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VW investing $800M to build electric cars in Tennessee from 2022

The expansion at VW's Chattanooga plant will add 1,000 jobs.

vw-id-crozz-ii-ft-promo

VW will start building the ID Crozz EV in Tennessee from 2022.

Volkswagen

on Monday confirmed the location of its new North American electric-car plant: Chattanooga, Tennessee. Rather than building a new factory, VW will launch an $800 million expansion of its existing Chattanooga plant, which currently builds the and , will allow VW to build future EVs on the company's MEB modular platform.

The first EV to be built in Chattanooga will be the ID Crozz electric crossover, which will roll off the line of the Chattanooga plant in 2022. VW also plans to sell the ID Buzz, a modern-day interpretation of the classic microbus, in North America. VW plans to sell 1 million electric cars globally by 2025, and plans to open eight MEB production locations globally by 2022.

"The US is one of the most important locations for us and producing electric cars in Chattanooga is a key part of our growth strategy in North America," Herbert Diess, Volkswagen CEO, said in a statement.

The first VW electric car to launch on the MEB platform will be the ID hatchback, which is roughly Golf-sized. It'll start production in Germany by the end of this year, but will not be sold in the US.

Volkswagen's ID Crozz looks electrifying in red

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Jake Holmes Reviews Editor
While studying traditional news journalism in college, Jake realized he was smitten by all things automotive and wound up with an internship at Car and Driver. That led to a career writing news, review and feature stories about all things automotive at Automobile Magazine, most recently at Motor1. When he's not driving, fixing or talking about cars, he's most often found on a bicycle.
Jake Holmes
While studying traditional news journalism in college, Jake realized he was smitten by all things automotive and wound up with an internship at Car and Driver. That led to a career writing news, review and feature stories about all things automotive at Automobile Magazine, most recently at Motor1. When he's not driving, fixing or talking about cars, he's most often found on a bicycle.

Article updated on January 14, 2019 at 7:49 AM PST

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Jake Holmes Reviews Editor
While studying traditional news journalism in college, Jake realized he was smitten by all things automotive and wound up with an internship at Car and Driver. That led to a career writing news, review and feature stories about all things automotive at Automobile Magazine, most recently at Motor1. When he's not driving, fixing or talking about cars, he's most often found on a bicycle.
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