autoevolution
 

Next-Generation Volkswagen Touareg Spotted In South Africa With Arteon Face

Volkswagen’s engineering team was spotted in South Africa with a prototype of the upcoming Touareg.
Volkswagen Touareg spotted next to next-gen VW Polo 1 photo
Photo: carmag.co.za
The SUV from the German brand was parked next to one of its smaller brothers, the 2018 VW Polo. We discussed the latter in a separate article, so it is time to talk abouy the Arteon-inspired 2018 Touareg, of which we only have a single photo.

The image was sent to Car Magazine’s South African division by one of its readers, Martin Swart. The reader mentioned that he was close to getting pictures of the interior of the prototypes, but Volkswagen employees managed to come and cover the vehicles before he had time to photograph the interiors.

Regardless, this is the first image of the next-generation Touareg in the wild without any camouflage. The cars were spotted at the OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa.

As you can see, the front end reminds us of the Arteon, the recently revealed flagship from VW, and the body also has cues from the T-Prime GTE. Both have been blended to obtain the look that will be launched on the third generation Touareg.

The German automaker will build this model on the MLB Evo platform, which is already employed by the Audi Q7, while the Bentley Bentayga also has similar underpinnings. Volkswagen AG plans to fit the setup to the next-generation Porsche Cayenne, and Lamborghini’s first SUV, Urus, will also share the underpinnings.

While people might imagine that sharing platforms will allow someone to fit Lamborghini parts on a Volkswagen Touareg, we say that you must not get your hopes up.

Usually, each of the brands that get a platform like this operates changes on it, which may lead to the impossibility of switching parts between the vehicles that have similar underpinnings.

The different settings applied to the shared components allow each carmaker to provide its version of the platform with “character,” along with a predefined handling model, all decided before the development work begins.
If you liked the article, please follow us:  Google News icon Google News Youtube Instagram X (Twitter)
About the author: Sebastian Toma
Sebastian Toma profile photo

Sebastian's love for cars began at a young age. Little did he know that a career would emerge from this passion (and that it would not, sadly, involve being a professional racecar driver). In over fourteen years, he got behind the wheel of several hundred vehicles and in the offices of the most important car publications in his homeland.
Full profile

 

Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?

You will only receive our top stories