Volkswagen expands its range with the Tayron X, a so-called SUV with a coupé-like roofline. Bad news for those who get greedy: the Tayron X is not coming to Europe.
The Chinese Volkswagen range is very extensive and quite difficult to understand. In the SUV field, the brand has the Tacqua on offer, an extended version of the T-Cross that is sold in China just next to the version known here. Higher up the status ladder is the T-Roc, a car above which the here unknown Tharu must tolerate. That Tharu has to recognize its superior again in the Tayron and it is that SUV from which Volkswagen now introduces a coupé version: the Tayron X.
Let’s be honest: the arrival of the Tayron X is no surprise. In April last year, Volkswagen showed in Shanghai the SUV Coupé Concept, a preview of the Tayron with a more sloping roofline. Patent drawings later emerged confirming the arrival of a sportier-minded Tayron. The Tayron X is the second Coupé SUV to be offered by Volkswagen in China. The brand already has such a variant of the Teramont not available here in the form of the Teramont X on the menu. The Tayron X, to be produced by the FAW-Volkswagen partnership, appears to be equipped with R-Line finery as standard and not only has a spoiler at the top of the rear window, we also notice a glued lip at the bottom of the window. The model name can be read under the Volkswagen logo on the tailgate. The taillights have a remarkable X signature and the rear bumper is embellished with two chrome-colored parts that should suggest that the Tayron X has four exhaust tailpipes.
The Tayron X is 4.64 meters long, 1.86 meters wide and 1.66 meters high. There is a distance of 2.73 meters between the front and rear axle. Although the wheelbase is identical to that of the regular Tayron, the X version is five centimeters longer. The height and width are the same as that of its more conventional sister model. The engine list will probably only include the more powerful petrol engines: the 186 hp and 320 Nm strong blown 2.0 and a version of that two-liter jacked up to 220 hp and 350 Nm. There are no images of the interior yet, but the workspace of this Tayron X will not differ significantly from that of the regular Tayron (photo 4).
The regular Tayron is a step above the aforementioned Tharu in the Volkswagen showrooms. The Tharu is basically a Seat Ateca that Volkswagen has scattered a Volkswagen spice mix over in China. The marginally larger Tiguan and its extended Tiguan L (Allspace) version are again in China above the Tayron. Why there is so much overlap between the models? Volkswagen has various joint ventures in China, companies that operate more or less independently of each other. For example, the Tharu and Tiguans are produced by SAIC Volkswagen, while the Tayron is again a product of FAW Volkswagen.