Probably solely Americans of a sure age bear in mind when the Volkswagen Beetle was the best-selling imported automobile in the United States and the hippest journey to a Grateful Dead live performance was a Volkswagen Microbus.
Volkswagen is making an attempt to faucet a few of that nostalgia in its newest push to regain the standing and gross sales it loved in the United States throughout the Beetle’s and Microbus’s heydays in the Sixties. But this time it hopes its high fashions shall be electrical.
The German carmaker is second solely to Toyota globally however is a area of interest participant in the United States. Part of its plan to revive its fortunes right here is to lean on a new electrical mannequin that resembles the Microbus, the ID.Buzz, and to revive the Scout model with a line of electrical pickups and sport utility automobiles.
Last week, as big earth movers kicked up clouds of mud, Volkswagen executives and native officers gathered close to Columbia, S.C., to inaugurate the website of a manufacturing facility that may construct automobiles bearing the Scout badge for the first time since 1980.
Volkswagen is certainly one of a number of international automakers that see electrical vehicles and the upheaval they’re inflicting as a approach to problem the dominant gamers in the United States. Volkswagen, which additionally owns Audi, Porsche, Bentley and Lamborghini, is aiming to at the very least double its market share in the United States by the finish of the decade from a meager 4 % now.
“This market is turning electric, and everybody’s starting from scratch,” Arno Antlitz, the chief monetary officer of Volkswagen, stated in an interview. “This is our unique opportunity to grow.”
Electric automobiles have already shaken the trade rankings, emboldening Volkswagen and different international automakers. Battery-powered S.U.V.s and sedans helped Hyundai Motor and its sister model Kia overtake Stellantis, the maker of Jeep, Dodge, Chrysler and Ram, as the fourth-largest carmaker by gross sales in the United States final yr.
“Electric vehicles are helping our brand to be seen as a technology leader,” stated José Muñoz, chief working officer of Hyundai. They additionally appeal to a better-educated, extra prosperous buyer than has been the case for the South Korean firm’s gasoline automobiles, he stated in an interview.
The record of corporations that dominate electrical automobile gross sales seems to be a lot totally different from the high rankings for total U.S. gross sales, hinting at a future when a totally different group of corporations rule.
The high 5 corporations in the United States for all engine varieties are General Motors, Toyota, Ford Motor, Hyundai and Stellantis. In electrical vehicles, Tesla is No. 1 by a huge margin, adopted by Hyundai, G.M., Ford and Volkswagen. Toyota is a minor participant in electrical vehicles.
“Just because you’ve been around for 120 years doesn’t mean you’re going to have anything in this new market,” stated Steven Center, the chief working officer of Kia America.
Volvo Cars is one other firm hoping to benefit from the adjustments wrought by electrical automobiles. The Swedish carmaker, which is majority owned by Geely Holding Group of China, reported a 26 % improve in U.S. gross sales final yr.
Much of that progress got here from hybrids which have a gasoline engine and may journey shorter distances on batteries. But Mike Cottone, president of Volvo Car for the United States and Canada, stated he noticed hybrids as a pathway to absolutely electrical automobiles.
Later this yr, Volvo will start promoting a Chinese-made, all-electric compact S.U.V., the EX30, which is able to begin at $35,000. The firm may even start delivering the EX90, a seven-seat S.U.V. that’s made in South Carolina and can begin round $80,000.
Especially for luxurious automobile consumers, Mr. Cottone stated, “there’s a lot of room for growth in the E.V. segment over the next few years.”
Volkswagen has tried and failed since the Nineteen Seventies to turn out to be a greater presence in the United States, and analysts are skeptical that this time shall be totally different. “I’ve seen Volkswagen set these goals before,” stated Michelle Krebs, govt analyst at Cox Automotive.
The established carmakers is not going to be pushovers. G.M. and Ford are additionally investing closely in electrical automobiles, whereas Toyota has stated it’s going to begin producing a giant electrical S.U.V. in Kentucky subsequent yr.
Ms. Krebs identified that auto gross sales in the U.S. have been rising slowly, making the combat for market share largely a zero-sum sport. “There’s this little bit of growth that everybody is going after,” she stated.
Volkswagen’s final huge push in the United States ended in scandal. In the early 2000s, the firm tried to promote Americans on vehicles with “clean diesel” engines. It marketed the gas, which was used in European passenger vehicles rather more than in American vehicles, as extra environmentally pleasant than gasoline.
But the marketing campaign collapsed in 2015 when U.S. regulators found that Volkswagen had used software program in the automobiles to cheat on emissions exams. In actuality, the vehicles polluted as a lot as long-haul vehicles.
The scandal had one profit for Volkswagen. It prompted the firm to make investments early in electrical automobile know-how and construct vehicles that have been designed from the floor up to run on batteries, reasonably than make awkward modifications to gasoline fashions. In Europe, Volkswagen’s numerous electrical manufacturers collectively outsell Tesla, in accordance to Schmidt Automotive Research.
The individual accountable for doubling Volkswagen gross sales in the United States is Pablo Di Si, president of Volkswagen Group of America. Mr. Di Si, initially from Argentina, stated he deliberate to use the identical technique he deployed whereas overseeing the firm’s operations in Brazil, the place Volkswagen’s market share rose to greater than 16 % from 9 %.
“You look at the segments that you think are going to be successful 10 years from now,” Mr. Di Si stated in an interview. “What are your gaps in the product portfolio? And then you start adding products for those particular markets.”
In the United States, he stated, that’s doubtless to embody gasoline vehicles and hybrids as properly as all-electric automobiles. Volkswagen plans to import the ID.7, an electrical sedan, and the ID.Buzz. Mr. Di Si hinted that there may additionally be a new electrical automobile that references the design of the Beetle. The final model of that automobile bought in the United States was the 2019 Beetle.
Volkswagen is constructing a $5 billion manufacturing facility in Ontario to provide batteries to its factories in Chattanooga, Tenn., and Puebla, Mexico, which collectively will produce at the very least 80 % of the firm’s vehicles bought in North America. That will assist consumers of vehicles from its Volkswagen, Audi and different manufacturers qualify for federal tax credit of up to $7,500 per automobile.
Scout will fill a main hole in Volkswagen’s portfolio: pickups, amongst the hottest automobiles in the United States. By reviving Scout, which was certainly one of the first passenger automobiles that would navigate tough grime tracks as properly as metropolis streets, Volkswagen hopes to appeal to consumers who usually purchase off-road-capable automobiles from U.S. manufacturers like Chevrolet, Ford and Jeep.
The South Carolina manufacturing facility will underscore the made-in-America vibe when the first Scouts go on sale in late 2026. Volkswagen inherited the Scout model when the firm’s truck subsidiary, Traton, acquired Navistar, a U.S. firm beforehand identified as International Harvester, in 2021.
The new Scouts could borrow some components used in different Volkswagen automobiles, firm executives stated, however the design shall be distinct from current automobiles like the electrical ID.4 S.U.V. made in Chattanooga. Scout plans to reveal prototypes this yr.
A stronger presence in the United States is “a strategic necessity,” Scott Keogh, the chief govt of Volkswagen’s Scout Motors division, stated in South Carolina final week.
Outside the United States, Volkswagen is a behemoth, with a 26 % share of the European market and 15 % in China. But the firm is underneath extreme stress in China, the place gross sales of electrical automobiles have been rising quick, permitting BYD and different Chinese carmakers to achieve market share from international automakers. Volkswagen wants progress in the United States to compensate.
Volkswagen “wants to have a strong global footprint,” Mr. Keogh stated, “not have an isolated footprint, where it’s only sitting strong in one region.”