The VW fortune on the US market had hit rock bottom these past years especially after the emission scandal in September 2015. All of this reflected the VW’s crossover segment in particular because a lot has passed since the VW offered a competitive model in this segment with an original name. All of this is supposed to change with the VW’s Atlas.
The new mid-size Atlas should carry on its shoulder a large portion of VW’s crossover segment rebirth according to Germans affiliate of Automotive News the Automobilwoche. They spent a lot of time working on the new name that will be US market friendly, and it was guarded closely ever since the first preview of the car at the 2013 Detroit Auto Show. The trademark application for the name was submitted to the U.S. government sometime in April. The Atlas, a seven seater and three-row midsize crossover is due to make an official unveil at a media event in Santa Monica, California on October 27th.
Why did we mention US market friendly name just before? Well, the reason is a promise that VW Group of America CEO Hinrich Woebcken gave way back in July and kept it because Atlas is “much easier to pronounce, American-style name” than other crossover names from VW that start on “T” such as Tuareg and Tiguan. Woebcken also stated that the new name is a VW’s progress forward where “Two or three years ago, it would’ve been a no-go that the region decides an individual name” and “This is already an early sign that Wolfsburg is willing to let go.”
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The Atlas is supposed to be a first VW built model on the US soil, and it will rest on modular transverse matrix platform architecture also known as “MQB”. The production is supposed to start sometime late this year, very much ahead of the US sales debut that is set for the next spring. What is one more piece of good news for the VW group is that the redesigned and larger Tiguan compact crossover will go on sale sometime mid-2017 and together with the Atlas will make two new fresh vehicles that are supposed to bring the company out of the industry’s lowest in this segment.
