As we all know Volkswagen group entered India with long term strategy and firm focus domestic Indian automobile market. To further strengthen its production operations in the country Volkswagen launched its new engine assembly facility in Chakan Pune. New Facility spread over 3450 sq.m which has been set up in 11 months under the expert guidance from Volkswagen engine plant in Germany, Poland and Salzgitter. This new facility includes an engine testing lab with cold test station, an engine dynamometer and a hot test bench.
This new facility is build with an investment of Rs. 240 crore and has an annual capacity 98,000 engines in three shifts. According to the Volkswagen this new facility will create 260 direct jobs and additional employment will be created at the production plants of Indian suppliers.
Apart from the employment the workers who will be working on this new facility have been trained at Volkswagen’s Polkowice plant in Poland and ‘Profi-rooms’ set up at Pune plant.
The new engine plant will produce 1.5L TDI diesel engine which is exclusively designed for Indian market and it is available with two state of tunes 90 and 105PS. In current three cars are manufactured in Chakan plant Volkswagen Polo, Vento and Skoda Rapid. While Volkswagen sells Polo, Polo GT, Vento/new Vento, Cross Polo, Jetta and Vento Konekt in India.
Volkswagen Group comprises of five companies VW, Skoda, Audi, Porsche and Lamborghini which together sells over 25 models in the country, Audi being the most dominating among them in terms of sales volume and product line up.
Speaking during the inauguration, Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis said, “Volkswagen is one of the top car manufacturers in the world and they have brought their German Engineering to India. I am glad to see that the company is committed to their production operations in Chakan in Pune and is investing further for increasing manufacturing here even in difficult market situation.”
“It is really encouraging to see that Volkswagen is creating so many jobs in this industrial belt. It gives me pride that you have created a facility in Maharashtra where engines from international VW Group cars can be tested.” He added
Mahesh Kodumudi, chief representative, Volkswagen Group India and president and managing director, Volkswagen India said, “The new plant including the engine testing facility is our very first in India and emphasizes our commitment to offer technology that is best suited to the requirements of the local market. The 1.5-litre TDI engine was specially developed for the Indian needs and is now being assembled locally too. With this step, we take an important step towards achieving our long-term goal of increasing local content. We are also creating more job opportunities and supplier development in and around Chakan,”
