Skip to main content

VW “Right On Track” After 6-Month Report

With strong returns, doubling profits, and nearly 3 million vehicles delivered in the first half of the year, Volkswagen’s outlook is good for 2017.

Following a very shaky 2016 marred by the dieselgate scandal, there was no guarantee that the Volkswagen brand would do anything but flounder this year. That has not been the case, though.

“The Volkswagen brand is on the right track,” said brand CEO Herbert Diess. “There is strong demand for our cars throughout the world and our strategic realignment is showing positive effects on business operations.”

Between January and June, the Volkswagen brand managed to move 40 million vehicles around the world, which led to an eight percent hike in revenue for the brand. Along with cost saving measures, that led an operating profit of 1.8 billion euros ($2.1 billion), twice as much as the first half of 2016.

That means, according to VW, that the brand is matching expectations.

“We have successfully embarked on a new phase in our company,” said Diess. “Our objective is to position Volkswagen in such a way that it is fully and completely viable for the future so that we can continue to play a leading role in the automobile world of the future.”

Volkswagen feels, therefore, that they’re back on solid footing and, according to CFO Frank Witter ready to cope with transformations in the automotive industry.

That means that the automaker can get back on the offensive with new models to grow sales even further.

“We want to win market shares with new, attractive and emotional vehicles at the same time as further improving our competitiveness,” said Diess. “We want to use the positive momentum that we can feel throughout the company and in the marketplace to step up the pace both for the realignment of the Group and business operations. The Volkswagen brand is going on the offensive again”

The post VW “Right On Track” After 6-Month Report appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2tKezv6
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Watch: The Stig Drives (nearly) Seven Generations of Golf GTI

With Volkswagen announcing “major” updates to the Golf, it seems an appropriate time to look back on what we’ve had so far. And who better to guide us through the rich history of the most popular European car ever made than Ben Collins, the former Stig? Some say he’s never met a GTI he doesn’t love, and that he can’t grow any of his own facial hair. All we know is … Ben Collins is actually a pretty solid presenter. Working his way through seven generations of the GTI (skipping over the Mk6) Collins tells us a little bit about each one and matches each mark to its corresponding facial hair craze. The Mk1 GTI for instance, is light and quick, but can lose traction under hard acceleration (in heavy rain). Despite that, Collins calls the Mk1 a “pure gem.” The Mk4, meanwhile, is a powerful return to form after the perhaps too sensible Mk3. Collins ends in the only way he could, with the Mk7, which accelerates faster than a Lamborghini Countach and is all kinds of wonderful. Watch, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Watch: The Story of the Ads that Made VW Big in America

The ads for the original Beetle are almost as famous and well-loved as the Beetle itself. Looking back now it’s easy to forget, though, just how easily things could have wrong. A new short from Dial M Films tracks the history of those early Volkswagen ads that sold America on the people’s car. The story, of course, begins with the visionary agency that made the ads: Doyle Dane Bernach (DDB). As a popular agency for Jewish products, no agency was more aware of the implications of Volkswagen, and no one, it seems, was more skeptical of the brand than DDB. “Remember Those Great Volkswagen Ads?” from Dial M Films on Vimeo . William Bernbach, though, was adament that the firm take the client, probably as a way of attracting other lucrative automotive clients. Saddled with a client that he didn’t want, art director Helmut Krone says in the film that he originally came up with ads that were all wrong. Krone tried to do what other manufacturers did and was intent on selling the Beetle ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Watch: The Zerouno Cruis’n USA

ItalDesign is drumming up excitement for its new supercar based around the same 5.2-liter Audi V10 that powers the R8. Naturally, it hit the road for a cruise around California last week to celebrate Monterey Car Week. There isn’t much in the way of V10 noise—which is a real shame given the sound it makes—but you do at least get a good look at the car inside and out in this video. With a body made entirely of carbon fiber and designed to be as aerodynamic and light as possible, ItalDesign figures that it will be good for a 0-60 time of just 3.2 seconds. “We put it our best skills into the production of the first car,” said Massimo Bovi, head of pre-series production, when the Zerouno was first unveiled in Geneva earlier this year. “Using some of the finest productions methods and engaging our high-skilled workers.” The car features clever aero tricks gleaned from single-seat racing, like a y-duct up front to improve downforce and turn-in. Available in a number of trim levels, the...
Post a Comment
Read more