Last September, Volkswagen edged past Toyota to become the second largest auto selling company in the world. It’s next target – grab the gold by 2018. It is already the largest in the #1 automarket, China. To further propel the company’s growth globally, Martin Winterkorn, the global CEO of VW Group, has set his eyes on the fastest growing automart amongst the BRIC nations. India. The work has begun. But Indian conditions won’t allow Winterkorn to have his way easily. And then of course, there is competition.
Digital media networks covering the Frankfurt Motorshow, a few months back, were abuzz about Martin Winterkorn, CEO, Volkswagen AG, visiting the Hyundai Motor Company pavilion. It was a pleasant surprise for the Korean giant as the CEO of the world’s second-largest automobile company started examining the new i30, which was meant to give serious competition to VW’s Golf. Winterkorn started by measuring the thickness of paint used on the lift-gate, then walked around the i30 grazing his knuckles across the hood-to-bumper shut lines to check for evenness. He then took a careful note of the interiors of the car. Hard to imagine what was going on in his mind, but his expressions indicated that he had some gaps in his thought-process which needed closing. Someone ought to give him answers. Winterkorn called for VW’s design head Klaus Bischoff, and demanded, “The lever for the steering wheel release makes no sound while moving. BMW can’t do it. We can’t do it. Why can they?” The chief wanted to know how Hyundai managed to make an adjustment mechanism to the steering that didn’t make any noise. Bischoff had no answer.
Winterkorn’s visit to the Hyundai camp clearly indicated the regard he held for the fifth-largest automaker in the world – a worthy opponent. The company wouldn’t want to give up its silver crown which it snatched from Toyota last September, not to even a respected, fast-growing automaker like Hyundai.
Volkswagen’s march-without-stumble in the global market has wowed onlookers. From being a lesser-known European brand to becoming the second-largest car-seller in the world (market share of 12.2% in terms of sales volume), the past four years – with increased focus on the BRIC markets – for the group have been least to say, career-defining! Five years back, new launches from VW were unheard of in most parts of the world. Today, every move of the company is discussed upon. Winterkorn knows that.
Two years back, VW’s claim of reaching an annual production mark of 10 million units by 2018 sounded like wishful thinking, Today, it appears that the milestone will be surpassed well before the set deadline. The automaker sold 8.16 million cars worldwide in 2011, a 14.3% increase y-o-y. Experts do claim that the company may fail to mirror its previous year’s performance in 2012. However, growing its annual sales by 1.84 million over a period of 9 years means growing sales at a CAGR of 2.29% starting FY2012. Selling 186,864 cars more every year – not difficult for VW. Not if we go by the work VW has been doing in the BRIC markets post-2009.
Winterkorn is serious about the BRICs. During the previous Christmas holidays, he summoned the bosses of the company’s operations in BRIC markets to the global headquarters at Wolfsburg, Germany. With its sight set on the #1 spot in the global automotive circuit by 2018, the CEO of the $162 billion-worth VW Group wanted to reiterate on and announce his gameplan of reaching the #1 position by digging gold in the BRIC nations. Needless to mention therefore, its performance in the bloc’s second largest (after China) and the fastest growing auto market – India – is crucial.
Digital media networks covering the Frankfurt Motorshow, a few months back, were abuzz about Martin Winterkorn, CEO, Volkswagen AG, visiting the Hyundai Motor Company pavilion. It was a pleasant surprise for the Korean giant as the CEO of the world’s second-largest automobile company started examining the new i30, which was meant to give serious competition to VW’s Golf. Winterkorn started by measuring the thickness of paint used on the lift-gate, then walked around the i30 grazing his knuckles across the hood-to-bumper shut lines to check for evenness. He then took a careful note of the interiors of the car. Hard to imagine what was going on in his mind, but his expressions indicated that he had some gaps in his thought-process which needed closing. Someone ought to give him answers. Winterkorn called for VW’s design head Klaus Bischoff, and demanded, “The lever for the steering wheel release makes no sound while moving. BMW can’t do it. We can’t do it. Why can they?” The chief wanted to know how Hyundai managed to make an adjustment mechanism to the steering that didn’t make any noise. Bischoff had no answer.
Winterkorn’s visit to the Hyundai camp clearly indicated the regard he held for the fifth-largest automaker in the world – a worthy opponent. The company wouldn’t want to give up its silver crown which it snatched from Toyota last September, not to even a respected, fast-growing automaker like Hyundai.
Volkswagen’s march-without-stumble in the global market has wowed onlookers. From being a lesser-known European brand to becoming the second-largest car-seller in the world (market share of 12.2% in terms of sales volume), the past four years – with increased focus on the BRIC markets – for the group have been least to say, career-defining! Five years back, new launches from VW were unheard of in most parts of the world. Today, every move of the company is discussed upon. Winterkorn knows that.
Two years back, VW’s claim of reaching an annual production mark of 10 million units by 2018 sounded like wishful thinking, Today, it appears that the milestone will be surpassed well before the set deadline. The automaker sold 8.16 million cars worldwide in 2011, a 14.3% increase y-o-y. Experts do claim that the company may fail to mirror its previous year’s performance in 2012. However, growing its annual sales by 1.84 million over a period of 9 years means growing sales at a CAGR of 2.29% starting FY2012. Selling 186,864 cars more every year – not difficult for VW. Not if we go by the work VW has been doing in the BRIC markets post-2009.
Winterkorn is serious about the BRICs. During the previous Christmas holidays, he summoned the bosses of the company’s operations in BRIC markets to the global headquarters at Wolfsburg, Germany. With its sight set on the #1 spot in the global automotive circuit by 2018, the CEO of the $162 billion-worth VW Group wanted to reiterate on and announce his gameplan of reaching the #1 position by digging gold in the BRIC nations. Needless to mention therefore, its performance in the bloc’s second largest (after China) and the fastest growing auto market – India – is crucial.
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