Volkswagen and it’s group companies Audi and Skoda have tasted success in India and the company wants to extend this to commercial vehicles aimed at business travellers. Volkswagen will roll out two mini vans namely the Caravelle and Crafter in India by November or December 2008. The mini vans will be imported as CBUs from Germany and offer high passenger comfrot and refinement not previously seen in people movers in India. The Caravelle comes in 6-9 seater configuration and is luxury passenger carrier while the Crafter comes in either a 15 passenger version or a 3.5 tonne cargo carrier (not likely to be introduced here). The interior and seating configuration of these vans can be customised to make room for a small conference facility or a mobile home etc. The Volkswagen Caravelle is likely to be priced around Rs. 45 lakhs and will compete with the Mercedes Viano while the Crafter is expected to be priced lower at about Rs. 25 lakh.

Volkswagen Scirocco and since a lot of people bought this car, tuners prepared new styling kits to make it look unique. The latest tuning kit for the new Scirocco was made by the guys from Caractere and their project was revealed at the Geneva Motor Show. The new body kit includes a new front and rear spoiler, new front grille, a set of side vents and door trims and a small roof spoiler. The rear side of the car received a new spoiler which can be supplied with or without the new exhaust tips. The Caractere Volkswagen Scirocco can be equipped with CH1 wheels which come in three sizes: 18″, 19″ or 20″ and will have wide tires for increased stability and better handling. Customers who would like to make their Scirocco faster can ask from help from Caractere dealer in Germany B&B which offers five tuning stages for the 2.0-litre TFSI engine.

The deteriorating business environment caused by the financial crisis is forcing car makers on both sides of the pond to proceed to more cuts in production of models that aren’t selling as they used to. Volkswagen will reduce its output of the VW Touareg, Porsche Cayenne and Audi Q7 premium SUVs at its Slovakian plant in the city of Bratislava by at least 10 percent for the remaining of the year.

Austrian tuner O.CT Tuning has completed development on a new performance kit for the VW Group’s 1.4-liter TSI engine that combines direct injection with a supercharger and turbocharger and is currently available with outputs of 140, 150, 160 and 170HP. In every case O.CT’s kit that includes a modded ECU raises power to 193HP and toque to 285 Nm (+65 Nm).

For the 2008 SEMA show Volkswagen will bring to Las Vegas a triplet of concept cars based on the Jetta TDI, Passat CC and the new Tiguan SUV respectively as well as an example of its 2009 Jetta TDI Cup race car (pictured above). The most interesting proposal appears to be the Tiguan Performance Concept. According to VW, the Tiguan study’s appearance is upgraded with an exterior body kit while power comes from a 4-cylinder engine equipped with a three-stage turbo kit that helps it deliver an output of 312HP. The German automaker has yet to release any other details or pictures, but stay tuned on Carscoop as we’ll update this story as soon as we have more information.