COLUMBIA, South Carolina - Probably only Americans of a certain age remember when the Volkswagen Beetle was the best-selling imported car in the United States and the hippest ride to a Grateful Dead concert was a Volkswagen Microbus.

Volkswagen is trying to tap some of that nostalgia in its latest push to regain the status and sales it enjoyed in the United States during the Beetle and Microbus’ heydays in the 1960s.

But this time, it hopes its top models will be electric.

The German carmaker is second only to Toyota globally, but it is a niche player in the US.

Part of its plan to revive its fortunes here is to lean on a new electric model that resembles the Microbus – the ID.Buzz – and to revive the Scout brand with a line of electric pickups and sport utility vehicles.

Last week, as giant earth movers kicked up clouds of dust, Volkswagen executives and local officials gathered near Columbia, South Carolina, to inaugurate the site of a factory that will build vehicles bearing the Scout badge for the first time since 1980.

Volkswagen is one of several foreign automakers that see electric cars and the upheaval they are causing as a way to challenge the dominant players in the US.

Volkswagen, which also owns Audi, Porsche, Bentley and Lamborghini, is aiming to at least double its market share in the US by the end of the decade from a meagre 4 per cent now.

“This market is turning electric and everybody’s starting from scratch,” said Dr Arno Antlitz, chief financial officer of Volkswagen. “This is our opportunity to grow.”

Electric vehicles, or EVs, have already shaken the industry rankings, emboldening Volkswagen and other foreign automakers.

Battery-powered sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and sedans helped Hyundai Motor and its sister brand Kia overtake Stellantis, the maker of Jeep, Dodge, Chrysler and Ram, as the fourth-largest carmaker by sales in the US in 2023.

Hyundai chief operating officer Jose Munos said: “Electric vehicles are helping our brand to be seen as a technology leader.”

They also attract a better-educated, more affluent customer than the South Korean company’s petrol vehicles, he said.

The list of companies that dominate electric car sales looks a lot different from the top rankings for overall US sales, hinting at a future when a different group of companies rules.

The top five companies in the US for all engine types are General Motors (GM), Toyota, Ford Motor, Hyundai and Stellantis.

In electric cars, Tesla is No. 1 by a wide margin, followed by Hyundai, GM, Ford and Volkswagen. Toyota is a minor player in electric cars.

Mr Steven Center, chief operating officer of Kia America, said: “Just because you’ve been around for 120 years doesn’t mean you’re going to have anything in this new market.”

Volvo Cars is another company hoping to take advantage of the changes wrought by electric vehicles. The Swedish carmaker, which is majority-owned by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group of China, reported a 26 per cent increase in US sales in 2023.

Much of that growth came from hybrids that have a gasoline engine and can travel shorter distances on batteries. But Mr Mike Cottone, president of Volvo Cars for the US and Canada, said he saw hybrids as a pathway to fully electric vehicles.

Later in 2024, Volvo will begin selling a Chinese-made, all-electric compact SUV – the EX30 –which will start at US$35,000 (S$47,000). It will also begin delivering the EX90, a seven-seat SUV made in South Carolina that will start around US$80,000.

Especially for luxury car buyers, Mr Cottone said: “There’s a lot of room for growth in the EV segment over the next few years”.

Volkswagen has tried and failed since the 1970s to become a bigger presence in the US and analysts are sceptical that this time will be different.

“I’ve seen Volkswagen set these goals before,” said Cox Automotive executive analyst Michelle Krebs.

The established carmakers will not be pushovers. GM and Ford are also investing heavily in electric vehicles, while Toyota said it will start producing a large electric SUV in Kentucky in 2025.

Ms Krebs pointed out that auto sales in the US were growing slowly, making the fight for market share largely a zero-sum game.

“There’s this little bit of growth that everybody is going after,” she said.

Volkswagen’s last big push in the US ended in scandal. In the early 2000s, it tried to sell cars with “clean diesel” engines. It advertised the fuel, which was used in European passenger cars much more than in American cars, as more environmentally friendly than petrol.

But the campaign collapsed in 2015 when US regulators discovered that Volkswagen had used software in the vehicles to cheat on emissions tests. In reality, the cars polluted as much as long-haul trucks.

The scandal had one benefit for Volkswagen, prompting it to invest early in electric vehicle technology and build cars designed to run on batteries, rather than make awkward modifications to petrol models. In Europe, Volkswagen’s electric brands together outsell Tesla, according to Schmidt Automotive Research.

Mr Pablo Di Si, president of Volkswagen Group of America, is responsible for doubling Volkswagen sales in the US. The Argentinian said he planned to use the same strategy he deployed while overseeing the company’s operations in Brazil, where Volkswagen’s market share rose to more than 16 per cent from 9 per cent.

“You look at the segments that you think are going to be successful 10 years from now,” he said. “What are your gaps in the product portfolio? And then you start adding products for those particular markets.”

In the US, that is likely to include petrol cars and hybrids as well as all-electric vehicles, he said. Volkswagen plans to import the ID.7, an electric sedan, and the ID.Buzz.

Mr Di Si hinted that there might also be a new electric vehicle that references the design of the Beetle. The last version of that car sold in the US was the 2019 Beetle.

Volkswagen is building a US$5 billion (S$6.7 billion) factory in Ontario to supply batteries to its factories in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Puebla, Mexico, which together will produce at least 80 per cent of its cars sold in North America. That will help buyers of cars from its Volkswagen, Audi and other brands qualify for federal tax credits of up to US$7,500 per car.

Scout will fill a major gap in Volkswagen’s portfolio – pickups, among the most popular vehicles in the US. By reviving Scout, one of the first passenger vehicles that could navigate rough dirt tracks as well as city streets, Volkswagen hopes to attract buyers who typically buy off-road-capable vehicles from US brands such as Chevrolet, Ford and Jeep.

The South Carolina factory will underscore the made-in-America vibe when the first Scouts go on sale in late 2026. Volkswagen inherited the Scout brand when the company’s truck subsidiary, Traton, acquired Navistar, a US company previously known as International Harvester, in 2021.

The new Scouts may borrow some parts used in other Volkswagen vehicles, company executives said, but the design will be distinct from existing vehicles such as the electric ID.4 SUV made in Chattanooga. Scout plans to reveal prototypes in 2024.

A stronger presence in the United States is “a strategic necessity”, Mr Scott Keogh, chief executive of Volkswagen’s Scout Motors division, said in South Carolina last week.

Outside the US, Volkswagen is a behemoth, with a 26 per cent share of the European market and 15 per cent in China. But the company is under severe pressure in China, where sales of electric vehicles have been growing fast, allowing BYD and other Chinese carmakers to gain market share from foreign automakers. Volkswagen needs growth in the US to compensate.

Volkswagen “wants to have a strong global footprint,” Mr Keogh said, “not have an isolated footprint, where it’s only sitting strong in one region.” NYTIMES