Javier Rodrigo
Pamplona, June 29 (EFECOM).- Next week the last Polo model will roll off the assembly lines at Volkswagen Navarra, forty years after this iconic car began to be manufactured at the Pamplona plant, which has made this best-seller one of its hallmarks.
The Polo, which has undergone a total of six redesigns – five of them produced in Pamplona – is no longer being assembled at the Pamplona factory, but it is not disappearing from the market, as it will continue to be manufactured at the German multinational’s plant in South Africa.
In these forty years, Volkswagen Navarra has produced more than 8.4 million units of this model (8,421,145 at 6:00 a.m. on Friday, June 28).
The Polo’s farewell in Pamplona has a very specific reason: to make space on the assembly lines for the upcoming production of two Volkswagen electric models.
The first Volkswagen Polo (A01) was born in 1975 as a two-door B-segment passenger car. It was launched on the market as a cheaper version of the Audi 50 and was manufactured exclusively in Wolfsburg (Germany).
This car, whose first generation was manufactured until 1981, was a commercial success from the very beginning, with millions of units sold all over the world. Its small size (3.5 metres long) and the guarantee of Volkswagen engines were its calling cards.
On March 20, 1984, thanks to an agreement between the INI and Volkswagen, the first of the second-generation Polos (A02) left the production lines of the Pamplona factory, then owned by SEAT. At that time, no one could have predicted that this small passenger car would be one of the factory’s strong points in weathering the difficult times that the automotive sector in Spain has been through.
The Polo A02 was equipped with four-cylinder engines and reached a maximum speed of 154 kilometers/hour. The advertisements of the time offered it from 547,700 pesetas (3,291 euros today) under the slogan ‘The Volkswagen Polo is already Spanish: let it go’. It was described in advertising as ‘Volkswagen’s youngest, which meets current demands for price, technology, safety, capacity, performance and comfort’.
In June 1992, the millionth Polo was produced in Pamplona, and in September of that year the Navarre plant became the only one in the world to produce this model. That exclusivity has been fundamental for the factory’s expansion for decades.
The manufacturing of the A02 lasted almost a decade, until May 1994, in Pamplona, of which 1,351,373 units were produced. It was replaced by the A03, more aerodynamic and with a wider range of colors. And for the first time it was available with four doors.
A few months later, in December 1994, after the absorption of SEAT by the German multinational, the Pamplona company acquired the name Volkswagen Navarra SA.
It was the 1990s in Spain, with all its load of renewal, creativity and transgression. In this innovative context, the Polo Arlequín was born in 1994, with the different parts of the bodywork painted in different colours. ‘The spirit of the 90s’, said the advertising at the time. It was a limited version of the high-end Polo of which only 1,000 units were to be produced, but around 3,800 of these multicoloured cars were manufactured by 1998.
In September 1999, the new Polo A03 GP was launched, which was replaced in 2001 by the A04, a completely new, longer and more sophisticated car. This model continued to be the mainstay of Volkswagen Navarra, where in September 2004 the 4 millionth Polo was manufactured.
A new variant, the Polo Cross, was awarded exclusively to the Landaben factory in January 2008 and in March 2009 the Polo A05 was launched, a 3.91 meter long version that was already close in size and performance to its older brother, the Volkswagen Golf.
The milestones surrounding this model have been happening over the years: the Polo reached its peak in 2011 with 356,356 units, in March 2012 the 6 millionth Polo was manufactured, in March 2015 this model turned 40 years old and in August the 7 millionth Polo was produced in Pamplona, and in June 2017 the new A07 was presented (someone decided to skip the A06) and the figure of 8 million units was reached.
Throughout its history and six generations, the Polo has won four consecutive World Rally Championships from 2013 to 2016. With 43 victories out of a possible 52, the Polo R WRC is the car with the highest win ratio in the history of the World Rally Championship.
The Polo bodies for the World Championship were made at Volkswagen Navarra.
As the International Automobile Federation (FIA) requires that at least 2,500 cars have been manufactured in series of the participating models, a limited edition was launched for that exact number of units of the Polo R WRC, with a 1.6 engine. L, which sold immediately. Along with the Harlequin, it is one of the Polo variants most coveted by fans now.
Polo A02 (1984-1990): 162,052 units.
Polo A02 GP (1990-1994): 1,189,282.
Polo A03 (1994-1999): 1,393,211.
Polo A03 GP (1999-2001): 561,692.
Polo A04 (2001-2005): 809,855.
Polo A04 GP (2005-2009): 979,088.
Polo A05 (2009-2014): 1,501,878.
Polo A05GP (2014-2017): 987,775.
Polo A07 (2017- 2021): 673,159.
Polo A07 PA (2020-2024): 144,940.
EFE
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