Volkswagen, Europe?s largest car maker, which launched its luxury sedan Passat in Mumbai on Wednesday, has drawn up plans to establish its presence across segments in the passenger car market in India. Contrary to expectations that the first car coming out of its Pune plant would be Polo in the premium B segment, the company plans to enter the fast growing mid-sized – C segment as early as January 2010 – even before it launches Polo, sources close to the company said. The company is also planning to launch Jetta, its premium sedan, in 2008, which will be pitted against Honda Civic.
An industry source told FE, ?The company is currently developing an all new compact car (a sixth generation car) specifically designed for the Indian market. The company will be initially coming out with a sedan which will compete with the likes of Honda City, Maruti Suzuki?s SX4 and Mahindra-Renault Logan, and then will come out with a hatchback very soon.? The company is currently setting up a plant in Chakan, near Pune, with an investment of Rs 2,450 crore, with a capacity of 1,10,000 units.
The plant is expected to commence operations by end of 2009 and stone-laying ceremony of the plant is also likely to be held in a month?s time. The plant will be primarily for manufacturing of a small car, however, eventually, the production of its assembled cars in Aurangabad (Passat and Jetta) will take place at Pune. It currently has three dealers across the country which would be scaled up to 150 dealers by the time the production begins at Pune
About the company?s plans to enter the small car market, Kevin Rose, executive director international sales, passenger cars, Volkswagen AG said, ?If you look at India, the majority of the market is made up of small cars and I think the bigger segment will also grow. Preferences here are changing very fast unlike Europe. Yes, we will have a car which people will like, but at the same time we have different ideas and the next six to nine months are going to be very crucial.?
The Passat Sedan will be intially imported as semi-knocked down units (SKDs) from Germany and assembled at VW?s group company?s (Skoda) manufacturing facility in Aurangabad. It will be made available in two versions, which will be priced at Rs 22.35 lakh and Rs 24.35 lakh (all prices ex-showroom Delhi).
