Volkswagen does not have too many launches for Indian market in 2015, so in order to improve sale company is planning a sub 4m compact sedan segment based on Polo hatchback. Volkswagen is getting lukewarm response for its products in India but the product portfolio is limited. The company is reconsidering its strategy and target as the players like Hyundai and Maruti giving tough fight to Volkswagen as they have wide range of products.
The Polo based compact sedan is the company’s attempt to penetrate the sub 4m segment that is dominated by Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire, Tata Zest, Hyundai Xcent and Honda Amaze and soon Figo Aspire will join bandwagon. Volkswagen compact sedan has been spied on the Indian roads several times now which is likely to go on sale in early 2016.
Volkswagen’s compact sedan is made specifically for India, codenamed as ICS (Indian compact sedan) but now company needs a proper name that it can use on the compact sedan. Volkswagen wants to use a name derived from wind like other Volkswagen cars like Jetta is inspired by jet stream, Polo is named after Polar wind and Vento meaning is wind in Italian.
Volkswagen is considering ‘Bora’ name for compact sedan which is used for Jetta in various international markets like Colombia and Mexico. Volkswagen has another alternative name for the compact sedan- Derby. Previous reports had also suggest that it could be named as Polo plus or Vento CS.
To avail more tax benefits, VW will use 1.5L diesel and 1.2L petrol engines, both these engines would be paired to a 5-speed manual gearbox followed by automatic transmission at the later stage. Lately, the company has started making 1.5L TDI diesel motor in their plant in India which would certainly giver cost benefits.
Volkswagen compact sedan is likely to share same wheelbase with the hatchback i.e. 2456mm and the car will get smoked headlamps with DRLs, new alloy wheels and revised rear bumper and new tail lights. However, compact sedan would share almost similar interiors with Polo and Vento such as dual tone dashboard, multi function steering wheel.
Volkswagen is also looking for names based on Indian winds but we hope they don’t name it Loo, don’t get me wrong, it’s the name of the wind that blow across most parts of India during summer.
Volkswagen has also confirmed that they would four new models in next two years-including new Passat, compact sedan, Tiguan and Beetle.
