Volkswagen is considering removing the 3-door Polo to cut costs

Guillermo Arnal 7 March 2015 2 min.

Volkswagen is considering removing the 3-door Polo to cut costs

Volkswagen is currently carrying out one of its most ambitious cost-cutting programmes. The German giant is aiming for annual savings of five billion euros by 2017. To do so, it is eliminating everything non-essential from the brand’s line-up, whether parts or entire models, as has happened to the Eos.

Two internal sources at the Wolfsburg manufacturer told the news agency Reuters yesterday that the company is considering adding the Polo to the list of affected vehicles. More specifically, the three-door bodystyle, since its sales compared with the five-door version have been declining in recent years.

In this way, the sixth generation of the Polo, whose market launch is expected in 2017, will only be offered with five doors. A spokesperson for Volkswagen neither confirmed nor denied this information when Reuters asked about it. They only pointed out that “no decision has yet been taken” on this matter.

Another measure, already known for a few months, that will allow Volkswagen to make better use of economies of scale will be the use of the MQB modular architecture in the new Polo. The German brand will make greater use of the resources this platform provides in the redesigned city car, just as will happen with the upcoming Audi A1 and Seat Ibiza, whose fifth generation will also arrive in 2017.

The latest VAG models that use it are the new Škoda Superb and the new Volkswagen Touran. The third generation of the Fabia, which we saw at the recent Paris Motor Show, uses only 50% of this architecture.

VW CEO Martin Winterkorn expressed satisfaction with how this programme is being implemented during his speech at the Geneva Motor Show.

Source | Reuters