BERLIN: Volkswagen will probably stop making two-door versions of the Polo hatchback, one of the German brand's top models, as Europe's largest carmaker accelerates cost cutting at its core division, company sources said.
The VW brand will launch an overhauled Polo in 2017 and may stop producing two-door versions as demand for those is falling, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday, adding the next-generation Polo would only come with four doors.
The Polo, which VW has been building for four decades, was Europe's fourth best-selling vehicle last year, only trailing the VW Golf, Ford Fiesta and Renault Clio, according to auto industry forecaster JATO.
Wolfsburg-based VW is shrinking the number of parts and dropping unprofitable models such as the Eos convertible as it aims to boost cost savings at the VW brand, its biggest division by sales and deliveries, to 5 billion euros ($5.5 billion) per year by 2017.
To help profits, VW is also increasingly relying on the gradual adoption of its MQB modular platform for building a wide range of cars.
The Polo, which received its mid-term facelift in 2014, is not yet based on MQB.
"We are on track with our efficiency programme," VW Chief Executive Martin Winterbourne said this week at the Geneva auto show.
A VW spokesman said "there are no decisions yet" on future line-ups of the Polo and Beetle models. Germany's Spiegel magazine reported plans to cease two-door Polo models earlier on Friday, saying this would save VW 200 million euros.
The Beetle, last overhauled in 2011, could also be discontinued, Spiegel said, without citing the source of the information.
VW works council chief Bern Osterloh in January called on management to tackle the costly proliferation of models and parts at the VW brand, saying there was potential to cut costs by "substantially more" than the planned 5 billion euros.
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