[volkman10]

What is the future of VAG group in India? Just a week back we heard of the exit of Skoda M.D. quitting the group.

Now top four sales & marketing executives is rumored exit Volkswagen India and many more to follow!

Is the VW-TATA alliance any indication of these exits?

Head of sales - Pankaj Sharma, national head of corporate sales - Neerav Shah and regional sales manager South- Ravi Prakash have left the company. And there may be some more exits expected in the coming weeks.

LINK

[srishiva]

From the so called premium brands, will people accept something thats developed only for our market ? Also, if they develop cars based on something that a local car maker would also have, whats the point of buying such a car ?

I would like to buy a Jetta, Passat, Golf etc from VW not something that shares platform with local maker.

Vento itself is a compromise and how low can they get ?

[motorworks]

Originally Posted by srishiva

.



Vento itself is a compromise and how low can they get ?

Vento is a compromise from what? Let's not expect Jetta or Passat level quality at Honda city prices. Vento, Polo and Rapid are fundamentally very well built cars with more than adequate engines and gear box combinations. The overall build quality of the car is far better than a Honda city or any other in its segment. Obviously there are flaws like certain spare parts being very highly priced etc and service levels being a tad lower than the others but, compromise? No way!

Vento was launched in 2011 if im not wrong and even in 2017 it does provide a good fight to the new City or even the ciaz.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by srishiva

From the so called premium brands, will people accept something thats developed only for our market ? Also, if they develop cars based on something that a local car maker would also have, whats the point of buying such a car ?

All in all, I don't really know. Once upon a time, they might have decided to swallow up the local car maker. Just see how many brands belong to the VAG group! In leaner, more troubled days, this might be less likely.

I would like to buy a Jetta, Passat, Golf etc from VW not something that shares platform with local maker.

Wouldn't we all! But we can't all afford it. And hey, I couldn't afford a Golf or a Jetta back in London either.

But some people can afford it, and I do think that VW would be advised to give them the choice. Yet again, I say, VW, give people here the Golf!

Vento itself is a compromise and how low can they get ?

Why is that "low?" Are you expecting VW to sell only premium, high-spec, high-equipment-level cars? They don't even do that in Europe. Another thing I have posted a number of times is that as a Golf driver (company car) in about 1988, London, even then the manuals were full full of desirable things that "may not apply to your model" and didn't.

I have no idea what the current equipment levels in Europe are like now, but the regularity of gadget-adding "facelifts" is, to me, a refreshing change from the VW I knew back then.

But there is still going to be compromise on any model. Anywhere in the world, it must be made and priced for its market. And at least our Polos are not compromised, compared to Europe, in the same way that Maruti's Swifts are.

(VW Fanboy and ex Swift owner)

[volkman10]

Stefan Knapp to head Volkswagen India. Replaces Michael Meyer who moved to China some months ago.

Source- VW

[volkman10]

Volkswagen announces the arrival of the NEW POLO and Virtus for Brazil in addition to the earlier announced C/SUV'S T Cross and T ROC. All cars have a time frame and solid product portfolio in place.

This leaves India out of VW's road map and still in exploratory phase, though India being the current 5th largest market .

Some questions to ponder:

1. Will the speculated alliance using the AMP platform justified for India only products. Earlier S American markets were included in this plan.

2.Will the alliance be restricted to Skoda products only?

3. Is VW planning to exit the mass segment in India and concentrate on CBU's/SkD's route of manufacturing?

4. Is VW looking at the Chinese JV ( VW-FAW ) designed cars for India?

Link

[volkman10]

Originally Posted by volkman10

1. Will the speculated alliance using the AMP platform justified for India only products. Earlier S American markets were included in this plan.

2.Will the alliance be restricted to Skoda products only?

Tata-VW, Skoda alliance likely to be called off.

Dealing with Germans is not that easy and a partnership with them is very complex. I am very happy it turned out this way and we may see cars built from the MQB platform manufactured in India

Link

[Sheel]

VW as well as Skoda appear to move away from tier 2/3 cities towns, at least, here in East. VW & Skoda shut shop in Siliguri. VW shut shop in Guwahati. Skoda shut its shop at Patna.

