Detroit Volkswagen plans to extend its hopefuls model for the ailing business in the US for more options. The announced for the end of 2016 seven-seater off-road car with the working name BlueCross it could also be a number less than five-seater, said Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn on Sunday (local time) just before the start of the US auto show in Detroit.
“There’s more in the pipeline,” said Winterkorn and showed a study called cross-coupé. Should be the series, the great Cross Blue had three rows of seats and its smaller brother coupé-two.
model variants, so-called derivatives, are common for all car manufacturers. If the cross-coupé arriving well and should be adopted as a series, it would start according to VW only a corner after 2016.
Unlike successful in the US VW Premium daughters Audi and Porsche weakens the VW-core brand there for some time. One and a half years, the US sales were despite a boom market into a tailspin. 2014, the brand launched a tenth of decline. Over the year were only 367 000 VW together – doing it until 2018. be twice as many. In the consolidated investment plan are available for the USA and nearby Mexico from 2014 to 2018 some six billion Euros.
Karl Brauer from US industry analysts KBB says the US weakness of Wolfsburg with a side effect of their modular strategy. With it, the VW group wants the same parts models and brands across use and thus save even more. When converting it necessary Volkswagen have set mainly due to the growth guarantors China – which also paid off. However, the US suffered. “A bit that is so,” Brauer said to implement the modular strategy, “as if you were a whole house to tear and otherwise build up again. And thus you can specify a time do not live in the house. VW has first made the reconstruction in China and so lost focus in the US “The World’s Largest car market China makes for VW cars now account for 45 percent of total sales -. And the profits from there are brilliant
While the VW product range in China shine already promising, showing in the United States is now the dark side. Brewer KBB colleague Matt DeLorenzo refers to the gaps in the VW model range, especially in the large terrain vehicles (SUVs), “The long-awaited Cross Blue Volkswagen is an all-or-nothing-product with the ambitious goal by 2018 approximately 800,000 Volkswagen to sell in the US. “So far, was simply too little in the pipeline. “During the Tiguan and Touareg going well, set their price tags and the lack of third row of attraction after all limits.” The Cross and Blue from the plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, is now beginning.
Play the United States a key role in Volkswagen’s goal to become by 2018 the world’s biggest carmaker Toyota before. The main reasons for the US weakness apply in addition to the gaps in the model range and lack of understanding of the customer needs. For example, last made the cycle for a cosmetic overhaul of the models (facelift) too long. Volkswagen’s US boss Michael Horn commented in Detroit on Sunday. “We have to be quicker – and we will be in the future,”
On the subject of market understanding VW group works council boss Bernd Osterloh said: “It is no use when our cars are better than the competition – but the customer so they do not want to have. So we need to look more at what level we are launching the products. “For that VW has already led to do more development work for the US directly there and not only from Germany. “If we can not priced in an item such as high quality clad trunks in the US, then we have to consider just how we deal with it,” Osterloh said. The need time.
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