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An auto supplier that will build a new plant to supply Chattanooga's Volkswagen factory will initially provide parts for the Passat sedan, but it's also eyeing work for a new sport utility vehicle the German automaker wants to assemble.

"We're targeting everything," said Marc Cornet, Plastic Omnium's president for the Americas, in Chattanooga today.

Plastic Omnium will invest $65 million and employ 300 people at a new Enterprise South industrial park plant.

Cornet said the medium wage will be about $44,000 a year.

The French company already has a contract with VW to produce Passat bumpers and fenders, but it also wants to service other auto companies in the South.

In addition, VW will swap some land on which it has an option at Enterprise South so Plastic Omnium can be nearby.

Christian Koch, chief executive of Volkswagen's operations in Chattanooga, said the company is "very pleased to work with the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce and Plastic Omnium to make available the land that this new facility will occupy."

"We welcome the jobs for the community and another tier one supplier locating close to the factory, which we see as necessary to the continuing success of our operation," Koch said in a statement.

VW has called Chattanooga the front-runner to produce a new SUV as the local plant vies with the automaker's facilities in Mexico.

See more in Saturday's Times Free Press.