Volkswagen is set to transform its best-selling SUV, the internal-combustion-engined Tiguan, into an all-electric crossover that will be unveiled sometime in 2025 and go into production in 2026 at the brand’s factory in Wolfsburg, Germany.
The news comes via the German publication Handelsblatt, which writes that the carmaker announced the change at a works council meeting at its headquarters, where Germany’s Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, was in attendance. After the meeting, a company spokesperson confirmed that a new electric model similar in size and style to the Tiguan will make its way into the brand’s lineup in the next three years.
According to the source, the all-new, electric-only Tiguan will be based on VW’s updated MEB-Plus platform, which is set to be the base on which the upcoming all-electric Golf will be built, as we reported yesterday. While details are still thin on this latest architecture, it’s said to feature new lithium iron phosphate (LFP) prismatic battery cells and charging speeds of up to 200 kilowatts.
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The Volkswagen Tiguan has a starting price of $26,950 in the United States, where it was sold in 71,085 units in 2022, while in Europe, VW sold more than 130,000 units between January-November 2022. By comparison, the all-electric Volkswagen ID.4 crossover was sold in 20,511 units in the US last year.
In the past, customers of the German brand requested that models like the Golf, Golf GTI, and Tiguan be transformed into all-electric vehicles, and while the Golf was briefly offered as an EV under the e-Golf moniker for the model’s seventh generation, neither the GTI nor the Tiguan have had such variants until now, with the CEO Oliver Blume saying that the automaker is working on this:
“The Golf is an icon – a whole generation was named after it. That’s why we also want to bring vehicles like the Golf and the Tiguan into the electric age.”
Volkswagen has previously stated that it plans to only sell EVs by 2033 and this latest piece of information comes to solidify the brand’s goal. Besides transforming the Golf, Golf GTI, and Tiguan into electric-only models, the German carmaker is close to launching the production variant of the ID.7, which will replace the Passat, and is reportedly working on an all-electric pickup truck for the American market.
