By : RACHNA TYAGI
NEW DELHI :
Zac Hollis, Director, Sales, Service & Marketing, Skoda Auto India, tells us about how India 2.0 will deliver new cars to the streets of India, how like Europe, the share of diesel cars in india will also subside, as well as how the new products will be developed in India.
TOS: How are things looking in terms of the new offensive?
ZH: We have a lot of new products for the Auto Show, if you come to the Auto show in a couple of days, you’ll see that before we bring this car (VISION IN) to the market in 2021, we will bring a face lifted Superb, a Karoq, Octavia RS, Rapid TSI and of course Kodiaq TSI as well.
TOS: Will the TSI on the Rapid be a 1.0 L engine?
ZH: Yes, it is a 1.0 L TSI engine, very economical. What it does is, it challenges the traditional diesel buyer to take a look at petrol technology because the car is almost as economical as petrol, cheaper to maintain and in many cities such as Delhi, diesel is not an option because you can only keep it for 10 years, I think, as opposed to petrol, so TSI, is definitely something we’ll be pushing going forward.
TOS: What do you see Indians leaning towards, in terms of engine preferences?
ZH: I definitely think, just like we’ve seen in Europe, we see the share of diesel going down. One reason for that is there will be less diesel cars in the marketplace because the cost of engineering a diesel engine for Bharat Stage-VI is very high, so you’ll see a movement towards petrol in the future, and I think long term we will see a movement towards Electric, but we need the infrastructure to be in place. If the infrastructure is in place, the manufacturers will start to develop Electric cars. At the minute, Electric cars are very niche in the market and low volume for early adopters.
TOS: What is Skoda Auto India planning for EVs in the future?
ZH: We are looking at what plans we have to make. We are looking at… do we bring Electric cars over from Europe, do we localize, looking at local suppliers, so the whole strategy of Electric cars, we’re working on it, I can’t give you any more than that.
TOS: What is happening on the design front?
ZH: If you look at design, what is really crucial for us is that this car is designed for India. It is designed for India obviously by our team of designers in Mlada Boleslav, (Czech Republic), but for Indian tastes. That’s really key in going forward.
TOS: Tell us a little bit about the Indian market and what Indians prefer in their cars?
ZH: If you look at India, of course, you got this unique thing in India, the sub-four-meter. The sub-four-meter obviously gets a significant tax break in India and what’s really key is that we can design the car to get maximum customer space for sub-four-meter and I think, if we bring a sub-four meter car to the market, you will see the spaciousness coming through, Indian people definitely like spaciousness, this is really key in terms of their design. Leg room is also very important. Indians, most of them, like to be chauffeured.
TOS: It’s been 20 years since Skoda has been in India, and Skoda got off to a great start, then saw a dip, and now things are looking up again, it is like a second coming…
ZH: That’s why we’re calling it "India 2.0" because it is a fresh start for India. If you’ve got to take Indian market seriously, you’ve got to invest, you’ve got to bring new products for the Indian market and it has got to be designed and developed for Indian customers and we’ve made massive investments in India. We have a new design and engineering center and we’re increasing capacity there going forward.
TOS: Would you say that Skoda took a back seat when it came to looking at the Indian market as compared to China?
ZH: I can’t really comment so much on the past because I came here a year ago and my clear agreement here, in India, is to get this market ready for India 2.0 and that’s what I will do. We will expand dealer network, we will work on the cost of ownership, and customer centricity and we will bring new products to the market. This is what I would do going forward.
