Volkswagen looks to expand product range in India, eyes premium models

German carmaker Volkswagen is looking to strengthen its Indian model line-up with new launches across price points. Speaking to Autocar Professional’s sister magazine Autocar India at the launch of the updated Polo in New Delhi yesterday, Michael Mayer, director, Volkswagen Passenger Cars India said, “As a brand with a premium and aspirational element, we need to be present when people want to move up from basic inexpensive cars to higher quality, more spacious and more performance-oriented cars. I’m carefully watching the segments developing in India. I’d like to use the full breadth of the Volkswagen brand that is currently focused only on two products (Polo and Vento).”

While Mayer did not speak about any possibility of the launch of VW’s upcoming budget brand in India, he did admit that the German carmaker is ‘seriously investigating’ opportunities in the compact sedan and compact SUV segments to drive up numbers. In fact, on November 13, 2013, Autocar India was the first to break the story that VW is developing a sub-4-metre Vento.

Volkswagen had showcased the India-bound Taigun sub-4-metre SUV at the Auto Expo this year which garnered a good response but VW is struggling with the cost structure of this compact SUV to price it competitively. Hence, the Taigun has yet to receive the green light but a compact SUV on the existing Polo’s PQ25 platform is more of a possibility.

These cars apart, Mayer also hinted at VW’s plans to bring in more premium cars. “As India is growing, the number of people who can spend above Rs 20 lakh on a car is also growing. We see room to get new customers, who are currently constrained to a few luxury brands, to the VW brand.” he said. Autocar India has also learnt that the iconic Golf is being evaluated for India as are the Scirocco and Beetle. Volkswagen has already shown the next-gen Passat that is headed to India as well.

Despite the potentially low sales volumes, the thinking behind bringing these cars into the Indian market is to have a presence here before it expands, an approach that has reaped huge dividends for VW in the Chinese car market.

Photograph: The new VW Scirocco.