“The best of all automotive worlds”

Sport utility vehicles (SUVs) are on trend. They are safe, comfortable and give drivers a feeling of freedom. On the trail of a success story.

Sport utility vehicles – here the Volkswagen T-Roc – get high marks for safety and comfort.

On a cold winter day, an old acquaintance visits Robert Schmid. His guest used to drive Volkswagens, but then he switched to the competition. Now he’s standing at Schmid’s desk at the Volkswagen dealership in Munich and is set on trying out a T-Roc. “We test drove it the same day. Right afterward, the customer bought the car. We won him back after more than ten years with our SUV offensive,” says Sales Manager Schmid.

The scene in Volkswagen’s Munich dealership is currently being repeated at many car dealers: Sport utility vehicles, or SUVs, are top sellers. In the past, Schmid remembers, all-wheel drive SUVs were mainly for people who took frequent trips to the mountains.

Robert Schmid is the Sales Manager at MAHAG, Volkswagen’s Munich dealership.

Thanks to many additional models in various vehicle classes, that has changed. “Young families buy SUVs, so do single people and retired couples,” Schmid states. Many business clients are also choosing sport utility vehicles.

In Schmid’s experience, SUVs are attractive to customers for three key reasons: visibility, safety, comfort. “The seating position in an SUV is high. This gives me a better overview of the street so I can see earlier if I need to react to a risky situation,” the sales manager says. He explained that many customers also find it very easy to climb in and out of an SUV. “Once they have decided on an SUV, they won't forego this level of comfort.”

The new Volkswagen Touareg: Top marks for the new Volkswagen Touareg in crash tests by European consumer protection organization Euro NCAP.

The safety of modern SUVs was demonstrated recently by an independent crash test by the European consumer protection organization Euro NCAP. The result: Top marks for the Volkswagen Touareg, which received the maximum possible rating of five stars. From passenger protection to pedestrian protection – the luxury-class model performed very well in all individual categories. The new Touareg’s safety features include an optimized body structure, belt/seat/airbag unit, and innovative driver assistance systems.

Alfred Fuhr, a Frankfurt sociologist specializing in transportation, also considers the need for safety to be an important factor in the success of the SUV. It’s an important motivation particularly for parents. Another factor, according to Fuhr, is the sense of freedom that SUVs convey: I could suddenly decide to make a turn and go off-roading.

This sense of freedom, comfort, speed and safety make an SUV an all-rounder. “To me as a customer, that is the best of all automotive worlds.”

The Volkswagen brand is responding to customer wishes with a major SUV offensive. Every seventh Volkswagen sold today is already a sport utility vehicle. By 2020, 19 SUV models will be sold internationally from Polo compacts to large models like the Atlas, which is being met with enthusiasm in the United States. In many markets, SUVs are proving to be important growth drivers for the company.

Back to Munich. Sales Manager Schmid likes to describe the shift toward SUVs using the T-Roc, the car he sold his old friend, as an example: “When that car came on the market at the end of 2017, we displayed more than 40 T-Rocs in our showroom. They were all gone very quickly.” Volkswagen’s Munich dealership is part of the MAHAG Group, which operates five locations under the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand in the capital of Bavaria alone. The Volkswagen showrooms sell around 2,700 new cars per year to individuals. “And every fourth one is an SUV,” states Schmid.

Following the T-Roc, the sales manager is looking forward to the T-Cross*, which will be released in spring 2019 as Volkswagen’s smallest SUV on the market. “This car will primarily attract young drivers focused on lifestyle.” The T-Cross features a striking design and is surprisingly roomy considering its length of only 4,107 millimeters. “In a city like Munich, compactness is a major advantage when looking for parking spaces,” Schmid explains.

Of course, the base model is not just easy to park. The T-Cross is digital and networked – for instance, drivers can opt for a digital cockpit with eight-inch infotainment touchscreen. And the T-Cross is a typical SUV in terms of safety: Offering excellent crash protection and a number of driver assistance systems, it will be launched as one of the safest vehicles in its class.

Many customers find it very easy to climb in and out of a sport utility vehicle, says Robert Schmid. “Once they have decided on an SUV, they won’t forego this level of comfort.”

A dozen new SUVs from 2016 to 2020

Volkswagen is stepping up its worldwide SUV product offensive with the new T-Cross. It started in 2016 with the current Tiguan model. The Tiguan Allspace with room for up to seven passengers and the more compact T-Roc followed in 2017. At the same time, 2017 saw Volkswagen launch the Atlas, which was developed for the U.S. market, and its Chinese counterpart, the Teramont – both seven-seaters.

Another SUV burst onto the scene in 2018: In New York, Volkswagen of America unveiled two Atlas concept cars, the Cross Sport (pre-series five-seater) and the Tanoak (pick-up). In the same month in China, Volkswagen hosted the worldwide debut of the new Touareg, the brand’s flagship. During the Touareg unveiling, the company also showcased two future SUVs for China in Beijing: the Powerful Family SUV (all-around concept car designed for families) and the Advanced Midsize SUV (counterpart to the Atlas Cross Sport concept car).

In 2020, the first fully electric SUV by Volkswagen will hit the market: the I.D. CROZZ*. With a series ranging from the T-Cross to the I.D. CROZZ, Volkswagen will offer one of the world’s largest selections of SUVs covering nearly all segments.