The second-generation Volkswagen T-Roc was first spied testing more than a year ago, and since then it’s been confirmed the new small SUV will debut at the Munich motor show in September.
Now Autocar reports the replacement for the German brand’s top-selling car – both globally and in Australia – will be revealed a month earlier in August.
Furthermore, it cites Volkswagen CEO Thomas Schäfer as saying its new Toyota-style hybrid powertrain, which will also feature in the Golf and Tiguan, will be necessary in markets where consumer demand is shifting away from battery-electric vehicles (EVs) and towards hybrid vehicles (HEVs).
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“Interestingly enough, HEV has also become a big theme in the US specifically. It’s a technology that everybody said was not necessary any more, but now with the BEV slowdown in the US, the balance is [moving towards] HEVs,” said Mr Schäfer, who added that Volkswagen is “experimenting now because certain regions are gliding into HEVs”.
“We needed to do it anyway, because South America has a need for an HEV drivetrain – and the T-Roc is built in South America for South America, and also in China.”
Like Toyota’s tried and proven hybrid systems, Volkswagen’s first parallel hybrid powertrain will be able to drive a vehicle’s wheels with a petrol engine, an electric motor, or a combination of both at any given time.
Volkswagen already has a range of mild-hybrid (MHEV), plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and battery-electric powertrains in its range, less than a decade before it will be forced to go all-EV in Europe at least.
However, Mr Schäfer indicated the new HEV system wouldn’t be made available in models already offered with PHEV power, saying that Volkswagen will “see where it makes sense” elsewhere in the brand’s lineup beyond the MkII T-Roc, but “we’re not going to double everything up; we will have PHEV and HEV models”.
A Volkswagen spokesperson subsequently told Autocar the company’s new HEV system will be added to the Golf and Tiguan in the next two years, but will not appear in every VW model based on the same MQB platform as the T-Roc.
However, the Volkswagen Group’s new hybrid system will also reportedly be used in the Skoda Octavia, with other possibilities including the Tayron and Passat, as well as the Audi A3, the Cupra Leon and Formentor, and the Skoda Scala, Kodiaq and Superb.
The hybrid system is part of the Volkswagen Group’s €60 billion (A$103bn) investment in combustion-engine development by 2028.
The new hybrid powertrain will reportedly combine a turbocharged 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine with an electric motor, providing total power outputs of between 150-200kW, and torque peaks of between 350-400Nm.
Volkswagen has offered a traditional hybrid system before, including in the four-cylinder Jetta sedan built in the US during the 2010s, and in the V6-powered second-generation Touareg.
But following the Dieselgate scandal the German giant pivoted from specialising in diesel cars to investing heavily in EVs – as well as PHEVs, although they have only recently been offered locally by Audi and Cupra, with the Touraeg R being VW’s sole PHEV here and Skoda Australia yet to offer one.
Given the new T-Roc won’t have its global public premiere until August, the redesigned small SUV won’t be released in Australia until at least 2026.
While it’s unconfirmed at this stage if the T-Roc hybrid – or VW’s other new hybrids – will come to Australia, Volkswagen could stand to benefit from such an option locally.
Besides hybrid giant Toyota, other brands to offer hybrid powertrains in Australia include GWM, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, MG and Nissan.
The original T-Roc continues to be Volkswagen’s best-selling car (excluding the Amarok ute) in Australia, where 1866 examples have been sold to April this year – almost 25 per cent fewer than in the first third of 2024.
Its successor was first spied in Europe about 12 months ago, but leaked images of an undisguised T-Roc earlier this year showed the new small SUV will adopt a similar slimline front-end design (headlights and grille) to the larger Tiguan, rather than the larger units suggested by the deceptive camouflage seen on prototypes.
