Back in sometime, the German auto giant, Volkswagen has proudly announced that it is well on its path to become the largest automaker in the world by 2018 throwing away Toyota and General Motors who have long dominated the sweet spot till date. But this announcement took place when the deal with Suzuki Motor Corporation was on the talks. Then all this strategy fell through with the Suzuki VW deal becoming a fracas and VW’s hopes coming to a halt. VW head had an idea: buy up as many brands as you can and you are well on your way to global leadership. But he did not factor a case where any automaker would pose resistance to a name as big as VW.
To add to this, the situation in the European countries is also not quite good. People are now shifting their consumer preferences from large SUVs and MPVs to small hatches. This has left many auto makers like GM, Ford, Renault to re-think their product portfolio. Lots of collaborations are taking place to develop small cars as quickly as possible. VW is also planning the same with the introduction of a dedicated “budget” brand. With this new brand, VW will be a conglomerate of 13 automotive brands. The budget brand will be specially aimed to market budget cars for the emerging markets and also developed economies.
VW doesn’t have expertise to match the small car development capabilities of the likes of Suzuki, Honda and Toyota. According to rumours, for the “budget brand”, VW has resurrected the PQ24/25/35 platform which used to underpin the earlier Polos and the Fabias. All cars will be having small engines and front wheel drive. Talks are that the first model under this brand will be a hatchback, then a saloon, then an estate and finally a mini-MPV with just bare basics mobility with just airbags and ABS as standard equipment and the rest being options (including air conditioning).
In the past there have been speculations of Volkswagen bringing SEAT small cars like MII to India, but none of that has come true. We have see some new developments with new brands in coming years.
via – Zigwheels
Report by – Joy Chatterjee
