Volkswagen Tiguan's baby brother SUV is on the way

Volkswagen has something totally new coming next month, and yes, it's coming to the US. On Tuesday, the German automaker revealed a single teaser photo of a new compact SUV set to launch in the near future. Although today's announcement is light on details, we do know it will be smaller than the Tiguan, and it will almost certainly be more affordable, too.

"Great things come in small packages, as Volkswagen has proven throughout the years with its iconic Beetle, Golf and Jetta. This next car will be no exception," Scott Keogh, CEO of Volkswagen Group America, said in a statement.

It's not clear just how small we're talking. This model could be the size of Europe's Tiguan, which has a slightly smaller footprint than the crossover we know here. VW also sells the T-Roc in Europe, which compares to a Buick Encore-sized vehicle. The company officially calls this mystery SUV a "compact," so it shouldn't be quite as small as something like a Hyundai Venue (in fact, the Tiguan is classified as a compact as well). 

VW previously said the T-Roc is off the table for the US, but perhaps it will inspire this upcoming smaller SUV for the US. The latter also gets a racy R-Line model that houses a powertrain from the current Golf R, so we wouldn't mind seeing it in the US one bit.

The unnamed new SUV will debut on Oct. 13, but we'll surely get a couple more hints before then. Stay tuned.