'Made For India.'

For Volkswagen India President and Managing Director Andreas Lauermann, keeping the business localised is a major priority.

- Sharon Masige

When Andreas Lauermann was appointed President and Managing Director of Volkswagen India, he saw an opportunity for the company to play a bigger role in the country’s automotive market. After starting out at Volkswagen’s headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany, in 1997, Andreas became adept at interacting with different cultures. “I was not only working in Wolfsburg, I was also travelling all around the world,” he tells The CEO Magazine. “I was in Europe in the beginning, then South America, and then China. India was the next challenge.”

The car manufacturer set up its Indian subsidiary in 2007 and has been expanding its vehicle portfolio there ever since. “India is extremely important for the Volkswagen Group,” Andreas says. “It’s a growing market, therefore it is vital for us to know the price sensitivity and the customers’ needs. You cannot take some of the technologies available in Europe or China, bring them to India, and expect them to be automatically successful – it will not work. You have to find the right combination of features and the right design for the cars. This is the challenge we are facing with our new product portfolio.”