A new small car from the Volkswagen product portfolio, the Volkswagen Beetle, which is known as the 'people's car' in the overseas market and which is the highest selling small car in the world till 70s, is ready for its India launch. The company going to launch Volkswagen Beetle in Indian market on 4th of this December but it already gains huge popularity in the market and company has already booked 160 units of the car till today. Volkswagen Beetle will be imported as a CBU (Completely Built Unit) from company's Mexican manufacturing plant and it will lead its prices to the high end and it will be priced at Rs 22 lacs (as ex-showroom prices in Mumbai). The advance booking of luxury cars that falls in this segment, are not common in Indian market but this advance booking figure and continuously increasing Volkswagen Beetle popularity ensures that company will sell more than 500 units of the car in next year.

The company official said that Volkswagen Beetle will be available with only variant that will be powered by the 2.0L, 1998cc petrol engine with six speed manual transmission gearbox. This engine produces good power and torque and delivers excellent acceleration and engine performance so that car can cross 100kmph mark in just 11.5 seconds and it can touch the top speed mark of 180kmph. The all new Volkswagen Beetle will also carry advanced safety features like ABS (Anti-lock Brake System) with EBD (Electronic Brake-force Distribution) that ensures safe braking at slippery roads or in case of hard braking at high speed, another new generation safety feature that Volkswagen Beetle will carry is an array of airbags that includes dual front and side curtain airbags. In case of accident these airbags open with in some milli seconds of collision and enhances safety of driver and other passengers. Other than these safety features, Volkswagen Beetle will be packed with 15 inch light weight alloy wheels that enhances the performance as well as mileage of the car. All four wheels of Volkswagen Beetle will be packed with the puncture resistant tube-less tyres.

The company official said that Volkswagen Beetle is legendary vehicle and the company claimed that it was the first car in the world that sell more than 20 million units in 1980s and it deserves the tag line of "The Return of the Legend".

The company's passenger car director, Neeraj Garg said that Volkswagen Beetle will be imported as a CBU (Completely Built Unit) from company's Mexico based manufacturing plant and due to 110per cent of heavy import duty it will be priced much more than the company's another hatchback model Volkswagen Beetle which will be built locally at company's Pune based manufacturing plant.

In India, small luxury car market is dull and due to that BMW has indefinitely delayed the launch of its small sporty model mini. Other than that Fiat 500 that comes with the price tag of Rs 15 lacs, is also not doing well in Indian auto market and company sold only 62 units of this car since its first launch 17months back and because of this worst result Fiat also delayed the launch of its awaited premium small car model Fiat Bravo that will be priced at around 16 to 18 lacs. It is expected that it will be launched in Indian market by the mid of next year. So we can say that there is no cars available that can give tough competition to Volkswagen Beetle in its segment.