The Volkswagen T-Roc crossover has been spied in Europe with a very minimal level of disguise.
Volkswagen has done away with the full-body camouflage used on earlier prototypes, with this car’s disguise limited primarily to gobs of deliberately obfuscating chrome around the grille, headlights, sills, and driving lights.
The company has also pasted red tape around the tail-lights and a chrome bar across the tailgate to help disguise those features.
From what we can see in these spy photos, Volkswagen’s design team has taken many of the cues from the 2014 three-door concept car and applied it to a five-door vehicle, including the bulging wheel arches, and the headlight and grille treatment.
The new T-Roc will slot in underneath the Tiguan. Expected to be around 4.3 metres long, the T-Roc will be pitched into fray against the Nissan Qashqai, Honda HR-V, Toyota C-HR, and others.
Thought to be based on the Volkswagen Group’s MQB platform, the T-Roc will likely be powered by a selection of turbocharged petrol and diesels engines tied to manual and dual-clutch transmissions, and the choice of either front- or all-wheel drive.
A report last last year indicated that the T-Roc would be available with turbocharged 1.0-litre three-cylinder and 1.5-litre four-cylnder petrol engines.
Down the line, a performance variant with a 2.0-litre turbo borrowed from the Golf GTI could be offered, as well as a plug-in hybrid and fully electric versions.
Australia
With the T-Roc already out and about in this state, we expect that it will be launched some time this year. The new city-friendly crossover likely won’t arrive in Australia before 2018, though.
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