Over a year ago, the Volkswagen group had entrusted the task of devising the future strategy of the group business to the Skoda brand in India. Now, it is official that it will be Skoda spearheading VW’s Indian campaign with Volkswagen playing second fiddle.
After the Skoda-Tata partnership to build a budget platform got shelved, Skoda took the VW Group’s latest MQB-A0 platform and started customising it for India. The new, larger MQB-A0 platform was turning out to be too expensive for the Indian car market which is the reason why it wasn’t being introduced here.
The Indianized version of the MQB A0, being dubbed as the MQB-AO-IN, has been derived after reigning in the expensive elements and standardizing components for cost competitive options. The first car based on this platform is expected to arrive as early as 2020 and will mark the beginning of the VW’s ‘India 2.0’ project.
The first product to spawn from the MQB-A0-IN might be a hatchback, the spiritual successor of the Skoda Fabia which was one of the first premium hatchbacks in India. The second product will obviously be the new Skoda Rapid which has been due for almost half a decade now. Finally, the new MQB-A0-IN platform might also see Skoda building a Kamiq-like SUV, a Hyundai Creta rival, but that would certainly take some more time.
