Volkswagen Tiguan Coupe spied and rendered

A ‘coupe’ version of the Volkswagen Tiguan has long been in the German car-maker’s plans, but confirmation of a fastback-style derivative of the popular mid-size SUV family has finally arrived via carsales’ Mexican affiliate Soloautos.

These spy shots arrive courtesy of a Facebook user who spotted this black Tiguan Coupe in testing, while the renderings of the silver car here come via Russian website Kolesa.ru.

The only visible cladding on this pre-production prototype is on the VW badge up front, proving it’s not just prestige brands like Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche that are creating swoopy SUV.

Unfortunately, there are no images of the all-important rear-end, where the main changes take place, but the side profile images and the Kolesa renders give away the coupe-style body we’re used to seeing on SUVs such as the Audi Q2, Q3 Sportback and Q8, BMW X2, X4, X6 and upcoming X8, and the Mercedes-Benz GLC and GLE Coupes.

According to Soloautos, the first market likely to get the Tiguan Coupe – which could be called Tiguan X or Tiguan Cross Sport in certain markets – will be China, followed by Europe and possibly North America.

Like the Volkswagen Tiguan itself, expect the coupe-crossover to be powered by the same 110kW 1.4-litre and 140kW 2.0-litre TSI turbo-petrol engines, as well as a potent circa-260kW 2.0-litre turbo-petrol four from the AWD-only Tiguan R due in 2021.

Naturally, the Volkswagen Tiguan Coupe will be positioned above the regular Tiguan, which became the German car-maker’s top-seller globally in 2019, and which will be joined in Australia by the small T-Cross and T-Roc imminently.

Perhaps the only question is whether the third Tiguan body style will, as widely reported, be based not on the second-generation mid-size SUV launched in 2016 but the long-wheelbase Allspace seven-seat version released soon afterwards.

And whether COVID-related market and development issues will see Volkswagen delay its launch until after that of the third-generation Tiguan, which is itself set to become far more stylish, emerges around 2022.

Either way, if the Volkswagen Tiguan Coupe is in fact based on the current Allspace, it will ride on a 2787mm wheelbase and measure around 4.7 metres long and 1840mm wide, making it smaller than the BMW X4.

If it shares its platform with the regular Tiguan, the Coupe will effectively be a cut-price version of the 4500mm-long Audi Q3 Sportback.