In all probability solely Individuals of a sure age keep in mind when the Volkswagen Beetle was the best-selling imported automobile in america and the hippest experience to a Grateful Lifeless live performance was a Volkswagen Microbus.
Volkswagen is attempting to faucet a few of that nostalgia in its newest push to regain the standing and gross sales it loved in america throughout the Beetle’s and Microbus’s heydays within the Sixties. However this time it hopes its high fashions will likely be electrical.
The German carmaker is second solely to Toyota globally however is a distinct segment participant in america. A part of its plan to revive its fortunes right here is to lean on a brand new electrical mannequin that resembles the Microbus, the ID.Buzz, and to revive the Scout model with a line of electrical pickups and sport utility automobiles.
Final week, as large earth movers kicked up clouds of mud, Volkswagen executives and native officers gathered close to Columbia, S.C., to inaugurate the location of a manufacturing facility that can construct automobiles bearing the Scout badge for the primary time since 1980.
Volkswagen is one in every of a number of overseas automakers that see electrical vehicles and the upheaval they’re inflicting as a technique to problem the dominant gamers in america. Volkswagen, which additionally owns Audi, Porsche, Bentley and Lamborghini, is aiming to a minimum of double its market share in america by the tip of the last decade from a meager 4 % now.
“This market is popping electrical, and all people’s ranging from scratch,” Arno Antlitz, the chief monetary officer of Volkswagen, mentioned in an interview. “That is our distinctive alternative to develop.”
Electrical automobiles have already shaken the trade rankings, emboldening Volkswagen and different overseas automakers. Battery-powered S.U.V.s and sedans helped Hyundai Motor and its sister model Kia overtake Stellantis, the maker of Jeep, Dodge, Chrysler and Ram, because the fourth-largest carmaker by gross sales in america final yr.
“Electrical automobiles are serving to our model to be seen as a expertise chief,” mentioned José Muñoz, chief working officer of Hyundai. Additionally they entice a better-educated, extra prosperous buyer than has been the case for the South Korean firm’s gasoline automobiles, he mentioned in an interview.
The record of firms that dominate electrical automobile gross sales seems loads completely different from the highest rankings for total U.S. gross sales, hinting at a future when a special group of firms rule.
The highest 5 firms in america for all engine sorts are Common Motors, Toyota, Ford Motor, Hyundai and Stellantis. In electrical vehicles, Tesla is No. 1 by a large margin, adopted by Hyundai, G.M., Ford and Volkswagen. Toyota is a minor participant in electrical vehicles.
“Simply since you’ve been round for 120 years doesn’t imply you’re going to have something on this new market,” mentioned Steven Heart, the chief working officer of Kia America.
Volvo Vehicles is one other firm hoping to reap the benefits of the modifications wrought by electrical automobiles. The Swedish carmaker, which is majority owned by Geely Holding Group of China, reported a 26 % improve in U.S. gross sales final yr.
A lot of that progress got here from hybrids which have a gasoline engine and may journey shorter distances on batteries. However Mike Cottone, president of Volvo Automotive for america and Canada, mentioned he noticed hybrids as a pathway to totally electrical automobiles.
Later this yr, Volvo will start promoting a Chinese language-made, all-electric compact S.U.V., the EX30, which is able to begin at $35,000. The corporate can even start delivering the EX90, a seven-seat S.U.V. that’s made in South Carolina and can begin round $80,000.
Particularly for luxurious automobile patrons, Mr. Cottone mentioned, “there’s loads of room for progress within the E.V. phase over the subsequent few years.”
Volkswagen has tried and failed because the Nineteen Seventies to turn into an even bigger presence in america, and analysts are skeptical that this time will likely be completely different. “I’ve seen Volkswagen set these targets earlier than,” mentioned Michelle Krebs, government analyst at Cox Automotive.
The established carmakers is not going to be pushovers. G.M. and Ford are additionally investing closely in electrical automobiles, whereas Toyota has mentioned it would begin producing a big electrical S.U.V. in Kentucky subsequent yr.
