Volkswagen India lines up 4 launches within the next 2 years

It's been close to a year since Michael Mayer shifted to India as director, Volkswagen Passenger Cars. His key responsibility is to enhance Volkswagen's share in the Indian passenger vehicle market. Towards that objective, four launches are being planned between 2015 and 2016.

The most important among them will be a compact sedan, which Volkswagen has developed especially for the Indian market as this segment doesn't exist elsewhere. The car will enter a fast growing and highly competitive segment which has four key players. Maruti Suzuki's Swift Dzire leads the segment by a good margin. The segment size is around 300,000 units a year and it grew by 5-8 percent during 2014-15. Though a relatively late entrant, Mayer believes that Volkswagen's three-pronged focus on quality, safety and driveability will help the new model.

Volkswagen is also keenly watching the compact SUV space, though it is not entering anytime soon. Instead, it will launch a larger SUV, the Tiguan in India. The SUV may be assembled in Volkswagen's Chakan plant. Volkswagen is developing a range of SUVs in various sizes for markets across the globe. One SUV or two out of those could come to India.

At the premium end of the passenger vehicle market, Volkswagen will have two launches – the new Passat sedan and the new Beetle.

Volkswagen India, which sold a total of 45,018 cars in FY2014-15 and registered 22.35 percent growth year on year (YoY), sold 3,572 cars in April 2015, up 18 percent YoY.