The Volkswagen group after facing troubled times finally seems to be moving towards a sustainable future. At a Press Conference Skoda Auto has announced an initial investment of one billion euros towards implementation of India 2.0 project with every possibility of investing more at a later stage. The company is also aiming for a combined market share of 5% by 2025.
India 2.0 is new projects assigned to Skoda where the company will lead the way in developing new models for the Indian market which will be spawned off the MQB-AO-IN platform which is said meet all future stricter emissions coming in force by 2020. The project will be led by Managing Director of ŠKODA AUTO India Private Ltd, Gurpratap Boparai, who has extensive leadership experience in the Indian car market.
ŠKODA AUTO CEO Bernhard Maier said, “Experts predict that in the next few years India is going to become the third-largest automotive market worldwide. With our ‘INDIA 2.0’ project we are now creating the right conditions for sustainable growth. Our objective is ambitious, but achievable: together with the Volkswagen brand, we are seeking a market share of up to five per cent in the long term, depending on market and segment development.”
The first product to arrive in India will be a midsize SUV said to borrow its design cues from the Vision X concept. The new model will be shared with Volkswagen and will be unveiled around the latter half of 2020. Further down the brand will also work heavily on achieving 90 per cent localisation for its future models. The 1.0 TFSI engine will also be localised so as to offer it at a lower cost. The motor is currently available in two states of tune 75bhp and 115bhp.
“We are firmly convinced that – after one and a half years of intensive work – together with Volkswagen we now have a suitable approach to bring the right vehicles into the Indian market at the right time. We will present the first model built on the new MQB-A0-IN platform as early as 2020,” said ŠKODA AUTO CEO, Bernhard Maier,
Skoda will take over Volkswagen’s Chakan facility where they will setup a new production line to produce cars based off the new platform. The new platform will be setup alongside the existing production line where cars underpinned off the PQ25 platform are made.
Skoda is also in the process of setting up a new world class engineering facility in Pune where all the technical development and designing will happen. The new facility will create 4000-6000 new immediate jobs.
The Czech car maker will be focusing hard on achieving best in class customer satisfaction where the brand will improve the service and after sales quality through its existing dealer network and will increase the count of the dealers in the next 3-4 years.