[Brishti]

Ok so this is how the platform terminology is divided :-

MQB "Unified" under which the following is derivative off "With some cost cutting"

MQB A0 "Supermini cars" based on combination of MQB and PQ Platforms but even this proved too expensive for India so Skoda developed the IN derivative of the MQB A0 which itself is a derivative of MQB Platform.

So the MQB as a whole can be sub-divided into the following with respect to their Indian operations:

MQB A0 "New Vento,New Polo, Etc"
MQB A "Octavia, etc"
MQB B "Passat, Superb?, Etc"
MQB C "Maybe A6 in Future, etc"
MQB D "Maybe A8 in Future, etc"

[varunswnt]

Originally Posted by Brishti

MQB A0 "Supermini cars" based on combination of MQB and PQ Platforms but even this proved too expensive for India so Skoda developed the IN derivative of the MQB A0 which itself is a derivative of MQB Platform.

Is India such a cheap market that they have to derive an Indian specific platform from already derived platform for emerging market.

If manufacturers are going to look at India from cheap glasses, then there is no wrong in Maruti capturing 50%+ market share.

Renault-Nissan too is going the same cheap route, they use Dacia platform to put on Renault-Nissan clothes.

Even Honda is shying away from bringing HR-V based on City/Jazz platform owing to expensive proposal.

Where are we heading? I thought our car market is slowly maturing but the trend shows something different. Let's wait and watch.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by 53BHP

Insider information says that VW killed the fabia to bring out the polo.

That's a load of bull. The Fabia was dead well before the Polo arrived. In fact, the Fabia never sold well. It was an overpriced dud. In 2008, it was selling a mere 500 cars a month (related discussion).

Skoda insiders feel that if they were allowed to continue with the fabia they would be outselling the polo by far as they are doing today

One thing I've learned from Skoda insiders is, they are very good at blaming everyone else but themselves for their failures. The weather, the roads, the customers, the dealers, the government, VW, Maruti, their wives, the Euro's appreciation & depreciation...the list goes on. But Skoda India is never at fault.

with the rapid over the vento. Rapid is apparently outselling the vento 2 to 1

No doubt. Credit where it is deserved.

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by varunswnt

Is India such a cheap market that they have to derive an Indian specific platform from already derived platform for emerging market.

Thats because the market seems to shy away from paying more for anything, except if it carries a Maruti or Toyota badge.

Good vehicles are tanking in the market while anything with 4 wheels and a steering that has the Suzuki or Toyota badge does numbers even if there are more competent vehicles around.

People tend to be blind followers of people, brands and names in India - they seem to identify more with that unquantifiable factor than any objective assessment of facts or specifications.

Which means the only way any other brand can build any momentum will be purely on price, which means cutting specifications that people don't really care for - look at Nissan, they sort of figured it out with that shoddy Kwid.

When that happens, the market gets what you've described above - because that is what it deserves.

[reignofchaos]

Originally Posted by GTO

One thing I've learned from Skoda insiders is, they are very good at blaming everyone else but themselves for their failures. The weather, the roads, the customers, the dealers, the government, VW, Maruti, their wives, the Euro's appreciation & depreciation...the list goes on. But Skoda India is never at fault.

Personal experience is that this attitude comes from top and filters down to everyone right down to the worker bees. I worry for VW in India. Whatever tiny amount of goodwill they had built with the well priced GT twins will be wiped out in a jiffy if they go the skoda way in India. On top of that we'll get shoddy cars, shoddy sales experience and shoddy after sales service .

They just need to realize that they can't play the mass volume game in India. People who buy their products are enthusiasts who value build quality, technology, performance, features and are willing to take a chance with their iffy service experiences for a good product otherwise. If they wipe out their USP by building india specific crap, they'll lose their existing customer base too!

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by varunswnt

Is India such a cheap market that they have to derive an Indian specific platform from already derived platform for emerging market.

Even Honda is shying away from bringing HR-V based on City/Jazz platform owing to expensive proposal.

Where are we heading? I thought our car market is slowly maturing but the trend shows something different. Let's wait and watch.

Totally agree! For example Colombo is crawling(!) with Honda Vezels as is Singapore to a lesser extent. Honda India is still hawking the cheaper Brio and pushing the older or 'developing economy' models like the Mobilio, BRV & WRV.

The trend is indeed disturbing if more car manufacturers cannot share the huge pie being wrested by Maruti. The more competition the better!

[AlphaKilo]

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

...

They just need to realize that they can't play the mass volume game in India. People who buy their products are enthusiasts who value build quality, technology, performance, features and are willing to take a chance with their iffy service experiences for a good product otherwise. If they wipe out their USP by building india specific crap, they'll lose their existing customer base too!

Just based on some 100 enthusiasts buying, a company like VW cannot survive or sustain their operations in India. They need to make mass market sales. Even assuming VW does pitch on enthusiasts, how many cars does a so-called enthusiast buy during his whole life? ~5 - 6 or 10? how many of them will be from VW? How many of those VWs will be high profit (for VW ofcourse) models? How many times will he/she pay for the costly service/maintenance? How will VW keep up its supply-chain and logistics just for a few bunch of enthusiasts?

If we want a showroom at every nook and corner and pay pittance for maintaining the car, Maruti is the only brand we can trust and we will get.

Drastic comparison to our neighbour shows and proves my point. Not without a reason is Daimler, BMW and Audi are running to china. People have buying power and use it. Premium comes at a price and that price is and will always be higher than what Maruti can offer.

Last point, since when did VW become an enthusiasts car? Its Volks-Wagen!!The Maruti-Suzuki of Germany

[avishar]

Ofcourse India is a cheap market. Are you going to pay Rs 17 lakh for a Polo? That's the price the 2018 1.0 TSI with a DSG retails for in UK. Which is why this entire alphabet soup of platforms is taking place. The cost structures for cars built for the European market is just too expensive for India. Imagine trying to figure out how to slash costs by half!

Now this is neither Volkswagen's fault, nor of the Indian consumers. It's just how our automobile market is structured, and what our buying power is. Volkswagen has to relearn how to make cars for India. Most probably their modular platforms would need such extensive rethinking that they probably have to start something from scratch, hence these 'cheaper' platforms for India. Now how Hyundai or Maruti manages to do this, they only know. But it is a probably a mix of greater understanding of the market, heavier R&D spending and testing in India and economies of scale. Both of these car manufacturers have a huge ecosystem of auto-ancillaries too, many with plants right next to their own plants, built to exclusively cater to them.

[McLaren Rulez]

I'll take a car with lower equipment levels, older engines, etc. but this built-with-lower-grade-steel-because-India talk is an instant deal breaker.

VW should really know better - they were ones who profited when the Polo passed crash tests and several rivals failed due to made-for-India compromises.

[motorworks]

Originally Posted by McLaren Rulez

I'll take a car with lower equipment levels, older engines, etc. but this built-with-lower-grade-steel-because-India talk is an instant deal breaker.

VW should really know better - they were ones who profited when the Polo passed crash tests and several rivals failed due to made-for-India compromises.

But who is saying that VW and Skoda are going to compromise on the build quality?

The Vento, Rapid and Polo were heavily localised and their build quality is the best in their segments, even better than some cars from one segment above. So if Skoda and VW were to meet this kind of quality levels , I think its not bad at all and still would be better than most other cars in their segments, if it's build quality in general.

Where they need to keep costs down is with regard to some spares and parts. Just to quote and example, fuel injectors for the Vento and Rapid cost somewhere around 20k, I think. Whereas Hyundai and others may be around 5k. Similarly the diesel turbo costs a whopping 1.5 Lakhs! While something in a Maruti or Hyundai costs around 40k! So while they managed to keep costs of certain things like bumpers and tail lights etc, the cost of some parts were 3-4 times of completion. That needs to be corrected. Else the quality levels of the current Rapid and Vento would be anyday good enough!

[vkr15]

The Indian auto market is too complex a subject to be analysed by car enthusiasts alone ( which I'm pre supposing most members of this forum are ). The maximum weightage to any attribute that a car buyer considers is , quite simply MONEY. Car buyers in the mass market take into account the resale value of their purchase, even before they buy a car. Couple this with good FE figures and low cost of spares and servicing and you've got a winner on your hands. Crash tests,air bags, build quality and driving dynamics are peripheral issues in the mass market. Heck, I sold my Zen for nearly 50% of its purchase value after using it for 13 years! ( Also because it was in white shade. Ever wonder why this is the most sought after shade in the mass market, irrespective of the brand ).
VW in my opinion was never meant for the Indian mass market. The Germans, after their success with VW in China felt that the same template could be applied to India. We know now how wrong they were. I'm guessing and hoping India's time will eventually come. Lets wish Skoda manages to turn things around for VW.

[volkman10]

Skoda unveils its India plan.








Global Launches

The SUV will make its global debut in India in the second half of 2020. Other body styles on the same platform are also already under consideration, with launches expected post 2021.

Brand will continue to remain premium yet offering value to customers.

- VW Group To Invest € 1 Billion In India By 2020, Targets 5 Per Cent Market Share By 2025

-Pune plant to conceive new products specific to India and like markets. The first step for this new R&D centre would be the development and launch of a new compact SUV that will be made with high local content

- CEO and Chairman of the Skoda Board, Bernhard Maier in charge of this

- will localise roughly 90 per cent of all components and parts for our new products here in India.

-The three brands already have a number of products based on MQB A0 that sell in India, like the Skoda Octavia, VW Passat and Audi A3.

- No platform sharing as of now, outside the Group.

- India 2.0 means Skoda will now manufacture 1.0 petrol Tsi in India ( will be available in various state of tune)

- 4 new cars for Indian market slated with India 2.0 for Skoda. Products will be 2 from VW and 2 from Skoda

Skoda Vision X Concept,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXKv0hMOego

[volkman10]

Skoda rules out sub 4 m cars for India - will go all premium. Polo and Ameo will likely not be offered post 2020.

Chief Financial Officer of Skoda Auto said the sub-four meter has a price positioning not only unique to India but something not possible for Skoda to accept given the premium brand recall it enjoys in the country

Offering products as that price point without compromising on quality or safety is very difficult

We are not the cheap brand in the market and we are not assumed to be cheap. The sub-four meter is very cheap. We don’t see our positioning there that’s why we mentioned that the mid-size SUV that will come is not going to be a sub-four meter, which means we are not going to play in the segment

Link

[volkman10]

Volkswagen To Make 1-litre TSI Engine In India Soon . Will be available in different state of tunes powering the Compact SUV's and the Sedans.

Likely to be available in 94 bhp and a 113 bhp versions.

The 1.0L TSI engine will be the main stay for the new products from VAG , apart from the 1.5 TDI . The 1.5 liter TDI unit is likely to get emission control equipment to become cleaner to meet the new emission norms.


Bernhard Maier, Chairman and CEO Skoda Auto :

Diesel will play a decisive role but I think especially in the lower segments, we are developing extensively a whole bunch of new petrol engines and our 1-litre TSI engine is going to be one of the most efficient engines on the market and I think we will be doing a lot of investments in the future to bring these petrol engines to the same level as the popular diesel engines.

Link

[arun687]

Originally Posted by volkman10

Likely to be available in 94 bhp and a 113 bhp versions.

Link

Is this going to be more exciting than the current 1.2 TSI?