Tennessee drives for bigger automotive stake

KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jul. 20--Tennessee landed its first automobile assembly plants in the 1980s, but over the past two decades the Volunteer State has watched the next nine major Southern car plants go to neighboring states, including three assembly plants and an engine plant to Alabama. Last week's announcement that Volkswagen picked Chattanooga over Huntsville, Ala., for a $1 billion production facility again should secure Tennessee's top automotive position in the region, some say. But U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who as governor a generation ago recruited both Nissan and General Motors' Saturn automobile assembly plants, has much grander dreams for Tennessee's automotive industry. "This decision by Volkswagen, in my opinion, means that Tennessee is on its way within a generation to being the No. 1... [read full story]