Gorey Guardian

Major Volkswagen SUV growth

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BY 2025, every second Volkswagen passenger car sold throughout the world will probably be an SUV. This already applies to every fifth car sold now. The brand expects especially strong growth in SUV sales in North and South America, as well as in China. By 2025, Volkswagen will be offering more than 30 SUV models throughout the world. With the new Polo-sized T-Cross, the brand is rounding off its SUV product portfolio at the bottom in the smallest segment. This Thursday the T-Cross is to make its world debut and will be unveiled at the same time in Europe, China and South America.

The Touareg is at the top end of Volkswagen‘s SUV range, while the T-Roc is currently the brand‘s smallest SUV. In this respect, it will be succeeded by the new T-Cross.

‘SUVs are becoming increasing­ly popular with our customers throughout the world,’ says Jürgen Stackmann, Member of the Board of Management of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand responsibl­e for Sales. ‘This is why we are consistent­ly pursuing our current SUV offensive. It will be a key contributi­on to strengthen­ing our core business so that we can invest the necessary billions of euros in mobility and autonomous driving. The T-Cross rounds off our SUV family in the rapidly growing small SUV market.”

With the Touareg in the premium SUV segment, the Tiguan2 and T-Roc in the compact classes and the new T-Cross in the small car segment, Volkswagen has a strong product portfolio that will continue to grow.

Further SUV models are due to follow. Volkswagen’s first full-electric SUV, the ID. CROZZ3, is to be launched in 2020. This vehicle segment is part of Volkswagen’s e-mobility offensive, which aims to bring 20 new full-electric models onto the market by 2025.

The SUV offensive announced by Volkswagen in 2015 is a success story. The compact Tiguan is now among the 10 best-selling cars in the world, with almost five million units sold. The introducti­on of the second generation in 2016 heralded the expansion of the Volkswagen SUV portfolio. The country-specific models Atlas for the USA and Teramont for China are enjoying sales success in their respective markets. The Touareg, which was the brand’s first SUV and has now reached its third generation, is also recording outstandin­g sales figures. Volkswagen expects global sales since the introducti­on of the first generation to reach the figure of 1 million units in the near future.

The relatively young T-Roc, the SUV in the Golf class, also got off to a good start. Since the model was launched at the end of last year, almost 130,000 cars have been sold.

Now the brand’s smallest and most compact SUV is ready to be launched – the first SUV offered by Volkswagen in this vehicle class. The new T-Cross is a real all-rounder, which is reflected by features such as the wide variety of assistance systems previously only available on cars in higher segments. The standard equipment includes the Front Assist ambient monitoring system with Pedestrian Monitoring and City Emergency Braking function, the lane keeping assistant Lane Assist, The Proactive Occupant Protection System and the lane change assistant Blind Spot Detection. At the same time, the T-Cross offers more space, variabilit­y and individual­ity thanks to its sliding rear seat. With its digital cockpit and its outstandin­g connectivi­ty with the outside world, the T-Cross is the ideal car for its time.

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