Volkswagen India eyes premium car segment

Volkswagen India envisages marking its presence in every segment of the car market with their premium range of products. This is to strengthen their product portfolio in India leading the path to achieve the slot in the top five car manufacturers across the world. Neeraj Garg of Volkswagen India representing the auto major said that they intend to introduce premium cars to mark the distinction from rest of the brands.

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Garg had also expressed that being an OEM, Volkswagen is expected to deliver certain standards with respect to product range. For instance, being an entry-level hatchback, Volkswagen Polo falls under the premium segment with a price tag of Rs 5 lakhs for its base variant. The lowest priced car from Volkswagen is basically competing against the medium range model of Hyundai Motor’s Hyundai i20. Same is the story with the mid-level sedans of VW, Vento, Passat and Jetta, which might not be great volume-drivers for the German auto major, but have reserved their own berth in the market. Volkswagen intended to gain access to Suzuki’s economic small car production, however, with the two-year alliance falling apart, Volkswagen will have to abide by the premium image it is well-known for. Volkswagen seems to have woven an excellent game plan which would enable the premium car manufacturer to target two birds with a single stone. While maintaining the premium car image, the auto major hopes to drive volumes through its subsidiary Skoda with its competitively priced models.

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Volkswagen India is increasing the localization for its models like Volkswagen Polo and Volkswagen Vento to over 70%. The sales of Volkswagen Polo, Volkswagen Vento and Volkswagen Passat during the first quarter of FY2011-2012 are reported to be 16,042, 771, and 750 units. In a step towards increasing its product portfolio in India, Volkswagen is going to introduce its small car Volkswagen UP! in 2012 among the other possible options. Volkswagen India showcases the following models in India – Volkswagen Vento, Volkswagen Polo, Volkswagen Passat, Volkswagen Beetel, Volkswagen Phaeton, Volkswagen Touareg and Volkswagen Jetta.