It is no longer a secret that Skoda Auto will be heading the India 2.0 project for Volkswagen Group India. For that, the Czech carmaker needed a playground where it would hire Indian engineers and aligning them to carve out every new car that is made-in-India, for India. They would be taking care of everything from project management, electronics and infotainment to body design, interior and chassis.

Well, such a facility has now been inaugurated. It is located in a town called Chakan, some 30 kilometres north of Pune. The newly opened technology centre will employ 250 engineers and will be developing products for India. Skoda Auto and Volkswagen Group India will jointly invest 250 million euros (approximately Rs 2,032 crore at current exchange rate) in research and development projects in India and the said facility will be amongst the recipients of the funds.

To ensure that the products which roll out of the factory floor under the India 2.0 project are not just well packaged but also well priced, Skoda Auto will achieve 95 per cent localisation of components. The company reiterates that most of the technical development will be carried out in India and that the locally developed models will meet the same core standards for safety, quality and design that the Volkswagen Group stands for globally.

All products under the India 2.0 project will be underpinned by Volkswagen Group’s MQB-A0-IN platform, a vehicle architecture which has been specifically made to cater to the Indian market. The first model will be a Skoda-branded mid-size SUV in the A0 segment and will be unveiled sometime next year. Its basic package will be shared with a Volkswagen-brand SUV (T-Cross), which will see a market launch after Skoda’s product in mid-2020. Before that, Skoda Auto India will unveil the mid-size SUV in concept form at the 2020 Auto Expo.

Needless to say, all Skoda and Volkswagen products will meet the stricter safety and emission norms that will come into effect in India by the year 2020. Such quality of products will also enable the German automotive group to export India-made models to other emerging markets around the globe.

Volkswagen Group wants to turn its fortunes around in India. For that, it will be investing a total of 1 billion euros in the India 2.0 project by 2021. All that is to achieve a 5 per cent combined (Skoda and Volkswagen) market share on our shores by 2025. We first learnt about Skoda Auto taking the charge for the India 2.0 project in June 2018. In November last year, Volkswagen announced some key leadership changes for the said project. The changes saw Gurpratap Singh Boparai taking the MD’s position for Volkswagen India from January 2019.