Volkswagen of America will build a factory next door to its U.S. car plant in Chattanooga to assemble battery packs for its upcoming line of battery electric vehicles, the automaker said Wednesday.
The announcement was made in conjunction with the groundbreaking ceremony for an $800 million expansion of the Chattanooga plant to allow the operation to make EVs based on Volkswagen’s global MEB electrical architecture. Currently, the plant builds the three-row Atlas crossover, two-row Atlas Cross Sport crossover and Volkswagen Passat sedan.
About 1,000 jobs are expected to be added to the plant as a result of the $800 million investment, which will include an addition to the body shop. Volkswagen will build internal combustion engine vehicles and battery electric vehicles on the same assembly line.
VW plans to begin production of the ID4 compact EV crossover in Chattanooga in 2022. The ID4 is expected to go on sale in the U.S. late next year, but early production will be in Volkswagen’s plant in Zwickau, Germany.
The battery cells for the ID4 and subsequent EV vehicles assembled in Chattanooga will come from a newly built $1.7 billion SK Innovation plant under construction in Commerce, Georgia, northeast of Atlanta.