Ms. Krebs identified that auto gross sales within the U.S. had been rising slowly, making the struggle for market share largely a zero-sum sport. “There’s this little little bit of progress that everyone goes after,” she mentioned.
Volkswagen’s final huge push in america resulted in scandal. Within the early 2000s, the corporate tried to promote Individuals on vehicles with “clear diesel” engines. It marketed the gas, which was utilized in European passenger vehicles rather more than in American vehicles, as extra environmentally pleasant than gasoline.
However the marketing campaign collapsed in 2015 when U.S. regulators found that Volkswagen had used software program within the automobiles to cheat on emissions exams. In actuality, the vehicles polluted as a lot as long-haul vehicles.
The scandal had one profit for Volkswagen. It prompted the corporate to speculate early in electrical car expertise and construct vehicles that had been designed from the bottom as much as run on batteries, somewhat than make awkward modifications to gasoline fashions. In Europe, Volkswagen’s varied electrical manufacturers collectively outsell Tesla, in accordance with Schmidt Automotive Analysis.
The individual chargeable for doubling Volkswagen gross sales in america is Pablo Di Si, president of Volkswagen Group of America. Mr. Di Si, initially from Argentina, mentioned he deliberate to make use of the identical technique he deployed whereas overseeing the corporate’s operations in Brazil, the place Volkswagen’s market share rose to greater than 16 % from 9 %.
“You have a look at the segments that you simply assume are going to achieve success 10 years from now,” Mr. Di Si mentioned in an interview. “What are your gaps within the product portfolio? And you then begin including merchandise for these explicit markets.”
In america, he mentioned, that’s prone to embody gasoline vehicles and hybrids in addition to all-electric automobiles. Volkswagen plans to import the ID.7, an electrical sedan, and the ID.Buzz. Mr. Di Si hinted that there may additionally be a brand new electrical car that references the design of the Beetle. The final model of that automobile offered in america was the 2019 Beetle.
Volkswagen is constructing a $5 billion manufacturing facility in Ontario to provide batteries to its factories in Chattanooga, Tenn., and Puebla, Mexico, which collectively will produce a minimum of 80 % of the corporate’s vehicles offered in North America. That may assist patrons of vehicles from its Volkswagen, Audi and different manufacturers qualify for federal tax credit of as much as $7,500 per automobile.
Scout will fill a significant hole in Volkswagen’s portfolio: pickups, among the many hottest automobiles in america. By reviving Scout, which was one of many first passenger automobiles that would navigate tough filth tracks in addition to metropolis streets, Volkswagen hopes to draw patrons who sometimes purchase off-road-capable automobiles from U.S. manufacturers like Chevrolet, Ford and Jeep.
The South Carolina manufacturing facility will underscore the made-in-America vibe when the primary Scouts go on sale in late 2026. Volkswagen inherited the Scout model when the corporate’s truck subsidiary, Traton, acquired Navistar, a U.S. firm beforehand generally known as Worldwide Harvester, in 2021.
The brand new Scouts might borrow some components utilized in different Volkswagen automobiles, firm executives mentioned, however the design will likely be distinct from current automobiles like the electrical ID.4 S.U.V. made in Chattanooga. Scout plans to disclose prototypes this yr.
A stronger presence in america is “a strategic necessity,” Scott Keogh, the chief government of Volkswagen’s Scout Motors division, mentioned in South Carolina final week.
Outdoors america, Volkswagen is a behemoth, with a 26 % share of the European market and 15 % in China. However the firm is beneath extreme stress in China, the place gross sales of electrical automobiles have been rising quick, permitting BYD and different Chinese language carmakers to realize market share from overseas automakers. Volkswagen wants progress in america to compensate.
Volkswagen “needs to have a powerful international footprint,” Mr. Keogh mentioned, “not have an remoted footprint, the place it’s solely sitting robust in a single area.”
