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Last year German car maker Volkswagen recorded its worst slide in sales since its debut in India six years ago. With no green shoots visible in the economy, the company predicts no growth in sales this year too.
With a limited product line-up in the volume segment, coupled with strong competition the Mumbai-based company is struggling to grow its sales since the past several months.
Last financial year Volkswagen sales recorded a fall of 16% at 65,465 units as compared to the previous year. The fall came at a time even as the rest of the industry posted a growth of 2%.
Arvind Saxena, managing director, Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Volkswagen Group Sales India, said, "First three months of the calendar year have not shown any positiveness. There are no signs that things have changed I don't expect the market to really grow this year, as things stand today".
Volkswagen launched an expensive variant of the Polo hatchback christened Polo GT TSI today at Rs 7.99 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi). This new variant of the Polo comes with a 7-speed gearbox tuned for better mileage and performance.
The Polo GT TSI is targeted at the niche segment of hatchback buyers. It is the most expensive small car in the country on sale. Fiat will likely join this premium hatchback club when it launches the Abarth version of the Punto in the coming months.
The country's apex automobile body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) indicated that there could be a growth of 5-7% in sales this financial year on the back of new launches by several players.
Volkswagen hopes to maintain its market share at the current level than witness any further fall, according to Saxena. With models such as Polo, Vento, Jetta, Passat, Phaeton, Touareg and Beetle VW's market share last year stood at 2.43%.
"There will be no increase in market share this year. There will be activities in VW but volumes per se I don't think there is any big opportunity (which) exists in the market. Overall economic sentiment has to be much better there is no clear positiveness in the present situation", added Saxena.
