TM Toyota Motor Corporation

BERLIN—Volkswagen AG is set to launch several important new products in the U.S. over the next few months in a comeback effort after its emissions-cheating scandal left its reputation shattered and sales tumbling.

The German car maker will unveil its long-awaited midsize sport-utility vehicle, which it has decided to call Atlas, later this month, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The new Atlas SUV goes on sale in 2017 at a starting price of around $30,000.

Then, at the North American International Auto Show in January, Volkswagen will present a new, longer version of its Tiguan SUV, tailored for U.S. consumers, the person said.

Volkswagen is the biggest car maker by sales globally, but in the U.S. the Volkswagen namesake brand, its luxury marque Audi, and Porsche sports cars claimed a combined 3.2% of new car sales in September, just behind Subaru.

Toyota Motor Corp., the world's second-largest car maker by sales, grabbed 13.8% of U.S. new car sales last month, making it the third-largest car maker by sales in the U.S. after General Motors and Ford Motor Co.

"Today, we are a niche player in the U.S., but we want to be a relevant player," Mr. Woebcken told The Wall Street Journal and suggested that meant achieving at least 5% market share.

In the past, Volkswagen aimed to boost U.S. new car sales to one million units by 2018.

In September of 2015 Volkswagen halted sales of diesel-powered vehicles in the U.S. amid claims that so-called defeat devices allowed hundreds of thousands of vehicles to cheat on emissions tests.

In the wake of the diesel crisis, the company has shied away from naming volume targets. And Mr. Woebcken wouldn't quantify his sales goals for the U.S.

That is a tall order considering where Volkswagen is now and that it still doesn't offer products in several key growth segments in the U.S. auto market, such as large SUVs, pickup trucks, and compact SUVs.

Regaining the confidence of American consumers and rebuilding a business that was floundering even before the dieselgate scandal is a daunting challenge.

Mr. Woebcken said the launch of the new SUV is crucial for Volkswagen's bid to claw back lost territory and gradually expand into the fastest-growing product segments in the U.S. auto market.

While Mr. Woebcken's primary task is to rebuild the franchise of Volkswagen's namesake brand, he could get a little help from some of the company's other brands.

Audi is set to begin an aggressive push with its new Mexican-built Q5 SUV, hoping to expand its market share by targeting the SUV segment.

Skoda, the fast-growing Czech car maker that is owned by Volkswagen, is weighing the sale of some of its models in the U.S. Skoda has gone from a niche player in Europe to one of the biggest car makers in some markets, achieving 5% market share in the European Union so far this year, just ahead of Toyota.

For now, Volkswagen's future in the U.S. depends heavily on making Atlas a success.

Volkswagen searched long for a masculine name that would appeal to Americans and be easier to pronounce than previous models like the Tiguan and the Touareg. The company settled upon Atlas, the son of Titan in Greek mythology who was condemned by Zeus to hold up the sky for eternity.

The new SUV embodies Volkswagen's new push to make its U.S. business and products more American, which includes granting greater autonomy to executives in the U.S. to make decisions affecting the company's business and products there.

According to analyst estimates, Volkswagen is targeting Atlas sales of around 83,000 vehicles by the end of 2017 and up to 100,000 in 2018. That is nearly one third of the Volkswagen's brand total sales in 2015.

"The Atlas brings a long awaited change in culture, giving more responsibility into the individual regions, moving VW towards a less German/centralized business," Arndt Ellinghorst, auto analyst at brokerage Evercore ISI, said in a note to clients.

Write to William Boston at William.Boston@wsj.com.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 07, 2016 13:05 ET (17:05 GMT)

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