Volksawagen/Skoda recently in 2022 invested heavily in the sedan space and offered two new sedans Virtus and Slavia in the Indian market. By 2022 it was pretty clear that Indian consumers are into SUVs now and the declining sale numbers of sedans was the main indicator. Volkswagen/Skoda even even after this declining trend in the sedan market introduced their new offerings. Volkswagen/Skoda wanted to target this niche market of sedan buyers with some of the key points these type of buyers usually look out for.
Unique propositions offered with Virtus and Slavia –
1- Performance oriented options – The sedan buyers nowadays buy sedans for their driving dynamics and engine performance, sedans are usually more advanced in the driving dynamics part than the SUVs and hatchbacks because of their aerodynamic shape. All the engines offered on Virtus and Slavia give great performance and driving dynamics of these machines are top notch. Virtus and Slavia are also offered with GT trims consisting of a 1.5 liter turbo petrol engine which is capable of doing 0-100 in around 7 seconds. These unique propositions offered on both the sedans made them instant hit among the people looking for great driving dynamics and performance.
2- Addressing the problem of low ground clearance with sedans – Volkswagen/Skoda offered a ground clearance of 180mm which is roughly 10-15mm more than all the competitors. This extra ground clearance offered improved bad road handling capability of these cars while not hampering much with the driving dynamics.
3- GNCAP 5 start safety – None of the competitors available at the time of launch had a full 5 star safety rating from the GNCAP, which added to the unique value of Virtus and Slavia. New generation of Verna later on got full 5 star safety rating from GNCAP but Virtus and Slavia were the ones which settled this benchmark in the C segment sedans.
4- Volkswagen 2.0 strategy – With the launch of their new models Volkswagen also implemented the 2.0 strategy which focused largely on localisations, which helped reducing the price of spare parts. Due to heavy localisation Volkswagen/Skoda was able to price their cars very attractively and close to the pricing of the competitors. Under this strategy other main focus of the Volkswagen was to reduce service costs of the vehicles by reducing the labour costs and providing various AMC packages. This 2.0 strategy lead to a huge decrease in cost of ownerships and prices of the cars.
5- Dimensions of Virtus and Slavia – Indian buyers are always attracted by the big sized cars, by offering dimensions almost close to D segment sedans like Corolla and Civic, Volkswagen/Skoda was able to attract a lot of buyers.
Conclusion – Volkswagen/Skoda smartly targeted a niche market where people still prefer sedans with great performance and driving dynamics. Volkswagen/Skoda successfully tapped this niche market and this can be seen from the decent sales made by Virtus and Slavia every month.
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