As it works to recover from the diesel-emissions cheating scandal, Volkswagen's future plans include quite a number of new electric cars.
The company has said it will introduce 30 electric models across multiple brands by 2025, in fact.
Now it appears that some of those models will be built in North America, according to Volkswagen Group of America CEO Hinrich Woebcken.
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VW is evaluating its plants in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Puebla, Mexico, as production sites for an electric car that will launch in 2020, Woebcken said in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal (subscription required).
Woebcken indicated that the decision was based on anticipated electric-car demand in the U.S.
But building an electric car in North America would also help VW rebuild its public image and help re-establish its green credentials.
2016 Volkswagen e-Golf
The Chattanooga plant was opened in 2011 as part of a major push by Volkswagen to expand its presence in the U.S.
It currently builds the Passat mid-size sedan, and is slated to build a new three-row crossover beginning next year as well.
The plant in Puebla, Mexico, builds the Jetta sedan, Golf hatchback, and Beetle hatchback, and will also build seven-seat, U.S.-market versions of the second-generation Tiguan crossover utility vehicle.
ALSO SEE: Next Volkswagen Phaeton To Go Electric (As VW Slashes Spending) (Oct 2015)
Unveiled last fall at the 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show, the redesigned Tiguan will go on sale in the U.S. next year.
The compact crossover may get a plug-in hybrid powertrain option sometime after its U.S. launch.
The only all-electric car Volkswagen currently sells in the U.S. is the e-Golf—imported from Germany—and that model is only available in certain VW dealers in states deemed friendly to electric cars.
Volkswagen Budd-e Concept
Those states are: California, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont, as well as the District of Columbia.
For the model earmarked for North American production in 2020, Volkswagen is likely to deploy the new MEB platform for compact electric cars that it announced last year.
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Beyond models based on this platform, VW also has three luxury models planned for European production.
They include an Audi crossover likely to be called Q6 e-tron, a Porsche sport sedan based on the Mission E concept from the 2015 Frankfurt show, and an all-electric version of the Volkswagen Phaeton luxury sedan.
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