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Concept

Is VW planning an Evoque rival?

Here’s a first look at VW’s T-Roc concept, a two-door small crossover. Should Range Rover be worried?

Published: 28 Feb 2014

We've had prog rock. We've had glam rock. We've had perm rock. And now here's T-Roc, a new concept car from Volkswagen sadly lacking in massive hair and gratuitous guitar solos but, despite its sketchy appearance, rather fuller of production intent.

The T-Roc previews a future SUV designed to squeeze into the crispbread-thin crossover gap between the VW Tiguan and upcoming Taigun. It's some 20cm shorter than the Tiguan but 30cm longer than the Taigun concept.

And dinkier than a three-door Range Rover Evoque: the T-Roc is 18cm shorter and 15cm narrower than the best-selling Brit, not to mention 10cm lower too.

The two-door crossover sits on the same MQB modular architecture as the MkVII Golf (and Audi A3, and Skoda Octavia, and Seat Leon, and...), with short overhangs and 19-inch wheels. By concept standards, that's mighty feasible stuff.

The drivetrain sounds suspiciously sensible, too: no one-cylinder krypto-hybrids here. The T-Roc uses the 181bhp 2.0-litre turbodiesel from the current Golf GTD, driving all four wheels through a seven-speed DSG. VW says the 1420kg T-Roc will get from 0-62mph in 6.9 seconds, manage around 58mpg and emit just 129g/km of CO2. Realistic, no?

The remit is clearly road-biased, but VW reckons a production T-Roc could do the business on mud and snow, too, boasting cameras in its front and rear bumpers that beam info to a dash-mounted 12-inch tablet, allowing the driver to keep an eye on potential sump-clanging boulders.

It's still a long way from production, but do you reckon VW could possibly out-Evoque the Evoque?

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