Volkswagen officials took their lumps when they appeared before Congress this month, but a legislative hearing in Tennessee Thursday turned into a love-fest by comparison.
Instead of questions about deceiving regulators, Tennessee lawmakers are concerned what effect the worldwide scandal might have on VW’s only U.S. plant, which is in Chattanooga.
There are certainly angry Volkswagen customers scattered around the world. But in Tennessee, there’s another emotion, too.
“I still respect them,” Hamilton County register Pam Hurst says. “I pray for them every day that they will come out of this, because I think they will.”
Hurst says Volkswagen’s arrival in 2009 changed the city’s economic fortunes. Before Thursday’s hearing in front of state lawmakers, she and others happened to be gathered for a ribbon cutting outside the plant. A road was being renamed after Phil Bredesen, Tennessee’s former governor who recruited VW in the first place.
“I just ask everybody to do like you would with any good friend or spouse,” Bredesen told the small crowd. “Look, they’ve done something wrong. They’ve gotten in some trouble. We now settle down and support them and help them get through that and continue to be good partners for a long, long time to come.”
Tennessee isn’t just a good friend, though. It’s an investor. The state gave VW $577 million when it first arrived, and taxpayers chipped in $260 million to expand the plant this year. That’s why state Sen. Bo Watson called a hearing — to check on that investment, with a soft touch.
“It is not the Tennessee way to turn away from our partners when they need our support,” Watson said in his opening statement. “Volkswagen should remember, however, who is standing by them in their hour of need.”
The Chattanooga plant employs 2,400 workers at the moment. That number is supposed to nearly double when another assembly line building a mid-size SUV is completed next year. But Watson heard something from VW’s chairman that made him think the expansion might be in jeopardy.
“We have initiated a further review of all planned investments. Anything that is not absolutely necessary will be canceled or postponed,” Watson said at the hearing, reading the VW chief’s words.
In response, VW’s Chattanooga CEO Christian Koch called the plant the “pillar” of the company’s North America strategy and that the company plans to invest more in America, not less.
“I’m here today to state to the Chattanooga community and hardworking people across the state that Volkswagen’s plans for expansion are on track,” Koch said.
This is just what state lawmakers have been waiting to hear. They’ve already begun downplaying the company’s crisis.
Even though some 11 million diesel cars around the world may be affected, no one has died or even been injured by the deception, House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick said.
“This is a minor issue when you look at it from a historical perspective,” he said. “I think six months or a year from now, people are going to look back at this, and it’s just going to be an afterthought.”
After Thursday’s hearing, which was held at the Hamilton County Board of Education because of its proximity to the plant, Tennessee’s economic development commissioner decided to make a personal statement of faith in Volkswagen. Randy Boyd went to the closest VW dealership and put down a deposit to buy the first VW SUV that rolls off the line.
“I just came up with the idea one day randomly,” Boyd said. “I thought, what can I do as an individual to show my support?”
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