Volkswagen T-Cross Breeze comes with a turbocharged petrol engine. The T-Cross Breeze presented on the shores of Lac Léman aims to offer affordable open-air driving pleasure.
The first step into the world of sustainable drives is made here by a highly efficient turbocharged direct injection petrol engine (TSI) with a capacity of one litre, a stop-start system and recuperation mode. The 81 kW/110 PS 1.0 l TSI is a convincing powerhouse, producing 175 Nm of maximum torque from just 1,500 rpm. The TSI drives the front wheels via a 7-speed DSG dual clutch gearbox. Thus equipped, the SUV convertible, weighing just 1,250 kg, needs a mere 10.3 seconds to reach 100 km/h and reaches a top speed of 188 km/h. Fuel consumption and CO2 values are similarly compelling at 5.0 l/100 km and 115 g/km). In combination with the 40 litre fuel tank, the concept car has a theoretical range of 800 km – easily enough to drive from Geneva to Cannes or Venice on a single tank of fuel.
“This open-top Volkswagen enhances the world of compact cars with a completely new attitude to automotive life”, says Dr Herbert Diess. With this, the Chairman of the Board of Management Volkswagen Brand gets to the core of the bold theory behind this concept car, which celebrates its world premiere at the Geneva Motor Show. The Volkswagen Brand Chairman continues: “Our T-Cross Breeze is the first open-top SUV in its class and, at the same time, an affordable, cheeky cabriolet with a raised seating position that gives you a perfect view."
With this concept, Volkswagen underlines the fact that the brand is blazing a trail and making mobility more of an experience than ever before. Herbert Diess: “At the moment the T-Cross Breeze is purely a concept, but we can well imagine putting such a convertible on the market as a production model. An affordable fun car that is also entirely suitable for everyday use. A genuine ‘People’s Car’.” And so the concept car, which is equipped with an 81 kW/110 PS 1.0 litre TSI (turbocharged direct injection petrol engine), gives a glimpse of a new model series. Klaus Bischoff, Head of Design for the Volkswagen Brand, explains: “The T-Cross Breeze is a teaser for the most compact sport utility vehicle that Volkswagen plans to make – and the nucleus of a new SUV and convertible design in the compact sector.”
Interior – fascinating quantum leaps
The future can do without switches.Volkswagen’s interiors are currently making quantum leaps. The designers concentrated on what really matters: creating a new spatial experience and completely redesigning the driver’s cockpit, making use of next-generation human-machine interface (HMI) and developing an entirely new control interface that, one day, will completely do away with buttons and switches. Yet this is no science fiction, but, rather, an early glimpse at where production models are heading in the medium-term. Volkswagen has already implemented an operating concept with almost no buttons on board the T-Cross Breeze. The convertible SUV builds the conceptual bridge to the BUDD-e, which is also being presented in Geneva and saw its debut at the CES in Las Vegas in January. With the exception of the control stalk, the power window switches and the buttons for opening and closing the soft top, all of the controls in the T-Cross Breeze are touch-sensitive surfaces or executed as completely new “by-wire” solutions. Gesture control also forms an integral part of the operating interface. The new HMI, with its coupled displays, is detached from the dashboard in a style similar to that of the zero-emission BUDD-e – this is the cockpit of the future. Last, but not least, it is apparent that elements that were formerly purely functional, such as the air vents, now merge with the contours of the interior.
High-tech design and materials. The design language and colour of the interior forges a link to the expressive exterior. The dashpad and the outer areas of the centre console radiate in a fresh “Summer Green Soft” special-effect paint. In contrast to this are the dark surfaces in the interior; the trim is also “Deep Teal”, like the exterior. Both of these colours repeat on the applications on the steering wheel. Elements such as the arm rests and door handles, the rear section of the stylish free-floating centre console and the seat backs, meanwhile, are a light “Ceramique”. The precision of all the edges is emphasised by the combination of sandblasted and high-gloss surfaces. Volkswagen is also breaking new ground in the automotive sector with the materials used: just like high-tech sports shoes, parts of the seating are form fashioned and coloured (in “Deep Teal”) and “knit” in 3D, creating the covers of the inner surfaces of the side supports in a single piece out of various materials such as special polyamide hybrid fibres that are extremely resistant to deformation, durable and resistant to abrasion. This method can be used for any shape. In the case of the T-Cross Breeze, for instance, it was also used to make the front seat back pockets.
Human-Machine Interface. The interactive HMI offers a glimpse at what the next generation of Volkswagen vehicles will look like. With the T-Cross-Breeze, Volkswagen has transferred the visionary system showcased in the BUDD-e to the compact class. This consists of two physically separate screens that blend optically and functionally into one large surface: the Active Info Display as a freely programmable instrument panel in front of the driver, and the Head Unit, which serves as the screen of the infotainment system on the centre console. These two screens form a single functional entity.
Active Info Display. The digitalization of the instruments is opening up a whole new spectrum of graphic and interactive possibilities. Volkswagen calls this new generation of digital instrumentation the Active Info Display. Volkswagen demonstrates how the Active Info Display, which is already used in the Passat as well as in the new Tiguan, could develop on board the T-Cross Breeze.