Volkswagen India on Thursday launched its mid-sized sedan Virtus at a starting price of ₹11.22 lakh (ex-showroom). While the one-litre variants are priced between ₹11.22 lakh and ₹15.72 lakh, the single 1.5-litre variant is priced at ₹17.92 lakh (all ex-showroom, India).
It will compete with the likes of Honda City, Maruti Ciaz, Hyundai Verna and the recently-launched Skoda Slavia in the mid-sized sedan segment.
Pune plant
Developed on the company’s MQB A0 IN platform, Virtus is manufactured at the Chakan plant in Pune, with up to 95 per cent localisation levels, the company said adding that over 4,000 bookings of the Virtus has been received so far from all over the country.
Virtus is the second product under the Volkswagen group’s India 2.0 project, the first being Taigun SUV.
The 1-litre trim with six speed manual transmission delivers a fuel efficiency of 19.4 km per litre while the six-speed automatic version comes with a 18.12-km-per-litre fuel efficiency, the company said.
The 1.5-litre variant with seven-speed DSG transmission delivers a fuel efficiency of 18.67 km per litre, it added.
“The premium mid-size sedan segment was around 95,000 cars last year. With the introduction of the Virtus and the car from our sister brand (Skoda Slavia), we are confident that this segment will grow to around 1.4 -1.5 lakh units this year and we are looking at 15 to 20 per cent segment share of that growing segment,” Ashish Gupta, Brand Director, Volkswagen Passenger Cars India, said.