Volkswagen confirms more CKD models coming to Malaysia – return of base Golf with Mk8.5, Audi Q7/Q8?
During the media event of New Volkswagen Touareg Earlier this week, Volkswagen Passenger Cars Malaysia (VPCM) held a Q&A session in which senior officials fielded questions related to the car and the company. In particular, it CEO Denyu Bostandzhiev shared some interesting details about the future of the brand.
Asked by paultan.org Will there be any new models priced below the RM200,000 mark? Tiguan Allspace (starting at RM164,190), Bostanzhiev said: “There will be a car [in this price range]. Now I can’t tell you exactly when, but I can say quite soon.”
The real interesting part comes later, when the company boss said VPCM’s wish is to reintroduce a regular Golf (read: not a GTI or R) in the future. “We can assure you that something is happening with Golf. Everyone is waiting for normal Golf. We are working on it. We want to have the full range of Golf. We have owned this segment and we will also own this segment in the future, it belongs to us.”
You may remember that the current Mk8 Golf was launched here in standard CKD R-Line cover back in July 2022 – after a long wait for its price to be approved – but has withdrew from sale after less than a year. We can assume it was killed off due to slow sales, possibly due to its high price of RM170,560 and lack of driver aids.
A revised specification with a lower price and/or the inclusion of VW’s IQ.Drive safety suite could give the standard Mk8 Golf a run for its money, but VPCM could be waiting instead wait New model Mk8.5 to bring the variant back. That car was Completely ruled out this yearwith the Touareg and Golf GTI 50th Anniversary special edition (the latter will be limited to 50 units, it has been confirmed) being the company’s big launches for 2024.
But that’s not all – Bostandzhiev also confirmed that there will be another new model to help offset the cost of localizing the CKD Touareg. The car is being assembled locally in Pekan, Pahang, the first time this has happened outside VW’s Bratislava plant in Slovakia.
The company only aims to capture a 10% market share in the already small premium SUV market in Malaysia – a segment dominated by CKD. BMW X5 And Mercedes-Benz GLE. That’s not a lot of volume for such a large investment; Don’t forget the Touareg is based on the MLB Evo platform not shared with other Volkswagen brand models.
“[We need to] Share technology, share investment. I’m not allowed to tell you, but something is cooking. There will be another model emerging,” Bostandzhiev said.
The use of the term “other model” is important because it suggests that it won’t simply be a variant of the Touareg, meaning we’ll have to look outside the VW brand. There are currently five large SUVs built on the MLB Evo architecture – the Audi Q7 And Q8, Porsche cayenne, Bentley Bentayga And Lamborghini Urus.
Cayenne pepper is was built here at the Inokom factory in Kulim, Kedah; We can also rule out the Bentayga and Urus due to their exclusivity and market positioning, leaving only the Audi as viable options. This is in line with comments made by Bostandzhiev (who is also CEO of Audi distributor PHS Automotive Malaysia, or PHSAM) earlier this year, in which he confirmed the brand’s plans to assemble cars locally.
Helping the Ingolstadt’s case is the fact that both the Q7 and Q8 can be had with the Touareg’s 340 PS 3.0-litre turbocharged V6 and eight-speed ZF automatic transmission. Among them, the Q7 is more practical – recently received a second upgrade – makes the most sense as it would be a volume seller, with the added benefit of seven seats to further differentiate it from the five-seat Touareg.
COLLECTION: Volkswagen Golf Mk8.5
COLLECTION: Audi Q7 2024 facelift
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