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VW Investing $800 Million In Tennessee Factory To Make Next-Gen Electric Vehicles (techcrunch.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the throw-it-on-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks dept.

Volkswagen will spend $800 million to expand a U.S. factory that will produce the automaker's next generation of electric vehicles. "The factory in Chattanooga, Tenn. will be the company's North American base for manufacturing electric vehicles," reports TechCrunch. "The expansion is expected to create 1,000 jobs at the plant." From the report: VW's Chattanooga expansion is just a piece of the automaker's broader plan to move away from diesel in the wake of the emissions cheating scandal that erupted in 2015. Globally, VW Group plans to commit almost $50 billion through 2023 toward the development and production of electric vehicles and digital services. The Volkswagen brand (so not including its Audi or Porsche brands) alone has forecasted selling 150,000 EVs by 2020 worldwide, increasing that number to 1 million by 2025.

The Tennessee factory (along with the other new facilities) will produce EVs using Volkswagen's modular electric toolkit chassis, or MEB, introduced by the company in 2016. The MEB is a flexible modular system -- really a matrix of common parts -- for producing electric vehicles that VW says make it more efficient and cost-effective. Electric vehicle production at the Tennessee site will begin in 2022. However, Volkswagen of America says it will offer the first EV based on the MEB platform to customers in 2020.This EV will be a series-production version of the I.D. CROZZ SUV concept that was first shown at the North American International Auto Show last year. This vehicle will have the interior space of a midsize SUV in the footprint of a compact SUV. Volkswagen of America will also offer a multi-purpose EV based off the I.D. BUZZ concept. This EV will be a series-production version of the I.D. CROZZ SUV concept that was first shown at the North American International Auto Show last year. This vehicle will have the interior space of a midsize SUV in the footprint of a compact SUV. Volkswagen of America will also offer a multi-purpose EV based off the I.D. BUZZ concept.

89 comments

  1. Impetus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Lest we forget this was forced upon them by DieselGate.

    1. Re:Impetus by Freischutz · · Score: 0

      Lest we forget this was forced upon them by DieselGate.

      So what? At least they are doing it. The more important question is: Will Trump do his utmost to prevent this being that he hates German car companies and considers elections unpatriotic, or will he take credit for it? Maybe he'll be so conflicted his brain will panic and reboot?

    2. Re:Impetus by mark-t · · Score: 1

      The first option, I think.... I anticipate that there are going to be taxes thrown onto electric cars, regardless of where they are made, that are going to make them increasingly unattractive to would-be purchasers.

      I'd have voted for the third option, but it makes an assumption that Trump has a brain.

      --
      File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
    3. Re: Impetus by msrnash · · Score: 0

      Dont let TRUMP claim jobs create, that left Obama recovery we only now see affect Obama powerful recovery ensue without racism but the great leadership we had no longer! TRUMP TRAITOR be expose for Russian he really is, KGB not let him sell the competitive european car only Russian, Cuban, American etc.

    4. Re: Impetus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's literally the first sentence of the article, and is quoted in the summary. But thanks for making sure everyone knows, your Virtue Signaling will be well rewarded.

    5. Re:Impetus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

      Wow, such a display of TDS! Trump likes TN, he has visited the state often, he won the state easily, the people of the state, including myself, are big supporters of Trump, I was proud to vote for the guy in both the primary and general elections. In case you did not notice, Trump has been going around making trade deal to help the US, and US based employees, contrary to the previous administration. There are more Americans working today than at any previous time in history. Ask yourself why would VW decide to create 1000 more jobs in TN instead of Germany or perhaps California?

    6. Re:Impetus by fustakrakich · · Score: 1, Insightful

      So what? At least they are doing it.

      Yeah, now they'll lie about how long the batteries last

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    7. Re: Impetus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It totally changed my opinion of the Anonymous Coward. Thanks for seeing through his lies.

    8. Re:Impetus by jmccue · · Score: 1

      Ask yourself why would VW decide to create 1000 more jobs in TN instead of Germany or perhaps California?

      No Unions and benefits are much cheaper for companies since they can be skimped upon. Plus pay is less due to a low cost of living compared to CA/Germany.

    9. Re:Impetus by mark-t · · Score: 1

      Every human being experiences the passage of time. Knowing exactly what your vehicle emissions are, however, is not possible unless you have specialized equipment for measuring it.

