After making a splash with its Think Blue campaign highlighting its environment-friendliness, Volkswagen India is tying it to a donation to the Worldwide Fund for Nature-India through the auction of a Passat.

Volkswagen, which is IPL's official and exclusive automotive sponsor, has been exhibiting the Passat with BlueMotion Technology at all stadia where IPL matches are being played.

The company will auction a Passat, the proceeds of which will go to WWF. Mr Lutz Kothe, Head of Marketing and PR, Volkswagen Passenger Cars, told Business Line , “Think Blue and BlueMotion Technology are meant to protect the environment while keeping the fun alive. WWF basically does the same.”

The technology is a range of innovations and refinements that help save fuel through a fuel-efficient engine (TDI), start-stop system and gear shift indicators.

Price

The Passat's price starts at Rs 20.8 lakh ex-showroom Delhi. The starting bid of the auction, which began on May 2 on eBay, is above Rs 25 lakh. The car will be signed by all the captains of the IPL teams and comes with a similarly signed bat as well, and will be presented some time during the eliminator round of the IPL. The Passat clocked sales of over 190 units in April.

The company had launched a special edition of the Vento for IPL, priced Rs 7.24 lakh, and it sold over 400 cars, Mr Kothe said. Volkswagen, which associated with the IPL and not the World Cup which India won, still believes IPL is the right choice for it. Mr Kothe says, “Indian people would like to see how their World Cup players play against each other.”

Excellent connect

However, the Think Blue campaign was launched during the time of India-Pakistan semi-final and continued through to the final, which made for “excellent” connect and drove a lot of traffic to Volkswagen India's Web site, he said.

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