Volkswagen shows 130 mpg Hybrid Diesel

This is a technology show case. VW is not going to build it. They will put pieces of the advancements in the tiguan and other vw and audi cars.

I like the 9kwh pack and hybrid design for a CUV with ev speed up to 75mph. It gives a soft electronic 4wd. I would not expect it until a 2015 model at the earliest. It also would likely have an Atkinson or turbo charged gasoline engine to reduce costs and polution. It looks supierior to the psd design that ford has in the c-max energi, and avoids patent issues with toyota. The big question is execution and price if they actually bring the beast to market. The concept last year had gasoline instead of diesel, but this would have given lower mpg and not highlighted vw's diesel tech. Over half the cars sold in germany are diesels.

Definitely not a competitor to anything toyota builds today, nor going into production.

 

if this is what VW calls a " technology show case" with old age technology... o man... thats bad new... then again that not real new news about car technology

 

Well, I actually have both.

My '04 Prius gets about 44-45 mpg
My '05 Jetta Wagon TDI gets about 40 mpg

However, the Jetta is an auto rather than manual so there is a big mileage hit right there. If I had the manual, the mileage would be equal to or slightly above the Prius. It would be nice to see what a manual Prius would get.

When it comes time to replace the Prius, I'll have to look at the upcoming VW Jetta hybrid, the Prius c, and maybe whatever this concept evolves into.

 

a manual prius will not do better!

 

As others have mentioned 130mpg doesn't really mean anything on a plugin car. Give it enough battery and you can get infinite mpg. I'm also not really convinced that a diesel hybrid would perform much better than a Prius.

Looking at the BSFC maps here:
Brake Specific Fuel Consumption (BSFC) Maps - EcoModder

At a typical cruising load of 20-30 hp, the VW 1.9L TDI is operating at ~205-220 g/kWh depending on rpm. Even if the hybrid system would allow the engine to shrink to shift its peak efficiency into this band we're talking about a peak of 197 g/kWh. In the same power range the 1.8L Atkinson cycle engine in the Prius is operating at ~215 to 220 g/kWh. So at best the existing TDI might cruise at ~4% less consumption than the Prius, and a smaller optimized TDI might approach 8% less. Given that diesel fuel contains ~11% more energy, and at least in the US costs on average 7% more, it seems like they'd have to do better than that to be compelling.

And that's for highway cruising where the diesel should have the advantage. I'm not sure the diesel would benefit as much from the hybrid system in city driving either, as the high torque at low rpm of the electric motors seems to compliment the Atkinson cycle engine more than it would the diesel which already has good low end torque.

If diesel hybrids were compelling it would seem like we'd already be seeing them in countries were diesel is already the standard and gasoline hybrids sell at a premium.

 

150hp from the electric motors! Now we're talkin' !!!!

Make it an Audi at whatever price is necessary and let's realize this invention! The world needs a high performance hybrid that tens of thousands of people can buy instead of just a few. Then the technology will trickle down. I'm thinking $65K territory.

 

I agree, diesel and highest mpg may be what VW wants for a halo car. This would be an audi, as I think the xl1 is likely to be.

The diesel hybrid push story dates back to pngv. It simply seems like the best of today's technology to maximize fuel economy. In 1998 NREL submitted a report that emissions should be a big consideration as well as fuel usage. That idea has prevented diesels from being used outside of demonstration hybrid vehicles. In order to conform to new Euro and EPA standards a diesel needs much more expensive emissions control equipment. Diesel engines are also heavier than gasoline engines, so the best choice for weight and emissions seems to be to add diesel technology to gasoline engines. Last years prototype had such an engine, 110 kW direct injection turbo petrol TSI engine delivering 210 Nm of torque. I think that is more likely. The bad part of the di turbo gasoline engine fuel economy is high power, high revs, which a driver can prevent by not pushing the beast.

 

I stopped reading when I got to THIS part:

Hey - VW - thanks for nothing



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