The largest carmaker of Europe, Volkswagen AG, is going to launch their globally famed Porsche sports-car range in India in 2012. The company is appointing a new team for pushing sales in the near-saturated Indian auto market.
People who have been closely monitoring this development have said that the Porsche models that Volkswagen is going to bring to India include Cayman, 911, Cayenne SUV, Panamera and Boxter. The cars are initially going to be imported but once sales pick up, the parts could be assembled in one of their local units in Maharashtra.
No confirmation was received from Volkswagen headquarters in Wolfsburg regarding the same. All the cars are going to be sold and distributed in India under the banner of Volkswagen, with prices ranging from Rs.70 lakh–Rs.3 crore.
The company has a 5% share in the Indian market from sales of their Audi, Skoda and Volkswagen brands. An expert on this development said that the Porsche cars will be imported to India in similar lines of the Audi R-8 and their limousine, the Volkswagen Pheaton. These vehicles are not going to be assembled in India like their other smaller models like Audi A4/A6 sedans and the Volkswagen Passat. However, there is a probability that with growing volumes, high-selling models like the Cayenne could be assembled locally for bringing down prices, as taxes are lower for locally assembled vehicles.
Cars that are assembled in India pay 10% tax, which shoots up to 110% for fully-imported models. The imported Porsche is going to be sold in select cities of India with Precision Cars in India handling the sales. Top executives of Precision Cars, however, expressed ignorance to these developments.
As mentioned earlier, an exclusive sales team appointed by Volkswagen will promote the Porsche in India. The team will be headed by Anil Reddi, who is presently sales head of Audi India, the Volkswagen subsidiary.
The existing outlets for Porsche in India are likely to be retained by Volkswagen. There is going to be a restructuring of Porsche India, in similar lines of Audi India, with 5 departments – sales, marketing, after sales, press communication and dealer development. Each department will initially have around 18-20 members and are expected to start operating from early 2012.
