Volkswagen India: Volkswagen India to increase the capacity of 20,000 units, set up a design center

CHENNAI: Increasing production capacity, creating a design center, launching new models, increasing locational levels and the presence of a Regional celebrity are among the new strategies of Volkswagen. Friday.

Steffen Knapp, director of Volkswagen Pbadenger Cars, also told the media that the Volkswagen Group will invest 1 billion euros as part of the India 2.0 strategy, a strategic alliance between Volkswagen and Skoda Auto in which the market Indian.

According to the new game plan, Skoda will take the lead of Volkswagen's "MQB A0 IN" platform in India, in addition to developing low-volume cars.

The platform standardizes components, dimensions and production processes. Costs and production time are also reduced. In addition, the MQB platform increases flexibility when developing new vehicles. Most of the technical development will take place in India.

Knapp stated that the production capacity would be increased from 20,000 units per year to 200,000 units per year at the Pune plant.

He said that the additional investment of about Rs 8,000 crore will go towards the establishment of a design center in Pune, the development of new models and other activities .

"Currently, the group (Volkswagen and Skoda) has a 1.8 percent market share in the Indian car market and is targeting a 5 percent share by 2025," Knapp said.

He said that the production will be the responsibility of Skoda while the marketing, sales, after-sales service and others will be under the responsibility of Volkswagen.

Volkswagen will launch a sport utility vehicle (SUV) and Knapp said that the company will not miss the SUV sales boom.

He also said that Volkswagen will increase the level of localization of components to more than 90 percent from current levels of about 82 percent in a year.

According to him, about 90 percent of Volkswagen car buyers in India own cars for the first time and the company focuses on loyalty programs so that the customer is retained.

Asked about the expansion of the distribution network, Knapp says that with increasing urbanization, real estate costs for dealers will increase and so the company is looking to increase the points of sale. contact as the display models in shopping malls, online sales and other places.

Volkswagen currently has 121 dealerships in 104 Indian cities.

On electric vehicle plans around the world, he said that Volkswagen clearly intends to be the one who will mobilize the process of electrification for the mbades.

According to Volkswagen, there are a lot of things that need to be ready in India and currently it is monitoring the market.