New Volkswagen to replace the Polo sedan: the first teasers

Last updated Apr 15, 2022

The debut and main market for the “four-door” will be India, production will be launched there, but the car is declared as “global”.

A couple of days ago, the Indian division of Volkswagen officially announced the date of the premiere of the new sedan: the model will be fully revealed on March 8. And now the first teasers have been published. The name of the next “four-door” has not yet been announced, but the “header” of a special page on the local VW website invites everyone to subscribe to news about Virtus. Therefore, the novelty received the same name as the model for Brazil.

Recall that the closest relative of the sedan is Skoda Slavia, which debuted in India at the end of last year (sales start any day). Slavia, in turn, is a significantly restyled version of the same Brazilian Volkswagen Virtus: the Skoda model is based on the MQB-A0-IN station wagon (it was created specifically for India, and the Indian four-door VW is also based on it), i.e. It is not a simplified version of MQB, and Virtus is based on the original global platform. In India, the new Volkswagen will replace the Vento, which is also a former Polo sedan? (with the change of generations, the Russian VW Polo has become a liftback based on the new Skoda Rapid).

Indian Volkswagen Virtus, the Brazilian VW sedan of the same name and the new Skoda Slavia

The exterior design of the new “four-door” VW has its own zest: the models differ in the front bumper, headlights and fog lights. Although the exterior mirrors continued to move away from Slavia. Inside, the Indian Virtus is also likely to be different from the Skoda. By the way, later the Brazilian Volkswagen sedan may well be upgraded to the “Indian” style (the American model has been in service since 2017, and this will be its first serious restyling).

In terms of dimensions, the Indian Virtus is clearly close to Slavia. The length of the Skoda sedan is 4541 mm, the wheelbase is 2651 mm. “Brazilian” is shorter (4482 mm), but the wheelbase of the cars is the same. Well, for comparison, the dimensions of the outgoing VW Vento: length – 4390 mm, wheelbase – 2553 mm.

In India, the VW sedan will most likely be available with the same engines as the Slavia. We are talking about petrol “turbo” 1.0 TSI (115 hp) and “turbo” 1.5 TSI (150 hp). Both engines are combined with a six-speed “mechanics”, the liter still has a classic six-speed “automatic”, and the older engine has a DSG7.

Volkswagen Virtus from Brazil and Volkswagen Vento from India

Production of the new Volkswagen will begin at a plant in India, which also produces the Skoda Slavia. It is curious that in the announcements of the German brand, the “four-door” is declared as global, but, most likely, it will be delivered only to the countries of Southeast Asia and Africa. lately, Virtus is not worth waiting for, and it is unlikely that they will bring us a new Slavia, because our Skoda Rapid and Volkswagen Polo liftbacks are not going to retire.