VW Tiguan getting a Golf-inspired makeover for 2022
Introduced in 2007, the Tiguan has elbowed its way onto the list of models that define Volkswagen as a brand. It doesn't have the Golf's vast heritage, but it outsells it by a comfortable margin. The company will give its bestseller comprehensive updates inside and out for the 2022 model year to help it continue its success story, and Autoblog quizzed some of the people responsible for the refresh to learn more about what they have in store.
We didn't want to breach social-distancing etiquette, so we received a design sketch via email and talked over the phone instead of trekking to Germany to see the Tiguan in person. We can nonetheless tell stylists took the front end in a sharper, sportier direction by making the lights thinner, adding a pair of LED elements on each side, and installing a more contoured grille. The headlights stretch into the fenders, a styling cue borrowed from the eighth-generation Golf, and the lower bumper receives a bigger air dam. European buyers will have access to Matrix beam lights, too, but this technology won't be available in the United States because it's not legal yet.
There are more changes inside, including a redesigned steering wheel and Volkswagen's touchscreen-based MIB3 infotainment system. Here again, the improvements bring the Tiguan in line with the Golf. "It will be 100% connected, upgradable over-the-air, it will offer online services, and it will get voice recognition software," Henrik Muth, Volkswagen's head of product marketing, explained as he charted the changes. The online services offered will include a feature that lets drivers reserve and pay for a parking spot, and a type of in-car app store.
The big news on the specifications sheet is the addition of a gasoline-electric plug-in hybrid powertrain capable of powering the Tiguan on electricity alone for about 31 miles. Don't get too excited, though, because it's not coming to the United States. "That is something we are looking at, you may see it in the successor of the Tiguan, but the face-lifted model won't offer a hybrid version," Hein Schafer, Volkswagen's senior vice president of product marketing and strategy, said regarding the American-spec model. He cited cost concerns as one reason why Volkswagen will restrict the plug-in hybrid model to the European market.
Both executives stayed quiet when asked about the Tiguan R we recently spotted lapping the Nürburgring track in Germany. The spy shots are accurate, Volkswagen really is testing a hot-rodded Tiguan on a circuit, but it's too early to tell whether we'll see it in American showrooms, or if it will stay across the pond with its fuel-sipping plug-in sibling. "We want to enrich the Tiguan's lineup with a performance version" is the official company line.
Volkswagen will unveil the face-lifted Tiguan in the summer of 2020, though it hasn't given a precise date yet, and the model is scheduled to reach American showrooms for the 2022 model year. Pricing information will be announced in the weeks leading up to its on-sale date. For context, the 2020 Tiguan starts at $24,945.
What's next?
Looking ahead, the Tiguan will be joined in showrooms by a smaller, more affordable crossover that hasn't been named or unveiled yet. The upcoming entry-level model is as low as Volkswagen is planning to go in the soft-roader hierarchy, at least for the time being. It sells several smaller models globally, like the stylish T-Roc and the tiny T-Cross available in Europe, but they're not coming to the United States anytime soon due to their size.
"As you approach $22,000 or $23,000, there seems to be a lot of very small compact SUVs in which you really are making a compromise in terms of space," Schafer pointed out. He acknowledged the segment is growing in the United States, but he pointed out motorists place roominess higher on their list of priorities than European drivers. "The entry SUV that we're going to bring doesn't compromise too much in terms of packaging. You're still going to fit a family of five, and you're still going to have reasonable trunk space. It's not going to get below $20,000, but we believe it's perfectly positioned," he said. We won't have to wait much longer to find out.
What's certain, according to Schafer, is that America's love affair with SUVs isn't going to fizzle out anytime soon. The body style accounted for 57% of VW's U.S. sales in 2019, and he thinks that figure will keep growing.
"I think the trend of sedans declining will continue, and I think the trend of the SUV segment growing will continue, too," he said. "We're putting more models into our offer structure. The market is running in that direction, the customers are running in that direction, and all the brands in the United States are launching a lot of cars in that segment. That trend will continue to grow to 60% or maybe even 70%."
