Every car is an argument about what matters, and the Volkswagen Phideon makes its case with Petrol engine and 224 hp (2.0 . Volkswagen built from 2016 to 2023 — as electrification stopped being an experiment and the crossover took every market. Felix Schell drew it.
The story
The Volkswagen Phideon (Chinese: 大众辉昂; pinyin: Dàzhòng Huīáng) is an executive sedan manufactured by the German automobile manufacturer Volkswagen, described by Volkswagen as their "premium class" vehicle. Introduced at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show, the Phideon is aimed at the Chinese market. Sales officially started in July 2016.
What is underneath
Power comes from Petrol engine; 224 hp (2.0  is the published figure; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. It weighs 1815 kg. Work it out per tonne and you get about 123 horsepower — brisk everyday performance. It shifts through a 7-speed DL382 dual-clutch. The wheelbase is 3009 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Its place in the line
Its family tree is legible: it took over from the Volkswagen Phaeton; assembly was at Shanghai (SAIC-VW), China. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Porsche Taycan, the Hyundai i20 R5, the Acura CDX — show what else the money bought that year. Nearby in the Volkswagen catalogue sit the Volkswagen Apollo and the Volkswagen Routan.