At home, the market is down 27 percent. Cars?  Who wants them. “What, me worry?” is the mantra from Wolfsburg. Volkswagen’s worldwide group deliveries for the first eight months of the current year totaled 4.70m units, up 13.4 percent. In August alone, deliveries rose by 11.2 percent to 545,500. “As a result, the Group outperformed the global automotive market, not only for the month of August but also for the year so far,” declares a proud communiqué from Wolfsburg.

Volkswagen is exporting itself out of the crisis at home. And they are keeping busy. “This year alone we are bringing over 70 new models to market,” said VW sales chief Christian Klingler. Seventy.

In the first eight months of this year … (Read More…)

When I was a young whippersnapper and did advertising for Volkswagen, we had a rule of thumb: “Over the lifetime of the car, you’ll spend the purchase price again.” In gas, oil, taxes, insurance, repairs, parts, you name it. We kept that rule to ourselves. We didn‘t want to shock the prospective buyer. Now, Volkswagen changed their mind. They are going for full disclosure. (Read More…)

When Volkswagen bought a 19.9 percent share in Suzuki, everybody in the know knew that a much bigger trade was going down. A trade of subcontinents. Suzuki owns nearly half of the market in India, where Volkswagen is a relative nobody. Suzuki is dabbling in China, where Volkswagen rules the roost. (Read More…)

Days after  Vladimir Putin, well, encouraged foreign carmakers to come to Russia, open car factories and better bring the latest technology, or else, Martin Winterkorn announced that Volkswagen is planning a new assembly line at Russia’s GAZ and that they will expand their factory in the Kaluga region in the future. Winterkorn said that after meeting Putin himself and most likely after having received a similar speech as what was previously broadcasted. (Read More…)

Karl-Thomas Neumann, Volkswagen’s new Emperor of China, took over his job today. He replaces  Winfried Vahland, who now runs Volkswagen’s Skoda division. Neumann has a problem many would like to have. “We can’t build enough cars to meet the demand in China,” Neumann told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung. Now, if you have nothing to sell, you lose market share, and you really have a problem.  Neumann will build. he will build new factories, and  … (Read More…)

Despite the deep ties between his firm and Volkswagen, Ferry Porsche firmly believed that Porsches could only be Porsches if the company remained truly independent. “Independence,” he says in the video above, “has always been the attitude at Porsche.” But as the latest addition to the Volkswagen empire, tasked with developing mass-market architectures and planning Porsche-brand versions of the Audi Q5 and Volkswagen BlueSport, Porsche’s culture has little choice but to change. But will becoming a good team player within the VW-Audi-Seat-Skoda-Bentley-Lamborghini-Bugatti strategy kill off the spirit that made Porsche great? Or can cultural independence survive the VW takeover?

Suzuki is hustling to avoid needing more help from partner Volkswagen. For instance in India, a market VW covets. Suzuki used to own more than half on the Indian market. In the recent months, that share slipped a bit. Not because customers in India don’t like Suzuki. Suzuki can’t keep up with the demand. Customers have to wait for months to get delivery of popular car models such as the Swift hatchback and the Swift Dzire sedan, reports The Nikkei [sub]. Suzuki is finally doing something about it. (Read More…)

„I’ve said Alfa is not for sale“ grouched Fiat’s Sergio Marchionne at journos who badgered him about Alfa possibly going to Volkswagen.  While he was at it, Sergio told Automobilwoche [sub] that business is so good that he probably will raise year-end guidance in the third quarter.

In Europe, Volkswagen is a full service operation. You can buy your car at a Volkswagen (Audi, Seat etc.) dealer. You can finance it at the Volkswagen Bank. (They give you a credit card, and higher interest for your savings.) You can insure it with the Volkswagen Versicherungs Dienst VVD.  Both are subsidiaries of Volkswagen Financial Services. The VVD is not a real insurance, they act as an agent for Europe’s insurance giant Allianz. Put that in the past tense. After 62 years with Allianz, Volkswagen does its first baby steps into the insurance business itself. (Read More…)

In the wake of GM re-taking full control of  Opel, Opel’s former boss Hans Demant stepped down to make room for Nick Reilly. Demant’s new title was GM Vice President, Global Intellectual Property Rights. His job was described as being “responsible for protecting GM’s property rights globally, for example in conjunction with business alliances, partnerships and transactions.”

That job is the GM equivalent of keeping track of the Willow Ptarmigan, Common Ravens, and Snow Buntings population of Nome Alaska. It comes as no surprise that Demand quit. At age 59, he could have taken early retirement. Instead, he took a job with the competition. (Read More…)

Automobilwoche [sub] picked up strong signals that Volkswagen is interested in adding Alfa Romeo to their growing roster of brands. Last December, Marchionne had put Alfa on strategic review, and gave the brand, as Ed Niedermeyer put it so delicately, “a year to get its proverbial shit together.” They popped some Imodium, and  in April, Marchionne was “determined” to build the brand into a “full-line premium carmaker.” Nevertheless, here and there whispers had popped up that Alfa could be sold if the right buyer would show. (Read More…)

In June, we reported about a catfight between Porsche and Audi. The bitching and eye-scratching was about who will design the kit for all future sports cars of the Volkswagen empire. The contenders: Audi and Porsche. The thinking was that the fight is just for show. And it was. If Automobilwoche [sub] has it straight, then Porsche will not just develop the mid-engined kit for all sportscars. Porsche will lead the engineering of the complete kit and kaboodle. (Read More…)

Malaysia is a country of close to 30m people and Volkswagen wants a slice of the pie. They already tried, but found out that getting a slice is not a piece of cake. Playing footise with Malysia’s Proton was a perennial on again, off again affair that led to nothing. Last time, it looked like VW would set up a CKD operation in Malaysia by themselves, but now it seems that they have found a partner. Not Proton. Not again. (Read More…)

Remember jetgate? Imagine what congressional roasters would have said if they would have found out that their wards of the state not only own their own airline, but a sizable share of an airport? Unthinkable. In Germany, nobody bats an eye. (Read More…)

For the first time in recorded history, the Volkswagen Group sold (not just produced) more than 4m vehicles in the period from January to July. Actually, it’s 4.16m units. In the same period of 2009, they had moved 3.65m units. Which translates into a growth of 13.7 percent. In a communiqué, Volkswagen proudly announces that they outpaced the overall world market. Which had grown 13.4 percent in the same period. (Read More…)