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This automaker, along with other foreign automakers, is looking to exploit disruption through new technologies to capture a percentage of the market from its dominant rivals.
By Jack Ewing
Report from Columbia, South Carolina
Most likely, only Americans of a certain age in the days when the Volkswagen Beetle was the best-selling imported car in the U. S. were the only ones who were able to get the best of them. The most modern vehicle to attend a Grateful Dead concert was a Volkswagen Microbus.
Volkswagen is looking to capitalize on some of that nostalgia in its new move to regain the prestige and sales it enjoyed in the U. S. during the Beetle and Microbus era in the 1960s. But this time, he expects his models to be electric.
The German automaker is Toyota’s second globally, but it’s a niche player in the United States. Part of his plan to revive his fortunes here is to rely on a new electric style that resembles the Microbus, the ID. Buzz and relaunches the Scout logo with a variety of electric pickup trucks and gaming app vehicles.
Last week, as giant earth-moving machines kicked up clouds of dust, Volkswagen executives and local officials gathered near Columbia, South Carolina, to begin construction on a factory that will build cars that will carry the Scout badge for the first time since 1980.
Volkswagen is one of several foreign automakers that see electric cars and the turmoil they cause as a challenge to dominant players in the United States. Volkswagen, which also owns Audi, Porsche, Bentley and Lamborghini, aims to at least double its share of the U. S. market. until the end of the decade, up from 4% today.
“This market is going electric and everyone is starting from scratch,” Arno Antlitz, Volkswagen’s chief financial officer, said in an interview. “This is our chance to grow. “
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