Volkswagen charts out big India plans

Europe's biggest carmaker Volkswagen is intensifying efforts to rapidly expand in India, including increasing the number of models and dealerships, as the group eyes an overall market share of 10 per cent in the next five to six years.

'Considering the growth that the Indian market has witnessed, the aim for the Volkswagen group is to have an overall market share of 10 per cent in the next 5-6 years,' Volkswagen Group brand communications head Kurt Rippholz told PTI in Wolfsburg.

VW Group, which own seven car brands, currently sells Audi, Skoda and the Volkswagen brands in India.

As part of the plan, the group is intensifying efforts to synergise operations between the different group companies; add more dealerships and introduce new models in India.

'The VW brand is currently developing two cars based on the compact car 'Polo' platform, which could be rolled out from our Chakan facility by 2010. One will be a hatchback and the other will be a small sedan,' he said, adding that in July the company would launch its sedan Jetta to add to the already existing Passat in India.

He said that in order to take on competition from Japanese, mainly Maruti Suzuki, the company is looking to have high levels of localisation to be price competitive.

'The car on the Polo platform will have about 50 per cent localisation to start with and eventually go up to 70-80 per cent,' Rippholz said.

To achieve this the group is also expanding its technical office in India to carry out market research and make the car suited to Indian conditions while alos increase component sourcing from the country, he added.