Volkswagen Shuts Down Tennessee Plant's EV Production at the Worst Possible Time

Volkswagen just delivered another blow to the struggling U.S. electric vehicle market. On Thursday, the company announced that its assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, will stop producing the company’s fully electric SUV ID.4 starting mid-April. Instead, the focus will shift to producing the new generation of Atlas models, a best-selling gasoline-powered SUV. The second-generation Atlas will begin production in the summer and will be available in dealerships in the fall. Volkswagen will continue selling whatever is left in the ID.4 inventory until it runs out, which they expect will be sometime in 2027. “The EV market continues to challenge the industry, requiring measured decisions throughout the last few years to navigate this unpredictability,” Volkswagen said in a press release announcing the decision. It’s particularly bad news for environmentalists: The Atlas models rank far worse than the ID.4 on fuel economy efficiency standards, with the Atlas using roughly 5 times more energy than the EV model it’s replacing. Even though ID.4 production is effectively ending in the U.S., manufacturing seems to continue in China and the EU. The company also said that it is currently p