FRANKFURT: Europe’s biggest carmaker, Volkswagen, said it was considering selling “budget cars” that cost as little as $6,500 in emerging markets “within two years.”

“We need a cheap car for the emerging markets that would cost between $6,500 and $13,000,” the head of the works council representing the firm’s employees, Bernd Osterloh, told the business daily Handelsblatt. He added he could imagine “such a model being ready in two years.”

The firm should “attack new markets like Southeast Asia or Africa more aggressively,” he stressed, adding that in big markets like India and China, the firm might be able to offer a range of low-cost vehicles along the lines of the VW Up!, a small, reasonably priced hatchback.

“We do not need to reinvent the wheel for this,” he said, stressing that parts from other cars could be used to construct the new range. “Whether we would market this as a VW, we will have to see,” added Osterloh.