New-gen Volkswagen Touareg revealed as a new flagship

Volkswagen has taken the wraps off the new-gen Touareg at a special event in China, its biggest market. The flagship Touareg is now more upmarket than before and embodies everything that the German carmaker stands for. 

The Touareg wears the new design language for Volkswagen’s SUVs complemented by Arteon-like headlights with LEDs integrating into the horizontally louvred grille. The full-LED headlights are the most advanced in its class with no less than 128 LEDs per unit. Volkswagen claims that the new unit is enough “to make night-time as bright as day”. There are sharp creases on the silhouette with flared wheel arches and subtle roof-rails. 

At the rear is a sleek wrap-around tail light with a redesigned tailgate. The Touareg lettering runs across the rear just like in the Arteon. Based on the new MLB Evo platform, the new Touareg has a larger footprint than the outgoing car. The SUV sits lower but the boot space increases to a whopping 810 litres. The SUV rides on massive 21-inch alloy wheels. 

The cabin is much more premium keeping the Volkswagen’s promise of making the flagship even more upmarket. So you get a massive 15-inch infotainment screen complementing the 12.3-inch all-digital instrument cluster. The overall cabin is more stylish yet functional finished in high-quality materials. And it is laden to the brim with all the technologies expected in today’s flagship models. There is a four-wheel steering, air suspension, four-zone climate control, 730-watt music system, panoramic sunroof, and a host of active and passive safety devices.

Under the hood, you’ll find a pair of turbocharged 3.0-litre V6 diesel engines with 230bhp and 340bhp power output. The oil burners will be joined by a V6 gasoline motor producing 340bhp and a range-topping 4.0-litre V8 turbodiesel punching out 420bhp. In a Chinese market, Volkswagen will serve a special hybrid variant with a combined output of 365bhp which might also be sold in Europe sometime later. 

The Touareg has been a successful vehicle in Volkswagen’s line-up since its introduction in 2002 and the new one has upped the game further. It will be built in the Bratislava facility in Slovakia alongside its siblings, like the Audi Q7 and Porsche Cayenne. Sales will commence sometime later this year in international markets across China and Europe. Volkswagen India might also bring the new Touareg to our shores sometime next year as a CBU flagship.