      And at least generally speaking, one only ever lies about something that they have a reason to think the lie will be believed.

      If one can obviously and very readily disprove a claim, it is unlikely that they would make the claim in the first place.

      --
      File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
    10. Re:Impetus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think Trump will go down as the greatest president ever. Companies are flowing in from all sides.

    11. Re:Impetus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The VW plant in Chattanooga is not unionized.

      Perversely, VW themselves invited the UAW in, but the local government lobbied hard against unionization and the vote went againt the UAW.

      VW would rather deal with the union to have a centralized, organized negotiation point.

    12. Re:Impetus by thermopile · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Ask yourself why would VW decide to create 1000 more jobs in TN instead of Germany or perhaps California?

      No Unions and benefits are much cheaper for companies since they can be skimped upon. Plus pay is less due to a low cost of living compared to CA/Germany.

      There is a substantial car manufacturing base in the area already. Nissan makes the Leaf there, so there's a decent educated market already in existence. Land is cheap there, it's easy for them to expand, and I bet the state of TN gave them a small to medium sized tax break for expanding there.

      --

      "Diplomacy is something you do until you find a rock." --Richard Pound

    13. Re: Impetus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hipster yuppies? Do you know any of the people working at that plant? Hipster yuppies my ass. Maybe in Pilot Hall.

      Also $14/hr is the starting wage for Aerotek goobers. Within a year they'll be making $16.50/hr and they brought back the bonus, only now it's performance-based rather than a fixed 6% like the old bonus system. Night shift nets you another $1.50/hr. Pretty good pay for Chattanowhere (or NoogaVegas, depending on whom you ask).

      Just three years ago, the starting pay was only $11/hr for Aerotekies.

      The people getting screwed are the full timers. Their pay scale hasn't changed since 2010. Now that they have some people topped out at $23.25, VW is paying out provisional bonuses to their 7-year+ employees to keep them content instead of moving the wage scale.

    14. Re:Impetus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      trump lives rent free in your head

    15. Re: Impetus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Totally delusional, serious case of TDS in this one.

    16. Re:Impetus by froggyjojodaddy · · Score: 1

      So what? At least they are doing it

      I'm my experience, forcing a person or corporation to do something they would not have otherwise done will lead to a half-assed attempt so this is unlikely to be a successful venture.

    17. Re:Impetus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'd have voted for the third option, but it makes an assumption that Trump has a brain.

      Trump has more brains than you'll ever have, more money than you'll ever have, more women than you'll ever have (including the most gorgeous woman, by far, who has ever been a First Lady).

      He's also the President. Who are you? You're nothing (or less).

    18. Re:Impetus by demonlapin · · Score: 1

      The taxes on electric cars are going to be a nightmare. Gasoline taxes are really, really simple, and have a direct relationship with how much you drive. They are unobtrusive (nobody needs to read your odometer), and the rates can be manipulated if efficiency goes up in order to keep the revenue stream roughly the same. Electric? I think the best idea I've heard of is taxing tires, but those are such an infrequent expense that putting 60k miles of tax on four tires is going to make them insanely expensive. At least gasoline tax is spread out over the time you use the car.

    19. Re:Impetus by GLMDesigns · · Score: 1

      What? You know there are many things to disagree with Trump on without making straw-man arguments.

      The EU had a tariff on US manufactured cars. (IIRC it was 19%.) He brought up US tariffs (IIRC it was 3%) to EU levels. German car manufacturers then went to the EU and requested a drop in EU tariffs on US cars.

      This was not "anti-German" now was it?

      --
      If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
      Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
    20. Re: Impetus by GLMDesigns · · Score: 1

      Ha!

      Why would Putin prefer "energy-independent" Trump over "don't-drill" Hillary? He wouldn't.

      I hope, for your sake, that you don't believe your BS.

      --
      If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
      Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
    21. Re:Impetus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      taxes on electrics are annoying, but not a nightmare. For the places that already implement alternate fuel taxes you just use an annual sticker tax: take the high end of "typical" annual mileage, divide by an assumed equivalent 5mpg and multiply by your gasoline tax rate. I'm paying more in alternate fuel tax for one EV than I did for the whole family fleet of ICE vehicles.

      Don't worry your little head, the tax man knows how to turn everything into an increased revenue opportunity.

