When Volkswagen , the Biggest German Manufacturer of cars in the world entered the Indian consumer space with the trade mark VW Polo brand, little did we know that VW group was planning a long term arrangement to capture the Indian automotive market.
With the latest news hovering about the Suzuki-(the largest Indian car manufacturer) and the VW deal will definitely raise eyebrows of the already established counterparts such as Ford, TATA and Hyundai motors . It is believed that VW last year already acquired around 20% shares of Suzuki Motor Corporation which already has a majority stake in Maruti Suzuki India. Further, there is news that VW is entering into a Technology sharing partnership with Suzuki to cash in on the small car success of Suzuki and also transfer its established Diesel Technology to Suzuki for future benefits and collaboration. Volkswagen’s humongous manufacturing setup in Pune is already proof that VW means business in India.
But the large scale of investment from VW group and its interest in the Largest Emerging market (India ) is hinting towards a major upheaval in the Indian automotive Industry. It is going to be quite an interesting thing to watch out as to how these mergers and acquisitions are actually going to benefit the common Indian middle class. VW polo turns out to be a pretty classy car for the Indian consumer while the Maruti brands still lie within the heart of the Indian consumer. The next few months are going to open up the actual details of these deals which are going on between these huge car manufacturers. It is highly unlikely that any merger or technology sharing could parallel a Tata Nano’ s kind of a people ‘s car, but it could well signal that India can move towards a better quality and safety specific automotive standard through the VW and Suzuki deals.
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