Volkswagen has decided that the future of the family SUV should involve fewer buttons, more screens, and a laser on the roof. Meet the ID. Aura T6, a 4.8-metre electric crossover that looks like Volkswagen has fed a conventional SUV through a very expensive photocopier.

Built on a new CEA architecture developed with XPeng, the Aura T6 sends 170 kW to its rear wheels and offers either a 59.9 or 77.5 kWh LFP battery. Range is a rather optimistic 540–660 km on the Chinese CLTC test cycle, while 0–100 km/h takes 7.2 seconds. So it won’t embarrass a sports car, but it should escape most supermarket car parks with dignity.

Inside, subtlety has apparently been banned. There’s a 15.6-inch touchscreen, a 10.25-inch instrument display and a gigantic 25.8-inch augmented-reality head-up display. You also get 18 speakers, massage seats and enough computing hardware to make your laptop feel personally inadequate.

And then there’s the LiDAR. Mounted on the roof, it feeds a 420-TOPS driver-assistance system capable of highway and urban navigation assistance.

Best of all, the starting price is just 135,900 yuan, or about $20,225. That makes the Aura T6 rather difficult to dismiss. It may not be the last word in driving excitement, but for the money, Volkswagen has created a remarkably well-equipped electric family machine. Somewhere, a traditional SUV is feeling very nervous.