The Future of India's Small Car Mantra

They say good things come in small packages and the original peoples’ car, the Volkswagen Beetle, envisioned by Adolf Hitler and turned into the metal by Dr Ferdinand Porsche, was just that. It went on to enthral , not just over 15 million who paid their hard earned money to buy one, but twice or thrice that number who drove it on all five continents. Just two cars in automotive history have done over 15 million units in their lifetime, virtually unchanged in form and function, the second one being the Ford Model T. And even though Toyota’s Corolla nameplate has surpassed the 15-million mark many years ago, it has needed many generations of model to do that.

Brings us then to the modern day peoples’ car that Volkswagen is trying to conjure up for the second decade of the present century. Affordable motoring for the masses still remains the fundamental mantra behind its concept but unlike the mid-1930s when old man Adolf tried to deliver ‘Kraft durch Freude’, or strength through joy to his faithful, the reasons right now are even more compelling. Overall carbon dioxide emissions and the need to lower them means a smaller, lighter package which is at the same time robust and strong and capable of delivering the same driving pleasure as cars with larger motors. Having a small footprint to be able to utilize less real estate when on the move without compromising on comfort and space for occupants needed a rethink as well. And to top it all, the design needed to be easy for adaptation in mature, evolved markets as well as in emerging new markets.

Being small was not the key but being relevant while staying small, across price segments was and so came into being a whole new generational shift in small car design. When Volkswagen showed it up! concept in 2007, it was hailed as the modern day Beetle,  thanks to its rear-engine, rear-wheel drive layout, but that was missing the wood for the trees! It was a marvel of packaging and that was what everyone could see in the initial concept. The VW Group boffins though were always searching for ways and means to make a most cost effective automobile. And when they did their arithmetic, they found that judiciously re-arranging existing parts and aggregates from the combined Volkswagen-Audi-Skoda-Seat parts bin would result in major cost savings were they to switch to a front transverse-engined, front-wheel drive layout. No qualms about history being turned back to front, but this has resulted in an all-new platform which lends itself to easy build, be it a high spec high trim model for Europe or a frugally engineered, low spec, adequate trim car for India.

The new Volkswagen up! debuted in production form at the Frankfurt Motor Show and it is also being engineered for manufacture in India at the firm’s Chakan facility near Pune. When the up! will begin rolling out from Chakan sometime in 2013, it will also have a Skoda sibling for the Indian market as well and the duo should spice up things nicely for the Maruti-Suzuki – Hyundai small car set. They would need to because it’s not all about peoples’ cars but also the small matter of the up! playing a significant role in propelling the VW Group to absolute domination of the global automotive sphere by 2018!