The first car built at Volkswagen's Chattanooga plant and readied for test drives rolled out of the factory Thursday for on-the-road trials by VW officials, possibly including chief executive Martin Winterkorn.
"That's a big milestone," said Guenther Scherelis, the plant's general manager of communication.
Mr. Scherelis said the midsize sedan left the plant by truck where it will be taken to a location he would not disclose. There, it will be put through what he called a "summer evaluation" by top VW officials locally and within the German automaker.
He said Frank Fischer, CEO of VW's Chattanooga operations, will be among those driving the car along with board members.
Volkswagen is building a $1 billion plant at Enterprise South industrial park. While plant construction proceeds, officials have been assembling early versions of the sedan, officials said.
The so-called "pre-series" work is an initial run-up to official production that's slated to begin in early 2011, according to VW.
"It's the first production here," Mr. Fischer said last week in a telephone interview. He said part of the assembly at this point is even done by hand.
"The whole conveyor system doesn't work," Mr. Fischer said.
Mr. Scherelis said that after the car's test drive, the results will be discussed and reported to the full board.
In Chattanooga, further tweaking of the car will be done on future versions as the ramp up to official production continues, he said.
VW plans to make 150,000 vehicles annually at the Chattanooga plant and employ over 2,000 workers.