    22. Re:Impetus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nissan is not in the area. Smyrna is a couple of hours away and you have to travel up Signal or Monteagle to get from one place to another.

      That said, yes, in fact, they were given the land for the whole factory.

      Which granted was an abandoned Ammo factory, but still...

    23. Re: Impetus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This has nothing to do with Dieselgate. It is simply logistically convenient to produce cars locally in major markets. Tennessee also happens to be relatively cheap compared to domestic factories.

    24. Re:Impetus by apoc.famine · · Score: 1

      and the rates can be manipulated if efficiency goes up in order to keep the revenue stream roughly the same

      You obviously don't live in the US. Around here, the rates can't ever go up. For any reason. Why? Because politics, and some incredible short-sightedness where the original tax wasn't even pegged to inflation.

      --
      Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
    25. Re:Impetus by mark-t · · Score: 1

      As to the first point, only if by brains you mean ego, as for the second and third points, one woman is plenty for me, thanks, and while I won't say I couldn't use more money than I currently have, I have more productive ways to spend my time than being in envy of those who might be financially better off than I am.

      --
      File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
    26. Re:Impetus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because labour, land and electricity are much, much cheaper in Tennessee than in Germany or California.

    27. Re:Impetus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Per WTO rules, the EU has a 10% tariff on cars from countries it does not have a trade agreement concerning cars with (which include the US). It is typically 0% for countries with which it has an agreement. The US has a 2.5% tarriff on some categories of cars and 25% for others (including the large SUVs that are popular in the US) when imported from the EU.

      The EU has for decades tried to reach a 0% both ways deal with the US, but the US have always refused, because the 25% tarriff is what keeps their car industry afloat. Now Trump threatened to raise tarriffs for all car models to 25% unilaterally, which would of course cause retaliatory tarriffs. This would harm German car makers in two ways: their EU-built cars would become more expensive in the US and their US-built cars would become more expensive in Europe. Therefore, they reaffirmed their support for abolishing tarriffs both ways.

    28. Re:Impetus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Electricity will simply be taxed more than today to make up for lost fuel taxes. Annual road tax and new car tax will probably also be raised.

    29. Re:Impetus by I75BJC · · Score: 1

      Taxes on Tires! I don't think so! The Law of Unintended Consequences will hit that one hard. How will you handle Used Tires? Will a National Tire Association be born? (You can have my used tire when you pry out of my cold, dead hands?) The minority community will be hard hit by in rise in prices of used tires. And what would how high would the tax be -- $1K per new tire? Will there be a difference for a specialty tire for a car never driven on public roads? Or low mileage tires? Or high mileage tires? I drive 500 miles a month -- will I have to pay the same tax as the driver who drives 2,000 miles a month? The tax on business vehicles? The tax on over-the-road truck tires? What about the recapped tires? What about damaged before End-Of-Life tires? What about the price rise of goods because the transportation cost go through the roof? Are you going to pay more for your pizza? Beer? Girlfriend? This Tax on Tires idea has more problems than pay per mile.

    30. Re:Impetus by WolfWithoutAClause · · Score: 1

      There's an almost yearly MOT anyway, they already record the mileage, they can just connect tax to that.

      --

      -WolfWithoutAClause

      "Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"
    31. Re:Impetus by demonlapin · · Score: 1

      Tires are pretty predictable in terms of lifespan. There are exceptions, as you note, but the government DGAF about that, so eat it, sucker.

      Unlike pay-per-mile, it doesn't involve massive invasions of what little privacy we have left.

    32. Re:Impetus by demonlapin · · Score: 1

      Depends on where you live. I haven't reported my mileage to any government, ever, except at a vehicle sale. No inspections. If you want to dig through the records of every oil change place in town, have fun.

    33. Re: Impetus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How would you split the kilometres since the last MoT by country?

    34. Re:Impetus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As to the first point ...

      Thank you for proving all my points. Now, snowflake, go back to one woman is plenty for me (i.e., mommy) and leave the rest of us alone.

  2. More manufacturing jobs! by PKI+Champion · · Score: 2

    I would love to move to Chattanooga, TN! It does seem that the U.S. is in somewhat of a manufacturing boom of late. Hopefully they aren't or haven't been given too many incentives. The privilege of being closer to the consumer should be worth it from a competitiveness perspective. VW makes a great product.

