Volkswagen Group has announced that it is planning to unite all its three Indian subdivisions which includes Volkswagen Group Sales India Private Ltd (NSC), Skoda AUTO India Private Ltd (SAIPL), and Volkswagen India Private Ltd (VWIPL). The Board has given a green signal to the idea and now the VW Group is waiting for the approval from the regulations and statutory.
This initiative of merging the aforementioned three Indian subdivisions of the VW Group sets a milestone under its ‘INDIA 2.0’ project which is led by Skoda. This initiative of uniting will result in one leadership.
The brand which are going to unite are the Audi, Lamborghini, Porsche, Skoda, and VW. The functioning of the brands will not be disturbed by this merge. All the five brands will carry their own identity as well as dealer networks. But the merged brands which will be under one leadership will be lead by the Gurpratap Boparai, the MD of VW India Private Ltd and SKODA AUTO India Private Ltd.
India is an important market for the company which will be under the leadership of Boparai. The company will combine the technical and managerial experts of all the three merged companies to make the VW Group move ahead in the country. This will help in effective coordination and the decisions will also be take faster due to which the efficiency will be immensely improved.
In the ‘India 2.0’ project that was announced in July 2018, the project development for the VW Group will be lead by the Skoda under the INR 8,000 crore (EUR 1 billion). In January 2019, for the development of newly designed MQB-A0-IN platform for the new generation made-in-India cars from VW, the company in Pune opened a new Technology Centre. The first new-gen Made in India SUV car will be from the Skoda brand which is scheduled to launch in 2020. And after it, the a SUV along with two sedan of VW will be launched. VW is also planning to increase the export of the made-in-India cars from India and all these plans are being scheduled for the next period.
Few days back, the company began the road tests in the country for the forthcoming BS-VI petrol powertrain. The cars for meeting the BS-VI norms will come with 1.0 liter, 3 cylinder petrol powertrain. This powertrain will be introduced in the VW India product lineup nearby the April 2020.