VW-Malaysia-Aringer

Undoubtedly wanting to make a significant contribution to the Volkswagen Group's aim of becoming the world's biggest car manufacturer by 2018, Volkswagen Malaysia has set its sights on a very lofty goal – to sell 20,000 units in 2014.

This is more than double the 2013 sales figure – last year the company sold 9,528 units, a dip from its sales record of 12,003 units in 2012. The group announced its plans at a press conference yesterday, where Volkswagen Malaysia's newly-appointed managing director Christoph Aringer was present.

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Playing a big role in the company's aggressive push for more volume will be its brace of locally-assembled models, which are expected to account for about 65% of the total sales figure. Joining the fray will be the Volkswagen Jetta, arriving sometime in the first half of this year. Volkswagen Malaysia already assembles the Passat and the Polo sedan and hatchback at DRB-Hicom's plant in Pekan, Pahang.

Also announced are the company's plans to increase local content in its locally-assembled cars, with the Polo hatchback eventually reaching at least 40% local content status which would allow it to gain import duty exemption in other ASEAN countries. One of the planned equipment changes is a switch from the Apollo tyres the car is currently sold with to Goodyear ones.