#plans

Despite giving the old college try for decades, Volkswagen is still confounded by the lack of cachet their namesake brand holds among the hearts and minds of many an American. With VW of America CEO Jonathan Browning stepping down and returning to the United Kingdom at the end of this year, the Wolfsburg automaker hope one of their own, successor Michael Horn, will be able to finally crack the code of success in the United States.

In a surprise press conference that had not been confirmed as late as last night, Toyota’s president Akio Toyoda laid out plans for Toyota getting back to normal. Bottom line: Toyota hopes to be back to normal by the end of the year.

“To all the customers who made the decision to buy a vehicle made by us, I sincerely apologize for the enormous delay in delivery,” Akio Toyoda said.

Volkswagen and its freshly hitched 20 percent bride Suzuki will have a sit-down next week to “flesh out their joint projects by welding together a number of ideas,” reports The Nikkei [sub] from an earnings briefing in Wolfsburg.

The Nikkei guesses that Volkswagen will provide hybrid and electric-vehicle technologies to Suzuki. In turn they are interested in know-how on manufacturing subcompacts at low cost. As far as distribution goes, the two will most likely compare notes on China, where VW is strong, and on India, where Suzuki rules the roost.

While Toyota is successful in hitting the target it painted on its own foot, Chinese manufacturers are setting more ambitious targets, Gasgoo reports. On the average, domestic automakers plan for 30 percent expansion. Joint venture car makers are a little more restrained.