It was the Polo hatchback that kickstarted German maker Volkswagen's journey in the Indian market. However, the recent times have seen the sales of Polo fall considerably. Fuelled partly by the arrival of more loaded options in the segment and partly by the onset of SUV craze in India, Polo has not been having a good time in the Indian market. While the story is entirely different in the global markets where the hatchback from the German maker has been pulling decent numbers for the brand. In 2017, VW also launched the sixth generation of the Polo hatchback in the Indian market. The fact that the maker did not bring the updated model to the Indian market fuelled the speculations that the maker was slowly going to kill off the Polo in India. However, now there is confirmation about the fact that the Polo indeed has a future in the Indian market and the coming times will see the launch of the new version of Polo in India.
There are reports on the internet stating that the German maker is mulling over an all new model of Polo for the Indian market. The model that will be launched in India will differ from the global model in many regards, with the most prominent being a cutback on some of the features of the hatch. The report contains the statement of the director of Volkswagen India, who spoke on the occasion of the Polo celebrating 10 years in Indian market. Here is what the director of Volkswagen India, Steffen Knapp spoke,
“It’s (Polo) a wonderful product and is based on the MQB platform which you know we are going to launch the MQB A0 in platform in India pretty soon. The Polo is a car for India and it’s bound to be a car for India.”
The BS-VI complaint models of the entry level vehicles of VW have already been spotted testing in the Indian market. However, these models did not carry significant changes, at least not as significant as one expects the next generation of Polo for India to carry. While the global model of Polo still continues to use the MQB platform of the brand, there are hopes that the Indian model will come with the low cost MQB A0 platform that the brand has developed for the emerging markets of the world. Other changes may include limited engine options, shorter body dimensions and a barer basic cabin. Speaking about the same, Mr. Knapp stated,
“Obviously there are some peculiar varieties in the country, so you have the sub-4 metre category and our vehicle (Polo) all over the world is above 4 or 5 metre. So we have to do some engineering changes but rest assured, we are looking at multiple options on that platform and one is definitely the Polo.”
As stated above, the brand will make some changes to the Polo to give it the sub-4 metre subsidy advantage in the Indian market. There are also hopes that the brand may ditch the diesel engine altogether with the nest gen Polo in India and may offer it only with a petrol engine.