Volkswagen, Skoda to invest Rs 7,900 crore in India; to launch Hyundai Creta rival

Volkswagen Group has announced over €1 billion (Rs 7,900 crore) investment in India between 2019 and 2021. Officially, Skoda has taken charge of Volkswagen Group in the country, as a result, the company would be in the forefront and will take all the important decisions in the country. Volkswagen, which is reviving its fortunes in India through subsidiary Skoda Auto, will set up a new product line based on localisation of its successful MQB A0 platform with a special focus on compact SUVs.

Volkswagen in the second phase will explore exporting vehicles manufactured in India. Skoda and Volkswagen are expected to develop several products based on this platform.

Called India 2.0- the project focus will be to launch new cars in India, with heavy localisation. The company plans to open an engineering centre in the country and this will offer job opportunities in India. The company said that this will create up to 5,000 jobs.

Gurpratap Boparai, MD, Skoda Auto (India), said in a press conference, "we will manufacture the new products on the localised MQB A0 platform, which already fulfills the stricter emission and safety standards that are expected to come into force in India in 2020."

The Volkswagen Group has five passenger car brands in India - Audi, Lamborghini, Porsche, Skoda, and Volkswagen. The Pune plant has a manufacturing capacity of 200,000 cars per year.

The Aurangabad Plant assembles various premium and luxury models of Audi, Å KODA and Volkswagen sold in India and has an annual capacity of approximately 89,000.

All the future models of Volkswagen and Skoda will be built on the MQB platform. From Polo to the Audi Q8 – all are based on this platform. The platform would be localised for India and this would be called MQB-A0-IN. All the Volkswagen and Skoda cars including the new generation Polo, Vento, Ameo, Rapid will be based on MQB-A0-IN platform.

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Improving the customer satisfaction is one of the main focus of VW Skoda India 2.0 project. According to the company, it is their aim to offer best-in-class customer satisfaction under the project.