Scott Keogh, VW, in San Francisco, California, September 18, 2018.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | beautiful pictures
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Volkswagen is “actively” looking to establish new battery and assembly facilities in the US, Volkswagen US CEO Scott Keogh told CNBC on Wednesday.
Keogh declined to discuss potential locations for such activities. The German automaker’s electrification efforts are currently located in Tennessee, including local production of the EV VW ID.4 crossover, which is expected to begin later this year.
“We are actively in the process of looking at another manufacturing facility and also looking at a battery facility,” Keogh said in an interview.
A spokesman for the company said Volkswagen was still discussing and evaluating its options and no decisions had been made yet.
Such facilities, whether new or expanded, would mean an important decision and potentially billions of dollars in new investments for VW, which has North American assembly plants in Tennessee and Mexico.
Any investment would follow similar moves by other companies to increase electric vehicle production in the US – a key goal of the Biden administration.
The potential for new VW electric vehicle facilities in the US has been previously reported by the European press.
Keogh’s comments follow the opening of the German carmaker’s new $22 million electric vehicle battery laboratory, located near the only US assembly plant in Chattanooga. This is part of a $7.1 billion commitment to advance electric vehicle efforts in North America.
The new 32,000-square-foot battery lab will test and optimize electric vehicle batteries for the US market. This is one of four such facilities that VW has announced globally.
