VW looks to more than triple U.S. sales

Volkswagen plans to more than triple its sales in the United States over the next decade through aggressive marketing and by taking advantage of growing demand for clean diesel fuel.
Stefan Jacoby, chief executive of Volkswagen Group of America, said yesterday his goal is to sell 1 million vehicles annually by 2018 — 800,000 from the Volkswagen brand and 200,000 from the Audi brand.

That would be a sharp increase from 2007, when the company sold 235,000 Volkswagens and 94,000 Audis in the United States. It also would reverse a downward trend. In 2002, the company sold 338,000 Volkswagen brand cars in the United States.
Volkswagen AG is the world's fourth-largest automaker, but in the United States it controls only 2 percent of the market.
The German company has made the U.S. market a top priority and is overhauling operations here. Its North American headquarters is moving next month from suburban Detroit to Northern Virginia — a move the company says brings it closer to its East Coast customer base.