5 must-know facts on the half-ton, commercial VW Polo Vivo Xpress

By Miles Downard

The ‘very’ light commercial vehicle market is an interesting one. A couple decades back there were numerous competitors rolling out little bakkies that basically ran the small businesses of South Africa. Most of the heavy-weight manufacturers were getting a piece of the pie. Then one day it seemed everyone pulled out, leaving only Chevrolet and Nissan to still offer a small bakkie.

VW has obviously spotted a bit of a gap in the market. But rather than go to the effort of making a small bakkie, the German manufacturer has instead opted to lever off of South Africa’s best selling passenger car; the Polo Vivo. So here are five facts about VW’s ‘new’ commercial vehicle, the Polo Vivo Xpress.

Read also: VW Polo Vivo Eclipse: What utter rubbish is this…

  1. Locally developed – The Polo Vivo Xpress is as proudly South African as they come. The idea came from Chairman and Managing Director of Volkswagen Group South Africa, Thomas Schaefer. He obviously saw that there might be some space in the segment for another competitor and given South Africa’s apparent love for the Polo Vivo, it made sense for him to leverage off of that success. So it was designed and developed by the Engineering Division at VW’s Uitenhage plant in response to requests from fleet owners for a small delivery vehicle from Volkswagen.
  2. Small payload – The Polo Vivo Xpress offers a 519kg payload and 1,060 litre volume of loading capacity. That’s pretty small to be honest considering the Nissan NP200 is good for 300kg more. The fact that the VW retains it’s hatch-back opening is another limiting factor, obviously. One would’ve thought that at least doing away with the bottom-side lip was a must.
  3. VAT back – The Xpress has been homologated as a N1 Commercial Vehicle which will allow VAT registered customers to claim back VAT. This is obviously a big selling point for fleet managers, as South Africa’s VAT legislation dictates one can only claim input VAT on a vehicle that falls outside of the definition of a motor vehicle. So one cannot claim the input credit on anything designed mainly for the purpose of carrying passengers (and yes this includes a double cab).
  4. Different to the normal Vivo – The Polo Vivo Xpress is based on 1.4 Conceptline passenger vehicle with a couple differences, literally. Those being a 15 mm suspension hike, along with not having rear seats. Instead there’s load partitioning between the driver and the cargo bay which has hard wood flooring. One can opt for a bit more rugged-ness in something called a “rough road package” which gives you a front underbody guard and heavy duty shocks.
  5. What’s the point? – I must admit I don’t see the point in the Xpress. Both the Nissan NP200 and Chevrolet Utility can carry more stuff which can be loaded up easier, for the same if not less money. If safety of that stuff is a concern one can buy a canopy and probably still come out cheaper than the Xpress. Also last year VW confirmed its very own Saveiro half-tonner will be coming to SA.

 

VW Polo Vivo Xpress Nissan NP200

Chevrolet Utility

Price

R 163 700

R 154 900

R 155 800

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