Rolling the right products into the showrooms at the right time will help Volkswagen UK grow its market share this year.

Brand director Chris Craft said he wanted to capitalise on motorists downsizing and take a little more of whatever sized market remains available. Action had already been taken to rebalance stocks by the end of quarter one.

“After doing well to secure a new car registration share of 8.4% last year, our target now is to improve that to 8.6% this year.

“But I believe products like the new Polo and next-generation Golf Blue-Motion will play a significant part in further increasing our penetration in future,” said Craft.

Polo will reach UK showrooms in quarter four, and dealers will also get a new Golf BlueMotion with CO2 emissions of 99g/km – lower than many hybrids.

Craft said Polo was set to have a big impact.

“The Polo is an important development in itself because it is just the kind of car that meets the needs of many of our customers.

“An improvement of 0.6% last year shows we are already scoring well in the retail sector and we are running 1.3% ahead so far this year, so while we do face challenges over the next few months, the brand is in reasonable shape.”