The VW Group isn’t
losing time with its newly-announced Jetta standalone brand for China. Testing
is already underway with Jetta’s VS5 model and these are the first spy shots of
the SUV. Spotted during winter testing in Europe, the VS5 is completely
camouflaged, leaving exposed only the headlights and taillights.
While these
photos aren’t very revealing, the alloy wheel design helps us identify the
model as the VS5. It’s highly likely that VW has been testing the VS5 for
a while now and didn’t want people to see what it was testing before an announcement
was made.
While there’s no
official information about the VS5 SUV, reports from China claim it is a
rebadged Seat Ateca. The official photos and these spy shots certainly seem to
support that hypothesis. While the VS5 features different front and rear end
designs, the side profile is very similar to the Ateca. No details are
available about the engine lineup but the 2.0-liter TSI turbocharged
four-cylinder unit should be on offer.
The Jetta brand
will debut in the third quarter of this year with three models: the VA3 (a
rebadged version of the Chinese-market VW Jetta), The VS5 (Seat Ateca), and the
VS7 (Seat Tarraco). All three models will be manufactured by the FAW-Volkswagen
joint venture in Chengdu, Sichuan province.
Before you ask the
obvious question why does VW need another brand in China when it has Skoda to
cover the lower end of the market, you should know VW Group’s presence in China
is split into two main (competing) joint ventures.
FAW-Volkswagen
builds and sells certain VW and Audi models while SAIC-Volkswagen does the same
with Skoda and other VW vehicles. FAW-Volkswagen needed a new brand to slot
below VW and decided to go with Jetta since that’s a highly recognizable name
in China. The fact that Jetta will sell Seat vehicles doesn’t affect the
Spanish brand which is not present in China.
