Beijing 2014: New Volkswagen Touareg Debuts In China

The new Volkswagen Touareg made its global debut in China at yesterday's 2014 Beijing International Auto Show. As reported earlier, the facelifted Volkswagen Touareg now features several new exterior design elements and the Chinese market model seen here will also feature wood trimmings in cabin.

The front-end design now features new bi-Xenon headlights, which will be standard across the Touareg range, a deeper new radiator grille with four instead of two horizontal fins and a reprofiled bumper.

At the rear, the bumper has been redesigned with a new rear diffuser between the twin tailpipes. The LED rear foglights are also integrated in the bumper.

Inside, the controls are now illuminated in white rather than red. Volkswagen says the rotary control dials have also been improved for look and feel.

The Touareg's interior has been updated with new colour options for the standard leather upholstery, new dashboard and new ambient lighting.

On safety, automatic post-collision braking system is now standard across the Touareg range. The optional radar-based Automatic Distance Control (ADC) has now been enhanced with city emergency braking function, and it can automatically drive forward in stop-and-go traffic. ADC uses uses a radar sensor integrated into the front of the car to detect distance from the car in front, maintain a preselected speed and automatically brake or accelerate in traffic.

The Touareg's 8-speed automatic transmission is now fitted with a coasting function, which decouples the engine from the transmission when a vehicle is coasting to save fuel. When the brake, accelerator pedal or the gear selector lever is operated, the clutch is re-engaged with the engine.

Before this, the costing function was only available in the Touareg Hybrid.

An engine idle stop-start system with battery regeneration system is also fitted as standard.

In Asia, the new Touareg is offered with three petrol and two diesel engines. The petrol engines for China produce 290 PS and 320 PS (both V6 TSI) and 360 PS (V8 TSI). There's also a Touareg with a 280 PS V6 FSI, a 380 PS Hybrid drive system and a 239 PS V6 TDI.

Of course, the actual engine options available will be different from country to country.