Volkswagen India Working On A Sub-4 Metre SUV; No Final Decision Made To Enter Segment

The announcement of Skoda Auto India powering ahead with the VW Group's India 2.0 strategy was a significant one and we've seen how well this has worked out for both brands. While Skoda has already launched 2 of its highly localized products in India, VW is gearing up to bring its second car into the market which is the Virtus compact sedan. But now, with Skoda looking at bringing in a sub-4 metre car in India, is VW going to follow suit?

The Taigun has already been a success for the company as it has garnered more than 20,000 bookings

Also Read: Volkswagen Virtus Review: 1.0 TSI And 1.5 TSI Automatics Driven

In an exclusive interview with carandbike Editor-in-chief Siddharth Vinayak Patankar, Klaus Zellmer, Board Member for Sales, Marketing and After Sales at Volkswagen Passenger Cars shed some light on this very project. He said, "Skoda is taking the lead with the sub-4 metre car that everybody is anticipating." The fact remains that Skoda is looking to build up its market share in the country and a sub-4 metre SUV will surely deliver that boost, given that the segment sees over 50,000 vehicles being sold every month and holds a 15 per cent market share in the overall passenger car segment.

The subcompact SUV segment already has a lot of competition

The segment already has established players in the form of the Hyundai Venue, Tata Nexon, Kia Sonet, Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza among others.

However the question still remains, will we see a Volkswagen branded sub-4 metre SUV? Zellmer answered that by saying, "We haven't fully joined the team on the sub-4 metre as you are all aware of, but we are working on that too. It's not a final 'No', but it's something we need to work on. We need to see the reception, the chances and the opportunities are for the car. It's a decision that hasn't been made final yet, but it certainly hasn't been made that we are not going to join it. So that could be another opportunity going ahead in India."