    1. Re:More manufacturing jobs! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Chattanooga is a touristy town, great views too. Last time I was there they had free electric buses. Gigabit fiber is also available. Logistically, it would have made more sense to build near Jackson. I-40 has a LOT of curves near there. Maybe they're using trains. Spring Hill used to build Saturn and Smyrna is a major plant for Nissan. There's a *lot* of auto manufacturing already in TN.

    2. Re:More manufacturing jobs! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would also think it would be great if VW started a German style apprenticeship system as they (iirc?) have done in other plant(s) as well.
      This would offer possibilities for people to learn a trade without the high costs of having to attend a college.

    3. Re:More manufacturing jobs! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They do indeed have trains shipping some autos out of the lot courtesy of Wallenius Willhelmsen. Others are loaded onto trucks.

    4. Re:More manufacturing jobs! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Chattanooga plant has a mechatronics program. They also have an engineering intern program. There aren't that many slots available, though.

    5. Re:More manufacturing jobs! by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      It does seem that the U.S. is in somewhat of a manufacturing boom of late.

      Does it? It would appear as though the entire car industry across the globe is just shuffling people around for the inevitable EV switch.

      VW used to make a great product.

      FTFY. I wouldn't touch VW with a 10foot pole and that has nothing to do with the diesel scandal. Their cars haven't been great or even deserving of the title "good" for a while now. German (or rather VW group specifically) manufacturing has gone massively downhill.

    6. Re:More manufacturing jobs! by ElizabethGreene · · Score: 2

      You're right about auto plants being a big deal here. The combination of low taxes (there is no state income tax) and relatively cheap real estate have helped us attract a lot of business.

      That Saturn plant is still open and making the Cadillac XT4 and GMC Acadias. The bigger story is all of the suppliers for those plants. We've got over 800 parts manufacturing facilities that make stuff to go into those and other vehicles.

    7. Re: More manufacturing jobs! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yet VW Group products are still more reliable than most of the competition. Only Daimler, BMW and Toyota are competitive in terms of reliability and durability.

    8. Re:More manufacturing jobs! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Closer to the consumer? Building electric cars in the part of the nation where of "rolling coal" is a thing, and where they barricade superchargers with their pickup trucks and then taunt and threaten Tesla owners. Closer to those consumers... the sort of people who think electric cars are communism and make the baby Jesus cry?

      Laughable. This is about cheap labor in a regressive state that makes it easy to abuse workers and deny them recompense; nothing more, and nothing to be celebrated.

  3. It depends. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If it's a success in the context of the current sentence, he was for it. If it was a failure or he's in a bad mood unrelated, it was a dumb idea and/or execution, boy those guys are idiots am I right? This is Trumpism. Wind blows it.

  4. VW shouldn't bother by raymorris · · Score: 1, Funny

    VW shouldn't even bother adding this $800 billion factory.
    In a couple of years Tesla will be the only car company that matters.

    Tesla is producing over 0.1% percent of the all automobiles today. Within three years, Tesla may hit 0.2% market share. VW shouldn't even try to compete, with their measly 8%.

    1. Re:VW shouldn't bother by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      IKR? Didn't VW lose enough money on Diesel Gate to teach them a lesson not to do business in the USSA? Guess not. Cue the Musk Twitter calling out a list of pedo guys at VW.

    2. Re:VW shouldn't bother by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      A lot of people are getting excited about the new VW EVs because there are rumours that they will be extremely cheap. Like 20k Euro cheap, with a 200+ mile range. Personally I'm quite sceptical of that, I don't think they can get the battery cost down far enough, but we shall see. Maybe they can save money by making the cars extremely basic in other ways.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    3. Re:VW shouldn't bother by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 2

      A lot of people are getting excited about the new VW EVs because there are rumours that they will be extremely cheap. Like 20k Euro cheap, with a 200+ mile range. Personally I'm quite sceptical of that, I don't think they can get the battery cost down far enough, but we shall see. Maybe they can save money by making the cars extremely basic in other ways.

      They got the battery cost down by using standard AAs. The first 200 miles if free, after that it's $1000 for your next set of batteries for another couple hundred miles. For an extra $30,000 you can upgrade to rechargeable batteries.

      --
      Do you have ESP?
    4. Re:VW shouldn't bother by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A lot of people are getting excited about the new VW EVs

      A lot of people were hopping up and down excited about how super clean their diesel cars were too. I had 3 of them across the street and next to me. Until they discovered they were lied to. Turns out the neighbors had been polluting more than my old truck for years. While being all smug to me at almost south park levels. Funny that, huh?

