Volkswagen gets in the driving seat to launch eco motor
Volkswagen plans to launch its first 'full hybrid' passenger vehicle in the mainland and Hong Kong markets from next year.
Executives from the German carmaker revealed their plans yesterday on the sidelines of a green technology exhibition.
The Touareg Hybrid is an off-roading sport-utility vehicle with a three-litre, six-cylinder engine that powers it to 100 km/h in under 6.5 seconds.
So it isn't what most people would imagine when thinking of an environmentally friendly car.
Instead, the Touareg is part of Volkswagen's broader strategy of downsizing engines.
Already available in Europe, the new hybrid replaces its eight-cylinder petrol-engine cousin but is intended to deliver comparable performance with lower fuel consumption.
The Touareg is a 'parallel hybrid', which means its motor is powered by both a dedicated battery and a petrol engine, similar to the Toyota Prius.
By contrast, in a 'series hybrid' like the Chevrolet Volt, the petrol engine's function is to recharge the battery, which in turn powers the motor.
Volkswagen's SUV does feature an all-electric mode - but with a driving range of about 2 km at speeds capped at 50 km/h, due to the limitation of its 1.7 kilowatt-hour (kWh) nickel metal-hydride battery.
The Touareg is one of several 'green' cars on display at the Eco Expo Asia, which opened yesterday at AsiaWorld-Expo and runs until Saturday.
Volkswagen also showed off its 'Milano Taxi' concept car, a fully battery-powered electric vehicle with an impressive driving range of up to 300 km on full charge, depending on driving conditions.
The demonstration model was painted red and silver in the pattern of a Hong Kong taxi.
The Milano's large 45 kWh lithium-ion battery is mounted into the underbody between its wheels, which despite the car's small size boosts its total weight to around 1,500kg.
But Volkswagen's first commercial launch of an all-electric car will probably have to wait until 2013, when it is due to begin mass-market sales of a battery-powered passenger car - the plug-in 'Blue eMotion Golf'.
The electric Golf, which will sell as the Lavida in the mainland market, will be powered purely by a 26.5 kWh lithium-ion battery and will weigh about 1,500 kg.
