Kerala is a strong market for Volkswagen India, contributing close to 10 per cent of all India sales, Ashish Gupta, the company’s Brand Director, said.

To strengthen its network footprint, he said the company has opened six new customer touchpoints, bringing the total to 21 sales points and 16 service facilities in the State.

Gupta, who was in Kochi for the launch of Onam special edition cars, said the company has achieved a 4-5 per cent growth nationally out of the 40 lakh vehicles sold across the industry. The trend is expected to continue for the entire year given the overall growth in the economy has increased consumer demand, he added.

He pointed out that there has been a trend towards premium cars in India. The sale of premium cars priced above ₹10 lakh was only 18 per cent in 2018 and it was 45 per cent last year. The trend is expected to continue this year as well.

Kerala has always been a key market for Volkswagen India, and the company is well-positioned to meet the rising demand from the festival season. The company has launched a special celebratory Onam edition of the Virtus and Taigun featuring 200 black-coloured cars. Kerala is the only market where customers prefer black colour for cars. Internationally, black is considered a premium colour, he added.