Volkswagen announced Monday it would produce a new three-row version of its Tiguan crossover starting in 2016 at its Puebla, Mexico factory. It’s a big step in getting VW some badly-needed products for the U.S. market.
The announcement comes with a move to invest $1 billion, for a 90,000 square-foot expansion, to the factory that currently produces North American-bound Golfs, as well as the Jetta and Beetle. VW says it plans to expand the plant to produce up to 500 Tiguans a day.
“It is another proof point that Volkswagen is committed to further growth in the U.S. and North American markets,” VW Group of America President and CEO Michael Horn said in the news release. “With production of the Golf A7 and the Tiguan now moved to Puebla, we will build approximately 90 percent of our products in the NAFTA region.”
The Tiguan, released in 2008, currently sits on older VW Group architecture and is built for worldwide markets in Germany. When the compact crossover switches to the modern MQB platform, it’s expected to be sold in two sizes, the larger of which has now been confirmed for assembly in Mexico and will be sold in North and South American markets, as well as some other countries worldwide. The move will undoubtedly give VW a boost in the crossover market, where it badly lags in the U.S., in particular.
Last summer, the company said it would build a midsize crossover at its Chattanooga, Tenn. plant starting from 2016, and expected to closely resemble the 2013 CrossBlue Concept (see the studies below).
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