Habicht takes over from Chris Glover, who will retire in January 2025 after more than three decades with Volkswagen, including a three-year stint at Chattanooga.
Habicht also has extensive experience, with over 30 years in the automotive industry and 15 years in leadership roles at VW, including as the Head of Manufacturing at the Volkswagen SAIC plant in Shanghai, China, and in the same role at Wolfsburg’s Plant 1 in Germany.
Previously Head of Manufacturing at Chattanooga, Habicht will transition into the new role in December and lead the plant’s continued transformation and local assembly of the Atlas, Atlas Cross Sport, and all-electric ID.4 vehicles.
“I’m honoured to build upon the legacy Chris has created in Chattanooga, including the world-class production facility as well as the more than 5,500 team members who make it run each day,” said Habicht. “We’re committed to maximising production of several of Volkswagen’s best-selling vehicles in the Atlas, Atlas Cross Sport, and ID.4, as well as supporting the economic vitality of the incredible city of Chattanooga.”
Prior to his role leading Volkswagen Chattanooga Operations, Glover, served as the Executive Vice President and Member of the Board of Management at Volkswagen de México, responsible for Production and Logistics. His career at Volkswagen has also included production leadership positions in numerous countries, including SAIC Volkswagen in China, Brazil, Germany and in his home country of South Africa.
In a recent interview with AMS, Glover acknowledged the production challenges around the transition to electric vehicles and noted that the decision to integrate the production of electric and internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles on the same production line allowed Chattanooga to be agile in responding to changing market demand and flexible in balancing EV and ICE production.
Speaking at the recent Automotive Evolution North America event in Detroit, Glover emphasised the need for flexibility in operations and how this should be ‘engineered’ into production from the beginning. He also noted that factors such as the speed of product development changes, evolving customer expectations, and supply chain disruptions where all driving the need for flexibility.
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