The German automaker currently builds the ID.4 in Tennessee for the American and Canadian markets.
US $760 million will be invested in the Puebla factory to produce EVs.
The first electric vehicle to be built there has yet to be decided.
Volkswagen has announced it will manufacture electric vehicles for the North American market in Mexico, starting in 2026.
The German automaker has assembled cars destined for the United States and Canada in Mexico for a few decades already however, at the moment, all of its electric models still come from Europe or Tennessee.
This will change in a few years since the company will be investing US $760 million in its Puebla plant in order to make it able to produce electric vehicles at scale. At the moment, this facility is responsible for the assembly of the Jetta, the Taos, and the Tiguan.
Out of this investment package, $350 million will be used to set up a new paint shop, and further investments dedicated entirely to the new EV are expected to be announced early next year.
For now, Volkswagen hasn’t decided which model will roll off the revised production line at Puebla, but this decision should come in the next 12 to 15 months, according to the boss of the automaker’s Mexican division.
This same executive says he is confident that the rate of EV adoption in the United States and Canada will continue to increase in the coming years, despite a slowdown in Europe which recently forced Volkswagen to idle a plant making some of its most affordable electric models.
Since we don’t know which product will be manufactured in Puebla, it is possible that this will be an entirely new model or one that has already been unveiled but has yet to enter production for the North American market.
If it turns out to be the latter case, this means that the first EV to be built by Volkswagen in Mexico for the U.S. and Canada could be the ID.BUZZ minivan or the upcoming ID.7 sedan.
There is also the possibility that the company will prefer to move the production of the ID.4 down to Mexico in order to make space for another vehicle in its Chattanooga, Tennessee plant, which currently manufactures the Atlas, Atlas Cross Sport, and the ID.4, the only electric VW currently on sale in North America.
More details should come in the next year or two once Volkswagen has finalized its decisions for the future of its Mexican factory.
Source: InsideEVs
