The Polo Sedan was replaced by the Vento and now the Volkswagen Virtus is the new entry sedan.
The Indian market is fast becoming the place to be for many mass market manufacturers. Many brands are launching exclusive, compact, affordable vehicles that are relatively cheap to develop. These vehicles cater to the requirements of the Indian market and feature funky designs.
These include the Kia Carens, the Volkswagen Taigun, and the Nissan Magnite, but there are many other examples. Volkswagen has made yet one more of these exclusively for the Indian market, and it’s called the Volkswagen Virtus.
The Volkswagen Virtus is meant to be a replacement to the Volkswagen Vento, which is essentially the Polo Sedan. The Virtus does look like a major improvement over the outgoing model and not a mere facelift. It shares a new platform with the Skoda Slavia and Volkswagen Taigun called the MQB-A0-IN. There will be at least a couple of variants on sale in India.
The Virtus Dynamic Line comes with a 1.0L 3-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine with 115 horsepower and 175 Nm of torque while the Virtus Performance Line and Virtus GT get a 1.5L 4-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine with cylinder deactivation technology. This larger engine has an output of 150 horsepower and 250Nm of torque.
The 1.0L motor can be paired with either a 6-speed manual or 6-speed conventional automatic gearbox while the 1.5L motor has the 6-speed manual and 7-speed dual-clutch automatic available instead. All of these powertrains are also shared with the Skoda Slavia and Volkswagen Taigun.
In fact, the Volkswagen Virtus looks very much like its Skoda sibling, but with a Volkswagen face and rear end.
The full-spec Virtus will come with sporty appointments, including red accents, aluminium pedals and GT badging. It will feature ventilated front seats, wireless charging, an 8″ infotainment system with 8 speakers, and more. There’ll even be auto climate control, auto headlights, auto wipers, a sunroof and ambient lighting to go along.
Colour choices include:
- Candy White
- Wild Cherry Red
- Curcuma Yellow
- Rising Blue Metallic
- Reflex Silver
- Carbon Steel Grey
Will Volkswagen Passenger Car Malaysia introduce the Taigun and Virtus in Malaysia before long? Well, time will tell. Given that the Golf is now locally-assembled, this could be a sign that the brand is preparing for a renewed push into the Malaysian market. Perhaps competition in this space will be necessary for their numbers to go up again.
