VW India has its eyes set firmly on the Indian mini SUV and sub-4 metre sedan segments. The German automaker would enter these segments in the next two to three years to increase its market share in India.
Talking to Economic Times, Mr. Michael Mayer, director, Volkswagen Passenger Cars India, said that the sub-4 metre sedan for India will not be a Vento with a chopped boot but a new car in its own right. With this statement, he implies that the compact sedan for India would adopt a proportionate design of its own.
The Polo hatchback measures 3.97 m in length which means a sub-4 metre sedan would look disproportionate. The design and development of the sub-4 metre sedan codenamed Polo Stuffe is likely to be outsourced to Defiance Technologies which was earlier an Hinduja Group subsidiary.
VW would be investing heavily to increase localization (currently at about 70 percent for Polo and Vento) which would help it price the new product aggressively. The compact VW sedan would choose from the company's existing petrol and diesel powertrains.
The VW compact sedan is expected to be ready sometime in 2016. Apart from India, it could also be exported to certain emerging markets.
[Source: Economic Times]
