Volkswagen is targeting savings and efficiency improvements of more than €4 billion ($US4.85 billion) by 2008, its chief executive reportedly said in Hamburg.

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In order to reach its target of improving earnings by 2008 by €4 billion, Europe’s largest carmaker said it needs to save more than this amount to account for eventual mid-term developments in market prices, exchange rates and the sales mix of its models, according to Reuters.


“What I said in an interview recently was an improvement in earnings [of] four billion by 2008,” Bernd Pischetsrieder told Reuters, referring to an interview earlier this month with German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.


The sum of savings and efficiency improvements required then is “naturally more than this (4 billion) figure,” he continued.


Reuters said Pischetsrieder was speaking to reporters at a dinner on Thursday night on the understanding that his remarks would not be released until early Friday morning.

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The news agency noted Volkswagen is already planning to achieve savings and efficiency improvements of €3.1 billion this year to help it reach its forecast of higher operating profit this year, a goal Pischetsrieder reaffirmed on Thursday.


The Volkswagen CEO also said that he was considering expanding the capacity of the manufacturing plant in Puebla, Mexico, to 500,000 vehicles per year from roughly 400,000 currently.


Contrary to media reports citing the province’s governor, though, VW said it is not planning to build a new factory in Central or South America, Reuters noted.


Responding to recent speculation over a possible requirement of fresh cash, Pischetsrieder reportedly said the company was not in need of a capital increase.