Shanghai-VW’s next generation Santana spotted out testing

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If you’ve been to China at some point in the past 15 years its likely that you have sat in a taxi, and there is at least an 80% chance that you have sat in a VW Santana taxi. The Santana grew from the 1000, to the 2000 to the current 3000 and Vista models, cab drivers all over China will either rejoice or silently cry when the current 3000 rolls off the production line for the final time in 2012 when the new Santana takes over the old Santana’s roll as a low cost VW to take them all on.

The next generation Santana, now named the NF, will hit production lines in the middle of 2012 and will see production of 60,000 units in the first year but VW predict that it will hit its peak in 2020 where production will be ramped up to 350,000 units per year.

These pictures may show a three box saloon that looks overly like the new VW Polo Sedan, but underneath all of that is the new Santana NF powertrain and platform, the new platform will be shared with several new cars including the Santana NF, Jetta NF and also a new low cost Skoda. The engine for the new low cost series is apparently the EA111 1.4TSI which will come with stop-start technology as standard, its likely that the NF will also see the introduction of 1.6L and 1.8L engines which will be favored over more expensive TSI technologies.