Volkswagen India Discontinues Jetta And Beetle Cars

VW Jetta and Beetle cars discontinued in the Indian car market. The dated PQ25 platform turns out to be the reason for the phase out.

The long innings of two popular VW cars, the Jetta sedan and the Beetle hatchback have come to an end. Volkswagen has discontinued both of these cars in the Indian auto-market. Volkswagen Jetta was a D-segment sedan while the company’s oldest car, Volkswagen Beetle was the premium hatchback. The very reason to discontinue these cars was the PQ25 platform. The Jetta and the Beetle duo are based on the PQ25 platform but the countries that were exporting these cars to India do not use this platform anymore.

In India, Volkswagen Jetta was brought in the CKD (Completely Knocked Down) form while the Beetle was imported as CBU (Completely Built Unit). Globally, both of these cars aren’t produced anymore and hence the company had no option but to phase them out in the Indian subcontinent.

Added to this, the sales figures of Volkswagen Jetta and Volkswagen Beetle in India weren’t impressive enough to induce the car maker to continue its production. Although the auto-major recently unveiled the all-new Jetta globally but there are hardly any chances that the company will introduce it in the Indian auto-market. This new Jetta sits on the MQB platform, which also underpins the Skoda Octavia currently sold in India. If in the near future the company would plan to sell the new Jetta in the Indian car market, it will have an easy option to sell it through CKD.

As far the Beetle is concerned, already the car was witnessing reduction in sales and therefore, the company decided to discontinue it. However, the next generation model of the Beetle is expected to come with an all-electric powertrain and is likely to be based on the MQB platform. Chances are that the car maker may introduce the next-generation VW Beetle sometime around 2020.

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