PoloDriver

While the speculation over the Polo’s move to the US continues, Brazilian car magazine Revista Autoesporte seems to have the clearest rendering yet of the upcoming saloon version. While the new notchback is rumoured to appear in the Chinese, European and Russian markets, it’s the North and South American territories that have been the most reported on in recent months as possible sales destinations.

We still don’t know of course if Volkswagen are going to take the jump and put the boot in (or technically, on) the fifth-gen Polo, and while spyshots are few and far between, the illustration on the front of Revista Autoesporte (alongside photos of the facelifted CrossFox and SpaceFox) definitely seems to resemble a Polo. Unfortunately, there’s no confirmation, just the tag ‘Anti-Civic’, which would point to a sedan-style car with the Polo’s footprint. The waiting game continues.

Lower consumption and emissions combine with higher driving dynamics

Currently the Polo’s most powerful engine until the GTI comes along in the summer, the 1.2-litre TSI unit is one of the family of Volkswagen’s TSI powerplants that have been awarded the environmental commendation certified by TÜV Nord. The Life Cycle Assessment on which the commendation is based confirms that the TSI engines have significantly improved environmental characteristics compared with the predecessor models throughout their life cycle thanks to their smaller engine size and lower fuel consumption – while at the same time evidencing higher driving dynamics.

It’s not the first time Volkswagen has won awards for its engine and gearbox technology; last year the automotive giant won three prestigious ‘Engine of the Year Awards’. After the DSG dual-clutch transmission, the TSI engine tech, the second of the three basic technologies in the BlueMotion Technologies brand, has confirmed its outstanding Life Cycle Assessment. BlueMotion Technologies is the Volkswagen umbrella brand for all environmentally-friendly, energy-efficient products and technologies. Thanks to a reduction in engine capacity, the TSI engines significantly lower fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.

For commendation, a 1.4 TSI engine with 120bhp was compared with a 1.6 FSI engine with 114bhp, while a second test compared the Polo’s 1.2 TSI unit with 104bhp and a 1.6 MPI engine with 100bhp. The environmental commendations, which are based on Life Cycle Assessments pursuant to ISO 14040/44, investigate the environmental characteristics of vehicles or technologies throughout their entire life cycle, from manufacture through use to recycling. The environmental commendation is only issued if the overall performance of the new development is better than that of the respective predecessor.

Volkswagen’s new design language is clearly starting to attract the right attention. The Polo has received a gold product design award from the International Forum Design (iF), based in Hannover. The awards which ‘have been a reliable indicator of outstanding quality in design,’ are judged by a jury of 24 international design experts, and denote ‘proven design quality’ according to the German organisation.

Praising the excellent combination of exterior and interior design of the latest version of Volkswagen’s small car, the jury stated that the new Polo is ‘A very successful, striking design for a small car. Both outside and inside is clearly designed and with great functionality. Even more emphasis is placed on the essentials, and there is an excellent combination of interior and exterior design as a logical development of a series.’

The designers of the fifth-generation Polo, Urs Rahmel and Gustav Hofmann (pictured above), accepted the award at the formal iF Design Awards 2010 ceremony last Tuesday, where it was also revealed that the Volkswagen’s latest supermini star was the sole recipient of the gold award in the iF Design Awards 2010 ‘Transportation Design’ category. The latest achievement in the new Polo’s CV will be recorded in a public and online exhibition and the design award 2010 yearbook.

It’s already been crowned European Car of the Year 2010, but the Polo is now in the running for the World Car of the Year 2010 title. Last month we reported on the model’s success in the preliminary voting by the 59 international motoring journalist jurors where it made it into the initial top ten, but now there’s even better news; the car has now made it to the final list of three. Announced at the Geneva motor show this week, the Polo is doing battle with the Mercedes E-Class and the Toyota Prius. Fingers crossed – the winner will be announced at the New York International Auto Show on 1 April.

With the Mk 6 Golf the overall winner in 2009, can Volkswagen make it two years in a row? Start the discussion by leaving a comment below.

Volkswagen has had a busy Geneva motor show and just as the latest new Polo variants were unveiled, the company’s German website was updated to include the CrossPolo. While there’s no more information on the GTI as of yet, there are new photos of the CrossPolo in the signature colour of Magma Orange, which proves that it is the colour for this ‘lifestyle’ model. There are new wallpapers of both cars, though; click here and choose ‘The new Polo GTI’ or ‘The new CrossPolo’ from the menu and then click on ‘Wallpaper’ to grab yours.