Volkswagen is poised to officially launch its compact SUV next month. It’s first product under the India 2.0 project, the Taigun will fill a key gap in the German brand’s portfolio and will enable it to reach out to a new audience. At the first drive experience last week, Ashish Gupta, Brand Director, Volkswagen Passenger Cars India, spoke to BusinessLine about the expectations from the Taigun and how the recent changes to the logo and brand design at dealerships will help transform customer perceptions about VW. Excerpts:

How do you expect the Taigun to change the dynamics for the VW brand in India? What markets does it open up for the brand?

With the Taigun, we are essentially entering the fastest growing segment in the car market. It is part of our plan to become part of that story. The segment is right for us, and I believe that the product is right too.

If you look at the development of the market in the last 5-6 years, the two segments that standout in terms of customer preference are the hatchback and the SUV body-style. Looking at the sales data over that period, SUVs or that body-style now account for almost 55-60 per cent of the total sales in India. So, easily that makes it the segment which should be of prime importance to any manufacturer right now. That is the reason why we have focused our attention into this segment and have over the last few years come up with a bevy of SUVs.

We have followed a top-down strategy, where we brought in our global bestsellers like the AllSpace, Tiguan and the T-Roc. So we are following up with a mass market SUV like the Taigun.

With the logo change and the changes to the dealerships, do you believe that the VW brand identity is better perceived?

It takes a lot for the brand identity and customer perceptions to change. The identity is only a part of the whole. It is the visual cues first of all which a customer or anyone else interacting with the brand sees. That is what has been our endeavour in changing the design and identity across dealerships. But it doesn’t stop there; it is also built by the character of the brand. And the central theme of brand character is the products, which need to reflect the same message. That is where I think our portfolio, which is very young, global and vibrant like our new brand design, compliment each other. Of course, what ties these together are the people and the processes that our customers interact with. We have worked on these two elements also very consciously over the last few months.

If you look at how the brand has evolved and where it is moving towards right now, globally as well, it provides an accessible mobility kind of positioning to the brand. And when I say accessible mobility, it is something you aspire for, but it is not out of reach. VW has always pushed the boundaries of what accessible mobility means. The next wave of mobility is moving towards electric vehicles (BEVs) and that’s where the brand has taken its next steps as well. So it is the same direction that we are moving towards in India too.

From the standpoint of the history of the two group brands versus now do you believe that there is a better identification and differentiation of where Skoda and VW stand in the consumer’s minds?

Definitely the differentiation starts with what we sell. It is the products that are the face of the brand. The Taigun and the Skoda Kushaq share the MQB-AO-IN platform, but we have to also remember that the MQB is a global platform that is the base for many VW group cars. But the design differentiation between the two products is quite radical, both on the exterior and for the interior. The other is in terms of how we present ourselves to the customers — so the dealerships, their look and feel etc are very different. The third and the most important aspect is how we connect with the customers and that in VW’s case is going digital. That’s been a key focus from us, to build a very unique digital identification for the brand. Our Sarvotam 2.0 initiative has been the right step in that direction to make ourselves accessible to our customers online as well.

Is there need for improved communication about the cost of ownership of VW cars being comparable with other brands?

Rightfully so, we have had some of our customers come to us with the point that in the past the cost of ownership of our cars has been high. But that is something which we have consciously worked on correcting over the last about two years even on our existing product lines like the Polo and Vento. We started with the ‘Forever Car’ package in 2018, which now offers four years warranty and four years roadside assistance, plus three free services, for all our cars. This brought down the cost of ownership considerably. We have also managed to reduce the prices of consumables and parts like engine oil and frequent wear parts. Extended warranties and service value packs have also been introduced. The cost of ownership has actually come down by 21 to 25 per cent after all these measures.

The movement towards accessible ownership of our cars has already happened. And this change has been carried forward into the Taigun as well, which right from the start will offer a competitive cost of ownership experience.

In terms of representation for the brand, which parts of the country do you see the need for network expansion?

The VW brand has been in India for more than 10 years and already has 140 touch points across the country. We will ramp it up to 150 and with that we will be present in close to 120 cities in India, representing close to 80-85 per cent of the total market. We are going to be present in the heart of the market. That should be adequate coverage for the network to be selling upto 100,000 cars a year. We will look at further expansion only when our volumes go beyond that. The rest of the geography can be served by our 12 mobile service units which are stationed across India and will soon go up to 20 units. We also have more than 100 assistance cars on standby.

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