Volkswagen Passenger Cars India, which had exited the mid-size sedan phase earlier this yr by discontinuing the manufacturing of Vento, on Thursday re-entered it with the launch of the brand new Virtus. The firm is hopeful of gaining a 20% market share within the phase by the tip of the present fiscal, Ashish Gupta, the model director stated. Earlier, when the corporate was current within the phase with Vento, it had a market share of round 5%.
Volkswagen Virtus, which made its world premiere earlier this yr in March, comes within the worth vary of `11.22 lakh to `17.92 lakh (ex-showroom) within the home market. It will rival the likes of Honda City, Hyundai Verna, Maruti Suzuki Ciaz, and Skoda Slavia.
Gupta stated that Virtus has obtained an awesome response. “We have been showcasing the car at our 152 touchpoints across the country for the last two to three weeks. Over 10,000 customers have visited our showrooms and we already have close to 4,000 pre-bookings,” he added.
Volkswagen Virtus comes with a few turbocharged petrol engine choices — 1.5-litre TSI EVO and 1.0-litre TSI. It will get transmission choices like 6-speed guide, 6-speed torque converter automated and 7-speed DSG automated.
Gupta stated that for premium and aspirational manufacturers, the demand for the upper variants is all the time extra. “Almost 40% of the bookings are for the 1.5-litre engine and 60% for the 1.0-litre engine,” he famous.
Virtus is Volkswagen’s second mannequin to be launched below Volkswagen Group’s India 2.0 mission, after the Taigun mid-size SUV. Skoda Auto, which can be part of Volkswagen Group, has already launched the Kushaq mid-size SUV and Slavia mid-size sedan below the mission. Volkswagen Group has invested 1 billion euros within the implementation of the mission.
“If you look at the mid-size sedan segment, it was around 90,000-95,000 units last year (CY21). This year (CY22) with the introduction of Virtus and a similar car (Slavia) from our sister brand (Skoda), our belief is that this segment will grow to around 140,000-150,000 units. And Volkswagen is looking at 15-20% share that translates to roughly 2,500 cars a month,” Gupta stated.
While the corporate is already exporting Taigun to nearly 30 international locations from India, the exports of Virtus shall be ranging from the month of August. The mid-size sedan can even be shipped to round 30 international locations. Mexico and South Africa are among the many greatest export markets for the corporate.
With fashions like Virtus, Taigun, and the flagship Tiguan SUV in its portfolio, Volkswagen is aiming to greater than double its home wholesale volumes to just about 60,000 items in CY22. The firm had bought round 26,000 items in CY21.
Source: www.financialexpress.com”