 Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of The Big Bosses. Today we are at Koda Volkswagen and we have a very special guest with us, Mr. Piyush Arora, managing director of Koda Volkswagen India. So let's begin. Okay, I think let me start by talking a little bit about 2022 and then I come to 2023. Our group started off with India 2.0 program and started launching the cars just one and a half years back. And I think, driven by the momentum, what we got with the new product, what we exclusively developed in India for the Indian market, the response was extremely positive from the customers for both the brands, for Koda as well as VW, and also for both the type of cars, SUVs as well as the Notch bank. So last year we had a pretty good year. We saw almost a growth of 86% for the complete group. We had sold more than 100,000 cars in the Indian market, including exports. We had a record of 130,000 plus cars last year. So we had a very good foundation and start for the last year. Now, built on those foundations, we want to take the momentum to this year. It's been up and down right, beginning of this year so far. But we are expecting that overall, we will have a high single digit or double digit growth this year over last year. And that is what we are aiming for and we are on track for that. Yes, the data shows that the numbers are a little lesser because of course we are looking at the numbers over the full period of the year. It also depends on what kind of product availability we have. As you know that the last few years have been challenging from the supply chain point of view for the complete auto industry. Also for us, while I must state that our group has handled the situation of semiconductors pretty well. But at the same time, we have had certain options and certain products which have not been available. So the supply chain is getting better and we expect that in the second half we will be able to do much better than what we did in the first half. Yeah, if you look at the last year, we ended up on the higher side of 2.5% to be precise, 2.67% market share driven of course by the India 2.0 cars for the complete group. And our aspiration is that by 2025 we want to achieve gradually 5% market share for the group. And we are moving in that direction, right? I think most of the automotive companies including us have been faced with this challenge of the semiconductor supplies coming out of the COVID years. But I think the short term measures what we installed were very clearly prioritizing the supply chains with the global suppliers. Setting up task forces, having a very clear indication of what availability do we have so that we can align our rest of the supply chain and our production processes. And also make them available in the marketplace so that the customer knows exactly what they can expect. Having said this, in the long term it is very clear that there are engineering options which are available where you can look at alternates. But this is normally a high lead time process. But at the same time also engaging with the semiconductor suppliers and our critical suppliers for a long term commitment of how we can make it better. I think so our focus has been very clearly on both these segments. As you know that NotchPak segment in India was not doing so well, but I think both the products as well as Slavia really rejuvenated that segment. And they are very confident that that segment, while will not grow at the pace at which SUV segment is growing, SUV body styling is becoming really popular, not only in India but globally as well. But having said this, our focus will continue to be on both the segments of SUV as well as NotchPak. Product driven market, new launch driven market, India had not seen too many NotchPak new product introductions in the country. That could have been one of the reasons. But of course, the general preference of the customers moving towards SUV body styling overall globally as well as in India was also adding to that. But a new product introduction really showed us a good product, a product fascinating to drive. A comfortable product, safe product, definitely can lure some customers to the NotchPak segment. We have launched the program in the market in the last one and a half years. And I think our present focus is very clearly to consolidate the position that these four products in the Indian market make them successful. But at the same time, we do realize that the MQB A0 iron platform is a highly flexible platform. And we would definitely look at opportunities on that platform if we can bring some more products. I think in the growing market, we have to also look actively at the product portfolio. And we are confident that the way Indian market is growing both in ICE as well as BEF segment, we have opportunities from our global product portfolio or specific Indian product to bring in more products. And as we bring in more products, I'm sure that we will have a need to expand the capacity. I think India is a highly product driven market like many other markets. And of course, we are looking at our product portfolio expansion both in the ICE segment as well as BEB because we do believe that both in Indian automotive market, passenger vehicle market will come from BEF as well as ICE market. So as we will expand our product portfolio, I'm sure that there will be a need for us to expand our capacities. So right from engineering capabilities, which we have developed for developing this product in India, as well as supplier development, making the suppliers partners of our overall product development, utilizing the Indian more and more capabilities in engineering has been our focus. And we have developed this product very clearly not only for the Indian market, but also for export. Today, we are extensively exporting the VW brand to Mexico, some of the South American markets, as well as some of the South or South African market. Having said this, we are also looking at now Skoda brand to export. We have started exporting the cars to push up to Middle East and we are looking at Far East. And as part of our study in Far East, we will be entering the Vietnam market very soon next year. First with the partner who will manufacture the cars developed in India and the parts being supplied out of India. And then they will also import cars out of Europe for the other product varieties. Vietnam model might be for us a model which we can utilize even going forward for other markets, where we can utilize sending parts and assembling the cars. And we are very bullish about the overall development also of the Southeast Asian market. I think we believe that very clearly that Indian growth story in the automotive will come both from ICE and the electric vehicle segment. Volkswagen Group is the largest EV manufacturer and seller in Europe and we have a very extensive product portfolio available globally for us. But at the same time, we want to also develop a specific Indian entry bev car. Our strategy has been so far top-down. We have entered the market with our Audi brand as well as our Porsche van, Porsche Taycan and Audi e-tron have been very well received in the Indian market and very successful. But at the same time, for both Škoda and Volkswagen, we are now in the stage of looking at what product should we bring in from our global portfolio as well as what can we develop in India for the Indian customer. Right, so we have brought in Škoda ENIAC as well as VW ID4 for experimental drives in the country and we are in the process of finalizing when should we bring that car into the Indian market. I think initially when the electrification in India started, of course, there was some apprehension about whether the customer acceptability, range anxiety would deter customers from buying the electric vehicle because of course India being a big country, the electric vehicle charging infrastructure will take a while. But many of us have been surprised the way the electric vehicle acceptability amongst the customers and I think these are going forward overall as the market will develop, overall size will develop, the cost structures will start getting better, the affordability will start getting better and I think that would aid the penetration of electric vehicle in the country. I think all the regulations which are in place in India and globally definitely make electric vehicles extremely safe and from that point of view I think the government of India and the regulations which are put in place would make sure that the customer is never disadvantage. Overall market dynamics will define when the price steps are taken, the cost measures, I think increasing cost also is stronger for an exchange in terms of zero and dollar, add to the overall cost structure of any car manufacturer also us. But having said this, I think the price is driven from the market dynamics and of course you look at the appropriate time when the price has to be passed on to the customers. My point of view, I think in an organization you need empowerment and also entrepreneurship amongst your managers which can drive that. Finally, at the end of the day a diversified group like ours to steer that you have to depend on the skills of individuals who are driving their respective business, empower them and make sure that they are able to deliver based on the targets and overall group objectives.