As Reported in the Car Connection (http://www.thecarconnection.com/Auto...173.A9881.html

Volkswagen will produce a hybrid passenger car for sale in 2007, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. The paper says that the new VW's hybrid powertrain will be a "full hybrid" like that offered by Toyota and Ford, meaning that it can be operated in electric-only mode. VW will source components from Continental AG and ZF for the new vehicle; the actual model line that will be converted to hybrid technology was not reported. VW's Audi subsidiary has confirmed it will offer a hybrid Q7 in the near future, and a corollary Porsche Cayenne hybrid also has been acknowledged publicly. Hybrid sales are expected to grow by 268 percent in the U.S. in the next six years, estimates J.D. Power and Associates.

 

Hmmm... What happened to Diesel Uber Alles?

 

Is this a diesel/hybrid? That would be an eye-catcher!

 

Yeah I want to see a diesel hybrid from them.

 

Now if they can just improve their reliability ratings...a problem that has been plaquing them as of late.

 

Considering the Porsche Cayanne and VW Tuareg are the same vehicle and Porsche already announced a hybrid Cayanne, it's very likely VW is just going to use the same drivetrain for a Tuareg hybrid. It will still probably only get 18mpg.

 

Hardly "as of late"; reliability has always been a problem for all European car makers. VW is actually pretty good compared to the others, but of course they're nowhere near the Japanese. And their diesels require more maintenance than the gas engines. Even so, their current diesels are not bad cars and a diesel hybrid would be really great. Hybrids greatly reduce the inefficiency of decelerating and accelerating, but when cruising they don't do much more than a gas engine alone. Diesels do, so a diesel hybrid combines the best of both worlds. And even though diesels are slightly more polluting in some ways (though that's largely the fault of our own subpar diesel fuel, not the car), high fuel efficiency automatically reduces effective pollution since less gas is consumed and spat out.

Of course a diesel hybrid will not be cheap but given that many people buy $27000 Priuses, I think VW will give it a shot. Plus it might convince Europeans that hybrids are not worthless since it would no longer be a question of diesel OR hybrid.

 

Most of the European manufacturers are developing hybrid models for sale in the near future and most of these will be diesel (Porsche being the notable exception).

As for which vehicle in the VW range will get the hybrid option first, it may be the Golf as they recently displayed a diesel/electric Golf at the 2005 Challenge Bibendum (according to reports, it looked production ready).

 

It definitely won't be their only SUV because that would entirely defeat the purpose of creating the car in the first place. And since the Jetta and Beetle are based on the Golf platform, but the Golf is arguably the most practical, and you mention they already demoed a diesel-electric Golf, I think it's highly likely that will be their initial hybrid vehicle. And of course the hatchback Prius is very successful, though not really just for the hatchback design.

 

Bring the VW hybrid/diesel on! Unfortunately like all good things ... we'll probably get the ugliest duckling in the lot ... if ever. Most of us in VW TDI land just shake our heads at the lack of diesel choice we have here in the US. Yes I understand it has much to do with our 'dirty' diesel and Americans/EPA dislike of diesel vehicles, but we really don't get many opinions. Very few models, only a couple TDI engines in comparison to Europe, very few vehicle models and now dangle the hybrid carrot in front of me ... I'm not getting my hopes up too soon.