Next-gen cars will be embedded with much more technology: Skoda India MD

Gurpratap Boparai, managing director of Skoda India, has been appointed leader of Volkswagen (VW) Group India. Work on streamlining operations has begun. Boparai tells Pavan Lall that this is the first step in having India as a key focus area for the group. Edited excerpts:
 

What is the rationale behind the new appointment?
 

The idea is to increase synergy across operations, strategy, addressing regulations, specifically Co2 emissions, and tailoring product portfolio. For years now, there has not been one single authority in India running the company.

VW announced 16 new factories, investments of $150 billion over the next five years, with plays across digital services and electric vehicles. Where does India fit into all of that?
 

The first step is getting leadership direction in place. Once we make this work, other steps will follow. As far as factories are concerned, we have two — one in Aurangabad and another in Chakan — which are sufficient and scalable for the time being. We have planned to invest around Euro 1 billion into upgrading factories, a new engineering centre, and new products over the next 30 months.

We hear VW is almost ready to commercialise quantum routing computing, which can predict traffic and interpret other mobility-related data. Would that be a major problem solver in India?
 

There is work happening in Europe but we have to evaluate what can work in India as those services are wanted by customers. However, they come at a price, which is the challenge for manufacturers. The solutions may not be the same like Europe but we will have many local interfaces that can work on such platforms.

So, you will be more like a digital company where the car is a shell and the services and the technology will be the content?
 

We are working that out for the next generation of cars, which when they come, will be embedded with much more technology. So, in some sense that is correct.

Your challenges at hand?
 

For mass market, its shrinking volumes while next generation products are around three years away. We are okay with regulatory changes. The perception is that we are expensive to own, which is partly true. But, we are working on by deepening localisation. This year, we have gone done by 10 per cent to 12 per cent for the cost of ownership.  As far as market share goes, we are at 2 per cent now. We are confident we will get to 5 per cent by 2025.

Skoda was earlier positioned as premium. How will that change going forward now with special regard to VW passenger cars?
 

Products will be far more differentiated than today. Skoda will continue to be what I call value luxury, which is technology, spaciousness, and great design at accessible prices. While VW will be premium, German build, quality, and engineering. The best way to describe the difference is if you look at the Superb and the Passat. Nothing similar about them.

The Lower D segment has barely three cars of note being sold in it. Does VW has plans to enter it and sell more products?
 

The D segment has not really grown. Sales have been cannibalised by a segment lower and perhaps budget products of luxury brands. But, it does have good potential with the right price points and is an obvious logical step up from C, which has been growing and there is a big consumer jump. So, this will happen and we will look at that.