Beetle would be soon buzzing on Indian roads. By next year Volkswagen, Europe’s largest carmaker, has planned to import and sell its new brand Beetle in India. Kurt Rippholz, the head of communications of the Volkswagen Group in India, confirmed to DNA Money that the Beetle would be in India in 2009. “We will position it as a lifestyle car, in the niche segment in India. Even in the home market (Germany), the Beetle comes for ?30,000 and is positioned as a lifestyle vehicle for a certain few.” He added that the pricing for India is yet to be decided.
Volkswagen is present in India as Volkswagen India, SkodaAuto India and Audi India. At present the carmaker have a 30,000 unit manufacturing capacity at Aurangabad and is in the course of setting up a 1.1 lakh unit facility at Chakan (Pune), which is programmed to go on stream next year. The Aurangabad plant rolls out Skoda cars ‘Superb’, ‘Laura’, ‘Octavia’ and ‘Fabia’; Audi ‘A6’ and ‘A4’; and Volkswagen ‘Jetta’ and ‘Passat’. Once Chakan becomes its operation, production of Fabia hatchback will shift from Aurangabad.
Rippholz said despite a global slowdown, Volkswagen Group’s capex and investment plans for India remain on course. The company has noticed Rs 3,600 crore for the nation and will be launching two new cars based on its global ‘Polo’ platform in 2010. One would be a hatchback while the other would be a sedan. “We are developing a new Polo platform and the two cars will roll off this new platform with specifications for Indian market built in. This platform is specifically being designed for BRIC countries,” Rippholz added.