#factory

While wandering around widely diverging attractions at the recent Chattanooga Motorcar Festival, where ratrods, pristine muscle cars and automotive oddities of varying descriptions gather to be ogled and photographed by attendees, I was struck by the display from one of the event’s biggest corporate partners: Volkswagen.

Volkswagen just opened a new manufacturing plant in Southern China.

As much as it would have been fantastic to see the mighty De Tomaso Pantera resurrected, it seems the dream that graced our news section last February is falling to shambles.

VW calls all their efficient models BlueMotion, and is taking the same approach to their factories. Their “Think Blue Factory” is an initiative they have launched to make all their factories more environmentally friendly by 2018. By way of using less energy and creating fewer wastes, VW hopes to clean their factories by reducing the environmental impact by 25%.

BMW is pushing forward in the face of what many economists are fervently discussing in the business world: the possible collapse of the euro.

General Motors halted production of their popular Cruze sedan yesterday after a supplier issue hampered production.

Ford announced that they are investing $446 million into their Sao Bernardo do Campo plant near Sao Paulo, Brazil towards the production of a new global vehicle.

Jeep has scrapped plans to build a replacement for their Patriot and Compass SUVs in Italy, and will instead build a subcompact Jeep product in Italy that will also be badged as a Fiat in world markets.

Toyota and Honda plan to hire as many as 5,000 temporary workers in Japan for the first time in more than a year as the automotive industry recovers from the March 11 earthquake.

BMW will expand its Chinese joint venture with local automaker Brilliance, in an effort to build 300,000 cars per year in China. BMW’s joint venture near Beijing currently builds the 3-Series and 5-Series, and will add the X1 crossover in 2012.

Chrysler announced an $843 million investment in its Indiana transmission plant as it prepares to build a 9-speed automatic transmission front front-drive vehicles.

Volkswagen‘s new Chattanooga, Tennessee plant built its first car destined for a customer Wednesday, a dark Blue Passat 2.5L equipped with an automatic transmission.

Contrary to earlier reports, Mazda will not be ending production of its Mazda6 midsize sedan. Earlier reports suggested that the slow-selling model would be axed after reports emerged that production of the vehicle at Mazda’s Flat Rock, Michigan plant may cease.

General Motors will invest $2 billion across 17 plants, as the company retools existing plants to build new products and hire more workers. GM confirmed that their Toledo, Ohio plant would receive $250 million in improvements and create 250 new jobs.

General Motors has quietly phased out production of the Cadillac STS. The last sedan drove off the Lansing Grand River assembly line last week.