- First outing for sporty-looking R-Line version of next U.S. Tiguan
- SUV is based on China’s VW Tayron and not the new Euro Tiguan
- Europe is rumored to be getting the Tayron for Tigaun buyers who need seven seats
When is a Tiguan not a Tiguan? When it’s actually a Tayron. While VW in Europe has just unveiled the third generation of the two-row Tiguan SUV, the North American arm of the firm is getting ready to pull the covers off an entirely different machine that will still bear the Tiguan name, but is based on a three-row SUV sold in Asia as the Tayron.
Our spy photographers caught America’s 2025 Tiguan testing in Sweden recently riding on small wheels and looking fairly frumpy in a mid-level trim. But now they’ve spied the sporty R-Line version being put through its paces at the Nurburgring in Germany, and while the R bits haven’t exactly transformed it into style icon, they definitely add to its appeal.
Related: This Is America’s 2025 VW Tiguan, Also Known As The New Seven-Seater Tayron
This isn’t a full R model – it’s not certain that VW will make one of those – but the R-Line trim pushes most of the same aesthetic buttons. Most obviously it brings two huge air intakes sited at either end of the wide mouth, each equipped with a fat pair of horizontal slats and connected by what looks like a section of security fence that VW’s engineers have glued in and painted black.
Maybe that grille – which is similar to the style seen on the new ID.Buzz GTX – will make more sense when we get to see the Tiguan without the camo wrap that’s mounted above it on this prototype and masquerading as a grille. When it’s peeled off later this year for the official launch we’ll see a narrow channel between the LED lights containing a light bar, just like the one on the Mk8 Golf.
There’s more fakery going on at the back of this test car in the form of a set of tailpipes made out of stickers, while yet more camouflage attempts to disguise the LED rear light clusters and the illuminated bar that connects them. But there’s nothing fake about the sports seats that we can just about make out in a couple of the images.
We hear that America’s 2025 Tiguan will get a 2.0-liter turbocharged, mild-hybrid engine and seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, plus a choice of front- and all-wheel drive power options. But potentially of more interest given the rising popularity of full hybrids in the U.S. is a rumor that says VW will bring a PHEV option to the continent for the first time.
If the Tigaun-Tayron story sounds like it’s now making sense, allow us to add a bit of confusion back into the mix. Because Europe is also expected to take the same car as a replacement for the old long-wheelbase Tiguan Allspace – which is the Tiguan currently sold in the U.S. And it’s doing that despite a long wheelbase version of the new European Tiguan having just been revealed in China.
