Volkswagen Likely to Introduce Mass Market Electric Model in India Post 2025 – EQ Mag Pro
German automaker Volkswagen may look at introducing a mass-market electric model in India post-2025 as it expects the segment to gain some meaningful scale in the country by that time, a senior company official said on Tuesday. The automaker, which on Tuesday unveiled a mid-sized sedan — Virtus — for the Indian market, may look at bringing in some imported battery-electric models, to begin with in the country to gauge the response in the market.
“If you look at how the brand is transforming globally, we in India will also have to make a transformation to the battery electric vehicles and that is what we have to start preparing for now,” Volkswagen Passenger Cars India Brand Director Ashish Gupta told.
The German automaker says that it will “elevate” the sedan segment in India that of the VW brand in India is now stronger than before. And now, they want to focus on the mid-size sedan segment. The development of the Virtus has been a result of Indian and German engineers working together who have focused on build quality, safety and driving dynamics as well. Moreover, the Volkswagen Virtus will be exported to over 25 countries across the world.
The Virtus will be built in Volkswagen’s manufacturing plant in Chakan, Pune. Volkswagen says that the bookings for the Volkswagen Virtus have now started in India and that the price announcement will happen at a later date, mostly in May 2022. Just so you know, the Virtus is based on the same MQB A0-IN platform as the Slavia, Taigun and Kushaq.
The Volkswagen Virtus comes with features like LED headlamps (standard), automatic headlamp and rain-sensing wipers, ventilated front leather seats, cooled glove box, push-button engine start/stop and 60:40 split rear seats. Then there are the eight speakers, which will be offered as standard across all variants and the car will also come with wireless charging and 4 USB ports. And in case you are wondering, yes, the Volkswagen Virtus will also offer an electric sunroof. The instrument cluster is a digital unit on the Volkswagen Virtus and is 8-inch in size. The touchscreen infotainment system is 10.9-inch in size. It also boasts of 521-litres of boot space, just like the Slavia.
The Dynamic Line of the Volkswagen Virtus gets the 1.0-litre three-cylinder engine option which makes 115 PS of power and 178 Nm of torque. The Performance Line of the Volkswagen Virtus gets the 1.5-litre four-cylinder engine option which makes 150 PS of power and 250 Nm of torque. Once it goes on sale, which should be soon, the Virtus will come in six colour options.
Source: news18
