Volkswagen of America, Inc., announced today that it will be building a new five-passenger Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) at its Chattanooga factory. Based off Volkswagen's award-winning MQB platform, the new Volkswagen SUV will be a variant of the seven-passenger Atlas and, like its sibling, will be designed and engineered for the American market.

"The Atlas has built strong momentum for Volkswagen in the SUV segment, and we are excited to grow our SUV portfolio with this new, Chattanooga-assembled five-passenger SUV," said Hinrich J. Woebcken, President and CEO, Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. "We are not only committed to this market, we are committed to our U.S.A manufacturing home in Chattanooga, Tennessee."

Woebcken made the announcement in Chattanooga with Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam.

Volkswagen will invest approximately US$340 million ($4.47 million) to bring the vehicle to market, in addition to approximately US$900 million ($1.18 billion) already invested to expand the plant for Atlas production. The five-passenger Atlas variant will mark the third Volkswagen model assembled at the Chattanooga factory. Volkswagen Chattanooga also manufactures the Passat, which went on sale in 2011, and the Atlas, which started sales in 2017.

A concept version of the five-passenger SUV will be officially unveiled at the 2018 New York International Auto Show