China has given VW a record year, sales in the US are finally picking up again. The group wants to finally make the leap into the mass market – and announced billions of investments.
VW North America boss Hinrick Woebcken (left in picture) and board member Herbert Diess in Detroit
Monday, 15.01.2018
10:49 clock
After the dislocations by the diesel affair The Volkswagen Group is trying to get on the offensive in the USA. The German carmaker has the auto show in Detroit used to announce billion-dollar investments in the North American market.
By 2020, 3.3 billion dollars – equivalent to about 2.8 billion euros – to flow into the region. VW also plans to introduce new models in the North American market: two will be at least a year, according to brand manager Herbert Diess.
The core project of the new strategy is to be the new version of the mid-range car Jetta, which VW is presenting at the exhibition for the first time. In the US, the exhaust gas scandal was discovered in September 2015. VW North America boss Hinrich Woebcken spoke now of “visible progress” in the comeback of the brand there. “We want to gain market share and become a niche supplier to a significant brand in the US,” said Woebcken.
Every second VW is sold in China
So far, VW’s market shares have been low, but have increased slightly to just under two percent. On the classification: In the past year, the core brand VW cars delivered 6.2 million cars worldwide – more than ever before.
VW benefited above all from the strong business in China – 3.18 million cars had been delivered there (plus 5.9 percent).
By contrast, sales in the US – where the exhaust emissions scandal had been revealed in 2015 – were just 340,000 vehicles (plus 5.2 percent compared to 2016). That was the first increase since 2013.
Sales in Germany, where the diesel crisis had weighed on sales in the past year, performed worse: in the year as a whole, sales fell by 4.7 percent to 531,600 units.
VW has also announced a dispute in litigation over manipulated exhaust emissions in North America: the group will pay customers in Canada more than 190 million euros in compensation. It is a provisional basic agreement, which must be approved by the competent courts. In addition, VW should pay a civil penalty in the amount of 1.6 million euros.
With about 105,000 smaller diesel cars, the group had already achieved a similar comparison in Canada of about 2.1 billion Canadian dollars (1.4 billion euros) about a year ago. VW had acknowledged in September 2015, under pressure from the US Environmental Protection Agency, to have cheated on a large scale in emissions tests. Worldwide affects the affair about eleven million diesel cars. The Group has already booked more than € 25 billion in settlement costs in North America.