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Wondering which Volkswagen might suit your fleet needs? Wonder no more, as Volkswagen Fleet Services has launched two new CO2 emissions price lists, making it simple and quick to find a car that suits a fleet manager’s or driver’s needs. First launched in 2009, the fleet price guide details all the car’s in the Vokswagen range with a CO2 output of 160g/km or less. Including information on P11D values, Benefit in Kind tax implications and individual CO2 emissions listings, it is joined by a booklet containing all the vehicles in the Volkswagen range with CO2 emissions under 120g/km.

Volkswagen Fleet Services’ Communications Manager, Tracey Rossetti, commented: ‘We had a very positive response to the first emissions guide we published in 2009 and so have decided to develop it further and introduce the new version with sub-120 g/km vehicles. Although all our fleet price lists contain this information, we believe this makes people’s lives and vehicle selections easier – as all the data is contained in one easy to use guide – and that’s important to both busy fleet managers and drivers.’

The sub-160 g/km booklet contains 16 model ranges, from the Fox city car to the Sharan people carrier, and includes the recently introduced Polo Match and new Touran, while the sub-120 g/km price list offers a choice of nine model ranges including the highly acclaimed new Golf Cabriolet and the Golf BlueMotion which emits just 99g/km of carbon dioxide and is exempt from the London Congestion Charge. To download electronic versions of the price guides, go to www.volkswagen.co.uk/fleet. Printed copies are available by calling the Volkswagen Fleet Business Centre on 0800 38 989 38.

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The latest Polo BlueMotion will be one of the stars of Volkswagen’s BlueMotion stand at EcoVelocity 2011, the low-carbon motor show being held at Battersea Power Station from 8-11 September. Visitors to the Volkswagen stand will be encouraged to ‘Think Blue’, as they pour over the latest BlueMotion vehicles and technologies, both inside and out on the track. Among the vehicles available to drive the near-mile long circuit will be the 3.0-litre V6/34.3kW electric motor-powered Touareg Hybrid, as well as the 2.0 TDI 138bhp Scirocco BlueMotion Technology.

The 1.2-litre TDI Polo BlueMotion with 74bhp will be on the Volkswagen stand, along with its frugal yet fun petrol brother, the 1.2-litre SEL TSI with 104bhp. In addition, the popular 99g/km, 74.3mpg, Congestion Charge-beating Golf BlueMotion will also be on show. Visitors will also be able to engage with BlueMotion Technologies on the Volkswagen stand, which features an interactive touchscreen experience and the ‘rollercoaster,’ which takes visitors on a journey of discovery into the innovations which reduce fuel consumption and emissions.

Giles Brown, EcoVelocity Director, said, ‘We’re delighted to have Volkswagen at EcoVelocity as it is one of the game-changing brands that really started the movement towards no-compromise ultra-low carbon motoring. Its BlueMotion range set the industry benchmark and we look forward to getting a further insight into their ground-breaking technology at EcoVelocity in September.’ For more information on BlueMotion Technologies go to www.volkswagen.co.uk/bluemotion, and visit www.ecovelocity.co.uk to book tickets or for further details on EcoVelocity.

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In readiness for its full-scale WRC assault in 2013, Volkswagen’s development of the Polo R WRC continues apace. News comes this week that the company has selected both German driver Christian Riedemann and Hans Weijs from the Netherlands to contest the ADAC Rallye Deutschland from 18-21 August 2011 in a pair of 270bhp Škoda Fabia WRC Super 2000s. Using the Fabia S2000s to gain development information for the Polo R WRC, Volkswagen has also entered two vehicles of the same pedigree in the Neste Oil Rally Finland, which takes place this weekend (28-30 July). As with any contested WRC rounds in which Volkswagen Motorsport is using the Fabia S2000s, the ADAC Rallye Deutschland drivers will have the chance to qualify for future runs in the four-wheel drive Polo R WRC, as part of VW’s talent assessment programme. Find the full Volkswagen Motorsport press release over in our dedicated Polo R WRC section of the website.

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Traditionally held on the first weekend in July, the British Volkswagen Festival (BVF) is one of the oldest fixtures in the VW show season calendar. Staged at the Three Counties Showground in the Malvern Hills, we have fond memories of driving our Manila Green 1978 Mk 1 Polo N to the event and back in one day back in 1992. One of the longest drives we’d undertaken at that time – from Lowestoft on the east coast to Malvern – it took around six hours to go one way in a 40bhp, 14 year-old car! It didn’t take our special correspondent Alex Grant (follow him on Twitter at @alexgrantuk) that long to get to this year’s event on 2-3 July, though, and just as at GTI International the weekend before, he snapped the best Polos at the show for us. Scroll through the slideshow below to enjoy some of the Polo-shaped BVF 2011 action.

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Two cars from the BP Volkswagen Polo Vivo S2000 team finished in the top four places at last weekend’s (15-16 July) Volkswagen Rally. Highest-placed VW finishers on the Eastern Cape event were 2010 champions Enzo Kuun/Guy Hodgson, who crossed the line in third place after 12 gruelling stages. The Ford Fiesta S2000 of Mark Cronje/Robin Houghton won the event, with the Toyota Auris of Johnny Gemmell/Drew Sturrock took second. The Volkswagen Rally third place was, fittingly, Kuun/Hodgson’s third this season, and still puts them within reach of the 2011 championship, after the mid-way point of the season.

Below Kuun/Hodgson was the Polo Vivo S2000 of Jan Habig/Robert Paislay. Picking up a number of problems on the event – such as a broken exhaust – didn’t stop the duo, even though the mechanical maladies cost them precious time. Meanwhile, the Giniel de Villiers/Ralph Pitchford partnership picked up an eighth place finish on their maiden Volkswagen Rally. Hergen Fekken/Pierre Arries were less lucky. A broken wheel forced them out from the event, just as their Polo was perched for a podium position. They slipped down the leaderboard to 15th.

It was a similar story for Gugu Zulu/Carl Peskin. Their Polo Vivo S1600 retired in the first stage, due to engine damage. On the flipside, Megan Verlaque/Lirene du Plessis celebrated a S1400 class victory and a top 15 finish, even after a puncture cost them time. Other Polo finishers on the 29th Volkswagen Rally which took place around the Longmore Forest, Uitenhage and Port Elizabeth, included the team of Nicholas Ryan/Armand du Toit who placed seventh. Round six of the South African National Rally Championship takes place in the George and Knysna area of the Garden Route in the Western Cape, on 26-27 August.

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