Following the Dieselgate scandal, Volkswagen states more models and less expensive rates will be coming in an effort to help conserve both its sales and its reputation, according to a recent report.
Alan Brown, chairman of Volkswagen’s U.S. dealer council informs Bloomberg that Volkswagen “is looking at this with a volume mindset,” and plans on doing whatever it can to have more sales in. In the meantime, those strategies mainly involve decreasing market prices and broadening the automaker’s model variety, Bloomberg reports.
Acquiring market share and improving sakes has actually long been a goal for the embattled German automaker, particularly in the United States– however it has mostly stayed out of reach. In 2007, long prior to anyone outside the company could have anticipated the current scandals, Volkswagen’s former CEO Martin Winterkorn set a goal of selling 800,000 automobiles a year in the U.S. by 2018. In 2015, though, Volkswagen sold about 349,440 automobiles here.
Part of the significant strategy switch and model range growth will come from a modification of focus from diesel vehicles to electrical vehicles. As The Drive has previously reported, Volkswagen is dealing with 3 new electric car platforms and has set an objective of selling 3 million electrical cars by 2025. Volkswagen’s North America head, Hinrich Woebcken, has stated the plans on selling a handful of electrical vehicles in America starting in 2020 and that the car manufacturer likewise plans to develop a few of those EVs in America. Formerly, Woebcken has spoken about how he hopes that in the future Volkswagen “is not viewed as a niche player any longer”.
Among the future designs expected to show up in the future are an electrical Golf-sized compact with around 300 miles of range that will apparently have the ability to charge in 15 minutes, and a midsized crossover SUV like the CrossBlue concept first seen in 2013.
Recently, Volkswagen reached a settlement that intends to assist 650 of its dealerships with the loss of earnings they might have experienced following the Dieselgate scandal. That agreement came after an ongoing stop-sale order of 11 months and counting, which avoids dealerships from offering the 12,000 diesel vehicles that sit unsold on their lots. In July, Volkswagen’s sales lowered by almost 14 percent, according to Autodata Corp.
