Swot Analysis of Volkswagen's Performance:

“SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. It's a four-part approach to analyzing a company's overall strategy or the strategy of its business units” (Collett, 1999, p.58).

Strength

Volkswagen’s strength lays in several factors such as its brands name that offer two broad categories and having the ability to serve different market segments, one for the traditional driver and one for the performance-minded driver. Strong focus on their research and development to design cars more economical. Strong production capabilities as Volkswagen manufacture their cars close to their target markets among the world (Zach Chastain, 2013).

Weaknesses

Volkswagen perform less effectively in few geographic areas in the world such as in the US market were Volkswagen gained only about 5% market share as they failed to attract male buyers (Zach Chastain, 2013). Moreover, most of their cars are consider not environment friendly specially their sport cars that release high amount of CO2 and also considered fuel inefficient which will affect the brand reputation.

Opportunities

Volkswagen could introduce more fuel-efficient models that also emit much less CO2 across all its automotive brand, therefore meeting new customer needs for environment friendly cars and increasing brand reputation. Also, the increasing demand on buses gives Volkswagen the chance to increase their revenue (Zach Chastain, 2013).

Threats

Volkswagen earns more than 70% of its revenue outside the euro zone. Exchange rate fluctuations threaten Volkswagen profits if the euro will start appreciating against other currencies (Volkswagen Group, 2012). Moreover, rising prices for raw metals will lift the costs for auto manufacturers and result in squeezed profits for the companies.