Here’s The All-New VW Atlas Which May Be The First Car That Touts ‘Dynamic Turn Signals With Three Animations’

There’s an all-new Volkswagen Atlas coming for 2027, and I’m excited because I think this is the first company press release for a new car (or SUV or whatever) I’ve read that specifically makes a point to note how dynamic their turn signals are, and that they have three animations. You may think I’m being sarcastic here, but I’m not. I genuinely appreciate interesting turn-indicator developments, and VW definitely is delivering on that here.

I mean, I think they are? They just mentioned those three animations, but that was it. No pictures or videos just yet.

As far as the rest of the new Atlas, it looks like this second-gen one is continuing in the direction of the first: a big, modern SUV for the American market. It’s got some new features, some new fancy tech stuff, 13 more horsepower, an all-new design and, according to VW, “real wood.”

This is an evolutionary sort of change, not revolutionary, but that makes sense since Atlas has been a good seller for VW. The Atlas will still be built in VW’s Chattanooga, Tennessee plant, which makes sense considering all the tariffs and whatnots. The SUV is based on  the new MQB Evo platform, which was first introduced with the latest Tiguan. The new platform should provided an easier path to hybrid versions of these cars, and, like the Tiguan, uses VW’s trusty EA888 2-liter turbocharged engine, now in EA888 Evo5 form, which makes 282 horsepower and 258 lb-ft of torque.

That’s the most power an Atlas has ever had, if you were keeping a journal. Also, look how low-set that engine is in the engine bay; it must be some pedestrian protection thing:

It’ll tow 5,000 pounds, so that means you’ll likely need to opt for a female hippo instead of a male, but most consumers in the Atlas’ target demographic are generally able to find that a female hippo meets most of their day-to-day hippopotamus needs. For Atlas customers that actually do need regular access to a male hippo, there are Atlas owners’ groups that will have a co-owned male hippo available to all members based on a time-sharing plan and housed at a central, shared location.

So far, Volkswagen does not have an official plan to address the fact that the Atlas is generally not capable of towing an adult male hippopotamus, though there are unconfirmed reports that VW has been testing towing adolescent male hippos with Atlases, and this could form the basis of a work-around. We’ll keep looking into this issue.

The redesign of the Atlas isn’t necessarily radical, but it is significant. Most notable are the lighting changes, which are quite pronounced and fit with VW’s evolving design language. The new Atlas is above; the outgoing one is below:

There’s been some simplification and elimination of detail and trim in the update. The little angled kick by the D-pillar window is gonbe, as is much of the brightwork and trim around the grilles, upper and lower. There’s a few less character lines and the grille and overall front end have been simplified and cleaned up as well.

There’s now a dual illuminated bar motif on the grille, with the lower one bisected by an illuminated VW logo. The base model will lack the illuminated bars, I’m told by the press release. The lower grille is interesting, as it lacks a strong visual lower border, which reduces the visual thickness of the front, making it appear to kick up dramatically in the middle. I like that.

The lighting design is now based on a series of blocks that seem to form the DRLs (and maybe those turn indicators? It’s not clear yet), and this motif continues to the rear:

The lighting design is now a grid of rectangles, forming angled sides under a full-width red light bar and red-illuminated VW logo.

I like the taillight design from what I can see so far; I’m curious if it’ll have amber rear indicators.

One thing I’m not crazy about is what the press release describes as

“At the back, the spoiler is more pronounced, and the tailgate lies flush with the rear bumper, for a more modern shape.”

This feels like a bad idea, because a tailgate flush with the rear bumper means the tailgate is vulnerable in impacts to the rear. It looks like the bumper juts out a bit beyond the tailgate, which is good, but I’d like more protection there, not less, as a careless low-speed roll back into a pole or something should put my tailgate latch at risk.

There are 20 and 21-inch alloy wheel options and the entry-level car rolls on 18-inch wheels.

It looks handsome enough, I guess, dignified and slightly imposing. I think I’d still lose it in a Target parking lot, but for the target market, it seems good, and I do think the styling updates were welcome.

Based on this picture from VW’s press kit, an R version will be available, so that’s fun.

VW seems to have spent the most effort on the interior, and seems to have had the most fun with ambient interior lighting:

“Innovating ambient lighting sets sophisticated tone. A 10-color setup is standard, and thetop two trims receive 30 color options; a standard “Atmospheres” feature coordinates lighting and audio settings. On most trims, the ambient lighting flows through the dashboard loop and front footwells. The top two trims add an organic spiral pattern to the dash, which twists and morphs through innovative perforated backlit door panels in the first and second rows.”

That’s fun, right? Why not. I’m not sure if this is what makes people decide to buy a particular car or not, but it does add some flavor, and I’m all for that.

VW says there are three interiror color palettes available: “an airy pebble grey, a moody black and dark grey,” which I take to mean there are no actual interior colors available. Just three kinds of gray.

There’s some of that real wood, though! That’s nice! And the ambient lighting adds some color into those non-color color options for the interior.

The seats look nice, and there’s three rows of them:

Front…

…back…

…and, of course, way back. Even that way back seat looks pretty decent?

The seats seem to fold nice and flat, making a pretty even loading/sleeping/baby hippo resting surface with all the seats folded.

All the expected electronic candy is there, with 12.9 or 15-inch screens, which would have been decent kitchen TV sizes back in the day, and there’s a standard 9-speaker audio system with an option for 14 Sparkomatic speakers. I’m kidding, they’re Harmon Kardon speakers. Sparkomatic doesn’t exist anymore.

Look! That’s one of the speakers right there!

There’s power windowshades now, too, for enhanced privacy! Enjoy all the nose-picking you’d like with these babies up!

There’s a Level 2 driver assist system with driver-initiated lane change ability, but what I find most interesting is this:

“Emergency Assist can now guide the vehicle to the side of the road if it senses a medical emergency.”

Semi-automated vehicles being able to pull off an active traffic lane has proven elusive for a long time, so I’m very curious to learn more about this. I’ll reach out to VW for more information and, hopefully, some testing.

Overall, this seems to be a well-considered update to VW’s largest SUV, and I suspect it’ll do pretty well for Volkswagen. I suspect we’ll get a chance to drive it and test one out before too long, so we should know more. Pricing is not revealed yet, nor is an actual date for when it’ll be in dealer lots. Will there be a new Atlas Cross Sport two-row version? Maybe?

I’ll report back when I get a statement from VW regarding the male hippo situation.