Siddharth Vinayak Patankar

Friday, September 21, 2007 (Frankfurt):

It is big news for car lovers in India. In an exclusive interview with NDTV, Porsche said that it not only want to bring more of its cars to India but for the first time in its history it will shed its 'Made in Germany' image to assemble its cars in India.

Dr Wendelin Weideking is considered to be one of the most powerful men in the world's automobile space. As Porsche CEO he is all set to become the boss at Volkswagen (VW) too.

Porsche already owns 30.9 per cent stake in VW since March this year and that has triggered a takeover bid under German law. It is likely to hike its stake to a majority level by the end of 2007.

Porsche and VW have collaborated on various projects in the past, but now the alliance will go a step further for the first time. Porsche said that it would assemble cars for the first time outside Germany not just for India but possibly the region.

This means that there will be more Porsches available to Indian buyers and more importantly at significantly cheaper prices since there would be much lesser duty on a locally assembled car.

For now Porsche is very excited about its newest products like the GT and the Cayenne GTS, which it will bring to India in a hurry. Porsche is in the process of homologating its vehicle range in India.

The company has already set up an India office, unlike in the past where it has only worked through importers and dealers. So by 2010 the action will really hot up and the VW group plus Porsche are only going to get more and more aggressive on India.

 

I guess they're taking the lead of Ruf when they opened their Bahrain plant. Seems that region is a growing hotbed for high end cars. I want to hear about these new products the GT and Cayenne GTS though lol

 

That is very sad to hear. When I purchase a Car from Germany I expect it to be built in Germany and not India.

 

kaz....I believe you will be hard pressed to find that Porsche-built-in-India in the US. It's for that country and maybe that 'region'...

Common practice among mfrs.

 

Thanks for clearing it up.

 

oh lord!!!!!!!

 

quality down, volume up. welcome to global market

 

Exactly, anyone here own a US built Toyota or Honda? Probably many do.

 

+ 1 "Global Market" is going to be shoved down our throat more and more now...

 

This is just for consumers in India guys, so it's more affordable to them and dont have to pay crazy tariffs on importing them. No Indian made Porsches will show up at your local dealership lol.

 

Dell support by day Porsche Assembly plant by night.

 

Sad but true.

 

Its for the local market.

I was in India in July. The 1st Porsche dealership has opened in Bombay, another one was either being built or just done in Delhi. A guy I know of bought at 997TT for over $200k. So I am guessing that local production is to redue the tariffs.

MB has a plant in India. BMW is opening up a factory there. Honda and Toyota already have. Audi has opened 4 dealerships so far. It makes perfect business sense for VW/Porsche to do it.

BTW, regarding the ignorant "lack of quaility" comments - MB India won the Quality award for Best Mercedes Benz production plant outside Germany for 3 straight years.

http://www.mercedes-benz.co.in/companymilestone.htm

 

There has been also debates of getting a Formula One track in the outskirts of New Delhi according to Financial times newspaper Sun 24/9/ 2007 as the Head of the F1 has nearly given the approval for two large lands in the outskirts of Newdelhi for the upcmong track. There has been talks of the Indian Gp will begin by 2010 but I highly doubt that really, it might be just after the Bahrain Gp.

 

http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/news/2007/...-race-in-2010/