Currently unable to fight any of the available three-row SUVs on the US market, VW will, as of 2016, have a contender in the category, following the announcement made by company CEO Martin Winterkorn. We kind of knew this already, but now that it’s been officially confirmed, we are certain of its arrival.
Another thing we already knew about the upcoming seven-seater is what it’s going to look like. As you probably may have heard before, VW will basically be making a production version out of the CrossBlue concept, so expect to see a toned down version of that vehicle’s design.
However, there are things we can only speculate on for another year or so, and one of them is the engine range that it will be available with; the concept they showed featured what may have been a version of the same unit found in the Amarok pickup, a 2.0-liter diesel with 190 hp, boosted by an electric motor for a total of 304 hp.
The likelihood of the production version receiving an oil burner is very high, though a bigger 3.0-liter unit would suit the size and character of the vehicle far better and be much simpler than the hybrid setup of the concept. Expect petrol engines to be in the range too, and also expect liberal use of forced induction and hybridization methods to be the norm.
By Andrei Nedelea
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