Volkswagen says it has to sell a lot more Mexican-built Jettas, Golfs and Beetles in Canada and the United States so it can offset its slumping sales in Germany and the rest of Europe.
Canadians and Americas are expected to buy 50 percent more cars from the Wolfsburg-based company in the next couple of years so it can use our dollars to meet the profit and share expectations of its European stockholders.
This is the magic of the modern global auto business, apparently, since the German firm can make more money with the current exchange rate by selling us Mexican-built VWs and German-built Audis than if they sell them to Germans.
At least that's the way it looks in the European media, since the new commandant of VW does not seem to have bothered to tell anyone in North America that they'll be expected to up their consumption of VWs and Audis by half in the next few years.
Most of this increased sales volume in North America is supposed to come from the addition of two new models to the VW lineup and a sharpening of the Audi brand.
Those new models would be the Touareg SUV and an as yet-unnamed minivan.
The new models would be sourced from Germany, along with the Passat, while the Jetta, Golf and Beetle models would continue to come to Canada from Mexico.
This new chairman is Bernd Pischetsrieder, but for his sins as the chairman of BMW who took over Rover (a move which cost him his job in 1999), many members of the British press call him Burned Fishtrousers. In print. That's more of the modern global auto business.