Fully-electric Volkswagen Tiguan has huge potential for release, CEO says

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The Volkswagen Tiguan has been such a success for the German manufacturer that it now regards it as an ‘icon’ product that should make the transition to full electrification in future – despite internal competition from VW’s ID4 and ID5 models.

Responding to a question in a Q&A session for media at this week’s Volkswagen AG annual conference, Group chief executive Oliver Blume said that the Tiguan SUV was an “icon” product for the group that is capable of being transformed into an EV.

“It has been the major advantage of the Volkswagen Group to have a great product portfolio and brand heritage, which sets it apart from many of those new automotive brands that are joining the market as well,” Blume said.

“I believe [our icons] can be transformed. For the [Porsche] 911 … we are going to offer hybrid powertrains in order to move towards e-mobility. But if you take the [Volkswagen] Golf or Tiguan, I can see a huge opportunity to turn [such a] product into an electric variant.

Amongst the ‘icon’ products that Blume indicated could be shifted to electric propulsion in future were the Tiguan SUV, the Golf small car and Golf GTI hot hatch, Audi’s Quattro line of AWD vehicles and the Porsche 911, which will instead become a hybrid ahead of a mooted EV 911 launch before 2030.

It is likely that a fully-electric Tiguan remains years away from release, with Volkswagen putting the final touches on what could be the final generation of combustion-powered Tiguans.

Earlier at the same event, Blume confirmed to media that the third-generation Tiguan would be revealed to the public before the end of 2023 – but it’s not expected to pack a full EV model at launch. Petrol and hybrid engines will feature, though.

As for when the mooted electric Tiguan could come along, it’s possible that Volkswagen will reserve such a release for when its existing ID4 and ID5 midsize EV SUV models come to the end of their lifecycles around 2027.

At that point, the Volkswagen Group will be preparing to launch a new unified Scalable Systems Platform (SSP) EV architecture that will underpin a large number of models across various Group brands.

As the MEB platform that supports the ID4 and ID5 winds down in the late 2020s, it could make sense to shift the Tiguan model to full electrification atop the SSP platform.

Such a plan could be echoed by a similar shift for the Golf small car onto SSP in order to replace what will then be the outgoing ID3 electric small car.