Volkswagen Chattanooga plant to hire 200 production workers.
Volkswagen Chattanooga released some good news today. The Chattanooga, Tennessee plant is hiring 200 new production workers while General Motors will add 180 to their payroll. These may seem like small numbers, but after the decline in the U.S. auto industry in recent years, it’s really quite big.
Parts of the U.S. auto industry had went into bankruptcy reorganization and there were questions as to where the fate of the industry would go. However, it’s looking up as previous announcements included 1,100 new jobs in Detroit for Chrysler as well as 1,600 in Illinois. Nissan also plans for 1,200 new workers in Tennessee plus plans to build a new factory in Mexico.
Volkswagen Chattanooga was built to manufacture Passat and now needs people to build the midsize sedan. The new model can’t be built fast enough for the demand, so that’s a great sign. The hope with 200 new employees is to build 35 cars per hour as opposed to the 31 they are building at the current time. The employees will be hired for two different production shifts.
General Motors’ 180 new workers will work at a $200 million metal-stamping plant they are building in Arlington, Texas. Their full-size SUV is being redesigned for the 2013 model year and will be the focus of these jobs. The new building will be located closer to the supplier of some of the metal panels which GM is hoping will reduce costs and damage.
1 million vehicles sold in the U.S. by 2018 is Volkswagen Chattanooga’s goal. Their sales increased by 23% in 2011, so they are on their way. With the added employees they expect production on the Passat to increase by 13 percent. However, it is still fighting in the midsize sedan market with the ever popular Toyota Camry. In December alone, Camry sales were at 33,506 while Volkswagen Passat sales sat at 6,884.
Whether they reach the goal of 1 million sales or not, the addition of 200 employees at the Volkswagen Chattanooga plant is good news for the auto industry. Perhaps the auto industry is getting back on the road.
Ken Lawrence has written 99 articles on EpostMedia.
