After carrying the badge of Suzuki and Nissan, the A-Star will also get a VW badge. India’s automotive kingpin, Maruti Suzuki will supply A-Star to Volkswagen AG to sell in other markets, Economic Times is reporting.
The A-Star, or 7th generation Alto, is a car that is sold across the globe under various names such as Pixo, Celerio etc. It is this popularity that attracted the attention of the German giant. Adding to that, the fact that the car meets stringent crash safety tests, emission norms and environment regulations, means it can be sold in almost any market except for maybe the United States.
Volkswagen’s lacks a model under the Polo that can be sold in global markets. While cars like the Gol and Fox are less expensive than Polo, they are reserved for South America and might not meet the safety or emission standards of Europe. The strategy here will be to position the A-Star as their entry level model, while placing the upcoming Lupo right above. The Polo will continue its duties remaining in the immediately higher segment.
Maruti A-Star Automatic
Of course, the plain, humdrum A-Star will go under the VW scalpel to make it look like a VW product. Maruti’s engineering team would work closely with VW to tweak the car as per its global market needs.
SRK has already tried helping Maruti Suzuki with his rendering.
After the A-Star, will other cars like the Swift , Ritz, SX4 and Grand Vitara also get VW badges.
Source: Economictimes.indiatimes.com
[...] could however proceed with the plan of sourcing the rebadged A-Star for sale in some overseas [...]
This is a very good market capturing technique. Initially 25 hrs ago VW and Suzuki drafted plans to enter into India and VW withdrawn from the race. Maruti did well all these years. Now VW got 20% of Suzuki’s share and getting hold in Indian market with their flagship products and these Maruti’s products. Both of them would share their product knowledge and technologies. let us see how both VW and Maruti differentiate their versions interns of quality and price.