Volkswagen is on its way to a hiring spree. The company is expected to increase its headcount as it aims to become the world’s largest automaker with annual vehicles sales of 10 million, said CEO Martin Winterkorn.

“We’re assuming that 500,000 employees will work for us company-wide long-term. In addition, our suppliers and dealerships each employ more than 1 million people,” Winterkorn said in an interview with Automotive News Europe

Volkswagen currently employs 435,000 employees. Winterkorn said that he expects that number to grow close to 500,000 by the end of 2018.

“Naturally, we will increasingly hire new workers in key areas such as electric mobility,” he said. “We are bringing about 7,500 university graduates on board just this year.”

Winterkorn expects Volkswagen’s global market share to increase above 12 percent or 8 million vehicles.

“By 2018, we expect that the market will trend significantly higher. Our goal is to grow above the rate of the market,” Winterkorn said.

- By: Omar Rana

Source: Automotive News

Opel is a 139-year-old German company that has been making cars for more than a century. GM has owned Opel since 1929. However, since 1999, GM has has lost $14.5 billon in Europe, most of it due to Opel. Nonetheless, when someone talks bad about family, it’s not that pleasing.

GM said that Volkswagen AG Executive Chairman Martin Winterkorn in stoking speculation that GM’s German-based Opel unit is for sale and could be sold to a Chinese company.

Winterkorn was quoted in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung saying if Opel were for sale, a Chinese automaker would be more likely than Hyundai to buy it. GM replied on its website that Winterkorn’s comment “continues a regrettable pattern of fanning speculation” that Opel is up for sale.

Carsten Krebs, a Volkswagen spokesman, confirmed Winterkorn comments

“He only speculated,” Krebs said. “The journalist asked him a question, and he speculated. If you read it properly, he doesn’t think GM is selling Opel.”

- By: Omar Rana

Source: Detroit News

Volkswagen Group yesterday was given the final approval for two build two additional plants in China, continuing its long-term growth strategy in the world’s largest market for passenger cars.

Dr. Martin Winterkorn, Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft, today signed appropriate declarations together with the Presidents of the Chinese partner organizations.

The first of the two plants will be produced at Yizheng, in Jiangsu Province in eastern China, and will be developed together with partner Shanghai Volkswagen. The other plant will be built at Foshan, in Guangdong Province in southern China, with the FAW-Volkswagen joint venture.

“China is already the world’s largest sales market for automobiles and further substantial growth is expected in the future,” Winterkorn said. “The Volkswagen Group intends to play a major role in shaping this growth with new environmentally compatible models and the expansion of local production capacity. Our new plants show that Volkswagen remains a strong motor for the Chinese automobile industry.”

Each of the two plants will be designed to carry an annual capacity of 300,000 vehicles with production to start in 2013. Volkswagen has already announced plans to expand production capacity at each of the existing Nanjing and Chengdu plants to between 300,000 and 350,000 units per year.

- By: Omar Rana

Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn

Dr. Martin Winterkorn became CEO and Chairman of the Volkswagen Management Board on Jan. 1, 2007. While is contract was supposed to expire on Dec. 31, 2010, the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen AG (which stands for Aktiengesellschaft), extended the contract unanimously by five years. That means Winterkorn will stay at the helm of Europe’s largest automaker until the end of 2016.

“Volkswagen seeks continuity at the top of the company so we can concentrate completely on the details of our tasks,” Bernd Osterloh, the supervisory board’s deputy chief and head of the carmaker’s works council, said in a separate statement. “With Martin Winterkorn we’ll continue our successful course.”

Winterkorn’s two main goals before he leaves is to complete a merger with Porsche and surpass Toyota Motor Corp. as the world’s biggest carmaker.

- By: Omar Rana

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)

Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn

Volkswagen AG has made it very clear that it”s goal is to overtake Toyota as the world”s leading automaker by decade”s end, and to help effectuate the process and make sure that happens, CEO Martin Winterkorn says that he wants to stay in his role after his contract expires.

Winterkorn acknowledges that the aforementioned goal is highly ambitious and has its inherent challenges. To complicate matters further, the company plans to integrate sports car maker Porsche AG, and expand a cooperation with Suzuki Motor Corp. Winterkorn feels that continuity is key to making this happen and said that he “would not object to carrying on if the supervisory board should so wish.”

It is rumored by German news sources that the company plans to extend Winterkorn”s contract through the end of 2015, and is set to approve the extension either in November or February. The 67 year old former head of Audi AG took over as VW CEO in 2007.

