Volkswagen renews largest SUVs

The Volkswagen Touareg will soon go under the knife and return to the Dutch market in a refreshed form. With its small 4.9 meters in length, the Touareg is quite large, but certainly not the largest SUV from Volkswagen. For example, the brand sells the Teramont and Teramont X in China. They are on the Volkswagen menu with a slightly different appearance in the United States as Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport. The Teramont and Teramont X have already gone under the knife and now the American Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport are undergoing a facelift for the second time. As was the case before the side point session, the two SUVs are no longer identical to their Chinese equivalents.

The Volkswagen Atlas after its first facelift in 2020.

First of all, the placement in the Volkswagen range. Although the Atlas and its Atlas Cross Sport alternative with a steeper sloping roofline are larger than the Touareg at about 5 meters in length, they are one step lower on the status charger. After all, the Touareg is on the relatively expensive MLB Evo platform that you know from the Porsche Cayenne, Audi Q7 and Q8, Bentley Bentayga and even Lamborghini Urus. The ‘Atlases’ are based on the cheaper MQB model. The Volkswagen Atlas appeared on the North American market in 2016 and was joined in 2019 by the Atlas Cross Sport, a more dynamically designed variant with a sloping roofline and a then different front. On February 10, 2020, the regular Atlas was optically aligned with its ‘coupé brother’ and exactly three years later, the Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport go under the knife at the same time.

The Chinese Volkswagen Teramont has a different front.

Although the Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport resemble their Chinese equivalents from the front, they are not quite the same. For example, the headlights of the Atlas pair are hook-shaped and are visually tied together by an LED strip housed at the top of the grille. The grille itself runs further down on the Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport and the bumper work also differs considerably. At the rear, the Atlas does resemble the Teramont and the Atlas Cross Sport also shows strong similarities with its Chinese sister model, although the layout of the rear lights is really different.

Volkswagen immediately screws a completely new interior into its two large SUVs. The infotainment screen now protrudes from the center console and is no longer integrated. The center console itself is completely new and even the air vents and door panels are different. Although the Chinese Teramont are also available with a 2.5 VR6 six-cylinder, that power source will disappear from the American range. Volkswagen now only supplies the Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport with a 272 hp and 370 Nm strong blown four-cylinder.

Fun fact: in China, Audi in turn supplies an equivalent of the Teramont: the Audi Q6.