Gov. Bill Haslam stops by Chattanooga VW Factory

Chattanooga, TN (WDEF) – They may be in hot water right now, but Volkswagen’s Chattanooga factory is receiving plenty of support from Gov. Bill Haslam.

Wednesday the Republican governor spoke one on one with employees to encourage them and relieve any concerns they may have with the company’s recent emissions cheating scandal.

Gov. Haslam said he wants employees to know that, "The state of Tennessee is not going anywhere in terms of supporting you all." The governor’s visit comes more than 20 days after the scandal first went public.

Jamison Altbach and Amy Brandon are both Volkswagen owners, but say they won’t be for much longer. "Everyone believed it," said Altbach, "To be honest with you, at this point I feel bamboozled by the company, as do many people."

"I’ve always been a Toyota person I’m sure I’ll go back," said Brandon.

UTC Professor of Economics, Bruce Hutchinson, said, "People in the United States are going to continue buying automobiles. All that’s gonna happen, in a sense, is that people that would have ended up buying a VW produced car, such as the Passat, will buy another car."

In other words, even if VW drops in sales, Hutchinson says the Chattanooga facility shouldn’t be affected, and in a worse case scenario would most likely be sold to another.

Gov. Haslam’s visit to the factory comes a day before Volkswagen’s top American executive is to appear before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations in Washington.