Volkswagen India sold 1,599 Polo cars in March and April this year, lagging behind new hatchbacks from rivals Ford and GM.

GM launched the Che­vrolet Beat in January and sold 15,693 units till April, while Ford sold 7,120 of the Figo in its launch month March. Both cars received 10,000 bookings in their respective launch months. Polo received 7,300 bookings since its launch.

Volkswagen’s Polo, laun­ched on February 23, starts at Rs 4.34 lakh, while Figo and Beat cost Rs 3.49 lakh and Rs 3.41 lakh respectiv­ely at Delhi showrooms.

Asked to explain its relat­ively lower sales volume, Vo­lkswagen India board me­mber and director of pass­eng­er cars Neeraj Garg said this was due to the low level of daily production. “We pl­an to gradually ramp up Polo production. Our Cha­kan fa­ctory in Pune is new and has been operational only for the last two mo­nths; he­nce it will take us time to reach full production levels. We would rather not compromise on quality by producing larger numbers initially,” Garg said.

Garg said the gradual ramp-up in Polo’s daily production would enable the company to clear the backlog within the next four months.

Garg declined to say by how much Polo’s output would be increased in future but said the company initially started manufacturing only 10-20 Polo cars daily at the Chakan factory. The factory has an installed capacity to manufacture 110,000 Polo and Skoda Fabia cars.

Polo’s sedan version to be launched at the end of the year will also be manufactured at the Chakan factory. Polo has 50 per cent locally sourced content.

“VW must have been waiting for an initial market response to the Polo to ramp up production further. Most of Polo’s contents are imported, which may be one of the reasons for slow despatches,” senior research analyst at Angel Broking Vaishali Jajoo said.