CHATTANOOGA, TN—Volkswagen is bringing on about 380 more workers for its assembly plant here as it ramps up assembly for its new Atlas Cross Sport SUV and refreshes its Atlas SUV. The added jobs are expected to put the company past the 4,000-employee mark.
On-site interviews began Jan. 9 at the plant’s conference center.
The five-seat Atlas Cross Sport, which has two rows of seats instead of the three inside the Atlas SUV on which it’s based, is seen by VW as a key volume seller.
Tom du Plessis, who heads VW operations in Chattanooga, said that while the plant was to have assembled about 107,000 vehicles in 2019, that number is expected to jump to 185,000 in 2020. That includes the updated Passat sedan, the Atlas SUV and Atlas Cross Sport SUV.
Hourly pay ranges from $14 per hour to $16 per hour with another $1.50 per hour for night shift.
Last year, VW started work on an $800 million expansion at the plant to make an all-electric SUV by 2022. The expansion includes a 564,000-square-foot addition to the body shop, where Volkswagen will build both internal combustion engine and electric vehicles on the same assembly line.In addition, the company intends to build a 198,000–square-foot plant for the assembly of battery packs for electric vehicles at the Chattanooga site.
