Volkswagen Beetle set to scorch Indian roads from 2009

According to Joerg Mueller, president and managing director, Volkswagen India, the German company has decided to bring Beetle to India in 2009.

"The Beetle will come here. After strengthening our dealership network, it will come next year," Mueller said.

Introduced in 1938, the small family car Beetle became the rage worldwide, despite peculiar styling, underpowered motor, rough handling, and high noise levels, and became the longest-running and most-produced automobile of a single design in the history. It also set a benchmark for both generations of American compact cars such as the Chevrolet Corvair, and subcompact cars such as the Ford Pinto and Chevrolet Vega.

In the international poll for the award of the world's most influential car of the 20th century, the Beetle came fourth after the Ford Model T, the Mini, and the Citroën DS.

Basking in the success of the classic Beetle, Volkswagen introduced a new Beetle, or the "bug" as it was lovingly called by the public, in 1998, drawing heavy inspiration from the design cues of the original Beetle. However, unlike the original, the new Beetle has its engine in the front and luggage storage in the rear.

Presently, the new Beetle is manufactured at the VW Puebla factory in Mexico and it is expected to come to India as CBUs (completely built units).

Volkswagen, which launched its sedan Jetta last month, has already found success with its Skoda, Audi and VW Passat variants in the Indian market. The fourth largest automaker in the world is also eyeing India's growing small car market and plans to use the Beetle as a brand building tool.

Volkswagen also plans to make a compact car based on the Polo platform and launch it in 2010. However, it would not compete with the world's cheapest car, Tata Motor's Nano, Mueller said.

"Our small car will be an absolutely new car and designed specially for India. It will be a premium hatchback and will fit in the higher end of the C segment. It has nothing to do with Nano," Mueller said.

The compact car would be manufactured at Volkswagen's upcoming greenfield plant at Chakan in Pune in which the company is investing Rs.3500 crore ($875 million).

The plant would also produce Skoda Fabia from next year, Mueller said.

Besides planning to launch a coupe variant of the Passat, the company also plans to officially launch its popular sports utility vehicle (SUV) Touareg in the first quarter of 2009.

Presently, the company is selling the Touareg in India on order, Mueller said.

Volkswagen, which is lagging behind Hyundai, Toyota, Honda and Ford in the Indian automobile market in terms of sales, aims to corner 10 percent of the market within 5 years. In this regard, it plans to ramp up its dealership network from the present 8 to 15 by the end of this year and to 120 within 3-4 years.

The top three automakers in India are Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai Motor Co. and Tata Motors.

Presently, for every car sold in India, seven two-wheelers are sold. According to market data, India sold about 1.4 million four-wheelers last year compared to 5 million in China and over 10 million in the US. Annual passenger vehicle sales are forecast to rise to 2 million units by 2010 and with enough scope for India to develop a large domestic market, analysts say Indian car sales would more than quadruple to $145 billion by 2016.