An Updated VW Arteon With A Light-Up Grille Is Coming, Joined By A Wagon Version

It’s almost facelift time for the VW Arteon. A “comprehensive upgrade” is in store for the car, which VW says will involve “new high-tech drives and intelligent comfort and assistance systems”.

An exterior and interior nip and tuck is on the cards too, and although the press release’s design sketch is a little too stylised to tell exactly what’s going to change, we can see that the bumper has been reshaped. There’s also now a fancy LED light bar running through the grille, like on the Golf 8, although chances are you were too distracted by what’s on the left side of the image to notice.

Yep, it’s the long-awaited Arteon ‘Shooting Brake’, which will be part of the reveal on 24 June. Look a little closer, and you’ll see that the Arteon SB depicted in the sketch features an R badge and a much larger, blacked-out grille plus bigger intakes.

We’ve seen the Arteon R undergoing testing multiple times, but it hasn’t been clear until now if the estate would be given the R treatment too. VW has in the past tested turbocharged VR6 Arteon prototypes, but the hottest Arteon is much more likely to see the same circa 330bhp 2.0-litre EA888 inline-four as the incoming Golf 8 R.

Elsewhere in the range, we can expect the usual range of inline-four petrol and diesel engines, topped by a 268bhp version of the EA888 for those who don’t fancy stretching to the R. There’ll be an overhauled cabin, meanwhile, featuring VW’s newer MIB3 infotainment setup.

Also on the tech front is a new ‘Travel Assist’ feature, allowing for “highly assisted driving” at speeds of up to 210kmh, taking care of the acceleration, braking and steering.

The question is, would you prefer the hatchback or the wagon?