See all Motoring NewsJust in case you were thinking that its ambitions for global vehicular domination had gone off the boil, here's Volkswagen's rival to the Range Rover Sport.
Well, actually strictly speaking for now it's a concept, called the CrossBlue Coupé and it will be making its debut at the Shanghai Motor Show this weekend. Beneath the chiselled, low-roof body (which you can expect to see in more compact form on the next Tiguan) lies a hybrid petrol-electric plug-in powertrain that mixes V6 turbo TSI power (415hp and 700Nm of torque when combined with the electric motors) with 20km pure electric range on a full charge. The result is a big (longer than a current Touareg at 4.8 metres) SUV that can sprint from 0-100km/h in an estimated 5.9 seconds, yet with claimed fuel consumption of 3.0 litres per 100 kilometres. That's 94mpg, folks.
The incredible thing is that this big, fast and doubtlessly expensive SUV is closely related to the Golf. Under the skin lies the same MQB component set that we've already seen used to such good effect under the new Golf, SEAT Leon, Skoda Octavia and Audi A3. It just goes to show the breadth of Volkswagen's manufacturing capability.
And it's really not pie in the sky either. Whatever Volkswagen is officially saying about there being no plans for production, this or something very like it will be built at the company's US factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee with the first car due off the line in 2015.
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