FRANKFURT MOTOR SHOW: New small SUV for Volkswagen

Volkswagen is planning a small new SUV for China and the US, after the world’s two biggest car markets rejected the T-Roc and T-Cross as being too small and too expensive.

Due to launch in China next year as both a petrol and a plug-in hybrid model, the as-yet-unnamed SUV will sit beneath the Tiguan in size, but above the soon-to-be-launched T-Roc crossover.

The new SUV will be both cheaper to build and cheaper to buy than the higher-placed T-Roc, which is considered too small for the US.

Volkswagen’s director of development, Frank Welsch, admitted the car was on its way, adding the smaller T-Roc and T-Cross would be diverted to South America instead of the US.

“We are checking the feasibility of a car which is right between T-Roc and Tiguan and this could be interesting for America,” Dr Welsch said.

“In the US you have Tiguan long wheelbase and the other (new) one is close to what we have here in Europe as the Tiguan SWB.

“It’s a little bit smaller than that, about the size of the old Tiguan, but new and it’s off the MQB. This is the idea behind it.

“In China we will have this car next year and we are thinking whether this could be a good idea for America and Russia.”

The move would see Volkswagen doubling down on the China-US strategy it has taken for the Teramont/Atlas SUV, which was developed for those two markets (plus Russia) and won’t ever be sold in Europe.

It will be part of a product surge that, Welsch admitted, would see SUVs make up a third of all Volkswagen models sold by 2020, with 19 models planned globally.

The problem for the T-Roc in the world’s most lucrative car market is that Americans see it as both too small and too expensive. The current Tiguan, too, was too expensive for US tastes, which is why Volkswagen’s North American branch was allowed to pursue its own Atlas SUV.

“The Americans see the Tiguan LWB and they say it (the unnamed SUV) is much smaller,” Dr Welsch said.

“Let’s be very clear: the T-Roc will not go to the US. I don’t believe it’s too expensive, but it’s because it’s a very small car. They tell us people in the US expect more size for that money. It is too small.

“We are going to have an SUV that is even smaller than a T-Roc (the T-Cross) and it will also not go to the US, but will go to South America

“We have the new Polo and the T-Cross in Brazil, but for North America, this car is also too small.”