What a pleasure it was to be a part of the Hydrogen Road Tour as it rallied through my home town of Chattanooga! Driving a Volkswagen made it all the more special as VW is now Chattanooga’s top corporate citizen following the announcement of their North American Production Facility here in Chattanooga. Advanced Transportation is exciting and presents our nation with the greatest economic opportunity for manufacturing solutions for a cleaner, more efficient world. Thanks to all involved.
Sunday was not a day for rest, and I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to post a blog. I did capture some video in Augusta and in Cartersville, GA… including a rain storm in Georgia right after a small glitch with the HyMotion Tiguan. When it rains, it pours.
The bright side is, we are passed the halfway trip of the tour, and it’s getting easier to see the finish line in sight.
We left Cartersville, Georgia at around 7:30 and it was a bit of a mad dash for me to get on the road. No wakeup call this morning, but I made the caravan without too much trouble, and we actually arrived a bit early in Chattanooga.
As this is the location for Volkswagen’s production facility, I was excited to see the town and get to meet its residents. Congressman Zach Wamp, who is posting a guest blog on our site, drove the Touran into the staging area. He’s a huge proponent of the technology and encouraged us to build HyMotion powered vehicles at our new plant. Maybe someday…
We had an enthusiastic reception in Chattanooga, and I spent most of my time showing reporters our vehicle. About 150 people showed up, and the ride and drive lasted about 2 hours.
Chattanooga is known for its rolling hills, but when you get on I-24 heading to Nashville, those hills seem to resemble mountains. About a half mile from stop at the Nissan headquarters in Smyrna, we had another little issue. The 90+ degree heat and the constant grade caused a fuse to blow. German engineering won out and we were able to get the vehicle to the Smyrna event just a half hour late.
I’m on a bus right now heading to our next stop in Missouri. Because of the long distance and lack of fueling stations, we decided to put the cars on trucks rather than drive them for the next stop. Personally, it’s nice to have the break, but I’d rather the infrastructure was in place to allow us to make the drive.
Stay tuned to reports from the show-me-state.
Miles Traveled
August 23, 2008
Rosemead, CA to Los Angeles, CA
Road Map
Meet the Blogger
John Tillman is the Program Manager for Volkswagen Group of America, Advanced Powertrain Research Program at our office in Sacramento California.
