Volkswagen India completes five years of exports

Team OD Published: March 18, 2016, 11:55 AM IST

Volkswagen India announced that it has exported over 1,85,000 cars since it first began exports, five years ago. The German company began shipping the cars from its Pune plant in 2011. It's first export destination was South Africa. At that time, only 6.4 per cent of the of the total production in India was exported. Currently, Volkswagen India exports to 35 countries. In 2015, it exported 55 per cent of the production. The Polo and Vento are the models that are exported.

2016 Volkswagen Vento (3) New Vento

Speaking about Volkswagen India's five year export journey, Andreas Lauermann, president and managing director, Volkswagen India Private Limited said, "Volkswagen set up its Indian operations especially for the domestic Indian market and we still continue to focus primarily on our local customers and their demands. However, with fluctuations in the domestic demand and the currency exchange, it became necessary for us to establish a second strong leg of our operations here in India. Since a Volkswagen made anywhere in the world follows the same quality and engineering standards, we were able to impress several export markets and create a demand there with our cars built in India. The acceptance and rising demand from a variety of markets and consumers from Asia to America stands a testimony to the global standards and state-of-the-art manufacturing that we undertake here at the Pune Plant."

Volkswagen Polo advertorial (10) Polo

Besides exporting cars, Volkswagen India also supplies parts and components to Malaysia. About 80 per cent of the total export volume is to Mexico alone.

Volkswagen Polo GTI (1) Volkswagen GTI

Volkswagen has been facing serious competition in India. While the cars are well built and have economical diesel engines, customers shy away from the brand due to the relatively higher maintenance costs. However, with the export arm, VW has managed to utilise its total production capacity, quite effectively.

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Volkswagen India is also in the process of giving its Indian operations a shot in the arm. It plans to launch the Ameo compact sedan soon along with an updated Vento, new Polo GTI , Passat GTE and the Tiguan.

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