 |
| Steffen Knapp, director, Volkswagen Passenger Cars |
30/3/2018
PUNE: German
carmaker Volkswagen would pursue a multi-pronged strategy, including one to
approach each market in India differently, as it sets out to consolidate
operations, double market share in five years and increase its manufacturing
capacity.
“We want to enlarge our footprint,” said Steffen Knapp,
director, Volkswagen Passenger Cars, pointing out that the manufacturing
facility in Chakan, near Pune, came close to utilising the capacity of 1.55
lakh units last year. With a target to grow the market share from the existing
1.6% to 3% in five years, discussions had been initiated with Skoda, the group
lead company for the country, on the expansion.
Though he did not put a time frame or disclose the likely
investment, Knapp in a media interaction, sought to underscore the growth
potential India offered and thus, the need to grow capacities as well as
increase localisation. The plan is to take localisation from about 82% now to
more than 90% in next five years, a move that is bound to bring cost benefits
and improve competitiveness.
The firm, whose exports in 2017 from the Pune plant comprised
40% of the production, plans to increase domestic sales from 47,500 to about
1.30 lakh units in the next 4-5 years. It proposed to achieve this by
approaching each market differently depending on consumer preference and
focusing on growing the corporate business.
0 comments:
Post a Comment