India could become a lucrative market for firms like Skoda. Piers Ward hoots his way across Mumbai and beyond in a Slavia saloon to investigate further
PHOTOGRAPHY ASHLEY BAXTER, GAURAV THOMBRE
There’s a tale from the 1980s when Suzuki sent a team of engineers to investigate building cars for the Indian market, with one particular element of their subsequent report going down in legend.
“Must fit robust horns.”
Because what the engineers discovered is that Indian drivers are not afraid of using their cars’ horns. Suzuki could jump through all the regulatory and government hurdles it wanted to, but without reliable horns fitted to its cars, the project would flop. ‘Robust horns project’ duly completed, Suzuki now sells 1.62 million cars a year in India.
Sitting on Mohammed Ali Road in southern Mumbai and not having moved for 30 minutes, I can confirm that the habit is alive and well. A market of around four million new cars a year and every single one with a customer who’s not afraid of a healthy toot.
We’re in a Skoda Slavia and this car’s story is similar to Suzuki’s, in that Skoda has realised the Indian market is ripe for expansion – “20 cars per 1000 people compared with 400 to 500 per 1000 in Europe”, according to Piyush Arora, MD and CEO of Volkswagen Group India – and also that it requires some special engineering solutions. To that end, it launched ‘India 2.0’ as a €1 billion (£870 million) investment in the country, with a view to designing and developing specific cars. And what better way for us to test them than by driving across India’s most congested city at rush hour, from the southern tip of Mumbai to Skoda’s Pune factory 80 miles away.
First, though, our car. If you’re unfamiliar with the name, the Slavia is one of the fruits of India 2.0 and is sold only in India. Along with its Kushaq SUV sibling (same platform, different looks – typical VW Group strategy), it rests on MQB-A0-IN underpinnings, a set-up engineered specifically for India.
The ethos stays largely the same as with European versions of the MQB. Indeed, Skoda’s engineers stress that this isn’t some cut-down, cheapened version of the MQB we get. It has the same rigorous build standards, right down to the laser welding points, structural integrity and underbody sealant.
Because it’s built in Pune, it can be sold on the subcontinent from the equivalent of £11,130. That’s a Jetta-sized saloon, with air-con, for less than a Dacia Sandero.
Engines are the familiar 1.0 and 1.5-litre petrols, producing 114bhp and 148bhp respectively, with manual and DSG gearboxes av
