To become a truly global manufacturer and survive in a market that demands energy efficiency and the use of new fuels, VW has formulated a strategy underpinned by innovation and environmentally friendly practices while taking advantage of the region’s expanding markets. It aims to become the dominant car manufacturer in the Middle East and the top automotive company by 2018. “It is clear however that the mature markets will not grow as quickly as the emerging markets,” he said, adding that this augured well for Volkswagen as they already hold the No. 1 position as car manufacturer by volume in both China and South America.
“We also have huge potential for Improvement in North America,” he added.
He noted that the Gulf region was one of the “white spots” on the VW sales map but that a strategy was about to be launched to address that.
In 2010 the world car market grew by 11 percent and in most areas VW sales kept ahead of the growth with sales increases of 13 percent. He believed there would be substantial growth in China, and he said that up to 2015 VW planned to invest up to 10 billion euros into the market.
He was careful to emphasize the need to distinguish between the premium and volume markets. Premium cars, Audi and Porsche, were the same wherever, but the volume cars differed.
To remain competitive, Pötsch said that it was important to understand two trends in the automotive industry. One was to have increasing numbers of models in the range to sell the same volume of cars. This carried with it the challenge of increasing complexity and it would destroy the business model. To overcome this, standardization of "under the skin" engineering that formed a shared set of key parts which could be used in multiple models.
“This saves more than 20 percent in unit costs, a similar ratio in one-off costs.”
It also saved 30 percent in hours to build a car and also on the weight.
“It is a fundamental approach to reduce complexity.”
