VW stands by "ambitious" targets Volkswagen has confirmed its full-year outlook in spite of "intensifying price competition" in China, its biggest market. Speaking to the FT on the eve of the Paris motor show, Martin Winterkorn, VW chief executive, insisted the company's presence in a wide range of international markets and its broad product range meant it was well positioned to cope with the difficult conditions in western Europe. VW on Wednesday confirmed its "ambitious" goal to increase revenues this year from €159.3bn in 2011 and to keep operating profit at the level of the €11.3bn it achieved last year. The carmaker delivered more than 6m vehicles to customers in the first eight months of the year, compared with just over 8m in the whole of 2011. However, VW's chief said he concurred with a recent assessment by Dieter Zetsche, Daimler's chief executive, that competition in China had intensified. China is a key driver of VW's performance, accounting for about a quarter of unit sales and a big chunk of its profits. Mr Winterkorn told reporters that although growth in the Chinese car market would not be as "dynamic" as in the past two years, "there will still be growth." Mr Winterkorn said VW was "not immune" to a depressed European car market that had lost about 3m vehicle sales since 2007. But he argued VW's presence in growth markets such as Russia, the US, China, India and South America left it well placed. Still, he said 2013 would be a "demanding year." On Tuesday, he told an employee meeting in Wolfsburg that conditions had become "noticeably harder and tougher." VW's chief executive pushed back decisively on Wednesday against claims from Sergio Marchionne, Fiat chief executive, that VW was fuelling a price war in Europe through steep discounting. "There are objective data on who offers what [discount], in which markets, which prove we're not doing this," he told the FT. Still, he acknowledged that VW's "good credit rating" allowed it to borrow cheaply on capital markets. This put it at a competitive advantage against struggling European carmakers such as PSA Peugeot Citroën and Fiat. Mr Winterkorn declined to comment on specific competitors but said "each manufacturer has to ensure its business model is reliable." He told reporters he "does not know" if all of Europe's carmakers will survive the crisis. On the political response to the eurozone crisis, Mr Winterkorn said the German chancellor Angela Merkel was doing "a good job." Referring to Mr Marchionne's call for Brussels to co-ordinate action to deal with overcapacity in the European market, Mr Winterkorn said: "Subsidies are usually offered to open plants and create jobs. There can be no subsidies for those who want to get rid of jobs and close plants. Asked whether questionable corporate governance standards were an issue at VW, Mr Winterkorn insisted the company was "very friendly to investors - just look at our share price in the last years." VW stock has gained 44 per cent over the past year. Ursula Piëch, wife of chairman Ferdinand Piëch, is attending her first Paris show since her appointment to VW's supervisory board in April.