Volkswagen is planning to sell 800,000 cars a year in the USA by 2018, according to VW of North America president and chief executive Stefan Jacoby.
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Automobilwoche noted this would be more than double what it sold in the whole of North America (USA, Canada and Mexico) in the last financial year.
A big volume increase is expected from the introduction of the new Tiguan compact SUV, which goes on sale in summer 2008.
Jacoby said a decision to build a US assembly plant would be taken within six months – it would have a capacity of 200,000 vehicles a year and come on stream in 2011 or 2012, according to the Detroit Free Press.
VW’s development chief Ulrich Hackenberg showed a third study for the new small family car that Volkswagen is hoping to market from 2010/11. The lastest concept, called ‘Space Up! Blue’ is a four-seater and is displayed at Los Angeles with a high temperature fuel cell and lithium-ion batteries.
A set of solar panels supply energy to ventilate the cabin.
New idea? Not really. Something similar was a production feature on some mid-1990s Mazda 929 models which had solar cells built into the sunroof. They powered a fan that pumped air through the car when parked in the sun, keeping the cabin cooler and reducing initial demand on the air conditioner.
