To meet its ambitious goal of reaching 800,000 annual sales in the United States by 2018, up from 324,402 deliveries last year, Volkswagen might need a little help through the introduction of new models and variants.
If Rainer Michel, Volkswagen of America’s vice president for product marketing and strategy, could get his way, he would enhance the company’s American lineup with a new base SUV placed under the current Tiguan crossover and a larger model slotting between the latter and the mid-sized Touareg SUV.
Speaking to Automotive News, Michel said that any new small SUV would need to be produced locally, either at VW’s factory in Chattanooga, USA, or at its Puebla plant in Mexico, due to the fact that small cars cannot be competitively priced in North America if produced in Europe.
He added that he would also like to see more diesel engines being offered across the range, including for the Tiguan. Currently, diesels account for just over 20 percent of VW’s sales but Michel believes that the addition of a Tiguan diesel could boost that number to 30 percent.
The Volkswagen executive is also keen on presenting a premium offering, possibly the updated Phaeton that went on sale in Europe in 2010.
“It’s certainly under discussion,” Michel told Automotive News of bringing the Phaeton back to North America. “To prove this brand can command this 5 percent premium, we need cars like that,” he added.
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