Volkswagen Tiguan R on the cards for Oz

Volkswagen Australia has reaffirmed its desire to offer enthusiasts the hottest version of its Tiguan SUV thus far – the Volkswagen Tiguan R.

Unveiled overnight alongside a facelifted Tiguan range due to reach Australian showrooms next year the Tiguan R is powered by the Volkswagen Group’s ubiquitous EA888 2.0-litre turbo-petrol engine and will be available in Europe in the coming weeks.

The Volkswagen Tiguan R will produce 235kW and will come standard with a revised version of the Volkswagen Group's seven-speed dual-clutch automatic.

The new performance SUV will apportion torque via “a new all-wheel drive [system] with selective wheel torque control.” VW calls it “R-Performance Torque Vectoring” – the rough translation being a system capable of distributing power variably to the wheels, both front to back and side-to-side.

Volkswagen is keeping the remaining Tiguan R details close to its chest.

Speaking with carsales, a Volkswagen Australia spokesman said there was an appetite locally for the forthcoming Tiguan R.

"We’d love to offer it. Australia remains one of the biggest markets worldwide for R cars, so it would be a perfect fit for us," he said.

It is not yet known whether the Tiguan R will be produced in right-hand drive, but carsales understands there is a strong likelihood.

Last year, Volkswagen Australia officials confirmed they had made their appetite for the Tiguan R clear to Wolfsburg HQ in Germany.

"I think Australia would be the perfect market for it [Tiguan R] because of not only the strong uptake of performance models but because we're an SUV market," said Volkswagen Group Australia's product manager, Jeff Shafer.

Shafer told carsales that as well as the sporty Tiguan R, Volkswagen Australia has also put its hand up for the smaller T-Roc R that, alongside the Golf R and Golf R wagon, would double its high-performance model range Down Under.

Shafer said that the production T-Roc R would arrive in Europe in the "not too distant future" and said Volkswagen Australia wanted it "as early as possible", but stated there were a couple of things on the technical side it was working with the factory to resolve.

That could be a reference to ensuring the upgraded turbocharged 2.0-litre engine can run at full power on Australia's notoriously poor-quality fuel.

It's rumoured that the facelifted Tiguan and Tiguan R could be replaced as soon as 2022 with an all-new third-generation SUV that will switch to a more radical 'coupe' shape potentially inspired by the 2013 Shanghai BlueCross concept.

With an incredible 850,000 examples sold in 2018 alone, the current Tiguan has become a huge success, becoming Volkswagen’s best-selling nameplate globally.

Australia, meanwhile, has cemented itself as the third-biggest market for VW's high-performance 'R' models globally, beaten only by Germany and the UK for volume.

2021 Volkswagen Tiguan facelift revealed