Volkswagen will launch its new Teramont SUV in the Middle East. As a seven-seater, it is the first Volkswagen of its kind in this region. Its American counterpart – named Volkswagen Atlas – has already won several awards. Since 2017, the large SUV has also stirred great interest among customers in China. This titan of the road is now forging ahead as part of Volkswagen's SUV success story.

Large, comfortable and spacious: the new Teramont has the look and feel of a practical family SUV. This modern SUV is an absolute novelty for the brand in the Middle East. No Volkswagen seven-seater has yet been offered here. "Welcoming the Teramont to our market is a delight, as we are confident this car will be perfect for this location. Size matters, especially for families in this region and this is exactly what we offer now," says Andrew Savvas, Brand Director Volkswagen for the Middle East region. 

One of the advantages of the new SUV is the enormous amount of space inside. Whether for the big weekend shopping expedition or a holiday with the family, up to 2,741 litres of luggage can fit into the car, depending on the seating arrangement. Even when all seven seats are occupied, people can sit comfortably in the rear. But the interior is not the only strong point: "The Teramont is the boldest and one of the biggest models Volkswagen has ever built and still expresses the true Volkswagen style and quality finish - delivering the distinctive design and craftsmanship we’re known for, now with room for seven. This year we have been busy ramping up our SUV range and having this 7-seater means we have a complete line up in place and can offer the perfect car for every type of family", explains Savvas.

SUV family forges ahead on the road to success

This SUV is currently available in the USA and Canada as the Volkswagen Atlas and as the Teramont in Russia among others, and from local production in China. In the USA, the American model has opened up an important segment for the brand. The newly developed SUV is tailored to American needs. There, it has already received awards among them “Best of 2018” by Cars.com. 

With the Teramont, Volkswagen is forging ahead with the success story of the SUV portfolio. Volkswagen has been expanding its SUV range since 2017. In addition to successful models such as the Tiguan and the new T-Roc, Volkswagen has also launched the latest-generation Touareg.

Article source: www.volkswagen-newsroom.com

The Beetle Sunshine Tour is the largest meeting of the Beetle, New Beetle and Käfer community in Europe. For the first time, the festival in 2018 will not take place in Lübeck, but in Wolfsburg and thereby in the heart of the Volkswagen world. For good reason, because the New Beetle presented in 1998 is celebrating its 20th birthday and because it was the impetus for the first Beetle Sunshine Tour in 2004. The organisers have therefore moved the meeting to the Autostadt without further ado. That's why the motto is "Beetle Sunshine Tour to Wolfsburg". It starts on 8 September at 10:00 a.m. Highlight: a convoy of all participating Beetles, New Beetles and Käfer right through the centre of the Volkswagen plant.

The Beetle Sunshine Tour has its origins in the Lübeck district of Travemünde, directly on the Baltic Sea. Gaby Kraft, the inventor and organiser of the Beetle Sunshine Tour, lives there in Schleswig-Holstein. Fourteen years ago she initiated the first tour with 60 participating vehicles. Gaby Kraft: "It was quite easy. I bought myself a Beetle back then. I asked myself: I can't be the only one who's enthusiastic about this car. There must be others. So let's try to organise a meeting up here in the north." And that's how it happened.

Although it remained informal, the Beetle Sunshine Tour has long since taken on another dimension. In 2017, there were more than 700 registered Beetles, New Beetles and Käfer and around 4,000 participants. The organisers limited this enormous number of vehicles to 200 cars in 2018, as otherwise the convoy would have exceeded the organisational limits of the planned plant procession. In less than three hours after the online announcement of the Beetle Sunshine Tour 2018, all of the available starting places for this year's tour were allocated.

But as always with the Beetle Sunshine Tour, the same applies in 2018: All fans of the water-cooled or air-cooled cult-status vehicles and the Volkswagen brand are welcome to visit the festival grounds right next to Autostadt Wolfsburg. Just follow the parking guidance system, park your car and make a pilgrimage to the site. Participants and visitors mingle and make up the Beetle, New Beetle and Käfer community. With their attractive design and classless status, all three generations of this Volkswagen appeal to people who share a cosmopolitan and positive attitude to life. So if you have a desire to see lots of Beetles and nice people, you should travel to Wolfsburg on Saturday, 8 September. The focus there will be on the birthday child, the New Beetle. 

The series production version was presented to the world by Volkswagen at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January 1998. And this was the beginning of Beetlemania – from a former means of transport during ‘the economic miracle’ to a timeless lifestyle icon.

Article source: www.volkswagen-newsroom.com

After the Polo R WRC comes the Polo GTI R5. With the World Rally Car version of the Polo, the Volkswagen works team won four FIA World Rally Championship titles between 2013 and 2016. The production-based successor model was developed according to category R5 regulations and is intended exclusively for customer racing

Volkswagen Motorsport presented the new rally car to customers shortly before homologation. Representatives of the privateer teams visited the headquarters in Hannover, where they experienced the 200 kW (272 PS) four-wheel drive together with test driver Dieter Depping (D) at a test centre in nearby Sulingen. “The Polo GTI R5 has completed around 9,000 test kilometres to date, half of which were on gravel and half on asphalt,” explained Volkswagen Motorsport Director Sven Smeets. “The entire development team has worked hard and delivered a first-class result, which has been confirmed by the initial reactions of customers.”

