Volkswagen has provided us with a glimpse of what its new sporty crossover coupe, christened Taigo could look like. The Taigo will be sold alongside the VW T-cross, which is currently VW’s smallest SUV on sale in Europe. More specifically, the Taigo is a European version of the VW Nivus, which was developed by VW particularly for the South American markets. Hence, the Taigo will be a version of the Nivus more suited and tailored to the European conditions.
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The Nivus is based on VW’s MQB A0 platform and the Taigo will most certainly be underpinned by the same. No points for guessing that the heavily localised MQB A0 IN platform will underpin a lot of new generation VW and Skoda cars in India, under VW’s India 2.0 strategy. The Skoda Kushaq which was revealed earlier this month and the VW Taigun which has made its debut today, are both underpinned by the MQB A0 IN platform.
The Taigo’s dimensions will be quite similar to the Taigun. Also, in terms of design, you can see it is based on the new generation of VW’s design language and bears quite a resemblance to the VW Arteon. A point to be noted is that the images revealed showcase a more concept-spec Taigo than a production-spec. It will enter production soon and go on sale in Europe later this year and should carry a significant amount of the concept package into the production-spec.
Some noteworthy features include LED lights, cruise control, multifunction steering, auto headlamps, a digital instrument cluster, paddle shifters, driving modes, front parking sensors, and the fancy connected car technology.
The Nivus is powered by a 1.0L TSI engine that produces 128HP of peak power and comes mated to a 6-speed automatic transmission as standard. All in certainty, although VW hasn’t confirmed, the Taigo should feature the same engine under its hood unless VW goes against our better judgement.
Talking about the VW group in India, they have already unveiled the Skoda Kushaq and will follow that up by unveiling the Taigun tomorrow. Also, VW has lined up 4 launches for India this year and is going all guns blazing under its India 2.0 strategy wherein it has invested around EUR 1 billion to grow its own and Skoda’s presence in the Indian subcontinent for the long term and VW is swiftly unveiling new products under the same to make a strong impact. The Taigo might make its way into India considering the compact crossover segment is a hotly contested one in India and the Taigo’s sporty character and coupe-ish design might freshen up the segment, but it probably won’t happen anytime soon.