Part of no less than 4 world debuts at the autoshow.
Automotive heavyweight Volkswagen has taken to the Auto Shanghai show with guns blazing, welcoming the opening of one of China’s biggest automotive expositions with no less than 4 world debuts. The ID.Roomzz we’ve already covered, but the other three cars are pretty interesting, as we’ll show you.
The three debutants are the SMV & SUV Coupé Concepts, as well as the Teramont X production car. That’s right, the enormous Teramont (which some of you may know as the US-market Atlas) has gained a swoopy roofline here, which we actually thinks looks surprisingly good sitting atop the blocky & masculine lower-half. It’s clear that they haven’t gone mental with the ‘SUV Coupé’ thing and retained quite a lot of the standard car’s interior practicality, though it’s now shorter & lower than the big 7-seater the Teramont X is based on.
The SUV Coupé Concept might seem a bit duplicitous given the debut of the production-ready Teramont X, but there’s reason for its existence. See, the SUV Coupé is actually smaller (though it doesn’t look it), and occupies a size broadly-similar to that of a Tiguan Allspace. It’s based on the China-only VW Tayron and it ought to enter production later this year, and find motivation from 2.0-litre TSI petrol mills.
With swoopy-roofed SUVs all-the-rage in China, the SUV Coupé will be VW’s smallest such model in China, though there’s presently no plans to bring it out of the country. We find that to be a bit of a shame, because while the entire CarShowroom Team is unanimous in our hatred of swoopy-roofed SUVs, there’s little doubt that such a model would sell in droves in damn-nearly any market you can choose from.
The big bruiser of the debutants here is the SMV Concept which differentiates itself from the other two cars not only in terms of absolute dimensions, but also because it is not a swoopy-roofed SUV. No, the SMV is a far more ‘traditional’ SUV with an upright stance and conventional roofline, underpinned by the widely-utilised MQB platform that it shares most notably with the Teramont in China.
It’ll share powertrains with the Teramont too, with the 2.0TSI mill in either 136kW or 161kW guises, or the larger 2.5-litre TSI VR6 engine with 220kW and 500Nm. Power in that model will go to all-four wheels via a 4Motion system and a 7-speed DSG automatic.
The SMV and SUV Coupé concept cars may have the ‘concept’ suffix on their names, but it’s nearly a given that these cars will spawn production iterations very soon. The Teramont X on the other hand is production-ready and should commence deliveries in the middle of this year. Once again we’re seeing Volkswagen flex its muscles in the world’s largest automotive market, aided by local partners FAW and SAIC, with every new product destined to catapult the company to greater and greater heights.
If only we got the imaginative models, too.
For the best deals on a new car, check out our Showroom.
