Volkswagen Expands Chattanooga Site, Adds EV Lab

The Chattanooga plant will become VW’s North American center for electric vehicles.

Volkswagen has already begun (in November 2019) expanding its Chattanooga factory in Tennessee to handle MEB-based electric vehicle production, but assembling EVs is not the only goal.

The Chattanooga plant will become a North American center for electric vehicles, including engineering of new models and research in the newly announced “state-of-the-art high-voltage laboratory”, which should be ready in Spring 2021.

Volkswagen‘s Engineering and Planning Center will be able to develop and test electric vehicle cells and battery packs.

“It will feature cutting-edge equipment, including pressure testers, explosion-rated climate chambers and – perhaps the most unique – a custom multi-axis shaker table (MAST), which is designed to test the integrity of vehicle components in some of the roughest conditions they might face on the road.

Most automotive labs have MASTs, but almost none were designed for electric vehicle batteries. EV battery packs are the largest and heaviest component in an EV, typically weighing hundreds of pounds and running the width of the vehicle.”

Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee