It's been a good 2017 for Volkswagen India as the company has seen a good amount of growth here because the AMeo subcompact sedan continues to bring in the moolah for the company. However, the company also launched the Tiguan and the new-gen Passat and the company has been looking to increase sales of both cars in India, which is why 2018 holds a lot of promise for the company as there's a lot expected. We got a chance to talk to Steffan Knapp, Director, Volkswagen Passenger Cars India, who gave us an understanding as to what to expect from the company in the coming year.
While Steffan Knapp made it quite clear that the company will be focusing on the Tiguan and the Passat and consolidating sales and so this will be a year of special editions and also variants which the Director describes as 'action models'. One of the 'action models' considered for the Indian market is the Ameo GT TSI. Given the fact that the Polo GT TSI has received a quite a lot of praise in the country, the Ameo GT TSI will fit in well amongst the portfolio, the company has to offer. The Ameo is currently the most powerful subcompact sedan in the country and giving it some more will just take things up a notch. It will be a subcompact sedan with a turbocharged petrol engine which will be paired to a DSG gearbox and what a combination that is!
Of course, we wanted to know if the new-gen Polo will make its way to India. Steffan said that the company is considering it for sure but that plan is still under development as the new-gen Polo is over 4 metres in length and it will need to be tweaked before it makes it way to India. However, the company will continue to work on the MQB platform and in fact together with Skoda will develop next-gen products based on the MQB architecture that would suit the Indian market.
But is there an SUV coming, may be the T-Roc? Well, it'll have to wait because the company has no plans to bring it here. We might however get the Virtus which will replace the Vento but those plans are yet to be ironed out. The Jetta has been discontinued in India and there are no plans for it to come to India as of now.
