Green Car Advisor (Edmunds): VW expects sales growth as demand for diesel grows

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VW Sees U.S. Sales Spurt as Diesel Demand Grows

By Scott Doggett, Contributor

Volkswagen's U.S. sales will reverse a downward trend and soar more than triple to one million vehicles annually over the next 10 years, if all goes according to plan.

That would be the plan outlined by Stefan Jacoby, chief executive of Volkswagen Group of America, on Friday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Aggressive marketing and growing demand for clean diesels would drive the sales, he said.

One million vehicles sold annually by 2018 would be an impressive increase from 2007, when the company sold 235,000 VWs and 94,000 Audis. It also would reverse a downward trend; in 2002, the company sold 338,000 Volkswagen brand cars in the United States.

Citing a J.D. Power study predicting the U.S. diesel car market will increase by 2012 to 7 percent of annual new car sales from 3 percent now, Jacoby said he believes Volkswagen is well-positioned to take advantage of the anticipated increase in demand.

"Diesel is back," said Jacoby, adding that Volkswagen traditionally has shown strength in the diesel car market. "We see clean diesel at a tipping point."

Volkswagen, the fourth-largest automaker in the world, controls only 2 percent of the U.S. auto market and is taking steps to change that. Next month, it will move its North American headquarters to northern Virginia from Detroit to bring it closer to its customer base.

Jacoby also said that Volkswagen was looking to produce cars in the U.S. for the first time since it closed a small assembly plant in Pennsylvania in 1984 -- but he later retracted the remark, saying he wasn't comfortable making that announcement yet.

Posted by John Mar 10, 2008 4:00 am

Green Car Advisor - VW Sees U.S. Sales Spurt as Diesel Demand Grows