Volkswagen Atlas could come to Oz after all

Volkswagen is just three weeks away from revealing its first direct rival for Toyota's top-selling Kluger, which Automotive News reports will be called the Atlas, and it could be headed Down Under after all.

First previewed at the 2013 Detroit motor show by the CrossBlue concept (pictured) and again three months later by the CrossBlue Coupe concept in Shanghai, the all-new seven-seat crossover will reportedly be revealed in final production form at a media event in California on October 27, before its world debut at the Los Angeles show in November.

Overnight, the German-language affiliate of Automotive News, Automobilwoche, reported that it will be called the Atlas – a name that Volkswagen filed a US trademark application for in April, and which is consistent the statements made by VW Group of America CEO Hinrich Woebcken, who said in July that the all-new SUV will get a “much easier to pronounce, American-style name” than VW’s other crossovers, the Tiguan and Touareg.

Previous reports had suggested the SUV would go by the Teramont name, which is consistent with VW's 'T' naming convention for SUVs, and it's possible a Chinese-market version could bear that nameplate.

Production of the Atlas, which shares its modular transverse-engine front/all-wheel drive platform with the new Tiguan, will begin at the German car-maker's factory at Chattanooga in Tennessee late this year before US sales commence in the second quarter of next year.

Although it's larger than the Touareg, which is expected to be replaced by a larger model with seven seats for the first time, the Atlas will be cheaper and priced to compete against seven-seat US models like the Ford Explorer, Honda Pilot and Toyota Highlander (sold here as the Kluger).

At this stage the Atlas has only been confirmed for left-hand drive production in China and the US, where VW hopes it will help reverse a 12 per cent sales slide this year after the brand's 'Dieselgate' emissions-cheating scandal broke in September 2015, but Volkswagen Group Australia has long expressed its desire for a local release is right-hand drive production is approved.

In August Volkswagen pledged to release five new SUVs in Australia over the following 30 months starting with the new Tiguan, which now means four new SUVs over the next 28 months, or by February 2019.

As we reported, they will include two small SUVs positioned below the Tiguan (likely to be conventional and coupe-style SUVs about the size of a Golf, as previewed by the 2014 T-ROC and 2016 T-Cross concepts), and two larger SUVs positioned above it -- the long-wheelbase seven-seat Tiguan 'XL' and the next-generation Touareg, as previewed by the T-Prime concept in China earlier this year.

And as we reported last month, that could expand to seven new SUVs within five years, if VGA takes the four-seat Tiguan 'Coupe' or 'CC' that's reportedly in the works, and the all-new seven-seat off-road SUV expected to be based on the next-generation Amarok ute post-2020.

Volkswagen is also working on an all-electric SUV based on the MEB platform that underpins the ground-breaking I.D. concept, the production version of which could eventually come to Australian showrooms.

But if all that's not enough, VGA's general manager of passenger vehicle marketing and product, Ben Wilks, told motoring at last week's Paris motor show that the Atlas remains firmly fixed on VGA's radar.

"We're fighting hard for it," he said. "It's a valuable car for us."

If sold here, the Atlas would bring to three the number of seven-seat VW SUVs including the Tiguan XL and next Touareg (four including the Amarok-based SUV), and up to nine in total by 2025, by which time VW's EV model family will be complete.

That's a far cry from Volkswagen's current SUV line-up in Australia's fastest-growing sales segment, which stands at just two – and neither offer seven seats.

Asked if there was room in the Volkswagen range for three seven-seat SUVs in the mid-term, Wilks said:

"I think there's space in the market for all three. We have in Tiguan [XL] a viable seven-seater. Touareg will become very much premium and will sit as the flagship of the brand.

"And there's definitely space below Tiguan for two smaller new SUVs."

SUVs coming from Volkswagen:
Tiguan MkII – October
Tiguan XL – Early 2018
Touareg MkIII – 2018
Compact SUV – 2018
Compact SUV/Coupe – Early 2019
Amarok-based SUV – TBC
MEB SUV EV – TBC
Tiguan CC – TBC
Atlas – TBC