The BS6 effect – Volkswagen discontinues Ameo and Tiguan!
The Ameo has been lacklustre with respect to sales, and the Tiguan was a tad bit too overpriced, and thus their fate has been sealed
Since the BS6 norms came to be in effect, quite a few automakers have bid goodbye to some models from their range of cars, and some have even dismissed the diesel powertrain, which is the personal favourite of many customers.
The BS6 transition was long due, and this switch will reduce emissions which would furthermore help make the environment around us a little less polluted.
Automakers, though invested in improving the environment, some of them were not ready for this change, which has left them with BS4 stock that stands unsold.
The Supreme Court understands that the current predicament makes their lives further difficult, because of which, the car brands who still have BS4 stock and continue to sell it, for 10 days after the lockdown is opened. However, the german motor brand, Volkswagen has decided that the Ameo and Tiguan will not see the day of light anymore.
Volkswagen has axed the Ameo and Tiguan, and this is not very surprising as both these models were hardly contributing to the sales quota of the company.
The Ameo which was Volkswagen’s way of attacking the Maruti Dzire (which is the sub 4 meter segment leader) was released in the year of 2016, and since then, it has sold over 50,000 units.
Now this number may seem grand, but let me provide context. The Ameo in 4 odd years has sold 50,000 units, while Maruti’s Dzire sells 12,000 vehicles in a month (which would amount to about 144,000 Dzire’s sold in a year).
In spite of being the cheapest vehicle in Volkswagen’s stable, priced at 5.14 lakhs ex-showroom, it was still unable to attain the attention of the customers. There is not much particularly wrong with the Ameo that led to it not being sold in large numbers.
On release it was provided with features such as auto headlamps, rain sensing wipers and it also offered dual airbags and ABS as standard, which was a segment first.
These features were not available with the Dzire, and yet the Ameo continued to fade away, while the Dzire dominated it. The Ameo could not even beat the Honda Amaze, which has been seen to sell 15,000 units a month, and this just shows that the Ameo was last on the list of sales when compared against the vehicles in the sub 4 meter category.
To make things even clearer, here is annual number of units sold by the Ameo, Dzire and Amaze in a year, the Ameo during 2019 sold 500 units while the Dzire sold 198,904 units in the same year and the Amaze sold 67,584 units. Point being, the Ameo never posed as much of a competitor to its rivals.
The Ameo was powered by a petrol and a diesel, with the petrol being a 1.2 liter engine mated to only a 5 speed manual. The diesel engine was a 1.5 liter making a 108 ps, and this engine could be coupled to either a standard 5 speed manual or 7 speed DSG (Direct Shift Gearbox).
By the end of 2018, Volkswagen changed the petrol powertrain from a 1.2 liter, to a 1.0 liter MPI which was powerful enough to make 75 ps. All in all, the Ameo was not a terrible package, it does not have much going against itself, but the competition in this segment was far too strong, and this has now led to the Ameo being discontinued.
The Ameo is not the only one who will be leaving Volkswagen, as their Tiguan, too has been scrapped. A car which appeared to be as big as a Compass or Tucson, was priced like the behemoth Endeavour and Fortuner. This in itself is why the Tiguan never did very well, and thus, it too will join the Ameo in the afterlife. Apart from the price, there is nothing with the Tiguan, as it is a very handsome and feature laden vehicle. Yet, the looks and features were not compelling enough for the market to pay much attention to it.
Come 2020, Volkswagen is now getting rid of the diesel powertrain, and we will be seeing more TSI and MPI based engines from the german automaker.
Volkswagen intends on flooding the Indian market with SUV’s in 2020, as a majority of their launches scheduled for this year are SUV’s. Covid 19 will surely lead to some sort of delay into not only Volkswagen’s plans but other automakers as well.
I hope Volkswagen learns a lesson from the Ameo and Tiguan, which is, to respect the competition and accordingly launch a car, the second lesson being, do not overprice the car and expect it to sell like hot cakes. I hope the upcoming cars of Volkswagen is able to bring a change, and correct the mistakes they have made in the past.
