Driving on a frozen lake without studded tires only teaches you that you are not the one in control. As soon as you lose the lion’s share of your traction, which happens as soon as you try to exert any kind of control, mechanical physics puts its invisible hand on the wheel. It depends on your understanding of the weight transfer over two different axles to drive a vehicle on pure ice where you want it to, i.e.: not in the chest-high snowbank that your eyes keep fixating on.
Is it an ideal place to find out how a car drives? Absolutely not. Is it an ideal place to unleash a bunch of dumb dorks in prototype three-row SUVs ahead of the model’s upcoming debut at the New York Auto Show, with about as much information in hand as the average Dust Bowl hobo dollar had? Certainly. So we headed into the wilds of Montreal to do as many literal laps in the next Volkswagen Atlas as our vagus nerves could handle.
What do we know?
The 2027 VW Atlas will debut around the same time as the Crocuses, meaning the powers that be have been tight-lipped about the upcoming information. Again, not that facts and figures would do much good when we’re sitting at the wheel sawing away as if it were our first time in one Cruising USA arcade cabinet. Here’s what we know: The Atlas will get the latest generation of the venerable EA888 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder, which you’ll also find in the new Tiguan. Power and torque figures were not mentioned, but for context the fifth-generation EA888 produces 268 horsepower in its most powerful Tiguan configuration, one pony less than the current Atlas, although the Tiguan is 15 pounds behind in torque. Something tells us there will be an updated tune that brings the 2027 model closer to parity with the current model, if not a few ponies and a pound ahead of it.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that, as far as we could guess from the jagged technicolor camouflage, the new Atlas doesn’t look all that different from the old one. It’s probably a near-perfect reflection of the 2026 VW Teramont, more or less the Chinese market version of the Atlas. Expect a slightly sharper look, perhaps closer in vibe to an Audi Q8, with an interior that picks up many of the same tricks as the Tiguan, plus a few more. That’s all we can say for now.
(As for the Atlas’s slicker sibling, the Cross Sport, expect similar changes to come later this year.)
How does it work? . . Motivation?
Lake Sacacomie was frozen in mid-February, like everything else this far north of the Montreal metro area, and with no snow sticking between the ice and whatever landed on it, traction was difficult to get. Once we got Buster Keaton into the car itself, we got to see a few different activities.
Getting the Atlas loose on ice is dead easy. First select Off-Road mode, which disables all traction and stability control interventions apart from ABS. Then, after a small steering turn to the left to loosen the rear of the Atlas while breathing on the throttle, we applied full right rudder and accelerated as if we had any other problems. With the weight transferred to the left side, we held the handlebars completely until we felt like we were sitting backwards. The front end retained just enough grip on the ice to provide control, which was managed through constant countersteering adjustments and additional throttle movements. Finally, we had to control our momentum enough after the drift to land in a stop box.
What have we learned from that? One thing we can say for sure: the Atlas’s throttle was easy to manipulate, even with hardcore winter boots. All we can say about the brake pedal is that the ABS activation felt as violent and crunchy as ever. The steering was weighted for normal city driving, making it as easy to turn as a milk separator.
We also spent some time coaching figure eights, which required extra attention to weight transfer and balancing throttle and steering inputs. They then dropped us onto a dynamic miniature course, complete with tricky transitions between snow and ice (and the massive grip deltas that come with them) and a hairpin bend made entirely of what might as well have been glass. The one thing we learned there is that driving into a soft snowbank can still feel rough in the car.
Expect to learn more about the 2027 Volkswagen Atlas as March gives way to April. It goes on sale later this year, and while prices are still quite a ways off, for context the 2026 Atlas starts at $40,785 with front-wheel drive; the lineup culminates in the $56,105 all-wheel-drive SEL Premium R-Line.
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