Volkswagen Chattanooga Completes 50,000th Car
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CHATTANOOGA, TN--February 7, 2012: Volkswagen Chattanooga achieved its first significant production milestone of 2012 this week--completion of its 50,000th Passat.
"An incredible amount of care goes into each vehicle we produce in Chattanooga," said Frank Fischer, CEO and Chair of Volkswagen Chattanooga. "Producing 50,000 cars at this level of quality is a huge accomplishment for our team."
The vehicle was a fully-loaded white 2.5 liter, 170 horsepower Passat SE.
The 50,000 vehicles include US customer deliveries as well as pre-series cars, technical training cars, dealer experience cars and exported cars to Mexico and Canada.
The Volkswagen Chattanooga team celebrated completion of the first customer car on April 18, 2011 and the plant officially opened on May 24, 2011. 2012 marks the first full calendar year of factory production at the Chattanooga plant.
Volkswagen announced last week that an additional 200 jobs would be created at its Tennessee manufacturing facility in addition to the 2,500 person workforce it currently employs.
About Volkswagen Chattanooga
Volkswagen will invest $1 billion in the
local economy for the Chattanooga plant
and create more than 2,500 direct jobs in the region. According to
independent studies, the new Volkswagen plant is expected to generate $12 billion in income growth and an additional
9,500 jobs related to the project. The Chattanooga manufacturing facility is the
world's first automotive manufacturer to receive platinum certification
from the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design (LEED) green building certification program. The
facility produces the all-new 2012 Passat sedan, specially designed for the
North American market and winner of the Motor Trend magazine 2012 Car of
the Year award.