The upcoming Volkswagen sporty urban SUV will be manufactured from the second half of 2021; based on MQB platform as Polo and T-Cross
It has to be admitted that Volkswagen took quite a while to get used to the boom in sales for SUVs and crossovers. However, it is revving right on the limit by pushing in new launches consistently mainly in the developed international markets. Volkswagen has expanded its reach in existing segments while venturing into new spaces altogether in chase of a new breed of customers.
The T-Cross and T-Roc have certainly given Volkswagen the much-needed boost when the German company was slowly reeling away from the diesel emission scandal. According to a media report, Volkswagen is working on a new crossover that will be manufactured at its production facility near Pamplona in Spain.
While details of the model are scarce at the moment, it will be a sporty urban crossover hitting assembly lines towards the second half of 2021. It is reported to be a new member of the growing Polo series and thus will sit on the MQB architecture that also underpins the T-Cross.
The Spanish plant also builds the T-Cross and Polo hatchback and will help in reducing production costs that will, in turn, enable Volkswagen to price the crossover competitively against rivals. To appeal for a wide band of customers, it will have a selection of powertrains including hybrid and electric motors.
Chances of it using the petrol and diesel engine from the T-Cross are high. However, the T-Cross won’t necessarily gain electrified variants and is only front-wheel-drive. The “sporty urban” crossover could buck the trend and be offered in all-wheel-drive configuration – although the likelihood of this happening at all is less.
Volkswagen will reportedly launch the T-Roc in limited numbers later this year in India and could be sold in the top-of-the-line variant. The VW Group’s next big volume push will come under the India 2.0 strategy as the T-Cross based mid-size SUV and Skoda’s Kamiq based similar-sized SUV will arrive sometime in 2021.
They will be followed by the Rapid and Vento replacements. All these four models will ride on the MQB A0 IN platform specifically developed for India to keep the production costs in check and achieve economies of scale. They are expected to be aggressively priced against competitors.