Volkswagen Touareg R eHybrid 2021 UK first drive

Volkswagen’s range of R-badged performance derivatives is currently undergoing a major strategic expansion; something signalled a couple of years ago by the T-Roc R crossover hatchback, and now indicated to even more conspicuous effect by this all-new, range-topping version of the Volkswagen Touareg full-size SUV: the Touareg R eHybrid.

There have been performance-flavoured Touaregs before (most memorably the wonderfully mad V10 TDI diesel-engined ones), but what this new go-faster version really shows is how much more broadly defined the role of the Volkswagen R-branded car may be in years to come than it once was. Broadly enough, that is, that fully electrified options should be expected to become a big part of it sooner rather than later.

When you stretch a sub-brand like this, you inevitably have to flex and change it in order to accommodate the Arteon R Shooting Brakes, Tiguan R SUVs and everything else you want it to work on in between. That's all fair enough. We're operating at a time when there is more pressure on car makers to be innovative with their extra-profitable performance models than ever before; and the cost of not doing so, in terms of emissions-related fines, could be huge. I get all that. Even so, with this Touareg I wonder if Wolfsburg has stretched the R brand a bit too far, forgetting about the core driver appeal that it ought to stand for wherever it appears.

All the peripheral R-brand stuff appears to have been thought about. The Touareg R gets 22in wheels as standard, as well as the obligatory racy-looking bumpers, sills, air intakes and roof spoiler. It gets VW’s darkened exterior body trim too, and the trademark Lapiz Blue paintwork you’ll recognise from so many Golf Rs over the years.

But under the bonnet, the car has less to pique your interest. It’s powered by the same pairing of 3.0-litre turbocharged V6 engine and 134bhp electric motor as has driven the Porsche Cayenne E-Hybrid for the past few years. The Bentley Bentayga Hybrid and Audi Q7 60 TFSIe use the same hybrid set-up, effectively. Except for Porsche, Audi and Bentley, this is a lower-level powertrain with a less ambitious brief to fulfil than it has in this Touareg. In a range-topping option, it isn’t quite the dominant presence it would need to be to really get your attention.

Making a combined 456bhp and more than 500lb ft of torque, the powertrain’s got reasonable performance credentials on paper. In practice, though, the Touareg R feels fast enough in outright terms but not that eager or effusive; and while the electric motor does add plenty of instant torque, the car doesn’t feel as urgent or responsive in the way it picks up from low speed as you might like. Every bit of urge it makes is routed through an eight-speed automatic gearbox and a Torsen centre diff that can feel slightly cloying in their style of delivery at times. They seem to need a split second to think every time you ask for forward impetus particularly when moving the car away from stationary, where other plug-in SUVs would have been off down the road already with a more abiding sense of both smoothness and potency.