VW Profit, Sales Energizes Future Plans - July 31, 2009
The AIADA newsletter reported that Volkswagen’s positive first-quarter results were exactly what Porsche Chief Executive Wendelin Wiedeking had in mind when he took a controlling stake in the German automaker last year. Meanwhile, VW of America, Inc. recently announced April 2007 sales of 19,086 units. This represents a decrease of 7 percent from last year’s sales of 20,528 vehicles.
Business Week, on the other hand, reported that Volkswagen’s operating profit for the months of January to March of 2007 rose 81%, making their profits amount to $1.48 billion. That generated a 4.1% margin.
Winterkorn, an executive of VW, has this biggest job of building a real export powerhouse. For all its huge $143 billion in revenues, Volkswagen’s success remains largely centered on Europe.
Still on a positive side, in the spring season, Volkswagen’s new hard-top convertible Eos posted its best month ever with April sales of 1,142 units. The Eos is the world’s first four-seat, hard-top convertible with an integrated glass sunroof.
To take on Toyota, Volkswagen has to build serious market sales in the U.S., where last year it sold only 397,000 cars. To bolster Volkswagen’s weak U.S. market operations, Winterkorn is betting on new models. These include a van with lower costs, improved quality, and revamped sales and marketing strategies, to be launched in 2008.
VW Finance Chief Hans-Dieter Pötsch said their company certainly needs to enrich their product portfolio in the US. He also said they need models which are more specifically designed and manufactured to North America, with a more competitive cost base. He was also glad to say that it is exactly what they are doing.
Volkswagen, a manufacturer of performance quality VW tail lights, is an automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Germany, and is Europe’s largest automaker. It forms the core of Volkswagen Group and is the world’s fourth largest car producer after Toyota, General Motor and Ford, respectively. Volkswagen sells the Rabbit, New Beetle, New Beetle convertible, GTI, Jetta, GLI, Passat, Passat wagon, Eos, and Touareg.
The name means “people’s car” in German. Its tagline is translated in English as “For the love of the car” or, “For Love of the People’s Cars”, as translated by VW in other languages, though in direct translation it reads “Out of love for the car.”
On the other hand, Volkswagen of America, Inc. was founded in 1955. Its headquarters is in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is a subsidiary of Volkswagen in Germany. It has approximately 600 independent U.S. dealers.
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Benjamin Hudson works as a supervisor at one of the top engineering firms in the business district of Louisiana. He is also a freelance journalist and has passion for anything automotive.