Volkswagen to launch small car in India by 2010

Mumbai, Jul 16: An all new small car from the Volkswagen stable will roll of its new manufacturing facility in Chakan in Pune in 2010.

It will be a new design, specially made for India and would be under Volkswagen brand, Group's India President and managing director Joerg Mueller told newsmen here at the Indian launch of the popular Volkeswagen model -- Jetta. The new plant coming up at the sprawling 230 hectare in Chakan is being built at an investment of 410 million Euros and was expected to be ready for production in the first half of 2009. Mr Mueller said that the small car would have a high local content of components.

The Group, which notched up an impressive 69 per cent growth between January and June this year selling 10,366 cars, aimed to touch 20,000 cars by December end. This would include 1,200 units of Jetta, which was unveiled in India after 29 years of success globally.

Jetta would be assembled at the Aurangabad Plant, where Skoda model was being built, with the parts coming from the Mexican plant of Volkswagen.

With over eight million Jetta sold world over in 29 years, since the first model rolled out, Jetta was a sporty car offering impressive comfort and came with elegant styling and safety features, Mr Mueller said. He said, ''We are determined to offer our best of the breed products in India and the entry of the Jetta after the Passat, accelerates our future plans for the Indian market in line with our top down strategy.'' Replying to a question, Makham Dhalivaal, Director of Volkswagen Passengers car at Volkswagen group sales India Pvt limited said that the present downtrend in economy, due to high inflation rates would not hit the sales of Volkswagen cars in India. Though there would be a overall decline in the sale of cars in the country, Volkswagen aim to maintain its pace of growth, especially due to the low density of cars in India which was 8.5 per thousand currently. Even Bank interest rates were not that high when compared to the historical rates of the country, he added.

UNI