The promised new small car from Volkswagen is expected to enter the market at a much higher price than previously anticipated.
According to New Small Family (NSF) project information seen by Automobilwoche, the car will retail initially for EUR8,950. Volkswagen initially had a target price of EUR8,000 for the car, and this had been one of the main rationales for the most important new VW car development project since the Golf, according to the magazine. For the five-door version, VW is expecting to achieve a price of EUR9,450.
To keep development and manufacturing costs down, the secret NSF project file contains demands to use standard parts as much as possible. Another important cost issue focuses on the fact that the new car could be built by Skoda in the Czech Republic. In an interview with a Czech newspaper last week, Skoda head Reinhard Jung said that Skoda is currently in negotiation with Volkswagen to produce the car but no decision has been made as yet. That report said the car was expected to retail for around EUR6,000.
According to Automobilwoche, VW CEO Martin Winterkorn expects the car to go into production from September 2010 and to stay in production for a fixed nine year period. Normally model changeovers in the small car segment take place after seven years. A total of 4,158,000 cars would be built over nine years.
According to the internal document, around 100,000 NSF cars would be sold each year by Volkswagen in western Europe. Seat and Skoda would sell a further 200,000 units. The car would also be sold in emerging markets, giving it total global annual sales of 462,000 units.
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By GlobalData