Volkswagen today rolled out the 100,000th car from its Chakan plant in Pune. Production started in May 2009 with the Skoda Fabia followed by the Polo, Vento and the Fabia facelift. Next year a car smaller than Polo alongside the Skoda Rapid are likely to be made in Chakan.
Skoda and VW brand models are manufactured at Chakan. Assembly of Jetta, Laura, Passat, Superb and Yeti take place at another VW Group plant in Aurangabad.
The Chakan plant can manufacture 130,000 cars in a year at full capacity and it was constructed in just 17 months (private residences have taken longer to come up) with an investment commitment of 3,800 crore rupees. The investment is the largest to date by a German company in India.
IAB visited the squeaky-clean VW plant in August 2010 and met with German officials who said a small R&D team was working on improving every aspect of the Indian Polo.
click through to read more
IAB is going to spend the day in VW’s Chakan plant in Pune. Posting frequency will be less, but we’ll come back tonight and posting will be back to full-throttle!
Japanese two-wheeler manufacturer Yamaha, who is riding the success wave with the FZ series and R15 motorcycle, has put three scooters (50 cc Neo, 115 cc Fino and 135 cc Spark) on test in India. Yamaha has also put these models on display across select dealerships in India.
This is nothing new considering they have been they have already spoken about it before and in a Pune dealership, some scooters have found fans already.
Scoop -
Our sources close to Yamaha tell us a scooter with a capacity of close to 125cc (either Fino or Spark) will be positioned as the market leader Honda Activa alternative. It will be about Rs 2,000 cheaper than the Activa with three or four extra features. The scooter could be launched during the time of Diwali.
The Honda Activa enjoys a 55 percent market share and it would take more than just price undercutting to displace it from the top.
The Indian scooter market is vastly populated with gearless scooters in the 100-125 cc range. Close to 12 lakh units of these easy-operation vehicles were sold in our country last year.
The chiseled Volkswagen Polo with its Scirocco inspired styling will debut at the Delhi Auto Expo next year in both petrol and diesel options. The company’s new facility in Pune will manufacture the hatchback and follow it up with a sedan and possibly a MPV and station wagon in the future.
The India-spec Polo in addition to the manual transmission, will be supplemented with an automatic transmission. Production of the Polo is set to begin early next year.
The sedan variant of the Polo, as we reported earlier, will be longer and wider to offer more legroom and comfort to rear passengers. This particular variant could compete with the likes of the Dzire, Indigo and Fiesta when it comes out next year.
Right from the beginning, VW is targeting a localization level of fifty percent for the hatchback. The Chakan plant in Pune, in full flow, will have an annual capacity of 1.1 lakh cars which it says will take 4 to 6 years to reach.
The company is eyeing a 8-10 percent market share by this period. After the Polo, the company is also planning on introducing a whole crate of other VW models from hatchbacks to imports.
Another ray of hope for true bike lovers in India, one of the most awaited bikes, the Kawasaki Ninja 250R, was on display at Bajaj’s pro biking showroom at Pune recently. This means the wait for this monster is about to come to an end and a confirmation would be out in the near future.
The bike was parked at the showroom only for a limited period and it was only for Bajaj and Kawasaki officials to see the amount of space the bike would take and also to decide the ways and means to display to the customers. Like banners nearby or on raised platform, decorations, so on and so forth.
The bike will brought in as completely knocked down units and assembled here at Bajaj’s plant. This bike has two versions, carbureted and fuel injected. In India we will get the FI version which is the similar to the one sold in Europe.
The Ninja develops 33ps of power at 10,500 rpm and a torque of 22Nm at 9500 rpm. It has 6-speed gear box and a top speed of around 160 kmph. The bike will be available in two colors which are black and the trademark green.
The only noticeable change so far is the front number plate and the exhaust. The bike has an analog console which is a little bit of a disappointment to me. Although not confirmed, the bike is expected to cost somewhere between 2 to 2.5 lakh.
IAB Comment – start saving!
Note – we had earlier carried a VW Polo spy video here
Someone who knows his VWs captured this Polo while it was testing in an unknown location. The newest iteration of the immensely famous Polo is going to be manufactured right here in India in its newly constructed facility in Pune. The Skoda Fabia is presently manufactured there and later on, several VW cars including the Up! and the Polo sedan will roll out from there.
The VW Polo will be officially launched in India at the upcoming Auto Expo (2010).
The Indian production plans of the VW Up! were discussed not once, but twice here before. With its two petrol and two diesel engine, this car is programmed to cave into the market of the ultra-light, ultra-small city cars that sip fuel and park in tight gaps.
Very soon, the Fiat Topolino is also said to join the pack the Toyota iQ and the Smart Fortwo are already serving right now elsewhere in the world. VW will utlize its facility in Pune to manufacture this car for select regions in partnership with the plant in Bratislava.
Has the little Ninja finally made it to India? I think so.
The Kawasaki Ninja 250R was snapped when on display at a Bajaj Probiking showroom in Pune. In the recent past, Bajaj had displayed the unreleased Pulsar variants in a similar manner, to collect feedback from its customers.
Volkswagen today rolled out the 100,000th car from its Chakan plant in Pune. Production started in May 2009 with the Skoda Fabia followed by the Polo, Vento and the Fabia facelift. Next year a car smaller than Polo alongside the Skoda Rapid are likely to be made in Chakan.
