VW may lift work force in China to 85,000 by 2015
Volkswagen AG may increase its Chinese work force to as many as 85,000 employees by 2015 from the current 50,000, said Karl-Thomas Neumann, CEO of Volkswagen Group China, during an event in Shanghai. The automaker's sales growth may outpace the industry through 2018, Neumann said.
China passenger-car sales may increase 8 percent to 12 percent annually over the medium term, he added.
VW's global first-quarter deliveries rose by 13.7 percent to a record 1.97 million vehicles, the automaker announced last week. Sales in China were the strongest, with VW Group reporting deliveries of 548,500 cars, a 19.9 percent increase over the previous year. VW aims to pass Toyota Motor Corp. as the world's best-selling automaker by 2018.
In 2010, VW group sold a record 7.1 million units, ranking it third behind General Motors Co. with 8.4 million and Toyota with 8.42 million.
