Pulling our strings and pushing our buttons, Volkswagen continues to tease their next generation full size sedans with yet another concept car, the C Coupe GTE.
While it had its coming out party at Auto Shanghai in China, the Volkswagen C Coupé GTE Concept shows the way forward for full-size sedan design and powertrains from the brand.
Some 200-inches long, it’s about 8-inches longer than the North American Volkswagen Passat, which itself is larger than the global versions. This puts it up closer to the Phaeton in overall footprint, a car we no longer have in America.
The design is admittedly evolutionary VW design language, but notable here is a deep cut horizontal character line which spans front to rear. It gives the otherwise slab sided presentation some needed relief.
From a rear three-quarter view, it has a well planted and athletic stance that rarely makes it from concept to production. It looks sexy none the less in a vintage BMW 7-Series kind of way.
Its cabin design gives us hope that the rather austere Volkswagen interiors will soon give way to something more warm and inviting. Here we have not only color and warmth, but some pizazz.
Digital screens are everywhere including at least two front and center, and in the rear seats for the driven passengers. Given this car is shown in China, this is aimed at those who are chauffeur-driven – or at least wish to be.
Under its hood is a plug-in hybrid drivetrain consisting of a 2.0 liter four-cylinder turbocharged and direct-injected gasoline engine, an 8-speed automatic gearbox, and electric motor sandwiched between the two.
The two power sources together offer up about 241 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque. This can accelerate it from 0-60 mph in about 8.5 seconds.
Volkswagen has outright said this concept points the way to their next generation full-size cars. Whether we’re talking Passat or Phaeton, we will see this face again. On that, you can rely.
