Design centre planned at Pune

Germany’s Volkswagen Group is enhancing its presence in India with Euro1 billion investment to be made by 2020-2021.

The investment will be led by group company Skoda Auto with an engineering design and development centre at Pune.

As part of its ‘India 2.0’ project, Skoda Auto will also be enhancing capacities at the group’s two plants at Aurangabad and Pune.

It will launch a new SUV based on VW’s flexible MQB platform by the second half of 2020.

The group has set a target of capturing 5 per cent of the Indian passenger vehicles market by 2025.

“We are now investing up to Euro1 billion by 2020-21. This is the biggest investment which we have done in one single market.

“This the first and most decisive step,” Skoda Auto CEO Bernhard Maier told Press Trust of India in an interview on 2 July 2018.

The R&D centre will be ready by the end of the year with 200-250 engineers to develop cars in India.

Details are being finalized to enhance capacities at Pune and Aurangabad plants.

The investment is to have 5% of Indian auto market share VW and Skoda brands together by 2025.

The VW group has around 2% market share in PV segment in India, which stood at over 3.2 million units in 2017-18.

“This market is expected to be one of the biggest markets in the world. From 3.2 million units, the market is expected to grow to 5-6 million units by the end of next decade,” Maier said. fiinews.com