>From Automotive News
Matt Murray
mattm@optonline.net
VW to launch new Microbus vehicle in 2005
Reuters / June 11, 2002
FRANKFURT - Volkswagen AG said on Tuesday it expects to launch
its new Microbus leisure vehicle in 2005 and has selected its
plant in Hanover to produce the new line.
Confirming a Reuters report, the company said the decision would
lead to 1,500 new jobs at the Hanover facility.
The Microbus will start with annual production of as many as
120,000 units, VW Chief Executive Bernd Pischetsrieder said at a
meeting of the works council in Hanover.
The company then expects average annual production of about
80,000 units.
Pischetsrieder said the group plans to sell about two thirds of
the Microbus units in the U.S. market, where a love of earlier
versions of what he called the "cult object" in the past was
rivaled only by a passion for the VW Beetle.
The German automaker made three generations of the Microbus
between 1950 and 1992, with peak sales of more than 66,000 in
1970.
VW unveiled a concept of the new Microbus at the Detroit Motor
Show in January 2001.
VW chose Hanover in lieu of Palmela, Portugal.
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