Keen to make amends and move on from the horrors of its dieselgate saga, brands from the Volkswagen Group were in an unusual mood at the recent Geneva Motor Show. CarAdvice, having been to several motor shows as the Group’s guests before, reports that the group’s mellowed mood at the recent event was unlike ever before.
The Australian publication noted that each brand under the Volkswagen Group – Audi, Lamborghini, Porsche and Volkswagen – spoke largely of a more positive future. “Now is our chance to show what the brand really stands for. We can show our customers how we see the future and how we intend to shape it,” summed up Volkswagen’s CEO, Matthias Mueller.
“We are working hard to re-establish this trust – 2016 is the year where we intend to solve problems of the diesel engines for our customers. We will also build a foundation for a new and better Volkswagen,” he said.
Eager and seemingly determined to overcome its issues, especially those relating to customer trust, Mueller said that while its dealers may encounter difficulties during this period of recalls, it is also an opportunity for them to “intensify relationships” with its customers.
“We must let the external investigators do their jobs,” Mueller said, demanding for the truth behind the dieselgate saga. “We want to see the truth as much as the public, but we must not be paralysed by these diesel issues,” he continued.
Looking ahead, the Volkswagen chief focused on his brand’s development of a new, fully-electric autonomous vehicle for the future. “It will be able to get the latest software updates quickly and easily, it will have a large heads up display, augmented reality, react to voice commands and even eye movements. This development will change the fundamentals of our business,” he said.
“We will soon see genuine electric ranges of 500 km. Eventually, an electric car will cost less than a conventional car. We need a widespread charging infrastructure, we need to walk the walk as time is pressing. Climate targets can only be achieved if a significant proportion of the vehicles on the road are electric,” Mueller explained.
In his speech, the CEO continued to say that the Volkswagen Group’s structure has been “repositioned for the digital age,” with three new design centres in Europe, Japan and the US that will design and develop the digital car of the future.
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rebuilding trust is the hardest part of the job. no matter how much of A&P spend, once the customers’ trust are gone, it is hard to regain.
Is simple as 1-2-3 actually… Simply give 10 years to their DSG
After 10yrs, you are on your own? Since you can’t go second hand market as nobody going to own VW > 10yrs.
And within that 10yrs, suffer in SC with no replacement car.
What kind of shit trust VW want to give you. I would rather get Iriz and suffer a bit of uneasy on the aircon knob than random emotional gearbox/engine issue.
close shop already la VW. So called premium german brand with so many troubles. ewwww
Everyone keeps talking about VWAG “moving forward” in the midst of Dieselgate. There is NO moving forward until they fix/buyback these lemons. If the world lets VWAG off the hook for this crap and current TDI owners are stuck driving them into the ground to get their money’s worth, then VWAG has full reign to repeat these crimes unchecked. God forbid YOU buy a VW in the future that ends up being part of another scandal. That’s how 500k+ current owners feel. The news wants to move forward, how about, we focus on current owners. I’m really hoping a class-action lawsuit opens that every current TDI owner can join and make this unscrupulous company pay up.
Around the world.. and more prominently in malaysia, I think the attitude shown by VW is like they’re not guilty. There’s no real sincere effort shown by VW malaysia to actually resolves the DSG issue. Issue kept happening to new car.. and existing car. Most car that haven’t face this issue are like ticking time bomb on the road waiting for their gearbox 1day to get kong..
I think malaysian has shown their answer! look at how sad the sales figure of VW. Give interest free also only few taker… people are not really stupid afteralll! great job malaysian! show this arrogant german company the EXIT! kau nampak itu pintu!?