VW's Polo to be priced around Rs 4 lakh

Volkaswagen is expected to price its small car Polo above Rs 4 lakh, and is planning to import premium models Phaeton and Touareg from May.

Volkswagen will start production from its Chakan plant near Pune from January 2009. Joerg Mueller, president, Volkswagen India, said: "We will manufacture the small car Polo at the Chakan plant from 2010, and the car would be priced around Rs 4.35 lakh. The concept car Up, presented at the Delhi Auto Expo in January, is in the process of development. It would be the smallest possible car by Volkswagen, and could be priced around Rs 1.80 lakh."

He added that Volkswagen has no plans to compete with existing small car brands like Maruti 800 or Nano. "We are developing Up in a completely different way, and the technology is totally different from the one being used by Indian brands. Up is just a concept car, and we won't launch it before 2012," he said.

Mueller pointed out that Jetta would be on the Indian roads from May-end or June. "We have priced Jetta between Rs 13 lakh and Rs 15 lakh, and it would be assembled at the Aurangabad plant. Two other cars, Phaeton and Touareg, would soon be fully imported," he added.