German carmaker Volkswagen on Tuesday unveiled its entry-level sedan Vento that has been specially designed and manufactured in India. To be launched later this year, Vento will be available in both petrol and diesel versions, equipped with 1.6 litre engine and available in two trim levels — ‘trendline' and ‘highline'. “For the Volkswagen Group, India is an important strategic growth market, as we continue to grow our volumes and market share in this automotive boom market with our brands Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda,” Volkswagen Group Board Member (Sales and Marketing) Christian Klingler told journalists here. “Our long-term goal is to achieve 8-10 per cent market share for the group. This year, we hope to double our sales,” he added.
According to Neeraj Garg, Member of Board and Director (Passenger Cars), Volkswagen Group Sales India Pvt. Ltd, “Vento is a completely new product offering from Volkswagen in India. It will be another important brand pillar for us to stimulate the brand's growth in the country.” Though he refused to announce the price of the sedan, Mr. Garg said it would be “competitively priced giving customers value for money”.
Vento comes with best-in-class safety and luxury features and has been specifically designed with the expectations and wants of Indian customers in mind. “The Vento will establish leadership position in its class with category defining attributes of space, style, comfort and safety. It will be manufactured at our Chakan plant (Maharashtra) with an annual capacity of 1.10-lakh cars and will be available through 47 dealerships across the country,” Mr. Garg said. Volkswagen has invested around 600 million euro on its Chakan plant.
Referring to the success of its small car ‘Polo' launched in February this year, Mr. Garg said the company had been delivering around 4,000 Polo every month since April this year, while it had over 10,000 bookings pending. “We are ramping up our production every month to meet the high demand for Polo,” he added.