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VW boss Winterkorn says sector's future is brighter
2009-09-14
FRANKFURT (AFP) - Volkswagen chairman Martin Winterkorn expressed cautious optimism on Monday as he announced the group had increased its market share last month despite the global auto crisis. "The sector can look to the future with prudent optimism," the VW boss told company staff and guests ahead of the 63rd Frankfurt motor show which opens Thursday. VW sold 9.5 percent more vehicles than in August 2008, Winterkorn said, and its global market share rose by 1.8 percentage points to 11.7 percent, he added. "The VW group is in top form," Winterkorn boasted. "We have done a lot better than the competition coming through this crisis." The biggest European car maker wants to overtake Toyota as world number one by 2018, and will soon add its 10th brand, with Porsche joining top-shelf autos like Lamborghini, Bentley, Bugatti and Audi. "I am certain Porsche will benefit" from its takeover by Volkswagen, new Porsche chairman Michael Macht told his adoptive automotive family. As part of the event, VW rolled out a new Bentley Mulsanne, a Bugatti Veyron, Lamborghini's Reventon Roadster and the latest Audi R8 Spyder. It also presented new Skoda and Seat station wagons, and a concept electric vehicle, the e up! car, saying that it aimed for a 2013 target date for full distribution. "At VW, we are going to take the electric car out of an ecological niche towards the mass market," Winterkorn said.
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