A New Crossover is on its Way from Volkswagen, and its Called ‘Atlas’ [News]

vw-atlas

For a while now, Volkswagen has only offered two vehicles that have a ride height higher than a Jetta. You could get their flagship SUV, the Touareg, or their smaller crossover, the Tiguan. Very recently, the people in Wolfsburg made another off-road capable VW in the form of the Golf Sportwagen Alltrack, which can go off-road, but wouldn’t really be able to handle any tough trails, and doesn’t have a ton of space like an SUV. Well, a new crossover is on its way from Volkswagen, and its called Atlas, as reported by German website Automobilwoche.

Back in 2013, VW revealed the CrossBlue Concept at the Detroit auto show. The concept vehicle was a three-row seven-seater crossover, but the name of the production model was a closely guarded secret, until now. VW Group of America CEO Hinrich Woebcken said that the name was chosen, in part, to be a much easier-to-pronounce, American-sounding word. Apparently Touareg and Tiguan were just too difficult for us. Interestingly, this vehicle breaks the mold of starting with the letter ‘T’ like the other two SUV types in Volkswagen’s Lineup.

vw-crossblue-concept

But enough about the name, you are probably more curious about the vehicle itself. While we don’t know many of the technical specifications, we do know that the vehicle will be a three-row that seats seven people. Additionally, we know that this vehicle will be built on VW’s MQB chassis, the first of this chassis to be built in the US. The Atlas will be another vehicle added to the long list of cars that VW builds on the MQB chassis, including the MK7 Golf, the Tiguan, and a plethora of other Volkswagen Auto Group vehicles.

This will bring VW another entry into the already smoldering hot crossover market that consumers just can’t seem to get enough of. Until its release, sometime in 2017, we will just have to patiently wait for more information regarding the VW Atlas.

To help pass the time, why not check out our muddy, off-road review of the Atlas’ sibling, the Volkswagen Tiguan: