Volkswagen T-Cross SUV Teaser Reveals Exterior Design Details

We think it’s important that you should know why VW will build the Euro-spec T-Cross in a factory that has produced only the Polo since 1984

Volkswagen has teased the T-Cross for the first time in a video. While the compact SUV is still under a colourful veil, much of its exterior design is visible now. The carmaker had earlier revealed a sketch of the rear section of the T-Cross but the latest teaser video reveals the actual car from all angles.

At the front, the most prominent design elements have to be the large grille and the square fog lamp units that also house DRLs. The overall design has an air of simplicity about it as there’s no artificial muscle thrown in to make it look butch. Instead, Volkswagen seems to have relied on making individual elements like the headlamps, fog lamps and the front grille a size bigger for visual impact.

The design is simple at the side too, with a prominent recess running from the front fender all the way back. There’s thick plastic cladding at the side that adds some ruggedness to the design.

The sketch of the rear of the T-Cross that VW had revealed earlier had a width-spanning tail lamp unit. Unfortunately, the latest teaser video doesn’t clear up whether that will make it to production or not. The reflector units at the rear appear to be square in design under the camouflage and not trapezoidal, like in the official sketch that VW had released. Like in the sketch, the license plate is housed on the boot and there’s an integrated roof spoiler on the pre-production T-Cross.

Why you should know that the T-Cross is built in a specific plant in Spain

We’re excited to see the T-Cross taking shape since VW had earlier exclusively told us that it’s considering this SUV for India. But now we have an intuition that it won’t be THIS T-Cross that VW has teased that will come to India.

The T-Cross that VW is developing for Europe is based on the MQB A0 platform, a modular architecture that is shared by all small VW Group cars like the Polo and Virtus. While both these cars share the platform, the Polo has a smaller wheelbase than the Virtus (new Polo-based sedan). We believe that the Euro-spec T-Cross will have the same wheelbase as the Polo since it will be made at Volkswagen’s Navarra plant in Spain that just makes one model: the Polo.

Volkswagen has tasked Skoda to lead MQB-A0-IN development in India and there’s a free hand to develop market-specific models too. Volkswagen has previously shown that it’s okay to develop two versions of the same car for different markets -- the China-spec VW T-ROC is bigger than Euro-spec T-ROC.

So for India, we think VW might choose to develop a long-wheelbase T-Cross. The Euro-spec T-Cross is only 4107mm long, which makes it significantly shorter than the India-spec Creta. A bigger T-Cross would be a better competitor to the Creta and other upcoming SUVs in the same segment. Here’s an in-depth story of why we think VW might introduce a bigger version of the T-Cross.

Volkswagen is also planning to launch the new Vento after the T-Cross, and both the cars can then share the long wheelbase MQB-A0-IN platform. The new Polo for India, on the other hand, can be launched later, accompanying a new sub-4m VW SUV. Both these cars would then be built on the smaller wheelbase version of the MQB-A0-IN platform.