Archive for Volkswagen

What Car reports that Volkswagen might be looking into creating more variants of the upcoming 2008 Volkswagen Polo instead of the current 5-door, 3-door and CrossPolo variants. Additional body styles such as cabriolets, coupes and even mini-MPV derivatives are possible.

An MPV Polo could be called a Polo Plus, following the Golf and Golf Plus naming scheme. The thought of a Polo Cabriolet reminds me of the old Fiat Punto Cabriolet, one of the cheapest open top cars you can buy on the 2nd hand market today at under RM20,000.

Volkswagen is of the opinion that if you don’t continue to improve your products and keep at a standstill, it is actually a step backwards as technology always evolves.

Thus, Volkswagen has further improved the Volkswagen Polo BlueMotion’s fuel economy by a little - from 3.9 liters per 100km to 3.8 liters per 100km, thanks to a 3-cylinder 1.4 liter TDI engine with 195Nm of torque that allows high gearing, low wind resistance with a drag coefficient (Cd) of 0.30, as well as low rolling resistance thanks to fuel-saving tyres.

Volkswagen currently has a few futuristic engine projects running concurrently - one is a diesel engine that uses some petrol engine properties and another is a petrol engine that uses some diesel engine properties.

It calls its experimental diesel engine a “Combined Combustion System”. It’s a diesel engine that can run on synthetic fuels, uses air-fuel mixing style of a gasoline engine, 70% exhaust gas recirculation to reduce NOx emissions, low CO2 output and virtually no soot. This will be road ready within the next 10 years.

The petrol-powered engine uses a special compression ignition system at low engine speeds to help improve fuel economy and emissions. It ignites the air-fuel mixture through high compression using the piston alone, without any spark.

Fuel economy could improve by 17% using this method compared to a conventional spark-ignition system, but at medium to high engine speeds conventional spark ignition is used. This is similar to Honda’s Activated Radical Combustion technology, which also works at relatively lower engine speeds of below 4,000rpm.

Volkswagen is also working on a hybrid engine as well as a fuel cell engine, but it’s executive director for group research Jürgen Leohold did not comment on that matter, instead preferring to focus on the new enhancements to both petrol and diesel technology. “Diesel and petrol engines have had long evolutions, but there is more to be gained,” he said.

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Volkswagen has posted this promotional video of the Volkswagen Tiguan on it’s Tiguan microsite. It shows two of the production models dressed in silver and red in motion. Thanks to reader Patrick Wassel for the tip-off.

Related Posts:
Volkswagen Tiguan details revealed
Volkswagen Tiguan Concept

Click here to read the rest of Volkswagen Tiguan Promo Video

Volkswagen’s new Tiguan SUV will make it’s public debut in September at the 2007 Frankfurt International Motor Show, but here we have some official press photos to look at before it’s public debut.

Five engine options are available - three TSI gasoline engines and two TDI turbodiesel engines. The two new TDI engines have two outputs - 140hp and 170hp with 320Nm or 350Nm of torque respectively churned out at 1,750rpm. They meet Euro 5 emission standards.

The TSI engines are of 150hp, 170hp and 200hp variants and thanks to turbocharging they all make healthy amounts of torque, with the base 150hp model putting out 240Nm of torque from a low 1,750rpm, matching diesel levels of torque achievable at low ends of the rev range. The more powerful TSI models both make 280Nm from 1,800rpm.

The Tiguan is supposed to have Audi and Porsche brothers as it would only make sense, but only the Audi Q5 has been confirmed so far, with Porsche denying any plans to make a baby Cayenne based on the Tiguan-Q5 platform.

More photos after the jump.

Related Posts:
2008 Audi Q5 to be built in Ingolstadt
Audi Cross Coupe Quattro Concept - future Audi Q5?

Click here to read the rest of Volkswagen Tiguan details revealed

There is a tussle in the boardroom of Volkswagen AG over the Porsche Cayenne and the Volkswagen Touareg. Porsche is using it’s majority stake shareholding to influence Volkswagen product planning and marketing, especially with it’s joint projects such as the Cayenne-Touareg, two SUVs developed in such close cooperation that alot of people have called the Cayenne merely a dressed up Touareg.

Volkswagen plans to launch an all-new model change Volkswagen Touareg in late 2010, but Porsche wants to launch the Cayenne earlier during the first half of the year. “We aren’t at all pleased with a significantly longer model life for the current Touareg compared to the Cayenne. After all, the vehicles are in competition with one another,” said a high-ranking Volkswagen executive.

“If we can’t come to an agreement at the level of the working teams, the CEOs will have to hammer this out,” said an official of Porsche.

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Volkswagen’s new second generation Phaeton will be developed using Audi’s new MLP platform, and will be smaller than it’s stable-mate the Audi A8 in interests of product differentiation. The new Audi A8 will be revealed in August 2009, while the new D2 Phaeton will be out by 2010. The first car to use Audi’s new MLP platform is the new Audi A5/S5.

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Volkswagen’s facelifted Touareg, known as the Touareg 2 in markets like the US, is now available in Malaysia.

With the new facelift, the new Touareg gets a few enhancements, like an upgrade from 3.2 liters to 3.6 liters for the baseline model that is sold here. This increase in displacement boosts power from 240 horsepower to 280 horsepower. However, the pre-facelift model sold here by Volkswagen Malaysia already had this new engine.

Despite being facelifted, it hasn’t got a pricelift - the new Volkswagen Touareg facelift maintains it’s pre-facelift price of RM437,282 without insurance.

Related Posts:
Volkswagen Touareg 2 facelift launched in US

The Volkswagen Golf GT is quickly becoming a favourite with the automotive world, heck, even I wish I could lay my hands on one, and the little boost meter on the top right of this blog is actually from the Golf GT’s dashboard meter panel.

The engine requires no introduction - the highest end of the TSI engine family that makes 170 horsepower and a peak torque of 240Nm thanks to the use of a supercharger and turbocharger for the low and top ends of the rev range.

The latest award to be received by Volkswagen for the Golf GT is the Barcelona International Motor Show Awards, of which more than 100 automotive projects compete for to win the honour of the “best technological innovation of the year.”

The Proton Saga continues! The Edge carried a report today that Volkswagen and Proton will be forming a new joint venture company to carry out joint model development and marketing, with Volkswagen holding 51% as well as manufacturing, research and development and engineering division control, while Proton holds the remainder 49% and control of other parts such as sales.

This report caused Proton shares to rise as much as 21%. The same report also mentioned that Sime Darby Berhad will be taking over Khazanah Nasional’s 43% share in the company, something that comes as a surprise to me as Sime Darby has been quiet all this while, with the local forerunners seen as DRB-HICOM and the Naza Group. It is said that this deal will be finalised during the Khazanah Nasional and Volkswagen meeting in New York while Khazanah officials are there attending a roadshow organised by a Malaysian stockbroker for US investors.

So far, attempts by papers to contact Sime Darby, Khazanah Nasional and Proton spokespersons were unsuccessful. Before you celebrate, here comes the punchline - Volkswagen spokesperson Andreas Meurer says “This report is definitely wrong and only rumor without substance. We will have a round of talks soon”, referring to The Edge’s report.

The thing is, is there truth to The Edge’s report or not? If it is true, is Volkswagen is merely steering clear of rumours and denying anything before things are concrete? I certainly hope so.

And the saga continues…

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