Volkswagen Up! Based Compact Sedan For India?

By Ganesh

Updated: Monday, January 27, 2014, 11:01 [IST]

The compact sedan segment is unique to India and was the direct result of tax revisions brought into effect at the start of 2013 by the government. While Tata already had the Indigo eCS, a sub-4 meter compact sedan, on offer, post duty changes by the government we saw a rise in number of compact sedans, driven by the highly successful Maruti Suzuki Swift DZire and the recently launched Honda Amaze.

The latter was a tailor made compact sedan derived from the Honda Brio hatchback, which has proved to be incredibly profitable for the Japanese automaker.

Also Read: Top Entry Level Sedans In India

Inspired by the allure of high volume sales of compact sedans in India VW is reportedly considering developing a sub-4 meter sedan of its own.

VW sells limited numbers of its premium hatchback, Polo, despite it being available in diverse variants. While the least expensive sedan offered by VW is the Vento, which is far from entry level. So, what VW needs is a compact sedan that's about as long as the Polo, but less expensive than the Vento sedan.

The general practice has been adding a boot to an existing hatchback (Swift - DZIre and Brio - Amaze). But turning the Polo into a sub-4 meter compact sedan is out of the question considering the Polo already measures 3,970mm.

Also Read: Top Diesel Hatchbacks In India

The best option available with VW is the Up!, a car that has spawned several VW models. The Up! is a successful, award winning city car that's built on VW's PQ12 platform, developed specifically to build compact city cars. VW Up! measures 3,540mm long. That gives ample room for the addition of a boot and turn it into a sedan.

A compact sedan based on the above mentioned PQ12 platform is already said to be in the works. If not the Up! the compact sedan could be based on some other vehicle that's uses the same platform, such as the Taigun.

As for the engine powering the new car, VW could make use of a new, more efficient 1.5 liter turbo diesel unit and a reported, yet to be developed 1.0 liter TSI engine (Ford EcoBoost engine rival).

While the story is still a rumor it could definitely happen. A production version will reportedly be ready before the end of 2015.