New Volkswagen Tayron seven-seat SUV: Skoda Kodiaq’s sister car to be revealed on 9 October
Volkswagen has announced its new seven-seat SUV, the VW Tayron, will be unveiled on 9 October. It’ll serve as the replacement for the VW Tiguan Allspace, and rival other large SUVs like the Kia Sorento and award-winning Skoda Kodiaq.
The Tayron name will be unfamiliar to UK motorists, but Volkswagen has been using it in the Chinese market for several years now. As well as confirming the nameplate’s introduction to local showrooms, the company also provided a glimpse of the rear end’s full-width light bar and illuminated VW badge.
We don’t have to wait until next month to know what the new Tayron looks like, however, as images of the car completely undisguised were recently shared by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
The design makes the Tayron instantly recognisable as the third-generation Tiguan’s big brother. Both cars use the same modern and understated styling, right down to the very wide front grille and rear light bar treatment. Based on the patent images, the Tayron is also going to be offered in sportier-looking R-Line specification that adds a more aggressive front bumper and larger side air intakes with a gloss black finish.
Our spy shots of the Tayron undergoing testing also suggest the rear doors have been lengthened to help with accessing the second and third rows of seats.
We’ve not had a look inside the Tayron yet, but we expect the interior will be identical to the Tiguan’s, which gets a 10.25-inch digital driver’s display and 12.9-inch central touchscreen as standard, but an even larger 15-inch screen should be available as an optional extra. There should be some physical buttons dotted around the cabin, as well as the brand’s usual touch-sensitive climate controls that are now backlit, unlike earlier cars.
The Tayron will be based on the same MQB Evo platform as the Tiguan, and the Skoda Kodiaq. That means future buyers should get a choice of diesel, mild-hybrid petrol and pure-petrol engines, plus a plug-in hybrid powertrain that, in the Skoda, offers a pure-electric range of up to 75 miles.
That EV range and subsequently low CO2 emissions offered by the plug-in Kodiaq iV allows it to fall into the very low 5 per cent Benefit-in-Kind (BiK) tax bracket for fleet drivers, and the same should be true for the Tayron PHEV. For context, electric cars attract a 2 per cent BiK rating.
We expect prices for the Volkswagen Tayron will start from between £38,000 and £40,000, as the base price for the Tiguan is currently £34,075 while the Kodiaq starts from £36,645.