The smart money is betting on an ambitious and increasingly aggressive Volkswagen AG to find a way to bring its slick little Polo subcompact to Canadian buyers.
But it won't happen this year and next year is out too, says Detlef Wittig, VW executive vice-president for sales and marketing. Wittig, a former VW Canada president, is also chairman of VW Group Canada and understands our market very well.
“This is not a new question at all,” said Wittig, adding that “the market is there in Canada” for the Polo.
The problem: find a find a way to create a version of the Polo that will sell in big numbers in both Canada and the United States. What's certain is that out Polo will not come from Europe.
Here at the Frankfurt Motor Show, Wittig said the European Polo -- a new version of which went on sale here this year -- would simply be too expensive to compete against the likes of the Hyundai Accent, Nissan Versa, Honda Fit and Toyota Yaris. The Polo starts at about 12,000 Euros in Germany. Exported to Canada from high-cost Europe, it would sell for at least $16,000 or $17,000.
Hyundai sells an Accent for less than $10,000 in Canada and Nissan has a Versa similarly priced. The Fit starts at less than $15,000 and Toyota has a Yaris listed for as little as $13,620.
Wittig said VW is working on a sedan or “notchback” version of the Polo for Canada and the U.S., as well as Russia, India, China.
VW needs to sell the Polo in Canada and the U.S. if it hopes to reach the aggressive sales targets the company has put out there for no later than 2018. Wittig said VW expects to sell at least 800,000 cars in the U.S. by then. That would be about 250,000 more than VW has ever sold to Americans – even when the Beetle was the darling of hippies and suburbanites alike.
VW has been less candid about sales targets for Canada. But it is fair to assume the goal is for sales of at least 100,000 a year by 2018, or more than double the current volume. VW simply cannot do that without a Polo in the lineup.
“We have ambitious targets for Canada and the United States,” said Wittig, adding that new products will help push up sales numbers.
Look for VW to build the Polo in either Mexico or Brazil and export it to Canada. That way our Polo will have a starting price of less than $15,000.
Oh, and another thing. By 2018 VW plans to be the biggest auto maker in the world – bigger than Toyota, bigger than General Motors, bigger than anyone. That's another story entirely, but it does speak to what is going on at a hard-driving VW.
Surely a Polo will be in Canadian dealerships by 2012. Bet on it.
