The Pune plant of the company, set up at a cost of Rs 3,800 crore, had rolled out the 10,000th car early this month, within six months after starting commercial production. According to the growth plan recently chalked out by the company, the Pune plant will reach its full capacity of 110,000 cars in another 18 months.
This was revealed by Volkswagen Group Chief Representative India & President & Managing Director Volkswagen India Private Limited Joerg Mueller while discussing the India plan to a group of Indian journalists visiting Germany. To achieve this target Volkswagen will start the second production shift within three months. Said Mueller: “Volkswagen aims at developing the best products for the Indian roads and leaving no one unhappy.” At the moment company’s popular car Polo has 3 to 4 months waiting period.
Talking about the importance of Indian market for Volkswagen Mueller pointed out that according to experts’ prediction sales of cars in India will grow from the present figure of 1.6 million vehicles in the year 2009 to around 3 million vehicles in 2015. “No other country in the world comes anywhere close to such a tremendous growth. Engaging in India will allow Volkswagen to participate in these developments and at the same time to meet its internal growth and return targets,” he said. Volkswagen Group is present in India since 2001 when Skoda made its entry in the market. In the year 2007 Audi and the Volkswagen brand entered the market. Since then 17 different models have been launched in India across the group brands. The company is now preparing to launch a sedan called Vento which is partly based on the Polo platform. Volkswagen is also planning to be present in the market segment below the Polo and for this the company is currently studying the feasibility of launching such a model.