At the first-ever Volkswagen Group media night in India in the lead-up to the Auto Expo that is being held at Greater Noida, the German carmaker showcased the latest products that will come to India under their ‘India 2.0’ strategy.
The company which announced the strategy two years ago with an investment of Euro One Billion (Rs 8,000 crore) and changed the leadership of the company, whose strategy will now be driven by Czech brand Skoda Auto believes that they can reach sales of over 1,00,000 units annually in India by 2025 according to Bernard Maier, Chairman of the Board, Skoda Auto. Speaking to The Pioneer, Maier said that the sales target was a ‘realistic’ one despite the fact that the Indian automotive sector is expected to reach three million units by 2025, “we do not want to overpromise and under deliver, we believe that with our new product strategy underpinned by the made for India MQB-A0 platform we can easily achieve this target.”
The first vehicles made with the new platform, the upcoming Volkswagen Taigun and the Skoda Vision In concept, the latter will be made into a production car soon were showcased at the event. Both vehicles are expected to go on sale in India before the end of 2020. Jurgen Stackmann, Board Member, Sales, marketing and After-sales, Volkswagen AG told The Pioneer that the move to SUV’s was a global one, “after all people like the high seating position and now thanks to improvements in construction the fuel penalty for SUV’s is minimal.” He added that he did not feel that shared mobility solutions such as app-based taxis will make a huge impact in India and as for electric vehicles while Violkwagen will launch some cars in India, the country also needed to ‘clean up’ its energy production and build charging infrastructure for a lasting impact.
However, Stackmann did make clear that Volkswagen Group’s future in India will be diesel-free as the costs associated with clean diesel engines under the BS6 norms coming into force in April 2020. Most of Volkswagen and Skoda’s new vehicles will be powered by petrol engines, between 1-litre to 1.5 litre.