Last Sunday, Volkswagen announced that it will move production of the new Tiguan, due in 2017, to North America. The next-gen Tiguan will grow in size and measure a bit more than 4 m (158 inches) in length, which will allow it to feature a third row of seats.

This led to speculation that VW may introduce a new, smaller crossover that will be based on the platform of the Golf and slot in below the Tiguan. It is a reasonable assumption to make, especially since VW itself showed the Golf-based T-ROC two-door crossover concept at the 2014 Geneva Auto Show, and has been confirmed by head of product development for the VW brand Heinz-Jacob Neusser.

“The next step we’re thinking about is a Golf SUV”, Neusser told WardsAuto. “It’s very early to be talking about, but we are thinking about it. This is something that could fit in the US market – but step by step. We can’t do everything simultaneously.”

This would increase VW’s North American SUV models to four, including the full-size Touareg and the upcoming mid-size CrossBlue. The latter, set to debut as a seven-seater, will spawn different variants, once of which will reportedly be the GTE plug-in hybrid unveiled last week at the Detroit Auto Show, which is sportier and comes with a five-seat configuration.

“It’s clear that when segments are growing, there is space for different body types”, commented Neusser. That much is clear from the likes of BMW and Mercedes-Benz, which have added the sporty X6 and GLE crossovers to their SUV line-up.

While VW did not divulge the plant where the next Tiguan will be built, its Puebla plant in Mexico looks likely to get the contract. At the same time, it plans to introduce a small crossover at its Skoda plant in the Czech Republic.

“We have the advantage that, because all these are built on the MQB modular toolkit, we have the possibility of building them in the same factories as other cars”, said Neusser. “We can use a lot of common parts, get a lot of economies of scale and offer gasolibe, diesel, plug-in hybrid, full hybrid versions – everything we want.”

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