Official: VW bringing high-riding T-Roc concept to Geneva

[Haltech]

Filed under: Concept Cars, Geneva Motor Show, Crossover, Volkswagen



Volkswagen is no stranger to building crossover concepts. In just the past few years it has debuted the three-row CrossBlue, midsize Cross Coupe and tiny Taigun, and it has yet one will bow at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show: the sporty, compact T-Roc concept. The little CUV rides on the company's flexible MQB architecture, just like the Cross Coupe concept, and is meant to show a possible step down from the Tiguan.

VW claims that the four-seat T-Roc looks to the future of where it could take CUV design, but according to VW North America Product and Technology Manager Mark Gillies, there is "no production grounding at all in it." It is a "pure concept." After all, this thing is pretty concept-y, right up to those two, removable roof panels.

The two-door concept blends short overhangs with a relatively wide track to make it look like a little, blue billy goat ready to head off road. The front is dominated by a narrow grille with LED headlights in slits on either end. Below them are Juke-like light pods that combine LED foglights in the center with swiveling LEDs at the top, and a camera in the bottom. Similar pods in the rear look like exhaust ports at first, but are actually reversing lights, rear foglights and cameras.

A 2.0-liter TDI diesel four-cylinder with 182 horsepower and 230 pound-feet of torque is mated to a seven-speed DSG, and the T-Roc moves down to the road via VW's 4Motion all-wheel-drive system. With a claimed weight of 3,131 pounds, VW thinks it could reach 62 miles per hour in 6.9 seconds all the way to a top speed of 131 mph. It would get an estimated 48 miles per gallon (4.9 liters per 100 kilometers) in the EU cycle.



The interior features completely digital displays with a 12.3-inch color unit for the instruments, a portable tablet as the infotainment display and AMOLED climate controls. Even the rear-view mirror is a display for the rear cameras. It is all quite reminiscent of what was shown for the next-gen Audi TT. With the windows down and roof panels off, VW claims the T-Roc feels like driving a convertible. Or maybe like a Jeep Wrangler.

The T-Roc seems like a clever way for VW to combine aggressive looks with a compact shape, but we don't expect to see actual images of the concept until the moment it debuts at Geneva - we just have these renderings, for now. Thus, we'll withhold full judgement until then. Scroll down for the full details on VW's latest concept.Continue reading VW bringing high-riding T-Roc concept to Geneva

VW bringing high-riding T-Roc concept to Geneva originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 27 Feb 2014 18:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.



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