Bob Colby

Contributed Photo -- This is a rendering similar of what the Volkswagen asembly plant will look like at Chattanooga's Enterprise South industrial park.

Eager to ramp up sales to American motorists, Volkswagen has a plan to expand its Chattanooga auto plant and production soon after the first cars leave the the assembly line, documents show.

The expansion would include more paint and press lines and expanded body and assembly shops, which would allow VW to double production from 150,000 vehicles a year to 300,000. The expanded facility would have the potential to produce 595,000 vehicles a year, the documents show.

In addition to the midsize sedan to be produced at Enterprise South industrial park, sister company Audi is considering production in North America and the Chattanooga plant could be a location, according to analysts.

Details about VW’s plans are included in the company’s application for an air quality permit, which the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Air Pollution Control Bureau granted last month.

“All the (emission) equipment in the application covers phases 1 and 2,” said Jeff Twaddle, a partner in ERM, which put together the air permit application.

The first phase of construction on the $1 billion plant at Enterprise South is to start this month, with auto production beginning by late 2010.

A second phase of construction would start a few months later, in April 2011, with operations beginning two years later, according to Environmental Research Management, a Brentwood, Tenn.-based consultant for VW.

The air permit application did not include cost estimates for the expansion or how many more workers would be needed above the 2,000 employees VW has said it plans to hire.

Jill Bratina, corporate communications director for VW Group of America, said the expansion fits the company’s strategic plan to more than triple sales to 1 million units in the United States by 2018.

But, she said, it’s too early to pin down future investment and work force numbers.

“We are focused on the first stage of production, and while there will be additional investment, it is too early too speculate on those numbers,” she said.

However, other automakers that have expanded their production facilities have boosted employment.

At BMW’s assembly plant in Greenville-Spartanburg, S.C., for example, what started as a 2,000-member work force in the mid-1990s will grow to nearly 6,000 when a $750 million expansion is finished later this decade, BMW has said.

VW’s plans and time frames are what the automaker specified for the air permit application, which was filed a few months ago, Mr. Twaddle said.

Since that time, the economy has slowed sharply and auto sales in the United States and many other parts of the world have nose-dived.

Still, VW executives said in Germany as late as a couple of weeks ago that their plans at Enterprise South are on track. Company officials said the economic crisis should have passed by the time the plant opens in two years.

PHASE 1 DETAILS

The VW plant site initially will have paint, press, body and assembly shops as well as a logistics and distribution area, quality control location, central energy plant, and technical, office and social buildings, according to the air permit application.

In addition, the facility will have a half-mile test track, petroleum and fluid storage area, rail car loading yard and maintenance and guard buildings, ERM said.

The application estimates 100 trucks will make deliveries to the Enterprise South site each day.

Since midsummer, Chattanooga and Hamilton County crews and their contractors have prepped the site to meet what they’ve called an aggressive construction schedule.

For example, ERM put together the air permit application, which takes up three large notebooks, in 22 days, which Mr. Twaddle said “is flying.”

“I had a bunch of people working on it,” he said.

Bob Colby, director of the local Air Pollution Control Bureau, said the permit allows for plant construction and initial operation. The permit focused on the emission of particulate matter, nitrogen oxide and volatile organic compounds, he said.

While the paint shop will put out the most emissions, air pollution officials aren’t overly concerned with the plant, he said.

“Auto manufacturing facilities are clean these days,” Mr. Colby said. “VW is very environmentally conscious.”

Mr. Colby said the permit did not look at potential suppliers to VW at Enterprise South. But, he said, most suppliers are clean businesses that involve assembling components.

Areawide, a large number of suppliers won’t need air permits, Mr. Colby said.

Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield said securing the air quality permit was a critical step.

“You can’t pour concrete until you get that permit,” he said.

Industrywide, auto sales last month were way off in the United States, but VW was down only 7.9 percent from a year ago. For the year, VW sales in the U.S. are off less than 1 percent.