Blueprint mapped out for sustainable development

Volkswagen's "Strategy 2018" launched in February 2009 outlines to employees, shareholders, partners, media and consumers the core value of long-term sustainable development at Volkswagen Group.

The strategy for south China revealed recently will become an important commitment to realize its "Strategy 2018".

Relying on the solid foundation of its 30-year development in China and joint venture partnerships, Volkswagen Group China is driving China's automobile industry into a sustainable future through innovation, performance and responsibility.

This vision can be summarized with four key principles:

Deeply rooted in China

Partnering for success

Responsible innovation

Driving toward a sustainable future.

The main theme of "Strategy 2018" is embedded in the "1+1\>2" philosophy, the central idea of which is the notion that "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts".

During the first nine months of 2009, Volkswagen Group increased its share of the world passenger car market to 11.7 percent, recording a 1.7 percentage increase over the same period of last year.

Between January and September of this year, 4.76 million vehicles (excluding Scania but including Volkswagen commercial trucks and buses for January and February 2009) were delivered to customers in the global market.

This represented a drop of 0.5 percent compared with the delivery of 4.78 million vehicles in the same period of last year, but during the first nine months of 2009, the overall passenger car market in the world fell by around 12 percent.

China has already become the largest sales market in the world for Volkswagen Group.

During the first nine months of 2009, Volkswagen Group in China recorded the best sales performance ever in its history.

Between January and September, Volkswagen Group China delivered 1,061,964 new vehicles to customers on the Chinese mainland and in Hong Kong special administrative region, exceeding the number of deliveries for the entire 2008 and representing an increase of 37 percent over the same period of last year.

The Volkswagen brand sold 871,037 units including 15,006 imported vehicles, an increase of 36.3 percent year-on-year.

Audi delivered 108,859 cars including 10,130 imported vehicles, an increase of 19.7 percent.

Skoda sales increased by 82.1 percent with a delivery of 81,652 vehicles while Bentley and Lamborghini sold 332 and 84 units, respectively.

In view of the promising development in the Chinese market, Volkswagen Group decided in September to invest 4 billion euros in China from 2009 to 2011 to introduce new models and expand capacity, which is the biggest automotive investment in China.

The production capacity at the Nanjing and Chengdu facilities will be respectively increased to 300,000 and 350,000 units by 2012.

(China Daily 11/23/2009 page6)