The 4,000 workers at Volkswagen's plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, may not have started April in a celebratory mood. The company announced on April 9 that assembly there of the all-electric ID.4 crossover would end this month, after less than four years of production at VW's sole US assembly site. VW says the plant produced more than 100,000 ID.4s.
But on April 21, Volkswagen announced a new milestone for the plant, one in which all the employees, engineers, and executives can be proud. It's a big one – a milestone 10 years in the making. And it's all thanks to the company's Atlas SUV.
One Million And Counting
That milestone is one million Atlas SUVs since VW started building them in 2016. Designed for the US market, the midsize three-row SUV is among the company's best-selling models in America. In 2025, Atlas sales topped 71,000 units, second only to the Tiguan. If you factor in Atlas Cross Sport, the Atlas twins exceeded 100,000 sales, making Atlas the most popular nameplate in VW's US lineup.
The Chattanooga plant didn't begin with Atlas, however. The Passat was the first vehicle rolling off the line when the facility opened in 2011, and Volkswagen churned out about 800,000 of them by 2022. Passat capacity in Tennessee was then rededicated to the ID.4 at a time when investing $7.1 billion in an ambitious EV strategy for the US seemed smart. Back then, VW was targeting 55% of its US vehicle sales to be fully electric by 2030, including the ID.4, ID. Buzz, and "new electric SUVs from 2026."
Volkswagen planned to phase out gasoline-powered vehicles in the US from its American lineup "at the beginning of the next decade." But times have changed and VW isn't the only automaker recalculating the road forward in a tumultuous US market. While the ID.4 goes away, 2026 models remain available to customers in the US, as does 2025 models of ID. Buzz, until inventory runs out. VW has said a 2027 ID. Buzz is on the way to the US.
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This article originally appeared on CarBuzz and is republished here with permission.
