{"id":109563,"date":"2016-09-14T08:25:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-14T12:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=109563"},"modified":"2016-09-14T08:25:00","modified_gmt":"2016-09-14T12:25:00","slug":"vw-reorients-its-us-operations-in-wake-of-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2016\/09\/vw-reorients-its-us-operations-in-wake-of-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"VW Reorients Its US Operations in Wake of Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"
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VW's North American cheif Hinrich Woebcken said the automaker is committed to the U.S. market.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Volkswagen of America\u2019s new boss is confident the automaker can and will rebuild its North American business in the wake of the emission-cheating scandal.<\/p>\n

The scandal has cost VW billions in fines and settlements, cuts sales substantially and left many of the company most loyal customers with vehicles that lost value and require major repairs.<\/p>\n

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News Now!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hinrich Woebcken, who took over the role of president and chief executive of VW Group\u2019s operations in North America this past winter, said during a session with reporters at the preview of Volkswagen\u2019s 2017 model line that Volkswagen has prepared a plan for a comeback in the wake of the company\u2019s disastrous emission cheating scandal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came into a crisis with this diesel engine,\u201d said Woebcken. \u201cWe are really working to get this straight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe remain fully committed to the U.S. market. We need to stay in the North American market,\u201d said Woebcken, who noted that in addition to spending $15 billion on the fines and settlements in the emission scandal, VW will spend another $7 billion on upgrading its North American operations.<\/p>\n

(VW engineer helping with diesel investigation. <\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a> for the story.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The upgrade includes new products such as the Golf Alltrack Sport Wagon, a new SUV code-named Cross Blue and a new Tiguan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are busy ramping up for the new SUV. I\u2019ve already driven the prototype. All three of the vehicles will be in showrooms by the middle of 2017. Beyond that there is also a new Jetta in product pipeline,\u201d Woebcken said.<\/p>\n

Woebcken said Volkswagen also is moving away from what he described as a reliance on what was basically a compact-car strategy to one that is more family oriented, which is more in keeping with preferences of American consumers.<\/p>\n

(Dealers latest to settle. <\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span> for details.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

At the same time, VW plans to hold on to the elements that have always made it seem \u201ccool and smart,\u201d he said. \u201cThis brand has the very special element of being different,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Woebcken also told reporters that the VW Group has re-organized its operations in North America. The re-organization is keeping with VW\u2019s plan to make its of its major regions more independent. China, Volkswagen\u2019s largest market, is more independent because of the governance structure that requires the company\u2019s ventures in China to have Chinese partners.<\/p>\n

The new \u201cgovernance\u201d in North America give his operations more independence and the opportunity to get closer to American customers.<\/p>\n

(Despite retreat by some makers, diesel isn\u2019t dead yet. <\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span> for the story.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

At the same time, VW Group has given its North American operations more leeway in product design. The engineering next generation Volkswagen Passat, for example, will be finished at VW’s expanded engineering center in Puebla, Mexico.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Volkswagen of America\u2019s new boss is confident the automaker can and will rebuild its North American business in the wake of the emission-cheating scandal. The scandal has cost VW billions in fines and settlements, cuts sales substantially and left many of the company most loyal customers with vehicles that lost value and require major repairs. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20009,"featured_media":103019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[151],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109563"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20009"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109563"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=109563"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=109563"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=109563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}