Volkswagen Australia, a wholly-owned subsidiary of VW AG, has confirmed it will take 200 Polo Chinese-built ‘notchbacks’ – the sedan version of the Polo hatchback – made at the Shanghai Volkswagen plant for sale there next year.
The cars will be the first VW cars exported from China, a spokesman told just-auto correspondent Peter McKay.
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The volume confirmed by VW Australia contradicts two reports from China last week, which said that Shanghai VW would ship 600 cars a year to Australia, over five years.
According to McKay, the existing 1.4-litre, German-built Polo hatchback model isn’t a big seller in Australia (it’s priced at the premium end of its market segment) so 200 is a reasonable volume for the new sedan, which will have a 1.6-litre engine and be badged ‘Polo Classic’ for Australia.
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VW Australia insists the quality of the made-in-China Polos is “very good”, and that a VW internal audit puts it on the same level as the German-made hatchbacks.
The spokesman told just-auto that cars are not cheap in China so the import of the Polo sedans into China shouldn’t be viewed as a cost-cutting exercise.
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By GlobalDataThe price of parts is particularly expensive in China and approaches have already been made to source some VW components from Australia in the future, the spokesman added.
Volkswagen is making all Polo sedans outside its German home base. While production has only just begun in China, VW Brazil launched the model in November 2002 for sale in South America and Eastern Europe and said at the time it had begun negotiations over exports to China, the United States and Europe.
The car was displayed at this year’s Frankfurt motor show in September and is now on sale in Germany as the ‘Polo Limousine’.
