Volkswagen Confirm Large SUV For Production

The biggest news from Volkswagen at Detroit concerned a car that isn't there.

The CrossBlue concept, a large SUV which VW North America regards as vital if it is to hit its 2018 target of 800,000 sales a year, has been confirmed for production.

The CrossBlue was unveiled at the same venue 12 months ago, and VW's American sales people could barely contain their excitement at the possibility of adding it to their line-up. It is a car which would primarily be for the US market, although China and Russia are two other countries which could be interested.

It is still to be decided where the production version will be made, but it will be in one of VW's North American plants - Chattanooga, Tennessee or Puebla, Mexico. Unlike Chattanooga, Puebla is already equipped to use the platform which will underpin it, but the plant is currently working to capacity.

VW sold only 476,000 cars in the US last year, hampered mainly by an ageing Jetta and Passat and the absence of the latest Golf. The new Golf arrives this year but is a relatively small volume car in the US. The CrossBlue, a seven-seat family SUV larger than the Touareg, would make a major contribution towards VW hitting its 800,000 sales target.

The new cars on display at Detroit include a Passat BlueMotion powered not by a diesel engine but by a variant of the 1.4 TFSI unit, and the Beetle Dune concept, a raised and more rugged version of the latest VW Bug. VW says it is production-ready, but its prospects will depend on whether it could pay for itself.

All photographs and text are the exclusive property of Rob McSorley (except where stated otherwise). They are made available for your personal viewing enjoyment only. No images are within the Public Domain. The photographs may not be copied, reproduced, redistributed, manipulated, projected, used or altered in any way without the prior permission of Rob McSorley (info@DriverVIBE.com).

Volvo XC Coupe Shows Face Of The Brand

Volvo is showing the face of the 2015 XC90 on its XC Coupe concept at Detroit.

The lights, grille and front-end styling are what will be seen on the large SUV replacement, while the rear lights are also close to those that will appear on the XC90.

The XC Coupe is the second of three concept cars Volvo has developed to illustrate the flexibility of its new product architecture, which will underpin an entire range of 60, 70, 80 and 90 series models. It follows the Concept Coupe unveiled at Frankfurt last September. The last of the trio will appear at Geneva in a couple of months.

Although none of them is planned for production, Volvo says they are important in getting people used to how its design language will change with the new XC90, and the versatility of its new SPA (Scaleable Product Architecture) platform.

There will also be a set of advanced safety features, including the world's first animal detection and crash prevention system. As he introduced the car at Detroit, Thomas Ingenlath, Senior Vice President Design at Volvo Cars, highlighted Volvo's key focus on saftey: "Enjoying a car with great power and capabilities, at the same time as you are safe and protected, gives a great feeling of joy and freedom".

The current XC90 has been around for 13 years, but will go out of production this summer and the new model goes into production next year.

Along with the new architecture, Volvo is developing a new family of powertrains which will make it independent of former owner Ford within four years. They will include a development of the company's current diesel plug-in hybrid drive system.

All photographs and text are the exclusive property of Rob McSorley (except where stated otherwise). They are made available for your personal viewing enjoyment only. No images are within the Public Domain. The photographs may not be copied, reproduced, redistributed, manipulated, projected, used or altered in any way without the prior permission of Rob McSorley (info@DriverVIBE.com).