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VW joins Nissan in Tennessee
Aerial photo of the new VW site in Chattanooga, TN.VW picked Tennessee 25 years after Nissan Motor Co. became the first foreign automaker in the South at Smyrna, a Nashville suburb.
The 1,350-acre site at Enterprise South Industrial Park near interstates 75 and 24 between Nashville and Atlanta has long been seeking an auto assembly plant.
Chattanooga previously lost out on the $1.3 billion Toyota Motor Corp. plant that is being built near Tupelo, Miss., and the $1.2 billion Kia Motors Corp. plant that went to West Point, Ga.
"I know this announcement has been a long time coming," VW of America CEO Jacoby told the Chattanooga audience.
Volkswagen executives said the new plant in the U.S., in addition to factories in India and Russia, is part of the company's strategy to become the world's No. 2 automaker.
Worker pool main attraction
Also, the South offers ample highway and rail connections and hundreds of existing suppliers, but its main attraction is a pool of workers who have shown at other European and Asian assembly plants that they can live without the United Auto Workers union. (YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!! My favorite part of this whole article!! Ask me about it sometime if you dare, because I'll rip your ears off about the damned UAW!!!!!!!!!)
Kristine Moroskey, a United Auto Workers spokeswoman, declined comment Tuesday about the VW plant.
Volkswagen spokeswoman Jill Bratina said in a statement that the company "has both union and nonunion plants and this decision is made by our employees. In both the union and nonunion facilities Volkswagen prides itself on a collaborative relationship with our employees."
Volkswagen earlier this year relocated its North American headquarters from Auburn Hills to northern Virginia.
Volkswagen's only other North American plant is in Puebla, Mexico. The company closed its last U.S. production facility near Pittsburgh in 1988.
Foreign auto assembly plants closest to Chattanooga are Honda in Lincoln, Ala.; the plant Kia Motors Corp. is building at West Point, Ga., and Nissan at Smyrna, all about 100 miles away. Tennessee is also corporate home to Nissan North America, which dedicates a new headquarters July 22 in the Nashville suburb of Franklin.
Volkswagen shares rose 3.98 euros, or 2.3 percent, to 174.23 euros in Frankfurt on Tuesday. The stock has gained 12 percent this year, valuing the company at 59.8 billion euros ($95.2 billion).
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My head has been spinning ever since this news of a VW factory coming to the U.S. broke yesterday! This was BIG NEWS in Ashley world! I mean, HEADLINER!!!! I know I'm posting very similar posts on here (sorry!), but I want to show every angle and every bit of information that's out there!
What to do, oh what to do?!?! Everything is coming together in a close proximity, it makes my heart pound and my face smile so widely it looks like I slept with a hanger in my mouth. But bless me for my life has certainly been lucky to just fall into place!
:)
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