As part of its India 2.0 project, the Skoda Auto Volkswagen India group, which sells Skoda, Audi, Volkswagen, Porsche, and Lamborghini automobiles in India, has completed a €1 billion product offensive. The business is doubling down on production and expanding its luxury and electric vehicle offering in an effort to take 5% of the market share by 2025. In an interview with Mint, the company’s managing director Piyush Arora discussed the group’s plans for India. Edited passages:
India 2.0’s four intended items are all available on the market. What is ahead for Volkswagen and Skoda?
Over the course of the first half of this year, the group has experienced tremendous growth. Our India 2.0 products have mostly been responsible for our nearly 200% increase in retail sales, but aside from them, our luxury brands Audi, Porsche, and Lamborghini are also doing very well. Due to the fact that India 2.0 automobiles were introduced back-to-back during the past 14 to 16 months, we are also hard at work increasing manufacturing. As part of the India 2.0 plan, we will also design and manufacture goods here for both Indian and international markets. Therefore, we have begun introducing vehicles for the export market. While maintaining our focus on new product releases in India and other countries, we are also observing strong demand for our premium and luxury automotive goods. With regard to the objectives we set for ourselves under India 2.0, we are making progress.
The group has stated that it wanted to take 5% of the Indian market. Where on that journey are you now? Which growth factors will you use? Skoda is dominating the statistics. Will that carry on?
The fact that we are introducing new products to a market that is expanding is encouraging. The entire product line was not available on the market at the start of the year. We introduced two SUVs last year, the Koda Slavia in late January or early February, and the Virtus two months later. Market share is increasing for us. We have a market share of up to 3% or more thanks to our reliance on supply and demand matching. We still want to meet our stated goal of 5% over the next two years, which includes both our premium and luxury goods as well as India 2.0 automobiles. Cars starting at 10 lakh rupees and costing between 4 and 5 crore rupees make up a sizeable portion of our portfolio. We have a product line thanks to the fabrication of parts and components in Aurangabad or fully built-up (FBU). The entire portfolio will assist us in realising our goals and expanding our horizons. Koda has been the front-runner in our approach.
The very broad product portfolio and items available across several segments make up the Volkswagen Group’s competitive edge globally. Since we want to consolidate and make our businesses sustainably profitable, we have not taken on the challenge of capturing every market segment.
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