Martin Winterkorn, Volkswagen board member for product development, talked to Automotive News Europe's Dorothee Ostle about future developments in the VW range.
The station wagon versions of the VW Golf and Bora are practically identical. Wouldn't it have made more sense for VW to launch a Golf station wagon and a Golf compact minivan instead?
Developing the Bora station wagon on the basis of the Golf version only cost us an additional DM200 million (euro 101 million, $107 million.) But developing the Golf compact minivan will cost us at least DM1 billion. It will take at least 12 more months until the minivan is ready for series production and launch.
How many passengers will this new vehicle accommodate?
The Golf compact minivan will have to offer seven seats. Opel has provided a very interesting solution with the Zafira compact minivan and its clever foldaway seats. This is something we cannot ignore.
What else can we expect from VW?
I am sure that features like Electronic Stability Program will become standard in almost every car. This has already happened with anti-lock brakes and front and side airbags. These are now offered on most cars. The cost of ESP is already decreasing and in the near future it will be available on all models.
Even in small cars like the VW Lupo?
Yes, I'm sure it will soon become standard - at least in the more powerful versions of the Lupo.
