By Otsile Kadiege

Volkswagen’s much-anticipated third-generation Tiguan has officially been unveiled. The newcomer spots a more grown up look, new progressive technologies, electrified powertrains a raft of driver assistance systems and MQB evo platform.

Expressive exterior design

The new Tiguan comes with a completely new design that ditches the outright sportiness of its predecessor for a more elegant look. As a particularly striking feature, the front of the compact SUV has a powerful look with very flat LED headlights with and glass-covered horizontal strip. Customer can opt for newly developed IQ.LIGHT HD matrix headlights. The radiator grille openings are now located at the outer sides of the bumper, where air curtains ensure optimum air routing. The cleanly designed front end highlights the fact that the drag coefficient has improved from 0.33 to 0.28. This silhouette is characterised by athletic shoulders over the wheel housings (with up to 20-inch wheels). A new horizontal LED strip adds emphasis to the Tiguan rear end.

Upmarket, high-tech interior

Inside, the Tiguan features a completely new concept and design. It stands out with its high standards of material and workmanship. In addition, the new cockpit landscape is intuitive to use, closely integrated, and has a clean and smart design. The modules include the new Digital Cockpit (digital instruments with anti-reflective coating in tablet landscape format), an infotainment screen that measures up to 15 inches and has an entirely new menu structure and graphics, a new head-up display (projections on to the windscreen) and a new multifunction driving experience switch with integrated OLED display. This new rotary control with its own mini screen can be used to control the driving profile, radio volume or also the background lighting colours. In contrast, numerous vehicle and infotainment functions can be easily adjusted using natural language with the new IDA voice assistant.

The new Tiguan has increased in length by approximately 3 cm. The height, width and wheelbase remain practically identical to the predecessor. The luggage compartment capacity of the new gen. shows just how good the use of space is: although the SUV is only slightly longer, its luggage compartment capacity has increased by 37 litres to 652 litres (when loaded up to the height of the rear seat backrests).

Driver assistance systems

The Tiguan is equipped with a host of convenience and assist systems as standard. In addition to Side Assist (lane change system), Front Assist (Autonomous Emergency Braking), Lane Assist (lane keeping system) and Rear View (rear view camera system), these also include Dynamic Road Sign Display. There will also be an extensive range of optional systems. These include among others the following technologies: Park Assist Pro with remote parking capability (for automatic driving into and out of parking spaces controlled by the driver from outside the vehicle using a smartphone app) or also Trailer Assist (for assisted manoeuvring with a trailer).

Electrified engines

Thanks to MQB evo, Volkswagen was able to implement various drive types  for the Tiguan. For example, there will be turbo diesel engines (TDI), turbo gasoline engines (TSI), mild hybrid turbo gasoline engines (eTSI) and plug-in hybrid systems (eHybrid), which will be offered exclusively in conjunction with the automatic transmission (DSG) in the future.

Like on the Volkswagen ID. models and the new Passat, the gear position will be changed in future by means of a steering column switch on the right of the steering wheel with a self-explanatory operating principle. The switch is turned forwards to “D” to drive forwards and backwards to “R” to reverse, while the parking brake is activated by pressing the side of the switch. All Tiguan models additionally have paddles behind the steering wheel.

The MQB evo provides the basis for a new running gear generation. Alongside a host of individual measures, Volkswagen has revamped the adaptive chassis control DCC: with the optional DCC Pro with two-valve shock absorbers. The new model is additionally equipped as standard with a Vehicle Dynamics Manager – an MQB system that made its debut in the current Golf GTI.