INDUSTRY NEWS
VW adds SUV as plans for budget wheels are revived
Volkswagen to start all-new budget brand by 2019 in China first, writes Michael Taylor
The on-again, off-again saga of Volkswagen’s emerging-market budget brand has just been turned back on, and fast-tracked to hit Chinese showrooms before the end of 2019. This time around the unnamed new brand will not be based around a single sedan, but a sedan, an SUV and probably a third, larger SUV. A senior VW official has confirmed the new brand, which hopes to replicate Renault’s success with Dacia. To be built in partnership with its Chinese joint-venture partner FAW, it will specialise in China first, complete with Chinese model names, before spreading around the world. The new brand is not planned for SA, but with the company planning to expand it beyond China, SA could well be a potential market. "The budget car is still under development, even more right now," VW development head Frank Welsch confirmed. "Two years ago the car you heard about was a sedan. We changed this strategy early [in 2016] because in China the market research was quite easy to see that when we need a...
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