VW Investing $800 Million In Tennessee Factory To Make Next-Gen Electric Vehicles (techcrunch.com) 89
Volkswagen will spend $800 million to expand a U.S. factory that will produce the automaker's next generation of electric vehicles. "The factory in Chattanooga, Tenn. will be the company's North American base for manufacturing electric vehicles," reports TechCrunch. "The expansion is expected to create 1,000 jobs at the plant." From the report: VW's Chattanooga expansion is just a piece of the automaker's broader plan to move away from diesel in the wake of the emissions cheating scandal that erupted in 2015. Globally, VW Group plans to commit almost $50 billion through 2023 toward the development and production of electric vehicles and digital services. The Volkswagen brand (so not including its Audi or Porsche brands) alone has forecasted selling 150,000 EVs by 2020 worldwide, increasing that number to 1 million by 2025.
The Tennessee factory (along with the other new facilities) will produce EVs using Volkswagen's modular electric toolkit chassis, or MEB, introduced by the company in 2016. The MEB is a flexible modular system -- really a matrix of common parts -- for producing electric vehicles that VW says make it more efficient and cost-effective. Electric vehicle production at the Tennessee site will begin in 2022. However, Volkswagen of America says it will offer the first EV based on the MEB platform to customers in 2020.This EV will be a series-production version of the I.D. CROZZ SUV concept that was first shown at the North American International Auto Show last year. This vehicle will have the interior space of a midsize SUV in the footprint of a compact SUV. Volkswagen of America will also offer a multi-purpose EV based off the I.D. BUZZ concept. This EV will be a series-production version of the I.D. CROZZ SUV concept that was first shown at the North American International Auto Show last year. This vehicle will have the interior space of a midsize SUV in the footprint of a compact SUV. Volkswagen of America will also offer a multi-purpose EV based off the I.D. BUZZ concept.
The Tennessee factory (along with the other new facilities) will produce EVs using Volkswagen's modular electric toolkit chassis, or MEB, introduced by the company in 2016. The MEB is a flexible modular system -- really a matrix of common parts -- for producing electric vehicles that VW says make it more efficient and cost-effective. Electric vehicle production at the Tennessee site will begin in 2022. However, Volkswagen of America says it will offer the first EV based on the MEB platform to customers in 2020.This EV will be a series-production version of the I.D. CROZZ SUV concept that was first shown at the North American International Auto Show last year. This vehicle will have the interior space of a midsize SUV in the footprint of a compact SUV. Volkswagen of America will also offer a multi-purpose EV based off the I.D. BUZZ concept. This EV will be a series-production version of the I.D. CROZZ SUV concept that was first shown at the North American International Auto Show last year. This vehicle will have the interior space of a midsize SUV in the footprint of a compact SUV. Volkswagen of America will also offer a multi-purpose EV based off the I.D. BUZZ concept.
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Lest we forget this was forced upon them by DieselGate.
So what? At least they are doing it. The more important question is: Will Trump do his utmost to prevent this being that he hates German car companies and considers elections unpatriotic, or will he take credit for it? Maybe he'll be so conflicted his brain will panic and reboot?
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The first option, I think.... I anticipate that there are going to be taxes thrown onto electric cars, regardless of where they are made, that are going to make them increasingly unattractive to would-be purchasers.
I'd have voted for the third option, but it makes an assumption that Trump has a brain.
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taxes on electrics are annoying, but not a nightmare. For the places that already implement alternate fuel taxes you just use an annual sticker tax: take the high end of "typical" annual mileage, divide by an assumed equivalent 5mpg and multiply by your gasoline tax rate. I'm paying more in alternate fuel tax for one EV than I did for the whole family fleet of ICE vehicles.
Don't worry your little head, the tax man knows how to turn everything into an increased revenue opportunity.
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and the rates can be manipulated if efficiency goes up in order to keep the revenue stream roughly the same
You obviously don't live in the US. Around here, the rates can't ever go up. For any reason. Why? Because politics, and some incredible short-sightedness where the original tax wasn't even pegged to inflation.
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Unlike pay-per-mile, it doesn't involve massive invasions of what little privacy we have left.
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There's an almost yearly MOT anyway, they already record the mileage, they can just connect tax to that.
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Why would Putin prefer "energy-independent" Trump over "don't-drill" Hillary? He wouldn't.
I hope, for your sake, that you don't believe your BS.
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Ask yourself why would VW decide to create 1000 more jobs in TN instead of Germany or perhaps California?
No Unions and benefits are much cheaper for companies since they can be skimped upon. Plus pay is less due to a low cost of living compared to CA/Germany.
Re:Impetus (Score:4, Interesting)
Ask yourself why would VW decide to create 1000 more jobs in TN instead of Germany or perhaps California?
No Unions and benefits are much cheaper for companies since they can be skimped upon. Plus pay is less due to a low cost of living compared to CA/Germany.