    5. Re: VW shouldn't bother by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So you are claiming that the ICCT, ADAC, Emissions Analytics and the motor vehicle authorities in several countries are all lying and making up numbers some unknown reason? They all agree VWs current diesels are among the cleanest available.

    6. Re:VW shouldn't bother by samwichse · · Score: 1

      The seminal SNL sketch on this:

      https://www.metatube.com/en/vi...

    7. Re:VW shouldn't bother by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 1

      That was great. I probably should have been a writer there.

      --
      Do you have ESP?
  5. Another front for dumping toxic waste? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    VW has tons of it to unload, and what better way to get back at the US for trying to punish them for cheating on their IC cars combustion pollution and dumping into the air?

  6. Re:fdsafdsafsad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    all this electric cars and the left is not fond of coal or nuclear, and we know that air will not work as hard as they try to portray it. delusional

    I don't know who this left is; this left that you think doesn't like nuclear.

    If you want to see left you'll need to look somewhere else. The Dems are hardly left, but admitting that doesn't fit the narrative that Breitbart and Faux News have been spoon feeding you ignoramuses.

    I didn't vote for Twitler. I'd say I'm economically conservative. And I have no problem, per se, with nuclear.

    And I suspect that I'm pretty much like nearly everyone else who didn't vote for Twitler.

  7. Bad location? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh, I'm sure the coal rolling, charger icing, bro truck folks will LOVE this.

    https://electrek.co/2019/01/01/tesla-pickup-truck-drivers-supercharger-protest/

  8. proven cheaters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How can we ever trust them not to cheat on their EV emissions tests?

  9. so kind of like by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Before the oil mafias changed everything and forced oil to be the main source of energy?

  10. Re: fdsafdsafsad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hahha, point out to 2 remaining news sources that arent from the old bolshevik propaganda arms

  11. customers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who is going to buy all those EVs?

    1. Re:customers? by hipp5 · · Score: 2

      Who is going to buy all those EVs?

      People who own their own home, don't have to drive 300kms every day, and are in the market for new cars? EVs have a ton of advantages over ICE cars. To date they've been held back by their disadvantages--range, price, and charging infrastructure availability.

      The public charging network is basically at a point where you can find a charger wherever you go and daily charging can be done by people who own their own homes. It'll still be a little while before apartment dwellers have the infrastructure for daily charging at home.

      With the most recent model years range has basically been solved for a good chunk of the population's driving habits (yes, yes, you're an edge case for whom an electric vehicle could nevvvvvvvvvver work; spare me the anecdotal data).

      And now it's just down to cost. Which is looking like it's on the way down.

      Literally all my friends have an EV on their radar as a possible next car. And no, we're not a bunch of marxist lefties. EVs are just starting to seem like a really nice option.

    2. Re:customers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Agreed. We need a single standard of charger though. I don't mind breaking even on my 1st EV if the charger I'm buying is likely to be permanent, and therefore an upgrade to my home.

    3. Re:customers? by apoc.famine · · Score: 1

      I've priced out adding a 200v outlet in the back of my garage already. Not in the market for another year or two, but it's definitely on the horizon. Our typical day is about 20 miles of city driving. That's like $1 worth of electricity. Even with our stupidly, unsustainably low gas prices around $2/gallon, that's still half the cost. Factor in the almost total lack of maintenance, and adding that 200v outlet pays for itself in just a couple of years.

      --
      Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
    4. Re:customers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've priced out adding a 200v outlet in the back of my garage already. Not in the market for another year or two, but it's definitely on the horizon. Our typical day is about 20 miles of city driving. That's like $1 worth of electricity. Even with our stupidly, unsustainably low gas prices around $2/gallon, that's still half the cost. Factor in the almost total lack of maintenance, and adding that 200v outlet pays for itself in just a couple of years.

      What you forget though, is the complexity. I have an old truck and my wife had a Volt. Plugged in every night, full charge every morning, and her usage patterns rarely needed to burn any gas. I got the 240V 50A outlet in the garage for shared use with my welding machine too. Then, the fun started...

