Volkswagen, the German automobile giant is not out of the race for the rapidly emerging and very ambitious segment of compact, fuel efficient and affordable Compact SUVs which are going to explode in sales numbers in the coming years. Ford has already brought Ford EcoSport to China, Brazil and India will also get it soon. The Renault Duster launch in India is also around the corner. The compact SUV or crossover segment has huge potential and thus it is attracting all major global players to come up with their products. Indian auto giant Maruti Suzuki has also accelerated its plans to launch the XA-Alpha compact in India ahead of the schedule. Chevrolet / General Motors has also opened its cards by revealing their contender Chevrolet Trax in this segment. Volkswagen has also expressed its plans to develop compact SUVs based on the VW Golf and VW Up small car flexible platform. These cars will have compact exterior dimensions, seating for 5 and spacious cabin with enough luggage or boot space.
The USP of the compact SUVs is their comparatively lower cost (compared to large SUVs like VS Touareg or Tiguan) and higher fuel efficiency because of lower weight, lower capacity engine with well sorted vehicle dynamics. Volkswagen is expected to launch not one but two different compact SUVs based on two different small car platforms with different feature sets and price segments.
One of these two compact SUVs will be based the the Volkswagen Golf which is a popular small car by VW with high quality, reliability and heritage attached with it. A compact SUV based on the Golf platform (or modified golf platform) makes good sense. This compact SUV is expected to be placed in a segment of Rs. 10 Lakhs to Rs. 15 Lakhs which will overlap the high end EcoSport and Duster.
The second relatively smaller SUV will be based on the latest Volkswagen UP small car which is one of the smallest cars in Volkswagen portfolio. The platform of VW UP is relatively flexible and will be used to build a low cost SUV which will feature high fuel efficiency of a small car and relatively larger space of a compact SUV. This SUV will be placed below the one based on Golf platform, we expect this SUV to belong to a price segment between Rs. 7 Lakhs to Rs. 11 Lakhs. These compact SUVs will be global products and will be introduced in multiple markets just like the EcoSport and Trax and are expected to see high sales and revenues by 2015.
Skoda, a VW group automobile major is also working on the compact Skoda SUV under Rs. 10 Lakhs price segment, we expect that VW and Skoda will share same platform for their SUV, the MQB Platform, which is a flexible platform showcased by VW may also make its way into these compact SUVs. We will keep an eye on the developments and will keep you posted on the compact SUVs coming up, stay tuned to us by signing up for our free email newsletter.
via – Handelsblatt
