The Volkswagen Polo might be on sale for one more 5 years, having been given a keep of execution by the relief of upcoming EU emissions laws.
Initial proposals for the Euro 7 emissions rules, which had been as a result of be launched this 12 months, were set to kill off Volkswagen’s supermini, as a result of the price of making it compliant would have obliterated its profitability.
In 2022, Volkswagen CEO Thomas Schäfer informed Autocar that it made “no sense to go with very small cars beyond EU7”, as a result of – in keeping with his estimations – the foundations would have added “3000, 4000 or 5000 pounds or more” to the price of a Polo-sized automotive.
However, these guidelines had been heavily watered down by European lawmakers last year in response to widespread criticism from the automotive trade in regards to the added growth and homologation prices they’d incur.
The revised ‘EU6e’ ruleset, Schäfer mentioned, is “not as crazy it was posited initially” and consequently the “Polo will carry on”.
The new guidelines, which come into impact on 1 September 2024, impose the identical emissions limits for automobiles and vans because the EU6 guidelines and so have little influence on the price of homologating the Polo.
Therefore the Renault Clio rival can survive “definitely until the end of this decade”, in keeping with Schäfer.
“We will keep it fresh,” he mentioned, hinting at a considerable spherical of updates within the medium time period to deliver it into line technologically with its newer rangemates. “The car runs well. It’s a good entry into the brand.”
However, it is not simply emissions guidelines that threaten the Polo’s industrial viability, he added.
“EU7 has been done in a reasonable way; it adds costs to the vehicle but not too crazily,” he mentioned. “What adds cost tremendously is General Safety Regulation 2, [which mandates] interior cameras and a couple of things you need to add to the platform. So that’s the real complication, but we did it now across the brands, and I think we can carry on.”
The Polo is presently priced from £20,700 in entry-level Life trim, some £445 greater than the carefully associated Skoda Fabia and round £3000 greater than the Clio, nevertheless it stays by far the most cost effective mannequin within the Volkswagen household, with the Up metropolis automotive now retired and its taller T-Cross sibling commanding a £3000 premium.