And Audi is opening up its sale and service outlets at these places in phased manner. What gives..?

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Sheel

... What gives..?

VAG had the problem of Skoda being perceived as a premium car before VW arrived here. Out of the three, Audi is the premium model.

So now, VW, with the Polo has established itself as the base-level brand and is now pushing Audi as premium. That is the natural VAG order, as per the rest of the world, but... Whither Skoda in India? Byebye?

[volkman10]

VW's Skoda, Tata end cooperation talks after failing to hit cost targets. Main reason as listed below.

1. Skoda dropped the idea of developing the AMP platform on fears that it would need significant further investment to meet future crash-test and engine emissions requirements and would instead explore parent VW's MQB platform for possible further savings

2.The two companies have come to the conclusion that at the present point of time the technical and economic synergies cannot be realized in the desired way.

3.The breakdown of talks with Tata was mainly for economic reasons rather than differences over control, as the AMP architecture turned out to be too expensive.

We haven't been able yet to claim a share of the booming business with cheap small cars and Tata means another setback in that respect.
But VW has changed a lot structurally since the Suzuki debacle, so we'll keep trying.

link

[arjab]

After factoring in all the crash protection packages for future crash legislations, the investment in AMP was crossing a smidgeon over 1000 crores INR.
Now this was getting too close to the MQB because as per VW calculations, if the group sets up the MQB line they need to roughly spend the same amount of money, maybe slightly more.
If that is the case, as per VW think-tank, MQB makes more sense as it'll give VW greater control over the car building process. MQB is also lighter than AMP and has better torsional stiffness, which is a critical ingredient in dishing up superior crash protection and handling finesse. In fact initially VW didn't want to compromise on platform fundamentals, but there was a strong argument that Indian driving conditions did not require European levels of platform bending rigidity and that diluting these would result in a lot of pennies being saved. Now when the savings are not that much why dilute MQB's basic properties?
Also MQB has all hard points variations package protected keeping in mind VW group's long term product plans and that includes VW, Skoda, SEAT. So in future if they decide to launch other models from any of their other brands the task will be easier. Electrical wiring harness packaging and design is also lighter and cheaper in MQB .
Thus, overall, the "apparent" savings which were perceived , from the sharing of AMP between the two OEM's seems to be far less than envisaged. Hence the business call to put a lid on the talks for now .

[volkman10]

With the diversion of Skoda - TATA alliance out of the way. VAG in talks for the future India product portfolio . Most likely to replicate the S American product line for India.

Volkswagen AG is currently working on details of how it wants to proceed “in this challenging market and in these challenging years”. The VW board will consider a proposal in September to introduce a new platform in India to substantially boost the German company’s portfolio of cars

link

[ajmat]

As I mentioned somewhere else in the forum, VW should consider investing in the MQB platform and gain economies of scale in manufacturing various Skoda, Audi, VW models

Looks like something is in the offing

In a significant development, the Volkswagen AG board will consider a proposal in September to introduce its Modular Transverse Matrix (MQB) platform in India to substantially boost the German company’s portfolio of cars in India

more here

[volkman10]

Volkswagen is adamant on the the low cost car , still aims to build budget car for emerging markets under the leadership of SKODA.

On the group's long-running effort to produce a low-cost car for emerging markets, he said Czech brand Skoda would try to develop such a vehicle for India by 2020, one year later than planned after cooperation talks with Tata Motors collapsed.

Skoda has developed "a series of ideas" for a cheap car for India that could then be used in other markets such as Brazil and Iran.

But is this a CUV or entry level car is yet to be known.

Hope this ends with just a budget car and doesn't spin off into a budget brand

The NEW Gen platform is likely to continue(Polo, Virtus, T cross, etc for India too) as all the cars have earmarked for release in BRAZIL soon.

LINK

[volkman10]

Has VW decided to go the MQB way in India ? That is how it sounds as described by TATA's Managing Director and CEO!

As far as AMP is concerned, we have made up our mind. We have decided to go with AMP. Skoda is going to go ahead with MQB platform

link