In the course of the media drive event of the brand new Volkswagen Touareg earlier this week, Volkswagen Passenger Cars Malaysia (VPCM) held a Q&A session through which senior officials fielded questions related to the automotive and the corporate. Specifically, its managing director Denyu Bostandzhiev shared some interesting details regarding the longer term of the brand.
Asked by paultan.org whether there will probably be any recent models priced below the RM200,000 mark other than the Tiguan Allspace (which starts at RM164,190), Bostanzhiev said: “There will probably be a automotive [in this price range]. I cannot let you know now when exactly, but I’d say quite soon.”
The true juicy part got here afterward, when the corporate boss indicated VPCM’s desire to reintroduce a daily (read: non-GTI or R) Golf sometime in the longer term. “We are able to assure you that something is occurring with the Golf. Everybody’s waiting for the traditional Golf. We’re working on it. We’d wish to have the complete range of the Golf. Now we have been owning the segment and we’ll own the segment in the longer term as well, it belongs to us.”
It’s possible you’ll do not forget that the present Mk8 Golf was launched here in standard CKD R-Line guise back in July 2022 – after a protracted wait for its price to be approved – but was pulled from sale after lower than a 12 months. We are able to presume that it was killed on account of slow sales, likely on account of its high RM170,560 price and its lack of driver assistance kit.
A rejigged specification with a cheaper price and/or the inclusion of VW’s IQ.Drive safety suite could make the business case for the usual Mk8 Golf work, but VPCM might as a substitute be waiting for the brand new Mk8.5 model to bring the variant back. That automotive has already been comprehensively ruled out for this 12 months, with the Touareg and the special-edition fiftieth anniversary Golf GTI (the latter will probably be limited to 50 units, it’s been confirmed) being the corporate’s big launches for 2024.
But that’s not all – Bostandzhiev also confirmed there will probably be one other recent model to assist offset the associated fee of localising the CKD Touareg. The automotive is being locally assembled in Pekan, Pahang, the primary time this is occurring outside of VW’s Bratislava plant in Slovakia.
The corporate is barely targeting to capture a ten% share of the already tiny premium executive SUV market in Malaysia – a segment dominated by the also-CKD BMW X5 and Mercedes-Benz GLE. That’s not a variety of volume for such an enormous investment; the Touareg, let’s not forget, is predicated on the MLB Evo platform not shared with other Volkswagen brand models.
“[We need to] share technologies, share investments. I’m not allowed to let you know, but something is cooking. There will probably be a special model that can appear,” said Bostandzhiev.
The usage of the term “different model” is essential, since it hints that it won’t simply be a variant of the Touareg, meaning we’ll should look outside the VW brand. Currently, there are five large SUV models built on the MLB Evo architecture – the Audi Q7 and Q8, Porsche Cayenne, Bentley Bentayga and Lamborghini Urus.
The Cayenne is already being built here on the Inokom plant in Kulim, Kedah; we may also rule out the Bentayga and the Urus given their exclusivity and market positioning, leaving only the Audis because the viable options. This tracks with comments from Bostandzhiev (who can be MD of Audi distributor PHS Automotive Malaysia, or PHSAM) earlier this 12 months, through which he confirmed the brand’s plans to assemble cars locally.
Helping Ingolstadt’s case is the indisputable fact that each the Q7 and Q8 will be had with the Touareg’s 340 PS 3.0 litre turbocharged V6 and eight-speed ZF automatic gearbox. Of the 2, the more practical Q7 – which recently received its second facelift – is the one which makes probably the most sense given it is going to be the quantity seller, with the additional benefit of seven seats to further differentiate it from the five-seater Touareg.
GALLERY: Volkswagen Golf Mk8.5
GALLERY: 2024 Audi Q7 facelift
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This Article First Appeared At paultan.org
