By Elizabeth ADENUGA
Volkswagen management on Monday said it would invest 800 million dollars in its factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States, for manufacturing electric vehicles.
Head of VW Group, Herbert Diess, said producing electric cars in the U.S. state “is a key part of our growth strategy in North America” at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
He said that production of the vehicles would begin at the site in 2022.
Volkswagen currently builds the midsize Atlas sports utility vehicle and the Passat sedan at the Chattanooga factory, which opened in 2011.
The Chattanooga factory will use VW’s modular electric toolkit chassis to manufacture the electric vehicles.
In addition to Chattanooga, VW is building the first dedicated electric vehicle production facility in Zwickau, Germany.
It will use the same chassis-building process starting by the end of this year.
The company will also add production of electric vehicles at facilities in Anting and Foshan, China, in 2020, and in German cities of Emden and Hanover also in 2022.
It plans to commit about 50 billion dollars through 2023 toward the development and production of electric vehicles and digital services.
The German carmaker has forecast sales of 150,000 electric vehicles in the VW brand by 2020 worldwide.
The number is forecast to increase to 1million in 2025.
