The globe at present fancies riding on the raised platforms of popular SUVs in a majority and Volkswagen (VW) seems to cater to the changing trends of today. This has prompted the company's Chairman of the Brand Board of Management, Dr. Herbert Diess to make a bold statement of building 40% of their production base of SUVs only whereas it offers only 4 at present. Not only this, the manufacturers have also taken the target time period to reach out to 19 SUVs provision in mere three years that follow. This means an addition of 15 new SUVs to their offerings, while they have only revealed about a positive improvement on only two new ones.
Currently, VW offers 4 SUVs, namely Tiguan, Touareg, Atlas and the Tiguan AllSpace. In India, only Tiguan is sold while all the other SUVs cater worldwide sales. The next in line shall be T-Roc based on a raised MQB platform and Golf engine transmission. It shall be available with 1.0-litre113bhp turbocharged petrol, 1.5-litre TSI Evo petrol, and 1.6-litre diesel and 2.0-litre diesel engines compatible to FWD type operated via 6- or 7- speed automated gearbox.
"Volkswagen will be looking to take the tally of its SUVs to 19 by 2020 and it'll all start with the T-Roc which will be launched later this year." as was claimed by Dr. Diess. The statement is easy to say but way too ambitious to be turned into reality. It's not the volume production or technological advancement of the company that I doubt as VW is famous for its mastery in volume selling. It has even collaborated because of the same with the car majors like Maruti Suzuki and Tata Motors. But it is the changing trend of the transportation system that makes me call it 'ambitious and unrealistic'. All the countries are putting in efforts and launching schemes to promote all-electric vehicles and hybrids have already been accepted in many of the continents of the world. Amongst this transition, such a heavy product launch within 3 years that too just in one segment might typecast VW and turn out to be a blunder in the long run. 40% of the production devoted to a single segment can be disastrous for the company, whose already launched 4 products are doing well in the market and provide a lot of variety, then what is the need?
