Volkswagen Touareg R PHEV here by April
THE flagship Volkswagen Touareg R will finally land in Australian dealerships by April next year (2024) priced from $129,990 plus on-road costs.
Headlining a facelifted Touareg range, the Touareg R is a plug-in hybrid that employs a 250kW V6 petrol engine and a 100kW electric motor. This combination wins the Volkswagen power record, with a combined peak output of 340kW (and with 700Nm of peak torque).
The $130K ask is about $6K less than the last top Touareg Volkswagen offered here, the short-lived 2020 Touareg V8 TDI. Like the V8 TDI, there are a long list of standard inclusions, with no factory options other than colour choice.
Standard equipment for Volkswagen’s most expensive vehicle, includes Night Vision, IQ.Light Matrix LED headlights, head-up display, Volkswagen’s Innovision cockpit (consisting of the 15.0-inch Discover Premium and also the 12.0-inch Digital Cockpit Pro), Wireless App-Connect, wireless smartphone charging, Dynaudio premium sound system and a total of five USB-C ports inside the cabin.
Further key features to differentiate the new Volkswagen R model include 22-inch gloss-black Estoril alloy wheels, 19-inch front and 18-inch rear ventilated disc brakes with blue R-logo calipers, air suspension, gloss black roof rails and window surrounds, black exterior mirror shells, blacked out front grille and rear apron, black sports exhaust, ‘R’ logo projection from the front mirrors, direct tyre pressure monitoring, power latching doors, Easy Open & Close electric tailgate and panoramic sunroof with electric blind.
The Touareg R will be available exclusively in the range with the option of Lapis Blue Premium Metallic Paint.
The Touareg R will be the image-leading and most expensive of the Generation 3 update Touareg series.
The range-wide 2024 Touareg improvements include refreshed front and rear exterior treatment with new light signatures (including an illuminated Volkswagen logo) wireless app connect, dynamic speed sign display and area view as standard and the availability of IQ-Light high-definition headlights.
The Touareg R has claimed acceleration of 0-100km/h in 5.1 seconds, an EV-only driving range of 51km (WLTP), and ADR Combined fuel consumption of 3.3 litres per 100km.
Sharing its powertrain with platform-shared Porsche Cayenne E-Hybrid PHEV, the 2024 Volkswagen Touareg R has been delayed a number of times since it was announced at Geneva in 2020.
It was supposed to arrive in 2022 as the replacement for the 2020 Touareg V8 TDI, but that was called off so that the model would not appear mid-cycle and then within two years have to be replaced by the face-lifted model.