Volkswagen Group of America

Foundation

Formed in October 1955 at 476 Hudson Terrace[14] in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Volkswagen of America was created to standardize dealer service in the United States. Under the leadership of Dr. Carl Hahn, the organization expanded to 909 Volkswagen dealers nationwide by 1965. Under Hahn—and later his successor as president of Volkswagen of America, J. Stuart Perkins—Volkswagen’s U.S. sales climbed to an all-time peak of 569,696 vehicles in 1970, when the company captured roughly 7% of the U.S. car market and supported more than 1,000 American dealerships. The Volkswagen Beetle was by far the brand’s best-selling model in the United States. In the early 1970s, Volkswagen of America relocated from its original Hudson Terrace office to a newly constructed corporate office at 818 Sylvan Avenue[15], also in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

From then on, however, intense competition from American and Japanese automakers caused VW sales in America to fall as much as 87 percent between 1970 and 1992, despite the introduction of new front-drive models in 1975 to replace the Beetle and its rear-engined, air-cooled stablemates. As a result, the number of dealerships in the U.S. was also reduced to 630 by the mid-1990s. As of 2007, there were 596 operating Volkswagen dealerships in the country.

Westmoreland and Auburn Hills

VWoA inaugurated the Volkswagen Westmoreland Assembly Plant near New Stanton, Pennsylvania, in 1978.[16] This was the first modern venture by a foreign automaker at making cars in the United States. In 1988, the plant was closed. In the early 1980s, the manufacturing division and the sales division were merged, and Volkswagen of America moved to Troy, Michigan, as a result, settling in Auburn Hills, Michigan, in 1991 (42.64533°N, -83.21539°W).

1990s uncertainties

Volkswagen of America's sales hit bottomed out in 1993, with fewer than 50,000 cars sold that year.[17][18] Sales began to recover the following year with the introduction of the third generation of the Golf and Jetta. By the end of the decade, thanks to effective advertising and the launch of more competitive new products, including the New Beetle in 1998, the VW brand was back on firmer ground. Volkswagen of America went on to sell 355,648 cars in 2001, its best year since 1973.

2000s

In the 2000s sales tapered off somewhat due to competition, quality issues and delays in product introductions, and VW's U.S. sales for 2005 totaled 224,195 – a reduction of about 37 percent from four years earlier. New models for the 2006 and 2007 model years, such as the Passat, Rabbit, and GTI resulted in a sales growth of 4.9% for 2006 with sales of 235,140 vehicles. Profitability still remained an issue, though; Volkswagen of America had not turned a profit for its parent company since 2002.[19] In January 2007, Volkswagen of America president Adrian Hallmark publicly stated that he planned to get the subsidiary back to profitability in two to three years. He hoped to introduce new models for North America, and develop new marketing to encompass the whole brand as well as individual cars. Stefan Jacoby soon replaced him, and Volkswagen of America continued to look at new products to add to its lineup.[20]

In the meantime, a new advertising agency, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, helped rejuvenate VW's presence in the U.S. as well. Its ads for the fifth-generation GTI have sparked interest in the brand, not seen since the launch of the New Beetle, and ads for the fifth-generation Golf/Rabbit hatchback translated into initial strong sales for that model. Due to new air pollution rules promulgated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the diesel powered VWs with TDI-PD technology could no longer be produced after December 31, 2006. For the 2009 model year, VW introduced a new generation of diesels, based on common rail technology. These would meet air pollution standards in all 50 states. The first of these units was made available for sale in August 2008. VW sold 2050 Jetta Sedan TDIs and 361 Jetta Sportwagen TDIs that first month. Volkswagen was later charged with three felonies and fined $25 billion for defrauding the American government when it was discovered that their vehicles were only passing laboratory emissions testing due to company tampering of their system's internal software.

In October 2009, Interpublic Group's Deutsch, Los Angeles, the ad agency of renowned ad man Donny Deutsch, won Volkswagen's American advertising account - fourteen years after Deutsch had tried for VW's advertising business against Arnold Advertising.[21]

New headquarters in Virginia

On September 6, 2007, Volkswagen of America announced it would relocate its North American headquarters to Herndon, Virginia.[22][23] Volkswagen sales are particularly strong in the Mid-Atlantic region, as well as both coasts. The company indicated that it is important for them to locate in a region where their customer base is strongest. Presently, the Big Three domestic brands dominate the Midwest US, especially Metro Detroit where the company was formerly located.

Volkswagen of America began its move from Auburn Hills to Herndon in April 2008. The company anticipated that 600 of the 1,400 staff would remain at Auburn Hills in the call center and technical services positions, while 400 jobs would transferred to Virginia. About 150 employees in Michigan were expected to move to Herndon, Volkswagen of America President and CEO Stefan Jacoby said. The four hundred remaining jobs were to be cut.

The state of Virginia, among 14 locations that Volkswagen of America considered for the move, offered Volkswagen $6 million in incentives that will be awarded pending Volkswagen's fulfillment of employment and other various quotas.[24]

Volkswagen moved its North American HQ from Herndon to Reston, Virginia in 2023.[25]

New manufacturing plant

On July 15, 2008, after an intense, months-long battle between Huntsville, Alabama, a site in Michigan and Chattanooga, Tennessee, the company's supervisory board chose Chattanooga as the location for the new plant.[26] This $1 billion investment was expected to result in production of about 150,000 cars a year by its slated opening in 2011, playing a major role in the company's strategy to gain more than 6% of the car market, or about 800,000 cars on top of the 230,000 it produced in America in 2007, by 2018.[10][27] This plant also became Volkswagen Group of America's manufacturing headquarters in the U.S.[27] The plant was inaugurated on May 24, 2011.[28][29]

Volkswagen

Current models

The following is a list of the models currently available in the American market:

Sales

The total number of new vehicle sales year-by-year in the U.S. market is as follows:

Audi

Current Audi models

The following is a list of the Audi/Audi Sport models currently available in the American market:

Sales

Bentley

Current models

The following is a list of the models currently available in the American market:

• Flying Spur
• Continental GT Coupe
• Continental GT Convertible
• Bentayga

Lamborghini

Current models

The following is a list of the models currently available in the American market:

• Urus

Bugatti

The only vehicle sold new under the Bugatti label is the Chiron.