Volkswagen presented the completely redeveloped Touareg in China – the flagship of the brand. Equipped with the connectivity of a new era and a pioneering fusion of assistance, comfort, lighting and infotainment systems, the Volkswagen Touareg points the way to the future. At the same time, the exclusive SUV charges up its market segment with pure dynamism. The largest markets for what is now the third generation of the Touareg are China, Europe and Russia. Worldwide sales of the previous two generations amount to nearly one million units. The Volkswagen Touareg – as comfortable as it is dynamic – has, as the most technically advanced Volkswagen of its era, the potential to enthuse technology and design savvy drivers of premium class models of all sorts, reaching new target groups as well.
Volkswagen is presenting the fully digitalised Innovision Cockpit for the first time in the new Touareg. Here the digital instruments (Digital Cockpit with 12-inch display) and the top Discover Premium infotainment system (with 15-inch display) merge to form a digital operating, information, communication and entertainment unit that hardly needs any conventional buttons or switches. Always-on, offering intuitive control and maximum personalisation – with the Innovision Cockpit, the Volkswagen Touareg provides the blueprint for tomorrow’s digital interior today.
The VW Touareg is launching with the largest range of assistance, handling and comfort systems ever to be integrated into a Volkswagen. They include technologies such as the ‘Night Vision’ assistance system (detects people and animals in darkness via a thermal imaging camera), Roadwork Lane Assist (semi-automated steering and lane keeping, accelerating and braking up to 60 km/h), Front Cross Traffic Assist (reacts to cross traffic in front of the Touareg), active all-wheel steering (makes the Touareg handle like a compact car), new roll stabilisation with electro-mechanically controlled anti-roll bars and ‘IQ.Light – LED matrix headlights’ (interactive, camera-based dipped and main beam headlight control) and a ‘Windshield Head-up Display’ projected directly into the windscreen. The driver experiences these systems as a single unit in the new Volkswagen Touareg. They are simply there – interconnected via a new central control unit – working imperceptibly in the background and making travel safer, more convenient and more intuitive than ever.
Compared to its predecessor, the third generation Touareg is moderately wider and longer. The new dimensions have positive effects on both the vehicle’s proportions and its amount of interior space. The added exterior length leads, for example, to a significantly larger luggage compartment: its capacity has increased from 697 to 810 litres (with rear bench seat up). Cargo there is hidden from onlookers by an optional electrically extending and retracting luggage compartment cover. Despite its increased length and width, the car body is 106 kg lighter because of its mixed material construction of aluminium (48 per cent) and high-tech steels (52 per cent).
Volkswagen will be offering the VW Touareg with a new plug-in hybrid drive (270 kW/367 PS system power) in China initially. The exact European launch date for the Touareg with a plug-in hybrid drive is still open; in Europe, two V6 diesels with 170 kW/231 PS and 210 kW/286 PS will be offered at first. This will also be followed by a V6 petrol engine (250 kW/340 PS) and a V8 turbodiesel (310 kW/421 PS) for many different markets. The 231 PS TDI develops a maximum torque of 500 Nm, while the 286 PS TDI develops 600 Nm. The TSI reaches a maximum torque of 450 Nm, and the V8 develops a hefty 900 Nm. These power output and torque ranges guarantee the largest maximum trailer weights in the segment. The new, third generation Touareg continues to be equipped with permanent all-wheel drive (4MOTION) as standard. The all-wheel drive is coupled to an 8-speed automatic gearbox (with ‘shift by wire’ and a selector lever position indicator in the instrument cluster), likewise as standard, which can transfer drive torques of up to 1,000 Nm. A centre differential lock with asymmetrically dynamic torque distribution acts as the transfer box between the front and rear axles. A maximum of 70 per cent of drive torque can be applied to the front wheels and up to 80 per cent to the rear wheels.
The new Touareg, which comes with all-wheel drive as standard, has 4MOTION Active Control with driving mode selection. The system is operated via the 4MOTION Active Control switch on the centre console. The driver uses it to activate four higher-level modes and various pop-up menus. The driver turns the rotary switch to the left to access the on-road profiles. When the switch is turned to the right, the off-road profiles are accessed. 4MOTION Active Control adapts all relevant assistance systems to the driving situation in just seconds. Also included as standard: driving mode selection. Here, the driver can individually control – according to the standard and optional equipment installed – parameters for the automatic gearbox, automatic air conditioner, steering, various assistance systems, 4-corner air suspension, Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and the throttle response of the engine.
