Updated VW Polo Hatchback and Sedan spotted in Pekan plant tour

This year marks the ninth anniversary of Volkswagen Group Malaysia’s official establishment as a business entity in the country, and to mark the occasion, members of the Malaysian media were taken on a drive-cum-tour of its local-assembly facilities at the DRB-Hicom plant in Pekan, Pahang.

The plant, which began operations in 2012, currently assembles the Passat, Jetta, Polo Hatchback and Polo Sedan models. Built at a cost of RM1.6 billion, the plant has already rolled out 10,000 vehicles to date. It is equipped with the latest manufacturing equipment in line with the VW Group’s global standards, and is said to be already compatible with requirements of the MQB platform that will form the basis of an entire generation of transverse-engine VW models.

Unusually for a plant tour, there was no restriction on photography, and that allows us to share pictures of updated versions of the Polo hatchback and sedan that we spotted throughout the plant premises. As neither models have been officially introduced, VW officials were naturally coy when asked about details, but from what we can tell, mechanical specs are unchanged – meaning the tried-and-trusted 1.6 MPI engine continues service under the hood of both models.

Changes are notably more extensive in the hatch model, but both sedan and hatch switch to smoked halogen reflector headlamps as they used to get whilst being sold as CBU cars. Inside, both cars also get an updated steering wheel as seen in the Golf 7 completed with an expanded array of steering-mounted buttons controlling the Bluetooth handsfree system and multi-info display. Finally, the India-sourced Apollo tyres of both models have also been dropped in favour of locally-sourced Goodyear rubber.

The hatchback additionally gets reprofiled front and rear bumpers together and conventional tail lamps of a slightly newer design. We also observed metallic dash inserts that also seem exclusive to the hatch.