BEIJING MOTOR SHOW: VW T-Prime is new Touareg

The big question on everyone’s lips regarding Volkswagen’s T-Prime concept SUV at today's Beijing motor show is not what the production version will be called – but how many seats it will have.

T-Prime is the new Touareg. You can take that to the bank, but Volkswagen is being extremely cagey about releasing any substantive details of the interior arrangement of the car, which shares its MLB underpinnings with the new Q7.

Forget the four-place interior the Beijing concept boasts, motoring.com.au believes the new car will be the first Touareg to sport three rows – just like its more expensive Audi stablemate.

In its T-Prime Concept GTE Beijing form, the new Touareg is presented as a plug-in hybrid. It adopts the new edgier styling already released in the new Tiguan.

Befitting the marque’s flagship status, the production Touareg will undergo a significant improvement in interior fit and finish – as well as a tech upgrade.

For the time being, the concept car itself is definitely over the top! In fact, the T-Prime Concept GTE’s display and control functions are completely digital, with conventional interior switches done away with in favour of gesture and voice control, touch-screens and touch-sensitive surfaces.

VW claims T-Prime is the first car to feature a “Curved Interaction Area”. The shaped driver/cockpit surface incorporates an infotainment display that “blends in with the remaining displays and controls in the futuristic cockpit”.

The concept car's eight-speed automatic transmission is controlled using a “glass scroll wheel” rather than a conventional fly-by-wire shifter.

The T-Prime is powered by 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’re keen to drive the all new Touareg. In the meantime, there’s no shortage of hyperbole in the marque’s spruiking of the concept vehicle’s attributes.

"The T-Prime Concept GTE is ideal as a versatile alternative to conventional vehicle concepts, as the four-seat SUV concept car combines the best of various different automotive worlds: comfortable like a saloon; spacious like an estate; offering traction that is superior to all other types of car; based on state-of-the-art chassis technology; agile like a sports car and – thanks to innovative drive technologies – efficient like a compact car.”

All this… And not even a mention of C02…