Volkswagen is aiming to capture more than 10 percent market share of the Indian auto market in next five years. It currently has less than one percent market share and finds tough competition from small car manufacturers in India like Maruti and Hyundai. Small car sales in India constitute nearly two-third of the overall market sales where Maruti and Hyundai mark a strong presence.
Volkswagen has already started its building up its manufacturing unit in India and plans to launch the same in next six months or early 2009. It also has plans to invest another 580 million Euros at its manufacturing unit at Chakan, near Pune. This unit has been set up to roll out its most featured hatch back model, Skoda Fabia. It shall rev up its production capacity to 50,000 units annually. It aims to reach a manufacturing capacity of 110,000 units annually by the year 2011.
According to the VW President, Joerg Mueller, the company also has plans to launch its low cost car – Up!, in India. The company boss, Martin Winterkorn has also put the small car project on his priority list for India. The company believes that it is important to introduce a small car in its product portfolio looking at the Indian car market.
