Volkswagen to focus on quality and profit, not sales crown
Small, cheap cars set to be sacrificed in shift towards premium models and higher marginsVolkswagen says it's ready to abandon chasing sales volume and begin selling fewer cars overall in a bid to refocus on producing more profitable, premium cars.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Volkswagen's finance chief Arno Antlitz said: "We are [more focused] on quality and on margins, rather than on volume and market share."
As part of the German auto giant's radical rethink, Antlitz said VW would reduce its range of petrol and diesel cars by 60 per cent in Europe over the next eight years.
That equates to more than 100 models spread over several brands.
According to Antlitz, the strategy change was triggered by profound changes in the auto industry that meant increasing profits by selling higher volumes – sometimes at heavy discounts – was no longer feasible.
Back in 2018, former VW CEO Martin Winterkorn famously declared that it was Volkswagen Group's aim to beat both Toyota and General Motors to become the world's biggest car-maker by sales volume that year.
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