DETROIT MOTOR SHOW: VW pulls Tiguan surprise

Volkswagen has taken the wraps off a plug-in hybrid concept car that is effectively a tech-laden version of the larger, cleaner and critical new second-generation Tiguan due to emerge in production form at the Geneva motor show in March.

With small SUVs booming around the world, the next Tiguan is shaping up as the most important Volkswagen after the Golf, and the stunning Tiguan GTE Active Concept confirms – like the Tiguan GTE concept from Frankfurt — the all-new small SUV will have better proportions, a cleaner body and a more aggressive off-road appearance. VW says this second Tiguan concept is closer to production than last year's original.

While the mainstream petrol- and diesel-powered Tiguans will be launched in Europe in the second quarter of the year, the production version of the GTE Active Concept will have to wait until late this year or early 2017 to deliver its 165kW of power and on-demand all-wheel drive to real-world drivers.

With Volkswagen understandably gun-shy about showing the Euro-critical diesel versions of the Tiguan in the US, the plug-in hybrid sports a 1.4-litre four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine sitting across the engine bay, while its two electric motors independently power the front and rear axles.

Eventual production versions of the Tiguan GTE will be sold in two different wheelbases, with a seven-seat version supplementing the standard five-seat wagon.

A sleeker, coupe-style 'CC' version is also expected, and all three members of the extended new Tiguan family have been confirmed for Australia, where the five-seater arrives here by the end of this year.

Not long after the three-model Tiguan line-up is fully operational in 2017, the Volkswagen SUV family will blow out from a current two to six, including the larger US-only seven-seat CrossBlue and the larger-again Touareg.

After seeing the successes of Asian rivals at the bottom end of the SUV market, there will also be a smaller Golf-based SUV and an even-smaller Polo-based SUV, both with stand-alone bodywork.

And, if you want to be picky, there are (or soon will be) raised Alltrack versions of the Polo, Golf and Passat as well, plus the tiny Cross Up!. Volkswagen is about to go from a patchy SUV commitment to a smothering blanket of the things.

For Detroit, though, the Tiguan GTE Active Concept will use a 12.4kWh lithium-ion battery pack built into the boot floor to give it a claimed 32km (20 miles) of zero-emission, pure battery-electric running. With a 64-litre petrol tank feeding the four-cylinder motor, it teases with a tested combined range of 928km (580 miles).

It can run as mostly a rear-wheel drive in its electric mode, but provides all-wheel drive either automatically when it detects wheelspin or at the push of a mode button by the driver. It can also run as a front-wheel drive petrol car at highway speeds (or when the battery is depleted), it can hold over the battery’s charge for when it’s needed in cities or it can use the petrol motor to both drive the front wheels and recharge the battery pack.

It doesn’t just run as an electric city car with long range, either. It can run as a pure-electric car even when it’s in its most aggressive four-wheel drive off-road setting, too, meaning that (for a few kilometres at least), you can go off-roading through your favourite rainforest with fewer local emissions than a well-fed hiker.

It’s also strong enough to run in pure-electric mode at up to 120km/h and goes on to a top speed of 193km/h. It is claimed to sprint to 100km/h in 6.3 seconds, with all of its propulsion systems cranking on the wheels.

At the heart of the Tiguan GTE Active Concept is the 110kW/250Nm version of the 1.4-litre, four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine that is already in production in everything from the Golf to the Passat and beyond.

Volkswagen sites a 40kW/220Nm disc-shaped electric motor between the petrol engine and the inner workings of the six-speed dual-clutch transmission and the two powerplants combine to drive the front wheels, switching in and out depending on the drive mode, the throttle position and the battery’s charge level.

There is a stronger 85kW/270Nm electric motor sitting on the rear axle and serving as the differential. This second electric motor also carries a second power-electronics module, which converts the direct-current power to alternating-current power.

The Tiguan GTE Active concept retains its all-wheel drive capability even when the battery charge drops too low, with the car using petrol power to effectively turn the front electric motor into a generator to deliver enough energy to the rear motor to maintain all-wheel drive. Volkswagen calls it an “electric prop shaft”.

The first Volkswagen SUV to be built off the Modular Transverse Matrix (MQB) that debuted in the Golf 7, the Tiguan GTE Active Concept will also use a six-speed dual-clutch transmission, designed specifically for work in the Volkswagen Group’s hybrid cars.

It’s 4494mm long, making it a significantly bigger than the outgoing car and at a stroke addressing concerns about its limited luggage capacity.

The Tiguan GTE Active Concept rides on what will become the standard version of the Tiguan wheelbase at 2681mm and though Volkswagen is remaining tight-lipped about the longer version, it’s thought to add around 150mm to the wheelbase. It has had to walk a fine line between providing enough space for a third row of seats and staying out of the CrossBlue territory above it.

The production versions will carry over the 1899mm width of the Tiguan GTE Active Concept, too, regardless of the wheelbase length, though the 1766mm height will drop significantly.

That’s because the GTE Active Concept has had its ride height lifted from the standard 180mm to 225mm so it can a) look better and more aggressive and/or b) deliver a ground clearance that lifts from 200mm to 245mm.

Its approach angle is up from 25.6 degrees to 26.1 and its rear departure angle is up from 24.7 degrees to 29.9 degrees. The ramp-over angle lifts from 20 to 24.7 degrees.

It has tried to accentuate the Tiguan GTE Active Concept’s off-road cred with plenty of styling excesses that do little to hide the production Tiguan’s shape and detailing.

There is full-width aluminium underbody guard to protect it from approach-angle miscalculations and another one at the rear. There are enormous chunky off-road custom tyre package, chunky side sills, roof rails and auxiliary LED spotlights on the roof.

It has a more crafted version of the production Tiguan’s interior, with hand-cut touches complementing the Active Info Display (Volkswagen’s umbrella name for the high-resolution digital instrument cluster that Audi calls its Virtual Cockpit).

It also gets a dominant 9.2-inch multimedia display screen, with many of the infotainment features managed by Volkswagen’s version of gesture control.