No green light for Bluemotion Polo in Oz

There's a difference in price of 1400 Euros between the cost of a manual Polo and one with Volkswagen's patented DSG transmission. It's the cost of the fancy self-shifting transmission that places it outside Volkswagen's philosophy of Bluemotion -- best possible economy and clean-running for the lowest optimal price.

The figure of 1400 Euros was provided by Volkswagen's spokesperson for Product Communications, Christian Haacke, at the weekend launch of the fifth-gen Polo (more here) as he explained why the manufacturer has no short-term aims to mate DSG to Bluemotion technology in the new Polo.

Speaking with Australian media, Haacke stressed that Volkswagen didn't want a repeat of its experience with the 'three-litre' Lupo.

The Lupo, which was never sold in Australia, was a smaller car than the Polo and was designed to achieve 3.0L/100km. That achievement came at a cost, however, and Volkswagen quickly discovered that people wouldn't pay a lot more for a car just because it used less fuel and polluted the air less.

"From our European experience, we've learned that what the customer is really looking for is not only a fuel-efficient vehicle, but also a cost-efficient vehicle," says Haacke. "And DSG would be contradictory to this approach, so DSG and Bluemotion wouldn't be an [acceptable] package from a consumer's perspective."

As far as the Polo is concerned, Volkswagen Australia seems to be on its own in wanting a DSG transmission for the Bluemotion variant. Haacke points out that the Polo isn't sold in America, which would be one country other than Australia likely to press for the odd pairing. Even if the Polo were to be introduced to the US, diesels are not popular there anyway.

Unfortunately, the VW philosophy may be at odds with the needs of Volkswagen Australia. Earlier in the day, Volkswagen's Aussie General Manager Press and PR, Karl Gehling had said that a Bluemotion Polo would be off the agenda until it can be shipped to the antipodes with a DSG option.

We're not talking about the "SuperBlueMotion" Polo with the 1.2-litre TDI engine and 3.3L/100km either -- this is just the 1.6-litre TDI with Bluemotion package.

VW does not want the seven-speed DSG box available in other Polo variants to find its way into this one. The argument is based purely on cost and marketability, since the DSG option is already available with the 77kW version of the same engine.

There are no technical hurdles to overcome and the DSG box, with its extra ratio, may actually improve on the Polo Bluemotion's combined-cycle fuel consumption figure of 3.6L/100km, although Haacke worries that the Polo's weight saving of 25kg in this new incarnation would be mostly eroded by the extra 20kg weight of the seven-speed DSG in the Bluemotion model.

But Haacke refused to confirm that Volkswagen is not considering development of such a vehicle.

"We will carefully watch the market and see how the Bluemotion package and the 'Superbluemotion' -- the 87gram version -- will be accepted by the market and, how the seven-speed DSG will be accepted in the market. Those are the aspects related to our product -- and then we're going to watch the rest of the economic and political situation..."

In the wash-up, it may not suit Volkswagen to bring the Polo Bluemotion Down Under, even if it could be secured from the factory with the DSG transmission…  In spite of the existence of a number of cars that sell at higher prices on the strength of their technological approach to environmental sensitivity.