There is a substantial car manufacturing base in the area already. Nissan makes the Leaf there, so there's a decent educated market already in existence. Land is cheap there, it's easy for them to expand, and I bet the state of TN gave them a small to medium sized tax break for expanding there.
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So what? At least they are doing it.
Yeah, now they'll lie about how long the batteries last
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Every human being experiences the passage of time. Knowing exactly what your vehicle emissions are, however, is not possible unless you have specialized equipment for measuring it.
And at least generally speaking, one only ever lies about something that they have a reason to think the lie will be believed.
If one can obviously and very readily disprove a claim, it is unlikely that they would make the claim in the first place.
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So what? At least they are doing it
I'm my experience, forcing a person or corporation to do something they would not have otherwise done will lead to a half-assed attempt so this is unlikely to be a successful venture.
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The EU had a tariff on US manufactured cars. (IIRC it was 19%.) He brought up US tariffs (IIRC it was 3%) to EU levels. German car manufacturers then went to the EU and requested a drop in EU tariffs on US cars.
This was not "anti-German" now was it?
More manufacturing jobs! (Score:2)
I would love to move to Chattanooga, TN! It does seem that the U.S. is in somewhat of a manufacturing boom of late. Hopefully they aren't or haven't been given too many incentives. The privilege of being closer to the consumer should be worth it from a competitiveness perspective. VW makes a great product.
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Chattanooga is a touristy town, great views too. Last time I was there they had free electric buses. Gigabit fiber is also available. Logistically, it would have made more sense to build near Jackson. I-40 has a LOT of curves near there. Maybe they're using trains. Spring Hill used to build Saturn and Smyrna is a major plant for Nissan. There's a *lot* of auto manufacturing already in TN.
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You're right about auto plants being a big deal here. The combination of low taxes (there is no state income tax) and relatively cheap real estate have helped us attract a lot of business.
That Saturn plant is still open and making the Cadillac XT4 and GMC Acadias. The bigger story is all of the suppliers for those plants. We've got over 800 parts manufacturing facilities that make stuff to go into those and other vehicles.
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It does seem that the U.S. is in somewhat of a manufacturing boom of late.
Does it? It would appear as though the entire car industry across the globe is just shuffling people around for the inevitable EV switch.
VW used to make a great product.
FTFY. I wouldn't touch VW with a 10foot pole and that has nothing to do with the diesel scandal. Their cars haven't been great or even deserving of the title "good" for a while now. German (or rather VW group specifically) manufacturing has gone massively downhill.
VW shouldn't bother (Score:1, Funny)
VW shouldn't even bother adding this $800 billion factory.
In a couple of years Tesla will be the only car company that matters.
Tesla is producing over 0.1% percent of the all automobiles today. Within three years, Tesla may hit 0.2% market share. VW shouldn't even try to compete, with their measly 8%.
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A lot of people are getting excited about the new VW EVs because there are rumours that they will be extremely cheap. Like 20k Euro cheap, with a 200+ mile range. Personally I'm quite sceptical of that, I don't think they can get the battery cost down far enough, but we shall see. Maybe they can save money by making the cars extremely basic in other ways.
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A lot of people are getting excited about the new VW EVs because there are rumours that they will be extremely cheap. Like 20k Euro cheap, with a 200+ mile range. Personally I'm quite sceptical of that, I don't think they can get the battery cost down far enough, but we shall see. Maybe they can save money by making the cars extremely basic in other ways.
They got the battery cost down by using standard AAs. The first 200 miles if free, after that it's $1000 for your next set of batteries for another couple hundred miles. For an extra $30,000 you can upgrade to rechargeable batteries.
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The seminal SNL sketch on this:
https://www.metatube.com/en/vi... [metatube.com]
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That was great. I probably should have been a writer there.
Model X Is almost as heavy as a Hummer (Score:2)
I wouldn't be TOO surprised. The cost per range has a lot to do with the weight. The Model X weighs about as much as a Hummer H2. The Model S curb weight is in mid-sized SUV territory. If Volkswagen keeps the weight down, that gives them range.
My other post this morning is for you (Score:2)
https://slashdot.org/comments.... [slashdot.org]
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A large roughly humanoid Orange thing with no brain, currently US President.
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Who is going to buy all those EVs?
People who own their own home, don't have to drive 300kms every day, and are in the market for new cars? EVs have a ton of advantages over ICE cars. To date they've been held back by their disadvantages--range, price, and charging infrastructure availability.
The public charging network is basically at a point where you can find a charger wherever you go and daily charging can be done by people who own their own homes. It'll still be a little while before apartment dwellers have the infrastructure for daily
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I've priced out adding a 200v outlet in the back of my garage already. Not in the market for another year or two, but it's definitely on the horizon. Our typical day is about 20 miles of city driving. That's like $1 worth of electricity. Even with our stupidly, unsustainably low gas prices around $2/gallon, that's still half the cost. Factor in the almost total lack of maintenance, and adding that 200v outlet pays for itself in just a couple of years.
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NICE! (Score:1)
Ferret