Volkswagen halts Polo sales in India

“Volkswagen India has confirmed a temporary hold on deliveries of its carline Polo due to a technical reason which is now under evaluation”, a company spokesperson was quoted in a statement. Ltd on Wednesday asked its dealers to stop sale of its hatchback Polo with immediate effect, two people familiar with the development said. Volkswagen also assembles a few engines in the country that are fitted into cars sold locally and for export, the company said.

India produced 20,030 Polos in the April-August period this year, with 13,827 units sold in the domestic market.

Earlier this week, the company had said that it is still evaluating the impact of the emission scandal on Indian operations, and a recall of vehicles will depend on findings of the ongoing investigations. All variants (petrol and diesel) have been stopped and no such directive has been issued for the Vento/Rapid, cars from the VW group that share all their mechanicals with the Polo, so it may not be an emissions issue after all.

German auto major Volkswagen, which this year became the world’s biggest vehicle maker by sales even as it cheated on pollution norms for 11 million cars worldwide, has been hit in India by another controversy on what it called a “technical” problem without specifying if it is related to pollution technology, engine or components.

The Polo hatchback and Vento sedan are available in India with the EA 189 diesel engine that is at the centre of the emissions probe elsewhere.

Government testing agency ARAI has also asked Volkswagen India to present details of all its cars sold in India with the EA189 engine(the one on with the defeat devices were installed).

The ministry of heavy industries and public enterprises had, last week, asked ARAI to file a report on the probe by the end of this month.