Renault’s plans for a plant in Algeria have stalled, amid the French auto maker’s desire for an agreement barring auto makers from setting up shop in the country for 5 years after the plant comes online – and Volkswagen is apparently what’s keeping Renault up at night.
One of the reasons for Volkswagen’s current strength dates back four years. During the carmageddon of 2008 ff, multinational carmakers such as GM and Toyota drastically cut back investments into new cars and technologies. Volkswagen did not change R&D spending. Four years later, this translates into a host of new models, and revolutionary platform architectures (MQB, MLB, MSB) that promise even more new models at lower cost. (Read More…)
Despite a tough situation at home, the Volkswagen Group continues to power ahead in the global markets. Volkswagen increased its global sales by 14.6 percent in October. For the year, Volkswagen delivered 7.5 million units worldwide, up 10.2 percent. In China, Volkswagen is nipping at GM’s heels, but does not seem to be able to overtake the General.
China’s SAIC told Reuters today that its October auto sales rose 20.7 percent year-on-year to 414,471 units. This indicates a very strong jump in Volkswagen sales. (Read More…)
“No, Japan is not a closed market, come on, it has zero percent duty on cars.” Such spoke Yasuo Maruta, Communications Director of Volkswagen Japan, today at Volkswagen’s Tokyo offices. Volkswagen Group sold 66,000 cars in the first ten months of the year in Japan, and is expected to sell roughly 80,000 by the end of the year, making it Japan’s largest car importer, a title it held for as long as I can remember.
Maruta’s employer wants to enlarge its footprint in Japan. (Read More…)
After a rash of interim-CEOs, Opel may have found a more permanent one. It’s the former Volkswagen manager Karl-Thomas Neumann. The successful recruitment was first published by Financial Times Deutschland, the report was quickly confirmed by wire services and major German newspapers. (Read More…)
October sales data are coming in, and most are below forecast. Chrysler, Ford, and GM sold less than analysts predicted. Analysts had higher hopes for Toyota also. Volkswagen, up 23 percent, more or less met expectations. We have the final sales table, courtesy of Automotive News [sub]. (Read More…)
| September Production and Full Year Forecast | ||||
| 9M ’12 | 9M ’11 | YoY | Proj ’12 | |
| Toyota | 7,681,891 | 5,583,328 | 37.6% | 10,243,000 |
| GM | 7,054,000 | 6,948,000 | 1.5% | 9,405,000 |
| Volkswagen | 6,710,000 | 6,110,000 | 9.8% | 8,947,000 |
| Black: Company data. Toyota, GM: Production. VW: Deliveries. Forecast by TTAC | ||||
With GM’s third quarter release also and finally came the long-awaited global production numbers for the first nine months. We need production, because the race for the world’s largest automaker is decided by how many cars are made, not by how many are sold. (Read More…)
Yesterday, a car developed (mostly) for and (mostly) in China was presented at a gala event in Wolfsburg. Volkswagen celebrated the new Santana, and Volkswagen’s lucky entry into the Chinese market some 30 years ago. That’s also how long the old Santana lasted. It was time to replace it, and the time was yesterday. (Read More…)
Volkswagen’s ultracompact Up! is taking Japan by storm. Three weeks after its Oct. 1 release, orders for the up! have exceeded 3,000 units, The Nikkei[sub] writes. (Read More…)
According to Bloomberg, Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn claimed that “Brazil is very much a cornerstone” in VW’s push to become the world’s largest car maker by 2018.
Herr Winterkorn is in São Paulo for the largest and most important Auto Show in Latin America. Striving to make the most of this unique opportunity, the Brazilian press was all over VW’s CEO. He didn’t disappoint. He announced investments of 4.4 billion dollars to expand VW’s model line and modernize their factories in Brazil until 2016.
Well, they better! (Read More…)
Volkswagen will roll out its new NFS, MQB, MLB and MSB kit architectures to Brazil, Volkswagen do Brasil chief Thomas Schmall told Automobilwoche [sub]. The first representative will likely be a very small SUV, based on the UP! NFS (New Small Familiy) architecture.
“When you are a young designer of course, you think everything is wrong and should be different… You want to conquer the world and with great ideas. But over the time you have to really understand what Golf is, what VW is, And to mature to a certain degree, I needed that time. It took 15 years before I really knew what I was talking about.”
Volkswagen wants to go back to its “People’s Car” roots, and plans to launch a new low-cost brand by about 2015, Reuters says. With a a price range of between 5,000 and 10,000 euros ($6,500-$12,900), Volkswagen wants to emulate the success of Renault’s Dacia. Nissan resurrected Datsun as a low-cost brand to help gain market share in lucrative emerging markets. (Read More…)
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