This New Compact SUV From Volkswagen Doesn’t Sound Like The Worst Thing In The World


Illustration for article titled This New Compact SUV From Volkswagen Doesnt Sound Like The Worst Thing In The World
Photo: VW

Volkswagen said today it would be unveiling a new compact SUV next month, in the market segment smaller than Tiguan, which includes cars like the Honda HR-V, Toyota C-HR, Kia Seltos, Hyundai Kona, and probably Subaru Crosstrek. Sure!

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October 13 is the day we will see it in full; the teaser up top is all we have for now. This might be the Volkswagen Tarek that VW said last year was coming to the US but I would be happy to be surprised by something different. That car is also known as the Tharu and looks like this:

Illustration for article titled This New Compact SUV From Volkswagen Doesnt Sound Like The Worst Thing In The World
Photo: Volkswagen

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This could also be a variation on the T-Roc, which VW doesn’t sell here but a car that VW does sell overseas. That would be a boring version of this reveal, since we already know what the T-Roc looks like:

Illustration for article titled This New Compact SUV From Volkswagen Doesnt Sound Like The Worst Thing In The World
Photo: Volkswagen

Another third, also boring reveal would be unveiling this thing and just calling it Tiguan Cross Sport, a smaller version of Tiguan, which VW hints might be the situation in today’s release:

This new offering will slot under the Tiguan, and is the second proof point of Volkswagen’s doubling-up SUV strategy following the launch of Atlas Cross Sport earlier this year.

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A fourth possibility is that it is something else entirely. I would guess that this new compact SUV will be gas-powered if only because VW would be making a much bigger deal of things otherwise but I’d be happy to be surprised in that department as well.

The strategy here doesn’t seem all that complicated and boils down to US consumers preferring crossovers and SUVs over Golfs—VW sold about triple the number of Tiguans (109,572) than Golfs (37,393) here last year. And if this means we have another compact SUV in the market that gets good-enough gas mileage that’s fine. That segment is crowded enough as it is, meaning that VW at least has some incentive to make theirs interesting.

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