SPY PICS: Third-gen Volkswagen Touareg for Frankfurt

As you can glean from these photos, the third generation of Volkswagen’s flagship SUV is so close to introduction you can almost smell it.

This most recent round of pics from Automedia follows a sneak look at the all-new Touareg in March this year when an alert car enthusiast spotted a largely undisguised version casually parked at the airport in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Looking a lot like the T Prime concept SUV shown by Volkswagen at the 2016 Beijing Motor Show, the next-gen Touareg clearly adheres to the design language being spoken across the Volkswagen Group and evident in the second-generation Tiguan.

The largely all-new Touareg, based on the lightweight MLB Evo platform (already in use under the latest Audi Q7 and the new Bentley Bentayga), is expected to grow slightly in some dimensions, however at this stage there has been no talk of a seven-seat version.

Thanks to the MLB Evo platform, it’s certain the big SUV will weigh considerably less than the outgoing generation. It’s likely to grow in girth too, much to the benefit of broad-shouldered passengers.

The third-gen Touareg, unlike the Volkswagen Atlas sold exclusively in North America, will launch in five-seat form. So in markets other than the USA, Volkswagen’s first seven-seat SUV will most likely come in the form of the stretched Allspace version of the new-generation Tiguan which is anticipated to go on sale locally early in 2018.

There is little speculation about Volkswagen’s plans for the next Touareg’s driveline: expectations point to the current range of petrol and diesel powerplants doing duty again.
Plug-in and regular hybrids are expected at some point, and there’s also talk of a fully-electric EV version further down the track.

Expect the third-gen Volkswagen Touareg to be unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September.

Which means we won’t see Volkswagen’s new flagship SUV in Australia before the first half of 2018.