The new Volkswagen sedan that will replace the old Polo: the premiere in March

Last updated Apr 16, 2022

The debut market for the “four-door” will be India, where production will also be established. Most likely, the novelty will share technology with its sister Skoda.

Disguised Volkswagen sedans have been spotted on the roads of India more than once, and now the local division of the brand has announced the premiere date: the model will be fully revealed on March 8 this year. There were no teasers at the time of publication of the news, official details too. However, a lot is already known about the novelty.

So the next Volkswagen is the closest relative of the “four-door” Skoda Slavia, which debuted in India at the end of 2021 (she is in the title photo – sales have not yet started). Slavia, in turn, is a significantly redesigned version of the Brazilian Volkswagen Virtus: the Skoda model is based on the MQB-A0-IN “station wagon” (the new VW sedan is also based on it), that is, a simplified version of the MQB (it was created specifically for India), while Virtus is based on the original global platform. In the Indian range of Volkswagen, the novelty will replace the Vento, which is also a former Polo? sedan (with the change of generations, the Russian VW Polo became a liftback based on the new Skoda Rapid). According to unofficial data, Vento's name will be sent to the file.

Skoda Slavia

In terms of dimensions, the new VW sedan is clearly close to the Skoda Slavia. The length of the latter is 4541 mm, the wheelbase is 2651 mm. Virtus is shorter (4482 mm), the distance between the axles of the machines is the same. Well, for comparison, the dimensions of the current VW Vento: length – 4390 mm, wheelbase – 2553 mm.

In terms of design, the Volkswagen sedan will certainly not be a copy of the Skoda platform. “Indian” will also be different from the current “Brazilian”, but later Virtus can be upgraded to the style of the Indian model. But the future sedan will certainly share technology with Slavia. We are talking about petrol “turbo” 1.0 TSI (115 hp) and “turbo” 1.5 TSI (150 hp). Both motors are paired with a six-speed “mechanics”, the liter still has a classic six-speed “automatic”, the oldest engine is the DSG7.

The current Brazilian Volkswagen Virtus and the Indian Volkswagen Vento

Production of the new VW sedan will begin in India at the same plant as Skoda Slavia. It is curious that in the announcement 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. Recently, such a sedan is definitely not worth waiting for, the new Slavia is unlikely to be brought to us, because our Skoda Rapid and Volkswagen Polo liftbacks are not going to retire.