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Michael Taylor7 Apr 2015
NEWS

NEW YORK MOTOR SHOW: VW boards SUV bandwagon

Volkswagen is set to swamp the SUV world in the next few years

The people's car brand plans to plug gaping holes in its SUV line-up with wave after wave of sporty SUVs, cheap SUVs and, well, lots of SUVs.

Pointing the finger at its lack of SUVs as the reason it has failed to meet its US volume targets, Volkswagen is planning a pair of SUV coupes, a longer wheelbase version of the next Tiguan and even more Alltrack models.

Technical boss, Dr Heinz-Jakob Neusser, insisted that by the end of the decade, Volkswagen's SUV range would have a lot more depth than it does today, having identified it as the primary reason the brand had yet to really cut through in North America.

There, critics have lambasted the Tiguan as being too small inside and out.

He said that by 2020, Volkswagen would have everything from a new, low-cost sub-brand SUV to tackle Dacia's rampant (in Europe, at least) Duster to a Volkswagen-branded large coupe SUV to match up with BMW's X6 and Mercedes-Benz's GLC.

There would also be Alltrack versions of everything from the Golf to the Passat and possibly the next generation Polo as well.

"We can do more Alltracks, clearly, but to be honest, the first priority is a mid-sized SUV, second the Tiguan, then the T-ROC – the Golf SUV," he said.

The T-Roc concept (pictured) debuted at last year's Geneva Motor Show and had, until New York at least, not been confirmed as a production probability by Volkswagen.

"You must be clear on what you are doing and the clear plan was to cover each class with an SUV," he said.

"The main task is to have an SUV in each segment. Once this is done, we're thinking about coupe derivatives on the mid-sized SUV and on the Tiguan.

"The T-ROC is a bit coupe styled, so it makes no sense to make an additional coupe because it's already a trendy, emotional thing. The same is true of a Polo-based version – that will come directly as more dynamic."

It seems clear, then, that Volkswagen eventually aims to have two competitors in each segment – one traditional SUV and a sportier style, which will usually follow later.

While Volkswagen has admitted it is working on a low-cost brand especially for the Chinese market, Dr Neusser refused to rule out eventually taking it to Europe, where Dacia's Duster has exploded into a genuine entry-level alternative.

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Written byMichael Taylor
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