WASHINGTON (Bloomberg) -- Volkswagen AG today named Jonathan Browning CEO of its U.S. unit, putting an end to a 2 1/2 month leadership vacuum.
Browning, a former General Motors and Ford Motor executive who joined VW in June, will take over on Oct. 1, becoming VW of America's fourth chief since 2005. He replaces Stefan Jacoby, who left to steer Volvo Cars.
VW made the announcement today in a statement issued before a press conference in Washington.
Browning, 51, was hired by VW to improve coordination of the carmaker's international sales companies. He was previously vice president of global sales, service and marketing at GM. His appointment coincides with the final phase of the introduction of a new Jetta compact, VW's best-selling American model. VW is preparing to open a factory in Tennessee and present its first car built exclusively for the U.S. market.
Volkswagen is heading for an eighth annual loss in the United States. Reviving revenue and profit there is essential to CEO Martin Winterkorn's goal of surpassing Toyota Motor Corp. in size and profitability by 2018. He also wants to almost triple VW's share of the U.S. market to 6 percent by 2018 and boost deliveries to 1 million, including the Audi luxury unit.
U.S. is key
“The U.S. is one of the key aspects of Volkswagen's strategy going forward,” said Mike Tyndall, a London-based automotive specialist at Nomura Securities. “It's a market that's been underperforming and that they need to crack.”
Browning, an Englishman, is a former chairman of GM's U.K.-based Vauxhall division and was the chief of Jaguar under Ford Motor Co. He worked for GM from 1981 to 1997 and returned in 2001 after his stint at Ford.
He resigned as head of GM's global sales, service and marketing in the summer of 2009 and left the company in October “to pursue other interests," GM said at the time.
VW unexpectedly named Mark Barnes and Michael Lohscheller on June 24 to run the U.S. operations on an interim basis, saying at the time it was holding contract talks with Jacoby. Jacoby, a VW veteran of 25 years, last month took the helm at Volvo, the Swedish automaker that's now owned by China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co.
New Jetta
Next month, VW will start selling a new Jetta, VW's first model altered specifically for the U.S. market. In the first eight months, VW boosted U.S. deliveries by 21 percent to 172,747. Jetta sales increased 7 percent to 76,338 cars, accounting for 44 percent of the total. Other models that posted gains included the Tiguan, Passat CC and Rabbit.
Browning will also have to capitalize on VW's $1 billion plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., scheduled to begin production in the third quarter of 2011, and lift sales by designing more models for the United States.
By 2013, VW wants 85 percent of vehicles sold in the United States to be produced in Chattanooga and in an existing factory in Puebla, Mexico, where the carmaker plans to invest as much as $1 billion over three years.
