Volkswagen Bulks Up Chattanooga Plant
For the second time this year, Volkswagen is increasing headcount at its Chattanooga plant. After hiring 200 new workers in January, Volkswagen now created an additional 800 new jobs.
In the beginning of the year, 2,500 people worked at the Chattanooga factory. With this new wave of hirings, Volkswagen will have created 1,000 new jobs in Chattanooga this year. Volkswagen needs to fill the positions to meet customer demand for the new U.S.-produced Passat. The plant has been working daily overtime to keep up with the sales.
According to Edmunds, February 2012 was the biggest month for the Passat (8,189 sales) since August 2003. The Passat’s average days to turn was 55 percent lower than the industry average in the midsize segment last month. A Passat sits only an average of 24 days on dealers’ lots, the industry average in the class is 54 days.
Edmunds Senior Analyst Michelle Krebs encourages Volkswagen to add more cars to the plant:
”For now, at least, this extra production will absorb the Passat’s jump in demand in the US. But further down the line, Volkswagen will need to produce even more vehicles in the US to expand its product offerings — a small crossover, for instance — and meet its lofty sales goals.”
Volkswagen wants to sell 800,000 units annually in the U.S. by 2018. Edmunds says that VW will need to grow an average of 13.8 percent each year through 2018 to reach that goal.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Much of the new VW sales might be because Americans are a little gun shy of domestic brands. VW's cannot, in any universe, be less reliable than some of those older domestic products either. The new ones I think are better. For those Americans that think that they don't care for unreliable cars, remember, VW is the No. 1 seller in Europe and the European's, especially the Germans have even less tolerance for unreliability.
Excellent discussion. The auto line worker is usually the first one to be blamed for poor quality. Management is 100% responsible for setting up processes and suppliers that make the assembly process as idiot-proof as possible but you cannot deny that the assembly line worker also plays a role. The job is very robotic but it is nevertheless a job that still has to be performed well. Everyone who touches that car bears some of the responsibility.
I've never known anyone who drove a German car that didn't have U-boatloads of problems. Side note: The mountains in the background of the photo aren't in Chattanooga.
I've driven a VW Rabbit for the past six years and it's been 100% reliable. Although I drive in terrible weather conditions on some of the worst roads in North America, nothing has gone wrong the car. Maintenance has consisted of oil changes. So what gives? I wish people would be specific regarding their complaints. Does a squeak constitute a reliability issue? I grew up in a car dealership surrounded by every make of vehicle from Gogomobils to Toyotas. My Rabbit has been, by far, the most reliable.