On the morning of the 29th of last month, Volkswagen held a media launch event for the compact sports utility vehicle (SUV)’Tilok’ at SETEC in Daechi-dong, Seoul and unveiled the vehicle. Photo = Choi Hyuk, reporter of Hankyung.com [email protected]
The industry’s attention is drawn to Volkswagen, which has declared’popularization of imported cars’ in the Korean market. Unlike competitors that are diversifying consumer options such as gasoline and eco-friendly cars, they are responding to the Korean market with’one color of diesel’.
According to the industry on the 1st, Volkswagen launched a small sports utility vehicle (SUV)’Tilock’ on the 29th of last month in the domestic market. The Tyrok is Volkswagen’s flagship compact SUV, which has sold more than 500,000 units worldwide since its first launch in the European market in 2017. It is the younger brother of Tiguan, a semi-mid-sized SUV that has been highly popular in Korea.
Volkswagen introduced only diesel models of the Tyrok in Korea. The model that Volkswagen has been certified in the domestic market is the 2.0L diesel model. Unlike in Korea, both gasoline and diesel models have been released overseas. Looking at the detailed model, there are 1.0L, 1.5L and 2.0L for gasoline and 1.6L and 2.0L for diesel.
Last year, Volkswagen launched a Tiroc 1.5L gasoline model in the Indian market, which is mainly for mid- to low-end vehicles.
The new Passat GT. Photo = Shin Hyun-ah, reporter Hankyung.com
An industry insider said, “If the domestic demand for gasoline is high and performance is high, the 1.5L gasoline model launched in India is similar to the 2.0 diesel model released in Korea,” he said. “It does not fit the trend of expanding demand for eco-friendly vehicles.”
In fact, Volkswagen is releasing only diesel models in the domestic market one after another. Of the six Volkswagen vehicles sold in Korea, including Arteon, Tiguan, and Touareg, five are diesel vehicles. Except for the Jetta equipped with a 1.4L gasoline turbo engine, all models are diesel vehicles.
In contrast to last year’s Volvo’s declaration of a’complete cessation’ of diesel vehicle sales in Korea, other automakers also began expanding their eco-friendly car lineup.
There is a response that the sales pricing has also fallen short of consumer expectations.
The price of the all-wheel drive model T-lock starts at 3,599 million won. Even if the financial program is applied, it starts at 32 million won. The price of’Prestige’, the top trim, is 40 million won, and the financial program is applied to reach 36 million won.
Volkswagen 2020 Tiguan. Photo = Volkswagen Korea
The price of a full-option trim for the top-tier front-wheel drive of the rival Kia Seltos is around 30 million won. It is a vehicle in the same class as the T-lock, but also provides a gasoline powertrain, and is equipped with semi-autonomous driving functions such as lane maintenance assistance, which is not found in the T-lock.
The Chevrolet Trail Blazer is also worth 30 million won, and the Renault Samsung XM3 can be purchased for 20 million won. Both the Trailblazer and XM3 vehicles offer advanced safety features, lane departure prevention. This, too, is a feature that Tiroc doesn’t have.
Volkswagen is confident in price competitiveness, saying that the domestic price of T-lock is about 12.8 million won for’Style’ and 13.6 million won for’Premium’ and about 15.3 million won for’Prestige’ compared to Germany. An official from Volkswagen explained, “There is no plan to launch the Tyrok gasoline model in Korea yet, but it will be reviewed based on customer demand.”
Shin Hyun-ah, Hankyung.com reporter [email protected]
Article reports and press releases [email protected]