“The feedback from this introductory session was extremely positive,” added Juliane Gründl, head of sales at Volkswagen Motorsport. “Almost all the teams already have definite plans in place for using the car in the 2019 rally season and cannot wait to get their hands on their Polo GTI R5.”

Competitive debut at WRC event in Spain at the end of October

The homologation of the Polo GTI R5 is planned for 01 October 2018. Before being licensed for motorsport, the Polo GTI R5 will have completed around 10,000 test kilometres in total. In addition to the WRC2 category of the FIA World Rally Championship, the new customer racing rally car will also be in action in interregional championships such as the FIA European Rally Championship and numerous national championships.

“When defining the specification, we took great care to ensure that it would be easy for professional privateer teams to master the technical support of the Polo GTI R5,” said Jan- Gerard de Jongh, technical project manager for the Polo GTI R5 and former race engineer of World Rally Champion Sébastien Ogier.

Before the first customer cars are delivered, further test drives and the competitive debut are scheduled. At the Rally Spain from 25 to 28 October 2018, the Polo R5 GTI will take on its rivals in the WRC2 class at world championship level for the first time. And for the Volkswagen Motorsport team, it will be a mini comeback after the final race in Australia 2016, since Volkswagen Motorsport will be taking care of the car at the debut. “We will compete at the Rally Spain with two cars from our own team,” said Smeets. “The aim is to demonstrate the competitiveness of the new Polo GTI R5 at the highest level and on different surfaces.”

Article source: www.volkswagen.co.uk

For the second year in a row, the GTI “Coming Home” meet will take place in Wolfsburg. GTI fans and visitors will be able to access the event area in the Volkswagen Arena and the Autostadt from 10 am on 1 September 2018.

To bridge the gap until the next GTI meet in Wörthersee (Austria) in May 2019, Volkswagen is once again inviting fans to join the company in Wolfsburg at the end of the summer. In addition to a varied supporting programme for the whole family, a very special GTI procession is also planned as a highlight. Fans can drive their own GTIs through the Volkswagen plant where the first Golf GTI rolled off the production line in 1976.

“Last year’s event received incredible feedback from the fans. It was really exciting!” says Jürgen Stackmann, Member of the Volkswagen Brand Board of Management responsible for Sales. “The GTI family has an amazing fan base all over the world, some of whom will be travelling to our main plant. We can’t wait to say a big hello to our GTI fans!”

Volkswagen is also hosting the German première of the Golf GTI TCR Concept1. The vehicle was first presented at Wörthersee in May. With 290 PS and a top speed of 264 km/h, the concept vehicle is one of the fastest GTIs.

The 500 kW (680 PS) I.D. R Pikes Peak, Volkswagen’s first purely electric racing car, will also be showcased at GTI Coming Home Wolfsburg 2018.

Volkswagen has already set two records with the electric racing car, which was constructed in just eight months. On 24 June, Romain Dumas (F) not only improved the previous record for electric racing cars at Pikes Peak International Hill Climb 2018, but also set a new all-time record for the world-famous hill climb at 7:57.148 minutes. Just three weeks later, the 40-year-old Frenchman drove the I.D. R Pikes Peak to set a new electric vehicle record of 43.86 seconds at the Goodwood Festival of Speed – 3.48 seconds faster than the previous record set in 2013.

The event area opens at 10:00 am with the programme scheduled to start with the official welcome on the main stage of the AOK Arena at 11:00 am.

J.P Performance will be hosting the proceedings on stage. The day’s agenda includes events such as a motorcade and fan drives. To keep fans fed and watered, refreshments will be available from Wörthersee-style food trucks. This year’s event will also be partnered by the Autostadt, who will be presenting the Autostadt Tuning Award for customised Volkswagens. If you would like to take part, simply drive through the Photo Drive in the short-stay car park from 9:00 am. Professional photographers will be on hand to take shots of private vehicles alongside sporty icons such as the GTI W12-6502 Concept2. The well-known tuning expert Lina van de Mars will be hosting the photo shoot and introducing cars and their owners.

Participants will be given a link where they can download a copy of their photos. Any photos uploaded to Instagram with the hashtag #autostadttuningaward will also be entered into the Autostadt competition. The winner will be the photo with the most likes.

The main prize is a weekend at the Autostadt with an action-packed programme: the highlights include a meet & greet with Lina van de Mars and a trip in a Golf MkI GTI from the ZeitHaus collection.

Historic Golf and Beetle buses will travel between the Volkswagen Arena and the Autostadt, providing visitors access to both areas. The Autostadt event arena will open at 9:00 am and close at 4:00 pm.

The GTI procession through the plant that is planned for the afternoon will pass through the east gate via the central route down Mittelstrasse to Südstrasse, past the Brand Tower and on to the Kraftwerk. Vehicles will be required to register on site to take part in the procession, which will be open to up to 250 vehicles. If there are more people interested than places available, the time of registration on site will be used as the determining factor for participation.

Parking spaces right next to the stadium will be available exclusively for GTI drivers. Further will be signposted in the vicinity of the arena. Parking will be free and will be available on a “first come, first served” basis.

Article source: www.volkswagen.co.uk