BEIJING MOTOR SHOW: New Volkswagen Touareg revealed

Volkswagen has abandoned the United States in favour of China for the world debut of its third-generation Touareg, because that’s where the money is.

And you will need plenty of money to get into the all-new Touareg, because it’s taken such a big step upmarket that it’s now considered to be the flagship of the entire Volkswagen range.

As a result, that’s likely to spell higher prices including in Australia, where the outgoing model currently spans $68,990-$116,300.

A pointer to a high-tech future with even higher-tech interiors, the giant Touareg adds a sweeping array of safety and driver assistance systems to a chassis borrowed almost completely from the new Porsche Cayenne.

It has grown by 77mm overall in length and it’s also 44mm wider, though the weight has come down 120kg.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing for the Touareg’s development, though. Plans for a long-wheelbase, seven-seat version -- sitting on the Audi Q7’s mechanical base -- were thrown out late on the grounds that 5.1 metres was too long for an SUV. It would have added 100mm to the Touareg’s 2895mm wheelbase.

A seven-seat layout would have meant adopting the Audi Q7 layout, which would have added 100mm to the 2895mm wheelbase, pushing the Touareg out to about 5100mm overall.

Similarly, its development was more expensive than it may have been because it was originally meant to be twinned with a second-generation Phaeton limousine, which was cancelled late.

There’s nothing shy about its front-end, with its vast grill of chromed horizontal grids, and ripping off its camouflage vinyl has revealed a shape with more integrated curves and swoops than it initially appeared.

The grille dominates its look, though, and is an SUV version of the design that has already been seen on the Arteon and the smaller T-Roc, with its optional LED headlights seeming to start from its depths.

There’s enough sensor and software work at play in the grille and beneath the car that it can qualify for Level 3 autonomy, if only regional road law allowed it.

It’s a sportier, more organic-looking machine than either of its predecessors, taking the Volkswagen Group’s premium MLB Evo architecture and delivering five seats and a phenomenal 810 litres of luggage capacity.

That’s a 110-litre rise over the second-generation SUV, but will shrink down to around 650 litres if customers choose the optional full-size spare tyre (a space-saver will be standard).

It’s the interior that will gain the most traction, though, with its new, optional Innovision multimedia screen. The radical curved 15-inch touch-screen (bigger than an iPad Pro) replaces traditional MMI screens and joins the 8.0-inch digital instrument cluster to create a 23-inch Innovision digital shield.

It’s also highly customisable, allowing drivers to individually choose which bits and pieces to put into a one-touch vertical row of ‘favourites’ buttons on one side, cutting four-touch operations down to two. It also takes lessons from smartphones by eradicating ‘back’ buttons in favour of a ‘home’ button. A head-up display is also an option.

The big screen arrives in the new SUV largely thanks to an expensive interior development program that would have been shared with the now-cancelled Phaeton II limousine.

There are major useful options that go beyond the Innovision screen, though, including a sliding rear bench seat with 160mm of travel, a 1270x825mm panoramic sliding sunroof and 30 different colour options for the ambient light strategy inside the cabin.

The first powertrains will be limited to two variants of the 3.0-litre turbodiesel V6 and a mild-hybrid version of the turbo-fed 3.0-litre petrol V6.

The lead diesel will come with 210kW of power and 620Nm of torque (170kW for the entry level), while the 48-volt mild-hybrid petrol V6 boasts the same 250kW and 500Nm of torque the engine produces in other applications.

We’ve driven both and the petrol motor is clearly the pick of the two, with the emissions-cleaning technologies needed to pass the new WLTP testing rules hurting the throttle response of the diesels.

All engines will use all-wheel drive and an eight-speed automatic transmission, and it all nestles inside an advanced chassis with a five-link rear suspension and a four-link front-end.

Higher-priced models will be available with such tricks as electronically-driven anti-roll bars, four-wheel steering and active air suspension.

While the first-generation Touareg had a low-range gearbox, it’s moved on since then and instead relies on pre-mapped suspension, transmission, steering and skid-control packages.

They range from push-button Snow to Off-Road Auto, Sand and Gravel settings all the way to Off-Road Expert. There's also an Off-Road Pack as an option.

The three-chamber active air suspension also helps with the off-road work, dropping 50mm in ride height at highway speeds to improve handling and lower fuel consumption, then rising 70mm in the car's off-road mode. It also drops even further to help people load the luggage area.

It runs a stunning array of safety systems, including infra-red thermal-imagining cameras to deliver night vision, radar and LiDar to give it all the hardware it needs for Level 3 autonomy (though it’s restricted to active cruise control for now).

There’s also autonomous emergency braking 2.0, plus the LED matrix headlights can flash at highlight pedestrians or animals to warn the driver of their approach.

After its world debut at next month's Beijing motor show, the new Touareg goes on sale globally later this year, but won't arrive in Australia until early 2019.