MUMBAI: The auto sector has seen a strong rebound in the last seven months and German carmaker Volkswagen has been a beneficiary of the trend with sales volumes having climbed from around 550 units last year to almost 12,500 units this year until August, the company officials say.
Last year began with the launch of the compact SUV - the T-Roc and the Allspace. Last year SUVs accounted for around 20% of sales and they were around 6% the year before that. Those sales could see VW push its sales even higher in India with the launch of its brand new SUV - Taigun-- which was launched in Udaipur last week, given that it will be the most affordable SUV in the company’s portfolio in its size and class.
Ashish Gupta, Brand Director at VW, says that the Taigun made under the AO SUV platform that it shares with its sister brand Skoda Kushaq, will be competitive and the one with the highest amount of Indian content (at 95%). Gupta says Taigun will have the same solidity and quality of steel which is used in company’s other models. The car will come with a GT version with different design, gear shift and a sportier driving experience.
Analysts say that Taigun will be a key product for actualising VW Group’s India 2.0 vision. “Given its exciting powertrain offerings, it could be the game-changer for VW if priced aggressively,” said Suraj Ghosh Associate Director leading the South Asia division of powertrain and compliance forecasts at IHS Markit.
The Taigun SUV is going to go head to head with Hyundai’ Creta, Kia’s Seltos, lower end variants of MG’s Hector and M&M’s latest XUV 700.
SUV giant Mahindra & Mahindra recently launched its XUV 700, a brand new medium sized SUV that was launched in Chennai with a new logo and at an aggressive price of around Rs 11 lakh. Veejay Nakra, CEO, Automotive Division, M&M, said the Indian SUV market has shown good growth.
“We have the XUV300, Bolero and Bolero Neo in the sub 4-meter segment and Scorpio, XUV500, Alturas and now the XUV700 in the large SUV space. Our best-selling SUV last year was Bolero. We are ready to lead the core SUV segment with nine new exciting SUVs planned for launch by 2026,” Nakra said.