Volkswagen's The North American Engineering and Planning Center Centralizes Research and Development

Traverse City, MI -- Aug. 6, 2015: The North American Engineering and Planning Center centralizes Volkswagen’s research and development, and product planning efforts in the American South. This new entity joins the production, purchasing and sales efforts currently operating in the North American Region.

Headed by Dr. Matthias Erb, the NA Engineering and Planning Center serves as a high-level research and development facility and houses product-related functions such as product engineering, innovation management, and product management. With this new entity, Volkswagen is further strengthening the North American Region by reducing time to market, keeping pricing competitive, shortening product lifecycles, and developing U.S. specific model variations.

“The implementation of the NA Engineering and Planning Center is a groundbreaking development in Volkswagen’s competitive U.S. market strategy,” said Dr. Matthias Erb, Executive Vice President of the NA Engineering and Planning Center, Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. “The presence of this one-of-a-kind facility in the American South shows Volkswagen’s commitment to the U.S. customer, dedication to the market and an insatiable drive to succeed.”

The NA Engineering and Planning Center is currently located in an interim facility less than two miles away from the Volkswagen Chattanooga plant. A new permanent facility is in the developmental stages. Volkswagen Group of America is the first original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to establish a high-level research and development entity in the American South.

The North American Engineering and Planning Center is currently building a team of highly-skilled engineers in Chattanooga, with the goal of 200 new hires by the end of 2016.