Image: Volkswagen Australia
German car maker Volkswagen has announced plans to make an all electric version of the popular Tiguan SUV, but it will not appear on German roads until 2026.
According to the German media outlet Handelsblatt, Volkswagen announced at a council meeting at its headquarters that the new Tiguan will be unveiled in 2025.
From there it would be put into production by 2026 at Volkswagen’s main plant in Wolfsburg, Germany.
Sources familiar with the discussions of the meeting told the outlet that the new Tiguan will be based on the upgraded version of the MEB EV architecture, known as the MEB-Plus platform. This platform will be first used in the upcoming all-electric Volkswagen Golf.
It’s unclear what the exact specifications of the Tiguan would be but it’s likely that it would contain a new Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) battery pack.
It’s expected that these battery packs can be charged at up to 200 kW of charging power. It is a step up from VW’s current ID.4 which currently tops at 175 kW although the base models can’t charge faster than 118 kW.
This LFP pack is currently the most popular battery pack in Australia given Tesla’s use of this chemistry in its new single-motor vehicles.
In Europe, Volkswagen sold over 130,000 of Tiguan SUVs last year. Here in Australia, the brand splits its Tiguan into two models, the Tiguan and the 7-seater Tiguan Allspace.
Volkswagen sold 2,658 of its most popular SUV under the Tiguan model while selling 3,876 of the Tiguan Allspace for a total of 6,543 sales for the Tiguan brand in 2022.
The 2026 production timeline of the all-electric Volkswagen Tiguan in Europe means Australia is unlikely to see this model reach our shores until 2027 or even later. VW still has not brought its ID.3, ID.4 or ID.5 electric models to Australia, although the first of these are expected to arrive later this year.
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.
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