New Volkswagen Tayron seven-seat SUV leaked online: Skoda Kodiaq’s sister car coming soon

This is the new Volkswagen Tayron: a large SUV that will be available with seven seats, meaning it’s the replacement for the VW Tiguan Allspace, and an alternative to cars like the Nissan X-Trail, Kia Sorento and award-winning Skoda Kodiaq.

We suspect the Tayron will be officially revealed very soon because images of the car completely undisguised were shared by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

The Tayron name will be unfamiliar to European motorists as it’s only been used by Volkswagen in the Chinese market until now. However the design makes this 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. 

Of course, in order to accommodate a seven-seat layout, the Tayron will be longer than the Tiguan, and have a longer wheelbase too. We expect the Tayron to measure more than 4.7 metres from nose to tail, with a wheelbase of nearly 2.8 metres, compared to the Mk3 Tiguan that’s 4,539mm long and has a wheelbase of 2,676mm.

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.

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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.

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