All-new Volkswagen Touareg caught in the wild

Volkswagen's all-new Touareg it plans to launch later this year has been spotted almost completely undisguised by a South African Car magazine.

The single image of the large Touareg, snapped at Johannesburg airport, appears to show the luxurious SUV stays true to the T Prime concept that was unveiled at the 2016 Beijing motor show.

That means it will also share its frontal styling with the recently revealed Volkswagen Arteon.

Like the Passat CC-replacement, the big SUV will feature a huge grille that merges its LED headlights and daytime running lights into the chrome slats that stretch across the Touareg's face.

There's no pictures of the VW's cabin, but inside the large BMW X5-rival will come with an all-new infotainment system, a more luxurious cabin and new driver aids like a semi-autonomous cruise control.

Riding on a lighter ‘MLB evo’ platform that’s shared with Audi Q7, Porsche Cayenne and Bentley Bentayga the Touareg will be lighter than the current model, despite its larger dimensions.

Like the Chinese motor show concept, the production Touareg is almost certain to be launched with the car maker's flagship plug-in hybrid technology.

The show car could provide the biggest hint of what form this could take.

The T Prime combined a 185kW/370Nm 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine mated to 100kW/350Nm electric motor (incorporated in the autobox).

Total output is 280kW with max torque a solid 700Nm. VW claims 0-100km/h time of six seconds with top speed a relatively modest 224km/h.

VW says the plug-in hybrid drive is “practically silent in its electric E-Mode”. It claims the zero-emission EV-mode delivers a range of up to 50km. The vehicle’s combined Euro fuel economy stat is 2.7L/100km.

We'll next see Volkswagen's third-generation Touareg SUV when it premieres at the Frankfurt motor show this September, ahead of it going on sale globally before the end of 2017.