The Volkswagen UP! Is one car which could certainly help the German car maker achieve its target of 10% market share. But the company is yet to take a concrete decision on the same as the car seems to be quite expensive for the Indian market.
The car which is largely the size of the Hyundai i10 and the Maruti Suzuki A-Star is mainly used for urban transportation and is now equipped with a semi-automatic gearbox in the UK market.
The ASG is an automated version of the five-speed manual gearbox in the up!. The driver simply uses the gear lever to select D (Drive), N (Neutral) or R (Reverse) (there is no P (Park)) and the gearbox switches to the optimum gear for the situation.
According to Autocar UK the Automatic Shift Gearbox (ASG) improves fuel economy and CO2 emissions compared with the manual unit and is available on three-door and five-door Move Up and High Up models (excluding BlueMotion Technology cars).
The simplicity of the ASG gearbox makes it more efficient than a torque-converter automatic gearbox, while the lower costs make it more appropriate for a great value city car than Volkswagen’s sophisticated DSG gearbox.
Volkswagen will finalise the introduction of the new small car UP! for the Indian market by end of 2012. The Up! will be priced below the Polo hatchback which is currently the cheapest car in the VW stable. India will get the 5 door variant of the UP! and will be customised to meet the Indian standards. Volkswagen has begun testing the car for the Indian markets and is looking at various ways to increase the local content. (Volkswagen UP! Spotted in Pune, India launch by 2013)
Source: Autocar.co.uk
