The new Volkswagen Arteon, the German car maker’s up-market replacement for the discontinued CC, has been revealed ahead of its Geneva motor show debut.
First previewed by the Sport Coupe Concept in 2015, the new five-door fastback slots into the Volkswagen line-up above the eighth-generation Passat, with which it shares its platform, engines, chassis and interior.
The styling of the Arteon is credited to Volkswagen brand design boss, Klaus Bischoff, who describes it as “the start of a new design era”. It retains the highly contemporary lines of the well received Sport Coupe Concept, albeit with detailed changes to its prominent grille, which forms part of a distinctive full width graphic at the front of the new Volkswagen model in combination with its LED headlamps.
Further design elements carried over from the earlier concept include a contoured clamshell style bonnet, highly detailed air duct design within the front bumper, heavily flanged wheel arches, prominent shoulder line along the flanks, distinctive scalloping within the lower section of the doors, curved roofline, muscular rear hunches, fastback tailgate, horizontally positioned LED tail lamps and twin trapezoidal shaped tailpipes integrated within the lower section of the rear bumper.
The Arteon will be offered with three different styling packages: standard, elegance and R-line. In its most sporting guise, the new five-door fastback receives high gloss black air intakes at the front, uniquely styled bumpers, chrome embellishments within the lower bodywork, 18-inch alloy wheels and chromed tailpipes. At 4862mm in length, 1871mm in width and 1427mm in height, the Arteon is 60mm longer, 16mm wider and 10mm taller than its predecessor, the CC.
Inside, Wolfsburg’s new fastback adopts an updated version of the Passat’s dashboard and interior appointments. Included among a number of high end options is Volkswagen’s high definition Active Info Display as an alternative to traditional analogue instruments as well as a centrally mounted 9.2-inch infotainment monitor with both touch and gesture control.
With a wheelbase of 2841mm – some 131mm longer than the CC and 51mm longer than the existing Passat, Volkswagen claims the Arteon offers class leading rear seat accommodation. Nominal boot space is put at 563 litres, some 33 litres more than the CC, increasing to 1557 litres when the 40:20:40 rear seats are folded away.
Among the petrol units is Volkswagen’s newly developed 1.5-litre engine, which produces 148hp in the base 1.5 TSI Evo. It is joined from the outset by the German car maker’s more familiar 2.0-litre powerplant offering either 187hp or 276hp in the 2.0 TSI.
The trio of diesels models in the new Arteon line-up all use the same 2.0-litre engine, albeit in different states of tune, with buyers able to choose between 148hp, 187hp and 236hp variants of the SCR equipped oilburner in the 2.0 TDI.
The 148hp 1.5-litre petrol as well as the 148hp and 187hp variants of 2.0-litre diesel engines come with a standard six-speed manual gearbox, while the 187hp and 276hp 2.0-litre petrol and 236hp 2.0-litre diesel engines receive a standard seven-speed dual clutch gearbox.
The transversely mounted engines channel drive to the front wheels in all but the most powerful 2.0 TSI and 2.0 TDI models, which run a fifth generation version of Volkswagen’s electro-hydraulic 4Motion four-wheel drive system as standard.
Further driveline options, including a petrol-electric hybrid unit, are planned to be added later on. The Arteon will be produced at Volkswagen’s Emden plant in Germany alongside the eighth-generation Passat from June.
Key rivals to the Arteon include the BMW 4-series Gran Coupe and the Audi A5 sportback.
Volkswagen Areton photo gallery
Take a look at the other cars present at the Geneva motor show 2017 in our image gallery.