Volkswagen AG will invest $800 million in the United States in auto industry, announced the company on Monday at Detroit Auto Show.
The German automaker will be investing the announced amount building a new electric vehicle which will be manufacture at its plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The planned electric vehicle is the part of company’s strategy of shifting towards zero emission vehicles.
The production of electric vehicle in Tennessee is likely to be start in 2022 and it will create 1,000 new jobs in the auto industry, company added in its announcement.
U.S. President Donald Trump has time and again stressed the German automakers to increase their investments in the United States.
At its Chattanooga plant, Volkswagen will be using its modular electric toolkit chassis (MEB) in new electric vehicles. MEB has been designed by the Volkswagen as the basic block for building its EVs in ways which not only consolidate all of the electronic controls of vehicle but also reduce the number of microprocessors. The MEB also came up with altered way of car building and advances the application of new driver-assistance technology.
A first of its dedicated facility for production of EV has been under development in Zwickau, Germany and Volkswagen is likely to begin making MEB by the end of this year in that facility. The company has also plans to build EV productions facilities at home and abroad, for which it will build two EV facilities in China in 2020 and the two Chinese cities which will be hosting the facilities will be Foshan and Anting. In-country EV facilities will be located in German cities of Hanover and Emden which will be build by 2022.
The Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam was also present at the time of announcement and he took part in the announcement and shares his thoughts about electric vehicles describing that these will obviously plating more and more prominent role.
