Volkswagen might finally have what it takes to win over American drivers

Advertisement

VW SUV concept

Volkswagen

Volkswagen announced this week that it will unveil a new compact SUV concept at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show next month.

Advertisement

The car may foreshadow an affordable crossover or SUV from the German automaker.

"The concept car can be seen as the beginning of a broad SUV offensive," VW wrote in a statement.

Complimentary Tech Event
Transform talent with learning that works
Capability development is critical for businesses who want to push the envelope of innovation.Discover how business leaders are strategizing around building talent capabilities and empowering employee transformation.Know More

If it does indeed translate to a production variant, it would likely slot in under the upcoming next generation Tiguan or become part of a Tiguan "family" of models.

For anyone who has been paying attention to VW's turbulent history in the US over the past few years, this is definitely a step in the right direction - even if its a little bit late.

Advertisement

Volkswagen is having a tough time selling cars in the US, and struggled for the past decade to increase its market share here in-spite of massive investments in manufacturing, marketing and design aimed at US consumers.

At the beginning of the decade. Volkswagen announced its goal to sell 800,000 cars in the US by 2018. In the time since, the company has had great difficulty selling half as many.

No takers

That was before Volkswagen's massive emissions cheating scandal erupted last September. The scandal not only alienated what few devoted owners the brand had left in this country, but it also shut down VW's popular TDI diesel cars which accounted for 20% of the company's annual sales.

Volkswagen closed out 2015 with 349,440 cars sold which accounts for 2% of the 17.4 million vehicle US market.

Thus far in 2016, the company has continued on a similar pace.

Advertisement

Volkswagen Tiguan

Volkswagen

Current VW Tiguan.

Apart from the needs to regain the trust of consumers and fix the 500,000 cars affected by the scandal, VW has long been plagued by an inadequate product mix.

Specifically, it doesn't have anything competitive to offer in the very popular compact crossover/SUV market. In 2015, this segment accounted for 14% of all cars sold in the US while growing at a rate of 21% annually.

Volkswagen's current generation Tiguan has proven to be wildly unpopular with American consumers. The current Tiguan is simply too expensive and inefficient compared with segment leaders such as the Toyota RAV4 and Honda CR-V.

That's translated to poor sales. In 2015, the Tiguan held just 1.5% of segment with a little under 36,000 cars sold. That pales in comparison to the more than 300,000 compact crossovers Honda, Toyota and Ford each sold last year.

Volkswagen Tiguan Europe

Volkswagen

New generation Tiguan.

Now, VW's "broad SUV offensive" could offer a promising solution to the company's US sales woes.

Advertisement

The next generation Tiguan, which was unveiled last September, is the first volley - built on VW's highly praised MQB platform which also underpins the Audi A3 and Volkswagen Passat models. This is a good start.

Furthermore, VW has indicated it will introduce a larger midsize SUV to complement the current poor-selling Touareg SUV.

VW's new generation of crossovers and SUVs will likely provide the brand with much more competitive offerings. Whether, they will be able to dethrone the current SUV kings, remains to be seen.

Both the Tiguan and the upcoming Midsize SUV are expected to arrive in the US in 2017.

NOW WATCH: JEFF SACHS: This is the biggest threat to the human race