The current generation North American Volkswagen Passat is known since 2012 model year. However, this family sedan has a long history behind it; it is produced by the German manufacturer Volkswagen AG since 1973.
Production
The Volkswagen Passat that is sold in North America, South Korea, the Middle East, and China differs from the European version. It is built at two assembly plants: Volkswagen Chattanooga Assembly Plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee and SAIC Volkswagen plant in Nanjing, China. The facility in Chattanooga was built specially for Passat’s assembly in April 2011.
Volkswagen Chattanooga Assembly Plant
The plant was opened in April 2011 with a projected annual production of 150,000 vehicles. Currently, it employs around 2,000 employees and assembles only the Volkswagen Passat for North America, South Korea, and the Middle East. The plant produces 85% of the Passat’s content and about the same percentage of the content come from North American Free Trade Agreement countries.
The entire facility includes approximately 1,900,000 square feet and is constructed on a 1,400 acres parcel of the 6,000-acre Enterprise South Industrial Park. It includes a body shop, a paint shop, an assembly facility, a Market Delivery Options (MDO) building, a technical testing center, an employee training facility with classrooms, an apprentice-training school and a full-size practice paint booth, a supplier park for eight companies, and a 32,000-square-foot healthcare center with a gym, childcare facilities, and medical services.
Volkswagen has preliminary plans for a second phase that would increase capacity to 592,000 vehicles a year.
2016 VW Passat
This year’s North American model continues the direction taken in 2012 while the European model received a major upgrade to the eight generation. The starting MSRP for the 2016 Volkswagen Passat is $22,440.