VW midsize crossover production headed for Chattanooga

Fri, 10 Jan 2014

Potential labor woes aside, it looks like Volkswagen's Chattanooga, TN factory must have done something that impressed the bosses in Germany, because it sounds like the three-year-old factory is set to score a second model.

The factory currently builds the Passat, and has been in the running alongside VW's Puebla, Mexico factory to build a new crossover vehicle, likely based on the CrossBlue Concept. According to Bloomberg, a pair of unnamed sources have confirmed that Chattanooga is the favorite ahead of an official announcement.

When last we heard about the CrossBlue Concept, word was that a production decision had been delayed over concerns about the three-row CUV's business case. That August 2013 story claimed that a decision regarding the CrossBlue would be pushed back until early in 2014, which means we're ripe for some sort of news, whether good or bad.

Us? We'd be a little shocked if VW didn't pull the trigger on a CrossBlue-sized utility sooner rather than later. After all, the automaker has hugely ambitious volume targets that are slipping away, the CUV market is red hot, and the two-row Tiguan is aging (and a bit too expensive) and the five-seat Touareg is a premium-priced offering. In other words, there's a hole in the company's lineup big enough to drive a CrossBlue-shaped truck through.

By Brandon Turkus