Volkswagen considering a compact sedan for India on the Up! platform along with new 1.5 Liter turbo diesel engine codenamed EA189

Volkswagen India could be the latest entrant in the compact sedan segment of the Indian car market, a segment that will witness a bunch of launches in the coming years. The compact sedan segment is unique to the Indian car market, in that the sedans to get this tag have to measure in at under 4 meters in length. The Tata Indigo eCS can be credited of kick starting this segment in India, and across the world. Now, there are two cars in this segment in the form of the Tata Indigo eCS and the Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire CS, with the latter being a hot seller clocking well over 10,000 units a month, thereby head and shoulders above every sedan in India in terms of sales.

2012 Volkswagen Up! 5 Door Hatchback used as an illustration

In the coming months, Mahindra will launch a compact sedan version of the Verito and Tata Motors will launch the Manza CS. While Honda is said to have plans of building a Brio compact sedan, Volkswagen could join the fray with the Up! platform, that could spawn yet another compact sedan. Given that the Up! platform also plays host to the Skoda CitiGo and the Seat Mii, the possibilities only look very wide at the moment. All said, the Volkswagen compact sedan could still be a couple of years away given that the German car maker is yet to take a call on producing the Up! in India, in the first place.

In other buzz, Volkswagen is also said to developing a 1.5 Liter turbo diesel engine, codenamed the EA189. This four cylinder engine is said to be a downsized unit of the 1.6 Liter TDI turbo diesel engine that powers the Volkswagen Vento and the Skoda Rapid sedans. The downsizing could do to have with the fact that cars that classify under the small car category in India, need to have diesel engines measuring under 1.5 Liters in displacement. Therefore, a turbo diesel engine measuring 1.5 Liters could have a wide range of uses, ranging from use in the Volkswagen Polo hatchback to the upcoming Up! based compact sedan.

2012 Volkswagen Polo Hatchback

Given that the Polo could definitely do with a more powerful turbo diesel engine under its hood, the 1.5 TDI unit could just be what the doctor ordered for the Polo to become a genuine hot hatch alternate to the Fiat Grande Punto Sport. Along with the Polo, the Skoda Fabia could also be the recipient of a more powerful diesel engine. Currently, the 1.2 Liter, three cylinder TDI motor, that is used on the Polo and the Fabia is a sedate performer at best.

Source TheEconomicTimes