At the 2011 Tokyo Motor how next week Volkswagen will introduce this new Passat Alltrack, a car designed to bridge the gap between the estate and the SUV.

The Alltrack is basically a jacked-up, rugged version of the estate Passat which does most of the things an SUV does, such as towing and light off-roading, while remaining within the confinements of a conventional family car.

Visually, the car is distinguished from the Passat estate with new bumpers in SUV style – with wheel well and side sill flares, higher ground clearance and bigger wheels. The Alltrack can be had with four engines, including two turbocharged direct injection petrol engines (TSI) with 118 kW / 160 PS and 155 kW / 210 PS and two turbodiesels (TDI) – also with direct injection – with 103 kW / 140 PS and 125 kW / 170 PS.

The two most powerful versions, 170 PS TDI and the 210 PS TSI, have standard 4MOTION all-wheel drive and a dual clutch transmission (DSG). It is an optional extra for the other versions.

VW Passat Alltrack goes on sale in early 2012.