Volkswagen has finally decided to give us a Tiguan that actually looks like it could take on the brutal wilderness and come back again in one piece. Previous Tiguan’s have been, well, to be frank, a little on the anaemic side of rough and tough. Now, though, VW seems to be getting serious with the new Tiguan GTE Active Concept, at least at the recent Detroit Motors Show where it was recently showcased.
It may not actually make it to production, but it does show you what happens when you cross the new MQB-Tiguan and give it a Jeep Trailhawk make-over and mate it all to a hybrid all-wheel-drive propulsion system.
The Tiguan GTE Active Concept is capable of running as a rear wheel drive at start up; the four-wheel-drive kicks in once traction is lost, with an electric motor on all four axles. Put aside any and all thoughts of zero-emissions, though, as the car is powered by a 148bhp, 1.4-litre TSI engine that puts out roughly the same 222bhp as the GTi when you add the electric output as well. In electric mode, you will only get a little over 110 kph, but that rises to almost 200 kph with a 0-100 time of 6.4 seconds, which is of course getting very close to hot-hatch territory.
Not surprisingly, there is a lot of very clever tech to keep the petrol consumption down to an acceptable level and to keep the battery efficiency high, with a kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) and coasting amongst the drivetrain’s functions. Unique to the Tiguan GTE is a full-length rooftop solar panel, which VW says can generate up to 621 miles of electric driving range annually.
It differs from VW’s previous Tiguan GTE concept with its off-road intentions. As well as knobbly tyres and copious underbody protection, the GTE Active Concept comes with a plethora of driving modes to ensure the ‘Active’ part of its name isn’t just some marketing waffle. Hence, driving modes suited to tarmac, rocks, gravel, sludge, snow and sand. But not all of these will be necessary down Rodeo Drive!
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