After a 54-year slumber, Borgward will show a new SUV in Frankfurt

By Ronan Glon Published September 8, 2015

It’s been a fantastic year for fans of defunct European automakers. Renault’s Alpine division showed a close-to-production concept last month at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, England’s TVR announced plans to launch four new sports cars, and Jensen is on track to introduce a new Interceptor next year.

Germany’s Borgward is making a surprising comeback after spending 54 years in the history books, and the car maker will present a brand new model at the biennial Frankfurt Motor Show. Details are still few and far between, but a handful of teaser images give us a preview of what we can expect from it.

Recommended Videos

The yet-unnamed SUV will be billed as an “affordable premium” off-roader, and it will be roughly the same size as a Mercedes-Benz GLE-Class. That’s about all we know at this point because the company’s two teaser images do such a good job of hiding the SUV’s overall lines.

The first Borgward of the 21st century was penned by former Saab design boss Einar Hareide, and it will usher in the design language that will influence every one of the company’s subsequent models. It will ride on a highly modular platform, though whether it was designed in-house or borrowed from another automaker is an open question.

Relaunching a brand is easier said than done. Borgward’s unexpected resurrection is being spearheaded by Christian Borgward, the grandson of company founder Carl F. W. Borgward, and Karl-Heinz Knöss, an industry veteran who has previously worked for both Saab and Daimler. Additionally, the project is at least partially funded by the deep pockets of Beiqi Foton Motors, one of the biggest manufacturers of commercial vehicles in China.

There’s a good chance you’ve never heard of Borgward before, but executives predict the Stuttgart-based company will return to being a household name in the next few years. Borgward is hoping to build up a full lineup of cars and crossovers at the impressive rate of two new models a year, and it ambitiously aims to sell 800,000 cars a year by 2020 before reaching 1.6 million units annually just five years later. That’s ambitious to say the least, but seeing will be believing.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Ronan Glon is an American automotive and tech journalist based in southern France. As a long-time contributor to Digital…

Cars

Tesla shows off first Cybertruck after two years of delays

The first Cybertruck built at Tesla's Giga Texas facility.

The first Cybertruck built at Tesla's Giga Texas facility. Tesla

Tesla has shown off the first Cybertruck to roll off the production line at its new Gigafactory plant in Austin, Texas.

Cars

Volkswagen ID.7 shows not every EV needs to be an SUV

Volkswagen wants its electric cars to go head-to-head with gasoline models, but only now is it replacing one of those models with an EV.
While, the VW ID.4 is pitched as an electric alternative to popular gasoline crossover SUVs, and the ID.Buzz taps a well of nostalgia, the Volkswagen ID.7 fills a gap in the lineup left by the Passat, which ended production with the 2022 model year after nearly 50 years as VW's staple sedan in the United States.
Scheduled to go on sale in the U.S. in 2024, and previously teased at CES 2023, the ID.7 aims to breathe new life into the sedan segment with electric power, more tech, and aerodynamic styling reminiscent of the other ID models. Yet while it's a recommitment to sedans for VW, the ID.7 doesn't have the market to itself. EV shoppers already have the Hyundai Ioniq 6, Polestar 2, and Tesla Model 3 to consider.

A sleeker shape
Stripping away the camouflage shows many styling features that are recognizable from other ID models, including slim headlights mounted high on a grille-less front fascia, rounded edges, and body sides with sectioned, sloping elements like beachside cliffs that have been subject to much erosion. As with the ID.4 and ID.Buzz, the goal was to reduce aerodynamic drag and create a look that's distinctively EV.
The ID.7 is 1.7 inches longer than the Passat, with a 6.4-inch longer wheelbase that should benefit interior space. It's also a bit wider and taller than the Passat, which was a midsize sedan roughly the same size as well-known models like the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry. The ID.7 also has the fastback shape of the VW Arteon, positioned as a more luxurious model than the old Passat, but is 2.1 inches longer.
These dimensions make the ID.7 the largest VW sedan (the only other such model in VW's U.S. lineup is the compact Jetta) but put it close to other electric sedans. It's longer than the Hyundai Ioniq 6, Polestar 2, and Tesla Model 3, but the Hyundai's wheelbase is nearly the same. The VW is about as wide as these other models, but it's the tallest of the group, standing about four inches taller than the Tesla.

Cars

VinFast’s new electric cars will be available in the U.S. this year

VinFast VF6

As we move toward electric vehicles, all kinds of new car brands have been popping up -- giving the traditional automakers a run for their money. Over the past few years at CES, one of the more interesting of those has been VinFast -- a Vietnamese company that delivered its first cars in the U.S. in November. Now, the company is planning on more releases over the next year -- and at CES 2023, we learned more about what those cars will offer.

VinFast may not be very well known in the U.S., but it's actually one of the larger automakers in Vietnam. It certainly doesn't have the experience in manufacturing on the scale that it's hoping to in the U.S., but unlike many of the other electric carmakers, it is actually shipping cars -- not just building concepts. The VinFast VF8 crossover and VF9 SUV were announced earlier -- but little was known about the smaller VF6 and VF7 models, until now. Turns out, like their larger siblings, they're pretty compelling options.
VinFast VF6