VW adds sporty crossover with Taigo

FRANKFURT -- Volkswagen brand is adding a sporty crossover to its range of small-segment SUVs with the Taigo.

The car is based on the Brazilian-engineered Nivus. It will be launched in Europe at the end of the year.

"The wait is over for those who have been looking for a CUV that combines an elevated seating position with a sporty coupe silhouette," VW said in a statement.

VW released a sketch of the Taigo, which it said combines an "elevated seating position with a sporty coupe silhouette."

The Taigo will be built for European markets at VW's plant in in Pamplona, Spain, which produces the smaller T-Cross SUV and the Polo small hatchback.

The crossover will be offered only with gasoline engines. It will have LED headlights as standard, a fully digital cockpit and driver assistance systems from the Polo.

The Nivus was developed in Brazil at low cost using subassemblies from VW Group's MQB architecture.

It was styled by the JC Pavone, the head of VW's Brazilian design studio and brother of the VW brand's chief exterior designer Marco Pavone.

To give the Nivus its coupe-like look, the longer rear module of the Skoda Rapid was used to stretch the form of the Polo-based vehicle.

The Nivus was the first VW designed and engineered entirely in a virtual environment. Only individual parts that differed materially from the Polo were constructed for validation purposes, but no conventional, full-scale prototype was built.

"For the first time in our history we will be offering our very own vehicle concept on the international market, and sharing design, technology and know-how from Brazil with the world," Volkswagen Latin America CEO Pablo Di Si said when the concept was first teased in 2019.

The Taigo joins the T-Cross, Tiguan and Touareg in VW's European lineup of small  SUV/crossovers. It uses the same MQB A0 platform as the Polo, T-Cross, Seat Arona, Seat Ibiza, Skoda Scala, and the Audi A1 and Audi Q2.