[TusharK]

The Volkswagen Group will adopt a phased approach when it comes to localization of its EVs in India. Oliver Blume, Chairman of the Board of Management of VW Group, stated that the company wouldn't commit to offering affordable, 'Made in India' EVs until there's a strong business case for it.



Blume was speaking on the sidelines of the IAA Mobility 2023 in Munich. "We have a ramp-up curve for electric mobility, which includes bringing the right products and right positioning, especially for the Indian market, where you also need to address the lower segment. We need some time to ramp up," he said.

Blume added that the company would have a calibrated approach for India. The localization of EVs in India will be guided by the way the region develops in terms of charging infrastructure.

Over the last five years, VW has invested Rs 5 billion into locally made ICE models. Thomas Schafer, CEO of Volkswagen Passenger Cars, said that the carmaker is unlikely to make any fresh investments in pure ICE models.

"If we start work on an ICE model today, it will take three years from now. Hence, (it) doesn't make sense to be doing so, and instead, the focus should be on conserving the resources for BEVs," Schafer added.

Source: ET Auto

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[maestar]

VW is currently losing big time in China in EVs to BYD,Tesla and other domestic players there and are somewhat gaining momentum by big discounts for ID range of products. If they can partner with an Indian oem to develop and localize their MEB platform for India and develop ID1 and ID2all here may be within the next 18 months, then it will bring much needed boost to their Indian operations. In China VW is investing ($700 million in think) in Xpeng for development of new platforms for cost advantage and Audi is reportedly in discussions with SAIC for platform sharing as well because their MEB is not at all competitive with Chinese OEMs. They should have done this way earlier in China.

If they can do that proactively in India before Maruti introduces their EV in India, then that would be nice. I don't know why they are holding back here as we clearly are a growth market, and they can clearly cash out of it with suitable products. By the time they take any decision for significant investment we might have Tesla here with their model 2 (they construct factories extremely fast) and the next gen Tata, Mahindra EVs along with others like Maruti and other legacy players who are sitting on the fence. Also don't write off the upcoming Ola car just yet. I am not a fan of their "ship it first and fix later" strategy, but still. Making EVs is hard even for legacy auto companies and making them in scale with proper software, in-house battery cells for lower cost etc. is extremely difficult. I hope they make sensible decisions for Indian operations.

[anandhsub]

Originally Posted by TusharK

unlikely to make any fresh investments in pure ICE models.

what does this mean?

No 2nd generation for slavia/kushaq/virtus/taigun?

I think there hasnt even been a facelift so far. I hope they are not going to discontinue them in the next 4-5 yrs.