Volkswagen ramping up

Anyone who thought Volkswagen might be resting on its laurels after a frenetic 2011 will have had their mind changed already.

After revamping the bulk of its list last year, the German giant will invade the light car market with its Up! and managing director Anke Koeckler has confirmed a starting price below $15,000 when it arrives on October.

"We'll be launching the Up!, which will have a major impact on how we are perceived by Australians, we will have a car which will be positioned and priced under $15,000, so you can enter the VW with a car under $15,000," she says.

The VW is aiming to maintain its premium position but with sharp pricing, which is likely to mean pricing restructuring for the Skoda brand to maintain the hierarchy.

"We have to look at the pricing to make sure Skoda is not priced above Volkswagen - that's something we have to look at, Skoda is getting new and more models but we have to make sure it's priced and positioned under VW, this is the worldwide strategy," Ms Koeckler says.

So far this year, the company is ahead of its sales targets and is seeing the results of its new-model assault on the Australian market last year. Also so far this year the VW brand in total is 31 per cent up year-to-date - more than 6400 vehicles - led double or triple-digit percentage growth over 2011 figures by Tiguan, Touareg and Passat, among others.

"All the launches from last year are paying off and we are seeing the significant impact now in the sales now." "At a certain stage there might be some consolidation, but we're still looking for a significant increase because of the model impact ... we are ahead of budget and forecast," she says.

Strong performances in the SUV segment - particularly from the Tiguan compact SUV - bode well for the brand, and Ms Koeckler. "We wanted to do this earlier but we are waiting until the end of the year is the Passat Alltrack, it might have a good successful niche as we can see with the Subaru Outback, a key competitor for that car, that's on sale in November," Ms Koeckler says.

The arrival of the new New Beetle has been postponed until early 2013, but next year's key for the VW brand will be the arrival of the next Golf, a major model for the brand. "The new Golf Mk 7 will be unveiled at the Paris Motor Show, it's our plan to have it on sale here in the first half of 2013," she says.