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– Shashi Ashiwal

D-Segment drive: Mr Joerg Mueller (left), President and Managing Director, Volkswagen Group India, with racing driver Ashwin Sundar at the launch of Volkswagen Jetta in Mumbai on Wednesday.

Our Bureau

Mumbai, July 16 Volkswagen’s small car ‘Polo’ will be rolled out from its upcoming Chakan plant in 2010.

“This is a very good concept for India. Polo will be tailor-made for Indian conditions and for similar type of markets. We are working on it internally,” said Mr Joerg Mueller, President and Managing Director, Volkswagen Group India, on the sidelines of the launch of Jetta sedan, the second locally assembled model from the German carmaker.

The company officials did not divulge details about the pricing and other specifications, including the size of the car. It is still not clear if the proposed car will be pitched against Maruti Suzuki’s Alto, Wagon R and Hyundai’s Santro in the compact car segment.

“It will be a premium car in the small car segment. This is part of our top-down strategy for India. We began with Passat in the luxury segment, now we are launching Jetta in the D segment and we will launch small car Polo,” said Mr Mueller. The Chakan plant will be operational in the first half of 2009, a year ahead of schedule.

Volkswagen will begin production of Fabia, the premium hatchback from the group company Skoda, at the Chakan plant next year. The company will invest Rs 3,500 crore by 2010 when the installation of the 1.1 lakh-capacity plant will be completed.

Mr Mueller said that the local content in Volkswagen cars will increase once the plant becomes operational. “We are here not only to sell cars. We are working with vendors. We will source parts from India,” he said.

The newly launched Jetta is assembled at Skoda’s Aurangabad plant and its parts are imported from Mexico. At the entry level, the medium size sedan with 1.6-litre petrol engine is priced at 12.97 lakh. In the mid range, with 1.9 litre diesel engine, it is priced at Rs 14.22 lakh and at the top range, the 1.9 litre diesel model will cost Rs 16.67 lakh ex-showroom Delhi.

“We are looking at selling 12,000 units of Jetta in 2008,” said Mr Mueller. Jetta, which was originally launched in Europe 29 years ago, has sold more than 8 million units worldwide so far.

He indicated that Beetle, the most popular Volkswagen model, would come to India within a year. “We have plans to launch Beetle in India. We are studying the possibilities,” he said.

He also said that the commercial vehicle arm of Volkswagen is looking at India with great interest. “Our commercial vehicle team will come to India next week to study the market,” he said.

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