Volkswagen may introduce mass market electric model in India post 2025

German automaker Volkswagen may look at introducing a mass market electric model in India post 2025 as it expects the segment to gain some meaningful scale in the country by that time, a senior company official said on Tuesday.

The automaker, which on Tuesday unveiled a mid-sized sedan -- Virtus -- for the Indian market, may look at bringing in some imported battery electric models to begin with in the country to gauge the response in the market.

"If you look at how the brand is transforming globally, we in India will also have to make a transformation to the battery electric vehicles and that is what we have to start preparing for now," Volkswagen Passenger Cars India Brand Director Ashish Gupta told PTI in an interaction.

Asked when the company could look at introducing such models in the domestic market, Sharma said: "We already have a wide portfolio (of EVs) all over the world. There are two parts to electrification. One is do we introduce some models into the Indian market? Yes definitely we are looking into importing and introducing some electric cars in the market just to test them out ..How do our global cars fit in the market? How is the acceptance?"

He further said: "But when you talk about mass electrification, volumes, that I believe, still have a long way to go. We see it happening only in the second half of this decade after 2025-26."

When asked if it was safe to assume that Volkswagen will have a product intervention (EV launch) only around that time, Sharma said: "It is safe to assume".
On market outlook and sales target, he noted that the company is looking to double its sales volume this year.

"In 2022, we are looking to double our volume. Last year, we sold close to 26,000 units, this year looking to sell close to 60,000 units," Sharma said.
He stated that the company's long-term target in the domestic market is to gain 3 percent market share by 2025.

"With the volumes we have planned for this year, we are very close to reaching 2 percent...So from next onwards we are surely crossing 2 per cent market share," Sharma noted.

He said that the company has received robust response for its recently launched mid-sized SUV Tiagun.

The brand has received over 20,000 bookings and has already delivered 12,500 units so far, Sharma stated.

On the ongoing chip shortage, he noted that the situation has improved as compared to last year.

"The difficulties will stay in the first half of this year. We expect things to start improving in the second half of the year," Sharma said.

The company rolls out its product range from the Chakan (near Pune) based manufacturing plant which has an annual production capacity of 2 lakh units.

Sharma stated that despite various challenges like COVID and and subsequent lockdowns, demand for automobiles has remained robust in the country.

"If we look at the trends in the last two years, in spite of COVID-19 and the lockdowns, the market has been growing 30 per cent year-on-year. The growth has been there due to a basic shift in the customer mentality, with focus on personal mobility," he stated.

On plans regarding new product launches, Sharma said the brand would first like to focus on establishing the already launched models to reach their potential in the market before coming up with new ones.