The clean diesel fiasco of Volkswagen is not enough for the German carmaker to give up on the United States, according to two of its highest company officials.
In 2015, Volkswagen was forced to admit that it manipulated its emission tests for its diesel cars to make them fully compliant to US government regulations. It was the biggest press relations debacle that the German automaker has faced.
The scandal led to the resignation of Martin Winterkorn, former VW CEO and financial losses that continues until this day.
In a bid to win back the confidence of the American car market, the management of Volkswagen AG has recently extended an olive branch to car dealers that were severely affected by the 'clean diesel' fiasco. However, there are things US car dealers wanted to hear but were not mentioned by the German automaker.
The new head of Volkswagen, Herbert Diess, met with car dealers in a 90-minute conference held in Las Vegas on Saturday.
He drove home the main objective of Volkswagen: to be a mass-market player in the U.S. car market and is willing to go for sales volume and not for exclusivity.
According to Diess, the company intends to fast-track the required products in order that dealers will be able to begin their recovery from the sluggish sales they are experiencing for the past six months.
Accompanying Diess is Hinrich Woebcken, interim CEO of U.S. sales at the VW dealer's expo in Las Vegas.
"We are working to redefine the Volkswagen brand in the United States by strengthening our management team, our partnerships with dealers, and our product portfolio," Diess told reporters after the dealer's conference.
"We want to grow the volume consistently beyond past levels, and we will do this with our partners, the dealers. More than ever, we will include their ideas and their requirements into our decision-making," he added.
