Volkswagen looking to better differentiate its volume brands
The Volkswagen Group is looking to diffuse emerging tensions among its mass-market marques by giving them more clearly-defined roles in the future.
According to a report from Reuters, the automotive giant wants to cut the overlap between Skoda, Seat and Volkswagen vehicles, in an attempt to better take advantage of its manufacturing scale.
“The key challenge is [to achieve] a perfect market coverage with clear territories for the brands,” Volkswagen Group CEO, Matthias Mueller, told a meeting of managers in Wolfsburg.
“We must now be able to better use the synergies that our unique alliance of brands offer than we have done to date.”
The reshuffle will aim to better address 14 main customer groups in the European market.
It comes hot on the heels of news that, spurred by positive press and strong profitability, Volkswagen is looking to put the brakes on Skoda. The Czech brand enjoys access to the key technology from the alliance, but has the advantage of cheaper Czech labour to build its cars at the moment.
If a report from Reuters is to be believed, VW could move some Skoda manufacturing to Germany and start charging more for access to technology, in an attempt to slow its strong growth and reinforce Volkswagen’s status as top-dog in the group.
Although we’ve praised Skoda for its smartly designed, aggressively priced cars in Australia, there’s no question as to which brand sits at the top of the tree. Volkswagen shifted 5,080 cars last month, compared to just 440 for its Czech offsider, and the big brother owned almost 5.0 per cent of the overall market, compared to a piddling 0.4 per cent for Skoda.
Just 126 Fabias found homes compared to 538 Polos, while 102 people welcomed a new Superb into their driveways – just over half the number who said ‘hallo’ to a new Passat.
MORE: Skoda news, reviews, comparisons and videos
MORE: Volkswagen news, reviews, comparisons and videos