Volkswagen Chattanooga is on pace to hire 1,000 more workers in the next year to build the ID.4 electric SUV in the third quarter of 2022 and add a third shift, an official said Tuesday.
However, the semiconductor chip shortage that has hit the auto industry likely will put the brakes on expectations that the factory will set a new production record for 2021.
“We’ll end up with the second highest volume,” said Tom du Plessis, president and chief executive of the company’s Chattanooga operations, to a group of journalists visiting the factory.
While hiring will ramp up at the plant and put it at over 4,500 employees, the factory is in pre-production of the ID.4, the battery-powered vehicle that is spearheading the automaker’s electric future in America, according to the company.
The plant’s CEO said that an $800 million expansion at the factory to grow the body shop and to build a battery assembly facility has created “a very high degree of automation.” The body shop has over 400 robots to do highly repetitive jobs and “guarantee good quality,”du Plessis said.