[ad_1]
What may these selections be? For starters, one may be bringing a long-speculated VW electric compact pickup to the U.S., or it’d imply building a larger American version of the ID Buzz here alongside ID4 compact crossovers. No matter what they’re, the choices must make enterprise sense, Keogh mentioned — however they’re largely now his selections to make.
“Let’s name it ‘the mathematics’ nonetheless must make sense; it is nonetheless the automotive enterprise, so that you want scale, you want efficiencies and also you do a correct enterprise case. However sure, we will do these issues regionally,” Keogh mentioned.
What modified? Nicely, in easy phrases, VW of America grew up.
After years of shedding cash, and after the disastrous diesel emissions scandal, VW of America had “an $800 million swing” to the nice in 2021, Keogh mentioned. Its community of 638 dealerships averaged a 4.5 p.c return final yr — about triple their historic industry-lagging revenue margin. U.S. gross sales climbed 15 p.c in 2021 to simply greater than 375,000 autos, 73 p.c of which had been extra worthwhile crossovers as an alternative of much less worthwhile sedans, as had been the case in years previous. U.S. market share for the VW model was 2.5 p.c, and it’s prone to climb larger as manufacturing in North America will increase due to microchips being diverted from Europe.
Like a teen doing their chores with out being requested, these outcomes all obtained seen in Wolfsburg.
“Should you take a look at the enterprise on the whole, we had been traditionally, as an example, a simplistic import enterprise. Then the import enterprise mainly stayed an import enterprise after we constructed vegetation within the area as a result of we had been mainly a gross sales and advertising entity,” Keogh mentioned. “Over time, we have moved to take full duty — that features the buying, it consists of the engineering, it consists of the manufacturing.”
Source link