Volkswagen India hopes to double sales to 50,000 cars by year-end

Volkswagen India aims to double its sales by the end of 2022 .

“With the fresh product portfolio and the high-interest level for our cars, achieving the sale of 50,000 cars by this year’s end is possible for us despite all the challenges that surround us,” Ashish Gupta, Brand Director, Volkswagen Passenger Cars India, told BusinessLine. The company sold close to 25,000 units in CY21.

It launched two cars—Virtus in June and Taigun in Q4 of CY21. “Our demand continues to be higher than the last quarter. In fact, Virtus has sold close to 4,500 cars in just two months of introduction, and Taigun, from January-June, we have delivered more than 10,000 cars,” said Gupta. In the first half of 2022, the company sold 21,588 units of its product portfolio, compared to 10,843 units in H1 2021.

Volkswagen expects demand momentum to remain stronger than its capacity to deliver. “For the 21,588 units we sold, the total orders that we received was around 33,000. So, the demand is at least 30 per cent higher than our capacity to deliver because of the shortages and the global situation,” he said.

To reduce cost

The German carmaker is focused on bringing down the cost of owning a car. Gupta said, “Our cost of ownership has been higher compared to our competitors. This is partly true because we had a lot of input content on our previous models. For this, we have reduced the price of Volkswagen’s genuine spare parts; engine oil price reduction (gasoline); and benefits through service value packages.”

In India, Volkswagen sells three car models: Tiguan —locally assembled at the Aurangabad facility; Taigun and Virtus—manufactured at the Chakan facility. It has a network of 152 sales touch points and 120 service facilities present in 114 cities 

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