Volkswagen Chicco
The Chicco prototype was developed by Volkswagen Design as an experiment in packaging, usability, and low-cost construction.
It tested a new approach to body assembly built around an extremely compact structure that aimed to maximize interior volume, improve efficiency and performance, and keep manufacturing expenses to a minimum.
Almost forty years ago, as the first-generation Golf and Polo were approaching production, Volkswagen was already exploring the idea of an even smaller urban car.
That exploration led to the 1975 Volkswagen Chicco, a front-wheel-drive, three-door hatchback only 3.3 meters long, making it more than two hundred millimeters shorter than the production Polo.
Inside, the car was stripped back to the essentials and intended to carry four people, though it dispensed with conventional rear seats. The passengers in the back sat on a carpeted fuel tank equipped with simple backrests.
Power came from an experimental 900-cc three-cylinder engine producing about 40 horsepower, which was enough to propel the 650-kilogram prototype to roughly 130 km/h.
Despite its clever engineering and imaginative packaging, the Chicco never entered production, as the Polo ultimately became Volkswagen’s solution for the small, affordable-car segment.
