Skoda Will Decide by Mid-Year on Low-Cost Vehicle Platform

Volkswagen AG’s Skoda unit will decide by summer whether to develop an inexpensive chassis to carry vehicles designed for emerging markets, says CEO Bernhard Maier.

Maier told Handelsblatt earlier this month that Skoda had determined that a lower-cost variant of VW’s MQB (modular transverse matrix) platform would be feasible. He also opined that Skoda could use such a chassis to introduce a line of entry-level vehicles in India in early 2021.

Skoda and Tata Motors Ltd. previously partnered on an effort to develop such a platform based on the Indian company’s AMP chassis. That project collapsed last August after failing to meet cost objectives.