      You know, when anything goes wrong on a normal ICE car (which still have hellishly complex computer networks) there are fail safe modes that often let you get home safely. For example, in my old truck (a Nissan VQ40 of the old body-on-frame design) the ABS controller couldn't read one of the wheel speed sensors, light comes on the dash and cruise control stops working, but I get home safely and read the code off OBD2 to learn why. I install the new sensor for $30 a few days later, while still driving it to work every day, cruise control works again, and both the dash light and DTC code went away of its own accord.

      New example, in the Volt the small 12v battery powers accessories and starts the ICE. Without any warning about low voltage, it fails to switch from electric to ICE mode *IN THE MIDDLE OF THE HIGHWAY* and rapidly slows down to "go ahead and kill us all" speed while I'm trying to get over to the shoulder. Jump start the ICE? Nope. Replace the expensive AGM 12v battery and go back to normal? Nope. OBD2 code says the 12v battery voltage went too low. And yes, I read the manual and had a backup supply connected while swapping the AGM, exactly as directed, to keep the computers happy. Computer still locked itself up tight and it sat parked at the dealer for 2 weeks while they eventually reflashed the program on the ECU to get it to work. It gets better. Due to letting it sit for 2 weeks, not plugged in, they had completely killed the new 12v AGM I had just bought. New battery, beyond recovery. F*cking morons. This car had a simpler problem compared to the wheel speed sensor in my truck, yet it had to be towed twice, was out of service for 2 weeks, and the fail safe mode was programmed by a moron that thought saving 0.5% of the main battery capacity was more important than *getting off the highway safely during a situation it clearly recognized*. Honestly, you can't give me 30 f*cking seconds of power to maneuver through traffic and get off the road?

      Maybe in 10 or 15 years EVs will have some reliability sorted. The whole "maintenance-free" thing is a myth. What it really means is maintenance is taken away from you by copyright. If you care at all about right-to-repair, you should not be an EV fan until things like "your car is now a brick until the dealer reprograms it" crap is sorted. What, did they think I'm such a moron as to try and replace it with a non-AGM battery? A battery located inside the passenger compartment? I was a fan of EVs until this. It's like Apple or John Deere wanting you to either pay ridiculous repair costs or just chuck it and buy a new one. That is not acceptable.

    5. Re:customers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wouldn't you want a three-phase 380V outlet to charge your car if your installing it new anyway?

    6. Re:customers? by hipp5 · · Score: 1

      The Volt isn't really an EV though. It's an EV AND an ICE. No wonder it's complex.

  12. Re: fdsafdsafsad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Please inform me of what a twitler is?

  13. with V8 Diesel assist by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    that kicks in when not being tested /ducks/runs

  14. Waste of money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Tennessee doesn't have the skilled workers needed for a plant of this type and with their population and laws no skilled workers are likely to move there...

    This will result in the same thing that happened to DeLorean, great idea, poor implementation. Cars won't sell and they lose money.

    1. Re:Waste of money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can't tell if troll, or just staggeringly ignorant...

  15. Re: fdsafdsafsad by Falconhell · · Score: 1

    A large roughly humanoid Orange thing with no brain, currently US President.

  16. It's "trade DealS" comrade (Re: Impetus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hey Russian troll: Deals is plural. Plural means "more than one."

    Someone that doesn't have ESL.

  17. VW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just don't ask why VW's completely electric vehicles all come with a tailpipe.
    (See VW's "clean" diesel promises.)

  18. Model X Is almost as heavy as a Hummer by raymorris · · Score: 1

    I wouldn't be TOO surprised. The cost per range has a lot to do with the weight. The Model X weighs about as much as a Hummer H2. The Model S curb weight is in mid-sized SUV territory. If Volkswagen keeps the weight down, that gives them range.

    1. Re:Model X Is almost as heavy as a Hummer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      nothing wrong with a good hummer...

  19. I thought jobs weren't coming here? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Whoever posted this didn't get the memo from the 2016 elections that jobs aren't coming here from electing Trump.

    What we need is a way to STOP things in the world from happening that haven't been predicted by the news corps.

    This is so much more important than getting people jobs.

  20. My other post this morning is for you by raymorris · · Score: 1

    https://slashdot.org/comments....

  21. Why so much capex by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Would it be better for their brand value to just give $100,000 to 8,000 people who have sicknesses based on their dishonest products?

  22. NICE! by Ferretman · · Score: 1

    Not only lots of jobs, but electric vehicles as well.....well done VW!

    Ferret

    --
    Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc