[shatrughna]

Read an article in a business paper today that VW is actively cosnidering dedicated assembly lines for Passat, Jetta and Touareg in India. It has 3 assembly lines in Maharashtra and 1 (perhaps- dont recall exactly where, may be Gurgaon- Manesar area) in Haryana.

If it happens then its a very good news specially for Touareg fans/ aspirants as then the prices would come down heavily as its imported as CBU. Jetta & Passat I believe are already assembled in India so while prices may not vary too much, availability would definitely improve further - so may be the offers to push the cars to clear the inventory.

Surprise though was that there was no mention of Tiguan- have they shelved the proposed launched. Any insider information is welcome.

[CoolFire]

Thats definitely good news for Touareg aspirants. The lines got to be in Chakan plant itself for which they have invested quite a sum. IMO a separate plant is unlikely. Dont think it has much significance of Jetta and Passat, though.

[ACM]

So what would be the price of the Touareg assuming that they are going to go a CKD assembly process in India. (completely knocked down kits being imported for local manufacture with Indian tyres and batteries.)

[shatrughna]

Currently - the Ex-Showroom price is around 47 Lakhs with all the import duties. Expect it to be touching 38-39 lakhs when its CKD instead of CBU and a bit of localisation -( localisation seems a remote possibility except for batteries may be).Even Lauras have made abroad Tyres so definitely, they wouldnt like to fit made in India tyres in Touaregs.

This will lead to a much more saving in the on-road costs as the insurance and registrations costs will also come down further.

[issigonis]

In my opinion the focus of VW will be the following, as a matter of priority :

1. Finalise/streamline operations re. launch, sales, delivery & service of the Polo, which will be their cash cow car for India.
2. Extend the Polo platform for variants - a three box small sedan competing with the SX4/Dzire/maybe Linea/maybe City, to bring in more numbers and reduce the development & assembly costs

These two taken together will provide VW with the numbers and the presence on a pan India basis.

3. CKD of cars higher up the scale, Touareg/Tiguan and sell-service Jetta, Passat, Passat CC more agressively, to provide the 'high end gloss' to the brand.

4. Push VW's niche products for India later ( e.g.,Golf GTi)

IMHO the CKD-isation of Touareg might happen well into 2010, at the earliest.

Regards

[njh]

Originally Posted by shatrughna

Read an article in a business paper today that VW is actively cosnidering dedicated assembly lines for Passat, Jetta and Touareg in India. It has 3 assembly lines in Maharashtra and 1 (perhaps- dont recall exactly where, may be Gurgaon- Manesar area) in Haryana.

If it happens then its a very good news specially for Touareg fans/ aspirants as then the prices would come down heavily as its imported as CBU. Jetta & Passat I believe are already assembled in India so while prices may not vary too much, availability would definitely improve further - so may be the offers to push the cars to clear the inventory.

Surprise though was that there was no mention of Tiguan- have they shelved the proposed launched. Any insider information is welcome.

Passat and Jetta currently being assembled at the Skoda plant in Aurangabad. Fabia currently comes out from Chakan. These are the only two locations from where VW cars will be coming out. VW has the pre-production series coming from Chakan. If I'm not mistaken 73 cars. Tiguan is not coming out this year. However, the Beetle will, end of this year.

[ACM]

Originally Posted by shatrughna

Currently - the Ex-Showroom price is around 47 Lakhs with all the import duties. Expect it to be touching 38-39 lakhs when its CKD instead of CBU and a bit of localisation -( localisation seems a remote possibility except for batteries may be).Even Lauras have made abroad Tyres so definitely, they wouldnt like to fit made in India tyres in Touaregs.

This will lead to a much more saving in the on-road costs as the insurance and registrations costs will also come down further.

Earlier Laura's had made abroad michellines but they had moved to Indian made tyres for the later non L&K 15" tyre variants. So don't know if the new Laura's actually have Imported tyres, given that the Petrol 1.8 TSI uses the 15" tyres and is very agressively priced.

Even the Merc E-Class SKD in india used to use Indian Made tyres earlier, don't know about now.

[shatrughna]

Originally Posted by ACM

Earlier Laura's had made abroad michellines but they had moved to Indian made tyres for the later non L&K 15" tyre variants. So don't know if the new Laura's actually have Imported tyres, given that the Petrol 1.8 TSI uses the 15" tyres and is very agressively priced.

Even the Merc E-Class SKD in india used to use Indian Made tyres earlier, don't know about now.

IMHO, if they can localise few things where acceptable standards are available without suffering from quality niggles, sure, it will lead to an agressive pricing that VW can afford. Touareg certainly is a lovely - drool SUV on the spec sheet as well as in metal as I have had two opportunities to get hang and feel of it. Only hinderance like in all "aspiration" models is the price. If they can bring it down to 30s- well, I am sure, Q7, Q5s, BMWs X and Mercs' Ms will face the heat as well. But its just a wishful thinking which may not happen in near future unless markets abroad go dull and VW has a huge inventory to clear off.

[ivar1951]

Originally Posted by shatrughna

Read an article in a business paper today that VW is actively cosnidering dedicated assembly lines for Passat, Jetta and Touareg in India. It has 3 assembly lines in Maharashtra and 1 (perhaps- dont recall exactly where, may be Gurgaon- Manesar area) in Haryana.

If it happens then its a very good news specially for Touareg fans/ aspirants as then the prices would come down heavily as its imported as CBU. Jetta & Passat I believe are already assembled in India so while prices may not vary too much, availability would definitely improve further - so may be the offers to push the cars to clear the inventory.

Surprise though was that there was no mention of Tiguan- have they shelved the proposed launched. Any insider information is welcome.

According to the November 15 issue of AutoBild, the 140 bhp 2.0 TDI Tiguan will be launched in 2010.

[Sudan_NFS]

It's a good news that Touareg will be assembled here and is there any news about increasing localisation of Passat and Jetta.

[Ricky_63]

I see no reason why the launch of the Tiguan is being delayed further & further. It's got great reviews abroad & there are enough videos on You Tube which I find mouth-watering to put it mildly. But the wait is frustrating like hell !!!

Any firm idea on pricing guys ??



Cheers

[1-Testosterone]

Frankly speaking, VW, even if they start assembling their models in India, won't be passing over the savings to us. Look at Passat, they're charging a CBU price inspite of it it's a CKD.
The price is at par with Nissan Teana which is a CBU infact! The entire idea of delivering the vehicles via CKD is to pass on the savings to customer; if VW cannot do that, it's of no avail to us.

[316kmph]

In my opinion, any car maker will try to price their product as competetively as possible so long it makes good business logic! VW has this problem of putting the Passat between the Superb and the A4 from its cousins. To make sure their pricing is acceptable, their equiptment levels are quite high compared to the Camry and Teana (my be!)

The Tiguan is taking time because of possibly 2 reasons one higher demand n other parts of the world, more a reason is the Euro has become too strong against the Rupee making it harder for the car to be competetively priced. I guess it will be around 22 - 28 lakhs as a CBU

For VW to assemble the Touareg it makes little sence because no matter if the car's pricing is 35 or 45 lakhs, there is little chance it will sell over 300 cars a year. I guess currently VW doent even have to get their Touareg homoogated hence it saves cost! So, IMHO VW may not assemble their Touareg in India.

[Ramsagar]

That's a good new for people watching out for Touareg.
When is Beetel expected to India?

[ACM]

Originally Posted by 316kmph

In my opinion, any car maker will try to price their product as competetively as possible so long it makes good business logic! VW has this problem of putting the Passat between the Superb and the A4 from its cousins. To make sure their pricing is acceptable, their equiptment levels are quite high compared to the Camry and Teana (my be!)

I think that is where it is erring, Indian buyers are not prepared to give VW a premium, if they were the passat and jetta would have fared better than the Superb and Laura. Yes VW is the parent, but the cars are essentially the same making the Skoda offering more VFM. VW should price their vehicles on par with Skoda rather than higher as they do not enjoy a brand premium in India unlike the rest of the world where Skoda is a lesser brand than VW.

VW to most Indians means the beatle and hence a VFM car, and the passat and jetta as seen as far from that. Infact by delaying the latest technology and engines into the VW cars compared to Skoda VW has also not come across as the tech leader that is. If it wishes to get a premium for it's cars vs skoda it should then also offer better engines and more features, else they will fight their own sister.