In his first official U.S. visit since the scandal broke in September, Volkswagen's (VW) newly-tapped CEO, Matthias Mueller, insisted the German auto giant is "fully committed to making things right."

"We know that we have let down customers, authorities, regulators and the general public here in America," Mueller said at a media reception on the eve of the Detroit Auto Show.

"We are - I am - truly sorry for that and I would like to apologize once again for what went wrong at Volkswagen," he added, stressing that the "most important task in 2016 is to win back trust." Volkswagen plans to make an additional $900 million investment in the United States to build a new mid-size SUV. The investment at VW's Chattanooga plant will create approximately 2,000 jobs, Mueller said. The Wolfsburg-based group admitted to installing software in around 11 million diesel cars of its VW, Audi, SEAT and Skoda brands worldwide that helped them evade emissions standards after U.S. regulators discovered the problem. The so-called defeat devices turn on pollution controls when the car is undergoing testing, and off when it is back on the road, allowing it to spew out harmful levels of nitrogen oxide.

Daimler AG board Chairman Dieter Zetsche took a not-so-subtle dig at his rival Sunday night, telling reporters at a lavish party unveiling the new Mercedes E-Class luxury sedan that in contrast to "some German automakers," Santa "left a lot of candy in our stockings" in 2015.

"It's obvious that the last year was not very nice for everybody, and for some time the entire industry was affected by that," he later told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"But there's clear differentiation and we feel full confidence with our customer base and our stakeholders again."

More than 40 new vehicles are vying for the attention of more than 5,000 journalists from dozens of countries during two days of official press previews at the North American International Auto Show Monday and Tuesday. General Motors (GM) also tried to steal the stoplight with a party late Sunday revealing a new sports car concept, the Buick Avista, and introducing a luxury sport utility vehicle, the Buick Envision.

The Envision will be the first vehicle a major automaker has imported from China when it hits U.S. showrooms later this year.

"We're very excited about the entire Buick lineup," GM CEO Mary Barra told reporters.

The luxury market will be crowded, with an all-new Porsche 911 Turbo set to debut alongside Volvo's new S90 premium sedan, Ford's much-anticipated updated Lincoln Continental and fresh models from BMW and Infiniti.

Korea's Hyundai is hoping to replicate the success of Japanese rivals Toyota, Honda and Nissan by introducing a separate luxury brand, Genesis.

There will also be plenty of more practical vehicles unveiled, like the next generation of Chrysler's Town and Country minivan while Honda and Nissan will reveal new pickup trucks. Nearly every major automaker is raking in huge profits after U.S. auto sales hit a new record high of 17.5 million vehicles in 2015. Some Tesla Motors vehicles can park themselves without a driver inside with a software update beamed to customers over the weekend.

The boom times are especially sweet given that they come just six years after GM and Chrysler clawed their way out of bankruptcy after the financial crisis knocked U.S. auto sales to 10.4 million in 2009, the lowest level in nearly three decades. With sales expected to continue to accelerate in 2016, there is plenty of room for others to profit, as well. The competition will, as always, be fierce. "The American market is a healthy market, compared with what we've seen over the past 15 years. It's no longer a market where we were concerned about the sustainability of growth," Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said. But that growth is expected to be a modest 1 percent to 2 percent in 2016, Ghosn said.