Under VW Group CEO Herbert Diess’ restructuring plan presented in 2016, all the company’s money-losing regions including the U.S. were slated to return to the black this year.

In a conference call with reporters, VW Group CFO Frank Witter said the economic slump stemming from the pandemic had forced it to postpone its goal for the U.S. market.

“We were well on our way to reaching our target of a breakeven for the VW passenger car brand in the USA in 2020,” Witter said. “Due to the coronavirus, it naturally won’t be possible to meet this now, unfortunately. It’s a setback, but it doesn’t change our basic aspiration.”

In the 2000s sales tapered off somewhat due to competition, quality issues and delays in product introductions, and VW's U.S. sales for 2005 totaled 224,195 – a reduction of about 37 percent from four years earlier. New models for the 2006 and 2007 model years, such as the Passat, Rabbit, and GTI resulted in a sales growth of 4.9% for 2006 with sales of 235,140 vehicles. Profitability still remained an issue, though; Volkswagen of America had not turned a profit for its parent company since 2002. In January 2007, Volkswagen of America president Adrian Hallmark publicly stated[citation needed] that he planned to get the subsidiary back to profitability in two to three years. He hoped to introduce new models for North America, and develop new marketing to encompass the whole brand as well as individual cars.[citation needed] Stefan Jacoby soon replaced him, and Volkswagen of America continued to look at new products to add to its lineup.[citation needed]In the meantime, a new advertising agency, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, helped rejuvenate VW's presence in the U.S. as well. Its ads for the fifth-generation GTI have sparked interest in the brand, not seen since the launch of the New Beetle, and ads for the fifth-generation Golf/Rabbit hatchback translated into initial strong sales for that model. Due to new air pollution rules promulgated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency(USEPA), the diesel powered VWs with TDI-PDtechnology could no longer be produced after December 31, 2006. For the 2009 model year, VW introduced a new generation of diesels, based on common rail technology. These would meet air pollution standards in all 50 states. The first of these units was made available for sale in August 2008. VW sold 2050 Jetta Sedan TDIs and 361 Jetta Sportwagen TDIs that first month.[citation needed]Volkswagen was later charged with three felonies and fined $25 billion for defrauding the American government when it was discovered that their vehicles were only passing laboratory emissions testing due to company tampering of their system's internal software.

Just because you saw 3 Atlas SUVs on your block doesn’t mean they sell well lol.