- By: Stephen Calogera

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)

Volkswagen CEO, Martin Winterkorn with the founder of Italdesign Giugiaro, Giorgetto Giugiaro

Volkswagen Group announced today that it will take a 90.1 percent controlling stake in Italdesign Giugiaro SpA, leaving the Giugiaro family with 10 percent of the shares.

“With this shareholding in Italdesign, we are participating in one of the most renowned design and development companies with one of the richest traditions in the automobile industry,” said Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn. “Italdesign is the flagship for creative Italian automobile design and has been instrumental in shaping the face of the automobile industry worldwide. As the creator of the Golf I, Giorgetto Giugiaro laid a new foundation for Volkswagen design in the 1970s.”

Italdesign Giugiaro also helped with concepts for important models including the first Volkswagen Passat, Scirocco and the Audi 80.

Volkswagen Golf Gen 1

Winterkorn said that with Italdesign becoming a permanent member of the Volkswagen family, the company will play an important role in the German automaker’s 2018 global growth strategy.

On a personal note for Volkswagen Group Chairman Ferdinand Piech, the executive goes from a student who spent a summer working at Italdesign Giugiaro almost 40 years ago to the owner. At the age of 37, Piech learned about design and engineering from founder Giorgetto Giugiaro (Source: Automotive News)

- By: Omar Rana

Toyota announced earlier this week that it expects its global auto sales to increase 6 percent in 2010, hoping to maintain its lead over Volkswagen and General Motors as the world’s biggest automaker. However, around eight years from now, Volkswagen AG’s CEO Martin Winterkorn believes his company will become the worlds biggest automaker, outpacing Toyota and General Motors.

Winterkorn predicts that the group”s seven car marquees – VW, Audi, Skoda, Seat, Lamborghini, Bentley and Bugatti – will together account for more than 10 million car sales a year by 2018. He said that the company plans on revealing 60 “new models and new model revisions” this year alone.

Winterkorn said that half of the new models will wear Volkswagen badges, including the new Passat, Jetta, Phaeton, Touran and others. Audi has plans to reveal the new A1, A6, A8 and A7.

- By: Omar Rana

Source: AutoCar

Well, it seems like Volkswagen and Porsche have worked out their differences. What seemed to be a forced relationship on Porsche’s side by taking majority share in Volkswagen, V-dub CEO Martin Winterkorn is now hailing cooperation between the two companies.

“Our integration has come a long way in the last few months and I am sure that we will be able to drive our partnership forward in 2009, a difficult year for the auto sector,” he said told Volkswagen shareholders at an annual meeting.

Winterkorn said that he sees both becoming the “center of power for the international automobile industry.”

Porsche owns nearly 51 percent of Volkswagen’s voting shares and plan on increasing its stake to 75 percent later this year.

- By: Omar Rana

Source: Reuters

Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking was not at the launch of the 2010 Porsche Panamera at the 2009 Shanghai Motor Show. According to Abendzeitung daily newspaper, Wiedeking was absent because of an agreement between Wolfgang Porsche and his cousin, Volkswagen Chairman Fedinand Piech, that Wiedeking should be replaced by Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn.

Today, Porsche and Volkswagen denied reports that Wiedeking would be fired or that Winterkorn would take his place.

“That is total nonsense,” a spokesman quoted Wolfgang Porsche. Volkswagen rejected speculation that there is any power struggling between it and its controlling shareholder, Porsche.

Porsche said that Wiedeking missed the Panamera launch since he was ill.

- By: Omar Rana

Source: Reuters (via Automotive News)

Volkswagen’s CEO Martin Winterkorn said that while the current wave of consumer interest in environmentally friendly cars will last, electric-cars will not dominate auto dealerships anytiem soon.

“Electric mobility does have a place in the long-term future,” Winterkorn told Automotive News Europe. However, he said that safe and affordable electric-vehicles for daily use are “very far away.”

“We’re concerned with the best solution, not the fastest solution,” Winterkorn said.

The V-dub CEO said that combustion engines will remain the main powerplant for passenger vehicles for at least 15 to 20 years. He said that Volkswagen will continue to focus on the “further optimization of the combustion engine.”

It’s no surprise that automotive CEOs make millions. Some get outstanding bonuses and drop it in their bank accounts at the end of the day while others, like Volkswagen executives, donate a percent of their earnings to charity.

Volkswagen has announced that CEO Martin Winterkorn along with four other members of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG will donate about 10 percent of their personal income from stock options to benefit the civic foundation Bürgerstiftung Wolfsburg.

Together the group of five made about $32 million in 2008 and will donate $3.2 million to the charity.

“Our goal is to support, encourage and educate children in Wolfsburg and the surrounding region,” said Dr. Neumann, member of the Board of Management with responsibility for Human Resources.