The Volkswagen Group remains on the right track in spite of tough economic conditions, chairman Martin Winterkorn told around 20,000 workers at the automaker’s main Wolfsburg plant in Germany.
“We’ve got what it takes to keep Volkswagen on course”, Winterkorn told a works meeting also attended by supervisory board chairman Ferdinand Piëch and board member Ursula Piëch.
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Winterkorn said conditions had become “noticeably harder and tougher”. But he nevertheless reiterated the automaker’s long-term goal: “We want to become the world’s best automaker by 2018.”
Winterkorn also thanked employees for their “strong team performance” in getting production of the new Golf under way: “That is especially important now during ramp up.”
Sales and marketing chief Christian Klingler, who also heads the VW passenger cars brand, presented the redesigned Golf promotional campaign and claimed “the success story would continue with the best Golf of all time”.
“The Golf, Das Auto, remains true to its name”, Klingler said.
CFO Hans Dieter Pötsch noted that the group with 12 “fascinating” brands was in an excellent position.
“The group has been demonstrating its strength and robustness for months, even in times of economic uncertainty”, he told employees, adding this was not only confirmed by the figures for the first half year, but also by the positive trend in vehicle deliveries during the first eight months, when the group outperformed the market.
Pötsch cautioned, however, that the second half of the year would be harder.
“The underlying conditions are challenging and will remain so”, he said.
