Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Here they go again....

What's it cost to beat Toyota? $71 billion, says VW

For all the trouble Toyota has endured over the past year, the Japanese juggernaut is still the top dog in the automotive kingdom. Volkswagen wants to change that with an ambitious goal to overtake Toyota in overall sales and profitability by 2018. VW currently has a long way to go to reach Toyota, but Automotive News reports that the German automaker plans to bridge the gap by investing 51.6 billion euros ($71 billion in U.S. dollars) though 2015 to beef up it's product lineup.

That's a lot of coin by any stretch, and VW plans to spend that wealth in several key areas. A reported $38 billion will be spent to bolster the automaker's current model lineup across VW's many brands, enabling VW to "systematically continue its model roll out with a view to tapping new markets and segments." Another $19.6 billion will be spent on cross-product investments and another $14 billion will go towards what AN calls "additions to capitalized investment costs."

Volkswagen reportedly plans to hit 10 million global sales per year as early as 2015, but to increase sales so dramatically, new plants must be built. The German automaker will open a U.S. plant in Tennessee next year, and there are plans to build two more assembly plants in China in an effort to increase sales in the world's largest car market to three million units per year within four years. VW's plan to spend over $14 billion in China through 2015 isn't even included in the $71 billion investment, either, as all China operations are run under a joint venture with FAW and SAIC.

Will Volkswagen reach it's very ambitious goal to hit 10 million annual sales by 2015? We have no idea, but we can at least say that The People's Car Maker plans to spend big while trying.

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/11/22/w...llion-says-vw/

rominl

iTrader: (4)

why don't they just forget about all these press info, do what they think they need to do, and then talk about it when it's all said and done?

i am sure it takes a lot of money to match up or overtake toyota, but at the same time i am sure money is NOT the only thing needed

Jetfire

iTrader: (3)

71 billion...more like...

TRDFantasy

I am so tired of all this talk from VW.

All I have to say to VW is good luck. Toyota currently spends over 10 billion per year *just* on R&D alone.

LexFather

Well VW should be able to do it. They have brands like SEAT which use old VW platforms etc and Skoda which are VWs with different bodies and they are ramping up cars here.

Toyota has 1 full nameplate, 1 niche brand (Scion) and 1 luxury brand (Lexus)

VW has what Porsche, Audi, VW, Seat, Skoda, Lambo, ??????

Its quite amazing Toyota sells that well!

IS-SV

VW is finding talk to be cheaper than action.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

exactly, and of course toyota isn't standing still and will no doubt be also spending tens of billions on its own line-up, so basically the 'news' is worthless.

aiming at what toyota is today, guarantees you will miss because when your effort takes you to your projected target, the target is long gone.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

reminds me a lot of the honda waffling.

-J-P-L-

Why do they keep making it a stated goal at becoming the biggest?

That should never be the underlying goal of an automaker. It often creates more trouble than its worth. And it just doesn't sound good stating such a goal rather than talking about what's important to buyers.

I know it's a global goal and VW does very well outside of the US, but they'll never be able to become a top dog in the US. In fact, VW operations in the US aren't even profitable.

American buyers will only take notice when you can drive your VW for 100,000 miles with no repairs. That's what you can do with a Toyota. And VW's price premium needs to come down. And ergonomics have to be greatly improved. Everything in a VW (or any German car) is much more annoying to use than a Japanese car.

MR_F1

And Daihatsu, and Hino.

TRDFantasy

How much do SEAT and Skoda sell globally? I'm actually curious.

Toyota I believe is more of a full-line manufacturer than VW is. As far as I know, VW does not make a full-size pickup truck for example. VW does own Scania, which makes commercial and heavy trucks. Of course, Toyota also offers heavy and commercial trucks through their Hino subsidiary.

Yes it can be done, but keep in mind Toyota is not sitting still.

Exactly. VW is aiming for one of the fastest-moving targets in the industry.

Maybe in the minds of VW executives, they feel they have already beaten Toyota, and all they need to do now is to achieve it in the real world?