Volkswagen Plans Rs 5 Lakh Sedan Under New Cheaper ‘Tantus’ Brand

Volkswagen has a lot of car brands under its purview and it is on the basis of such a strong bench strength that they aim to be the number one carmaker by 2018.

But that cannot be done until and unless they bring a lot of low cost cars for emerging markets because; lets face it, brands such as Audi do not bring in volumes to compete with a car like Golf or the Polo. So they’ve realised that and are looking to build on this strategy.

Volkswagen-Polo
VW’s Tantus products will share platform with Polo

Car Magazine has reported that VW’s low cost brand might be called as ‘Tantus’ and will initially have 3 guns in the armory – sedan, wagon and MPV.

€7000 ($9,120) is what the sedan would cost, the wagon would cost €7500 ($9,790) and the price tag of €8000 ($10,435) will be for the MPV. These would be initial cars to be launched which would make the low cost brand penetrate in emerging market. Joining these cars would be a €9000 ($11,750) crossover and a highly cost effective 3 door hatchback.

Now if we translate them into INR, that equals:

  • Sedan : Rs 5 Lakh
  • Wagon: Rs 5.4 Lakh
  • MPV; Rs 5.8 Lakh
  • Crossover: Rs 8.5 Lakh

Obviously direct conversion is not the way it works. But considering these as indicating prices, we have already begun expecting a lot.

These cars would be stripped of all the luxury comforts and would come with bare minimum creature comforts. They would come with a 2500mm wheelbase to have a lot of legroom which would appeal a lot to the buyers on budget. To further save costs, the PQ platform which underpins the Polo and Passat would be used.

There are even rumours that the base models would be devoid of features like the power steering too but we do not believe that school of thought. The engines would be 3 to 4 cylinder engines with cubic capacities of 1.2 to 1.6 liters. And yes, India will surely get these cars considering the huge potential these cars will have for budget concious Indian market.

This budget brand from Volkswagen (Tantus) will join Nissan’s Datsun which is coming to us next year.

 

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Source: Carmagazine

Richie Rich

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