Automotive manufacturing strength
Automotive manufacturing strength1. Tennessee2. Alabama3. Ohio4. Kentucky5. Indiana6. South Carolina7. Michigan8. Georgia9. Texas10. MississippiSource: Business Facilities magazine, 2015.
Nashville rates No. 1 for economic potential
Business Facilities magazine ranked Tennessee’s capital city as the No. 1 metro area in America for economic growth potential in its annual rankings of business climates. The magazine said Nashville has been a rising star and boasts “an ideal geographic location in the heart of the U.S. population base; a skilled workforce fueled by 100,000 college students in the region; operating costs and cost of living almost 10 percent below the U.S. average (Nashville’s cost of doing business is 88.5 percent of the national average); and a quality of life whose tone is set by being one of the top centers in the world for the creative class.” The Music city also has become a world-class hub for healthcare, one of the the fastest growing industries around the globe. Tennessee’s biggest city, Memphis, was rated as the best metro area in the country for logists and air cargo. Memphis is the home of FedEx.
The $900 million addition of a second vehicle at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga assembly plant announced last year helped Tennessee accelerate past Alabama again to reclaim its crown as the top-rated state for automotive manufacturing strength, according to the editors of Business Facilities magazine.
In its annual ranking of U.S. states, the business publication ranked the Volunteer State No. 1 in automotive strength for the fifth time in the past six years. Only in 2014, when Alabama ranked No. 1 (not just in college football but in auto manufacturing) was Tennessee not judged to be the strongest in the recruitment and growth on automotive manufacturing.
“Tennessee has built an impressive Tier 1 supplier network around its automotive crown jewel, Volkswagen’s North American assembly plant in Chattanooga,” Business Facilities reports in its current issue.