Volkswagen CEO Michael Horn has disclosed some of the German automaker’s future plans for the U.S. market and they include one big vehicle, but not another.
Horn confirmed in an interview with Bloomberg that the Phaeton full size sedan will likely return to the U.S. market in 2018 or 2019. But most revealing from the interview is Horn’s admission that Volkswagen has no plans to bring a pickup truck model to the U.S.: ”No, it’s the emerald. We built this in Argentina. I checked one of our plants over there. And even in Hanover, but it’s very small. It is much smaller than the F-150. And the technology and the engineering is a little bit too expensive from our point of view for the U.S. markets. So if we would want to – if the SUV market, SUV segment here – we would really need to do something different.”
SEE ALSO: ‘New’ 2015 Volkswagen Jetta Bows in NYC
In addition, the German automaker has no plans for another U.S. factory as the Chattanooga plant is more than satisfying the needs of the market and even exports vehicles to Korea. As for the future plans for VW in the U.S., Horn elaborated by sharing that the Golf and Jetta are just the start for refreshed models. Next year the U.S. will get a new Passat, perhaps even all new. After that, two SUVs are in the works, a Passat SUV and a compact SUV model.
[Source: Bloomberg]
Discuss this story at our Volkswagen forum
The post Volkswagen Phaeton to Return in 2018-2019, No Pickups for US appeared first on AutoGuide.com News.
