials made no mention of the company’s situation in Germany, where four plants are targeted for closure, or in China, where competition from Chinese automakers is causing its sales to crater.
Even as residents of the most important U.S. city for Volkswagen, most Chattanoogans likely don’t realize the epic size of the company’s global footprint.
At 3.8 million square feet, the local auto plant, opened in 2011, is the largest factory in Chattanooga. But it’s small compared to the Volkswagen plant at the company’s headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany. At 70 million square feet, the Wolfsburg compound is one of the largest factory sites in the world, and larger than the nation of Monaco.