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The growing market for compact SUVs urged Volkswagen to unveil the Taigun Concept in Brazil last year. Everyone thought the vehicle would go on sale as soon as this year with speculations of an India launch happening in 2014. However Volkswagen made it clear it has no plans to launch any new product in India in the near future and the company will instead maintain focus on the Polo and Vento (and new variants of these cars). However the Taigun was expected to go on sale in other parts of the world but looks like that too will happen only in 2016.
Why this delay in the launch of the Volkswagen Taigun then? Volkswagen has other priorities. The company wants to focus on markets which account for larger volumes. More so, localization of parts and roping in vendors for producing components for the Taigun will take some time and hence the Taigun will only be ready for production by the end of 2015. Volkswagen will unveil the production spec Taigun in 2015, which will be sold in Brazil, Russia, India and China (better known as BRIC countries).
The Volkswagen Taigun is quite small and is not even near to 4-metres in length (3859 mm). However the production model is set to grow in length slightly and one can expect the upcoming 1.5-litre TDI diesel engine and current 1.2-litre TSI petrol engine to do duty in the vehicle. The Volkswagen Taigun will have to muscle its way to the roads by competing against the Renault Duster, Ford EcoSport and upcoming Maruti XA Alpha, Chevrolet Trax, Hyundai and Toyota compact SUVs. Underpinned by Up!’s mechanicals, the Taigun sits below the Tiguan in VW’s SUV portfolio.
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