Three years ago, almost to the day, Volkswagen unveiled the BlueSport Concept at the 2009 North American International Show. At the time, sources within the company said that the mid-engine roadster was earmarked for production and would also underpin an Audi version as well as a “baby” Porsche Boxster. The good news is that the BlueSport, which even in its concept form looked like it could enter production with only a few minor tweaks, is virtually ready to offer some open-top, rear-wheel drive affordable pleasure to potential buyers. At least that’s what VW’s engineering boss, Uli Hackenberg, told Autocar magazine.
Furthermore, even though Porsche is still contemplating whether such a model would hurt the Boxster’s sales or not, Audi has decided to add a smaller mid-engine two-seater in its range, likely named the R4.
The bad news is that the BlueSport Roadster probably won’t make it into production because it just won’t sell the necessary numbers to make it viable. “It’s not a technology problem, but of finding enough customers. I don’t have enough sales volume to get the go-ahead," said Hackenberg.
VW’s bean counters estimate that to get the green light, the BlueSport needs to sell at least 50,000 units annually. They don’t expect it to be a success in the world’s biggest market for roadsters, the U.S., so the project is still on hold.
Despite the company wanting to triple its sales by 2018, even VW of America boss Jonathan Browning doesn’t think niche products are a priority right now: “To get to 800 thousand units, we don’t need to keep adding to our portfolio of models”, he said. “We’re concentrating on our core models.”
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