VW Tiguan getting a Golf-inspired makeover for 2022

Introduced in 2007, the Tiguan has elbowed its way onto the list of models that define Volkswagen as a brand. It doesn't have the Golf's vast heritage, but it outsells it by a comfortable margin. The company will give its bestseller comprehensive updates inside and out for the 2022 model year to help it continue its success story, and Autoblog quizzed some of the people responsible for the refresh to learn more about what they have in store.

We didn't want to breach social-distancing etiquette, so we received a design sketch via email and talked over the phone instead of trekking to Germany to see the Tiguan in person. We can nonetheless tell stylists took the front end in a sharper, sportier direction by making the lights thinner, adding a pair of LED elements on each side, and installing a more contoured grille. The headlights stretch into the fenders, a styling cue borrowed from the eighth-generation Golf, and the lower bumper receives a bigger air dam. European buyers will have access to Matrix beam lights, too, but this technology won't be available in the United States because it's not legal yet.

There are more changes inside, including a redesigned steering wheel and Volkswagen's touchscreen-based MIB3 infotainment system. Here again, the improvements bring the Tiguan in line with the Golf. "It will be 100% connected, upgradable over-the-air, it will offer online services, and it will get voice recognition software," Henrik Muth, Volkswagen's head of product marketing, explained as he charted the changes. The online services offered will include a feature that lets drivers reserve and pay for a parking spot, and a type of in-car app store.

The big news on the specifications sheet is the addition of a gasoline-electric plug-in hybrid powertrain capable of powering the Tiguan on electricity alone for about 31 miles. Don't get too excited, though, because it's not coming to the United States. "That is something we are looking at, you may see it in the successor of the Tiguan, but the face-lifted model won't offer a hybrid version," Hein Schafer, Volkswagen's senior vice president of product marketing and strategy, said regarding the American-spec model. He cited cost concerns as one reason why Volkswagen will restrict the plug-in hybrid model to the European market.