In a bid to fight the economic slowdown, the Indian government recently announced a reduction in corporate tax from 30% to 22%. Following this development, VW has introduced Corporate Editions of its Polo, Vento, Ameo and Tiguan. As the name suggests, the Corporate Editions of VW vehicles are offered with benefits on tax, accessories, service. The cars purchased under corporate scheme will also have loyalty benefits.
The corporate scheme of purchase is available on select diesel variants of VW Polo, Vento, Ameo and Tiguan. It can be availed by individuals associated with corporates and MSMEs, lawyers, architects, government servants, CAs and so on. The VW Corporate Editions don’t have any visual changes.
Under the scheme, the VW Tiguan benefits from 5 year warranty and free road side assistance. It is to be noted that the other three cars already come with 5 year warranty and RSA as standard across diesel variants.
VW’s decision to pass on the benefits of government’s tax cut comes not long after Maruti announced price cut of INR 5,000 on select models. We expect more manufacturers to come up with similar corporate discounts in an attempt to boost sales.
In addition to corporate discounts, several OEMs are also offering hefty cash discounts, exchange bonus, etc., to deplete the steadily mounting inventory. The shower of discounts are expected to be maintained all the way till the BS-IV stocks are sold out.
While sales have been dwindling for all OEMs, VW India is one of the worst hit. The Ameo has lost its shine while Vento has been spending its time on the sidelines for years. The Polo isn’t setting the sales charts on fire either. The German giant is in dire need of fresh products but it will have to wait until its sister brand Skoda is ready with the localized MQB A0 IN modular platform.
Under its India 2.0 plan, VW will be coming up with next generation Vento sedan and a mid-size crossover SUV. The first of the new products will be ready in 2020-21. The company is also looking at introducing the new Polo hatchback which is on sale in Europe.
