Volkswagen Investing Billions For Top Spot

Published: Saturday, September 17, 2011, 12:56 [IST]

Volkswagen, the German carmaker is aiming to become the world's No 1 carmaker by 2018. Volkswagen wants to overtake General Motors and Toyota within the next seven years. The German carmaker intends to increase its annual sales to more than 10 million units and is aiming to spend large sums to achieve its targets.

While speaking about Volkswagen's future investments, the company's chief executive Martin Winterkorn said: “The Volkswagen Group is investing a record amount in forward-looking projects to achieve its goal of becoming the world's best automobile manufacturer."

The german carmaker had set its sights on increasing sales in India and other emerging markets to reach its targets. The alliance with Japan's Suzuki was considered as a major step towards VW becoming the world's No1 carmaker. But with the deal appearing to have struck a road block and with no signs of any improvement, Volkswagen will have to make its journey in India alone.

As a result, the recently launched Up small car which was supposed to be built in India while using Maruti Suzuki's Wagon R platform will be build by VW India independently.

Volkswagen's other important market is the USA. The company recently started operations a t a newly built plant. If VW consolidates its European markets and gains a foot hold in the Indian as well as American markets it can be sure of at least getting to the second spot. VW already has a strong grip over the Chinese market.

Volkswagen is the third largest car group and it owns several car brands such as Bentley, Bugatti, Scania, Skoda and Porsche.