Relative universality and universality obtained by adding constants

A variety ${\mathbb{V}}${\mathbb{V}} is var-relatively universal if it contains a subvariety \mathbbW{\mathbb{W}} such that the class of all homomorphisms that do not factorize through any algebra in \mathbbW{\mathbb{W}} is algebraically universal. And \mathbbV{\mathbb{V}} has an algebraically universal α-expansion a\mathbbV{\alpha\mathbb{V}} if adding α nullary operations to all algebras in \mathbbV{\mathbb{V}} gives rise to a class a\mathbbV{\alpha\mathbb{V}} of algebras that is algebraically universal. The first two authors have conjectured that any varrelative universal variety \mathbbV{\mathbb{V}} has an algebraically universal α-expansion a\mathbbV{\alpha\mathbb{V}} . This note contains a more general result that proves this conjecture.