| Volkswagen AG, the world's fourth largest automobile | | | | It has been barely achieved this target yet so the |
| manufacturer, is in the process of reassessing its small | | | | board is considering whether to bring in another model |
| car plan for India. The company is carefully evaluating | | | | or stay with the original plan, but work harder at costs. |
| the project due to a feasibility study holding out little | | | | Other than the two options, the board holds another |
| promise on the cost front. It is also considering the | | | | way through, which is to price the car on par with |
| frequent changes at the top management level. | | | | C-segment offerings, just like the Accent or Ikon. That |
| The German company, in fact, has even asked some | | | | would mean the company will have to push the rollout |
| people - consultants and not full-time employees - who | | | | further to 2010. |
| were hired to key jobs to "take a break". | | | | The source said VW can do well to take a leaf out of |
| Mentioned in sify.com, a source told DNA Money that | | | | the Japanese and Koreans, which are focused |
| "VW's focus on India could have been impacted, | | | | aggressively on localization. "Suzuki has been around |
| thanks to the recent spate of changes at the top | | | | for over two decades and has been working |
| management level. This, in turn, is likely to affect the | | | | relentlessly on productivity and costs, while still |
| overall direction of the project to a large extent." | | | | remaining profitable. It is not going to be easy for a |
| In January 2008, the VW board is likely to debate on | | | | new entrant to use the Swift as the basis for costs." |
| the matter. | | | | Basically, this issue ends up Volkswagen deciding |
| Last year, Volkswagen (maker of quality Volkswagen | | | | whether it would be better to bring bigger car to India |
| Golf distributor rotor) has announced its plans to launch | | | | or just work harder on the Polo to bring costs down to |
| a derivative of the Polo, which will be built in a new | | | | more reasonable and realistic levels. |
| plant in Chakan, near Pune, and be rolled out within | | | | Volkswagen is one of the last multinationals that |
| 2009. The company planned for an initial capacity of | | | | entered India since the time gates were opened to |
| more than 1 lakh vehicles. | | | | foreign investments in the early 1990s. Since then, the |
| Now, the German automaker faces the challenge to | | | | German automaker did well in China, but just until it lost |
| benchmark the cost of the Polo with the Suzuki Swift. | | | | market shares to General Motors. |