Volkswagen slams to share platform with A-Star
German car manufacturer, Volkswagen has refused to share platform with Maruti A-Star for its upcoming compact car Volkswagen UP likely to be priced at Rs 3.5 lakh in India by next year. This has virtually shelved the model-cum-technology sharing alliance of Indian subsidiaries of the Volkswagen and aruti, which anyway had not made any progress.
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Suzuki Motors Chairman and CEO Osamu Suzuki on Monday offered to buy Volkswagen's 19.9% stake in his company with cash on hand, and in return, promised to take away its 1.5% stake from Volkswagen, in order to end a two-year-old alliance. The move came after the German carmaker’s accusation on Maruti which allegedly agreed to a diesel engine deal with Italy's auto company-Fiat, thereby violating their partnership pact.
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This decision to end its alliance with Europe's largest carmaker virtually spoiled Volkswagen’s plans of sharing Maruti Suzuki's small car platform. According to sources in the component industry, Volkswagen has scrapped plans to source cars such as A-Star compact from Maruti Suzuki and will now launch a specially developed variant of UP in India. According to a Maruti Suzuki executive the Volkswagen teams-both from Germany and India-visited them in Gurgaon, but nothing went anything further. On the other front, John Chacko, Volkswagen India President said that they are working on several options to bring in more smaller cars to India. Small cars constitute more than 70% of some 2.5 million cars sold in the country. Volkswagen wants to consolidate its position in India's vast compact car market after the success of Polo hatchback. The 3.54 metre tall boy designed UP car is expected to feature the same engines as the Polo.
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This smallest car in the VW family till date will be unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show on Tuesday and its Indian variant will be showcased at the Auto Expo in Delhi in January. UP is likely to give a tough competition to Maruti A-Star and WagonR in Indian market as Volkswagen will enter lower end of small car segment in the country.
