Skip to main content

VW Reveals Mild-Hybrid Golf in UK

Although Volkswagen has admitted that plug-in hybrids aren’t a priority in America, the era of mild-hybridization is upon us–or is at least upon EU–and the company has revealed what that will look like for the Golf.

Powered by a 1.5-liter gas engine, that’s married to an 8kW belt-integrated starter generator—which sounds remarkably like an alternator, but whatever—that funnels electricity to a 48-volt lithium ion battery. Weirdly, this is in addition to the 12V battery that will still run the usual electronics.

So far, that’s nothing especially groundbreaking, but the beefier electrical system does at least allow the Golf to do more. It allows faster start-stops, better energy recovery, and can provide more boost to the engine.

But wait, there’s more! A “mild hybrid plus” version will also incorporate a 35 hp electric motor that can drive either the front or rear axle. That means that the system can recover energy through regenerative braking, shut down the engine to save fuel, or—more enticingly—funnel extra torque to some of the wheels.

Funneling extra torque is always exciting because it helps performance in all sorts of ways. The extra torque can help acceleration in a straight line, but can also help with cornering (by providing extra power to the outside wheels).

That means that the same system that improves lap times also improves fuel economy by 7 mpg, according to VW.

Along with the electric motor, VW also has a shiny new TSI engine that uses a variable geometry turbo that apparently has the highest compression and best fuel economy in its class. Volkswagen is also developing an even better 1.5-liter engine making an extra 30 hp that can run on either gas or compressed natural gas.

Autocar recently had the chance to drive a prototype MHEV Golf. The publication reports that power delivery is smooth and linear and that it feels pretty much production ready, but that the MHEV Plus—with the 35 hp electric motor—feels a little farther from development because its power comes in and out a little more choppily.

So far the publication has only driven the FWD version but was treated to an AWD demonstration. A FWD Tiguan was driven in deep sand, where it became stuck until the electric motor gave the rear wheels a kick helping the Tiguan out.

Volkswagen anticipates that these systems will be commonplace in a few years because they help efficiency and are cheaper than a plug-in hybrid system—which could even make them appealing here.

That’s no reason to fret, reports Autocar, because the mild hybrid system, that Audi has been working on since the SQ7, eliminates turbo lag and makes the car feel responsive and engaging, causing Autocar to call it a better all-around option than the traditional Golf.

[source: Autocar]

The post VW Reveals Mild-Hybrid Golf in UK appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2hOV9kC
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Project SportWagen: Going Stage 2 with APR

    When we last left you, the humble little SportWagen was fresh from the development process with our friends at AWE Tuning, sporting a new downpipe, exhaust and intake, allowing things to breathe a bit easier.  The car sounded great, but there was no getting around the fact that our wagon was still quite, well, slow.   While we realize that nothing we do to the Golf SportWagen at this point will make it a race car, we still felt compelled to do something .  To put it bluntly, we had a fever, and the only cure was more power. Flash forward a few hours, and we found ourselves at Waterfest, staring down APR’s palatial spread and the numerous tuned vehicles surrounding it.  Earlier in the year, APR had hinted to us that their 1.8 TSI files would be quite impressive, and based on what they were able to do with the 2.0 TSI found in the new GTI and our time in their Golf R, we knew it’d be worth the wait.  So with this in mind, we lined our G...
Post a Comment
Read more

Volkswagen Group Records Best Ever First-Half-of-Year Sales

With 5.5 million vehicles in customer hands after the first six months of 2018, the Volkswagen Group is seeing the best performance of its history. Group deliveries increased significantly in all core regions,” said Fred Kappler, head of sales for the Group. “Our core brands recorded strong growth in the first half year.” For the year-to-date, all of Volkswagen’s brands had sales bumps. MAN, SEAT, and Skoda led the sales charge with performances 24%, 17% and 11% better than the previous year. The big sellers, too, had strong sales periods, with Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Audi, and Volkswagen sales rising 3.5%, 4.5% and 6.3% respectively. That last figure is particularly good new for the board, since Volkswagen alone sold more than 3 million vehicles in the first half of 2018. As Kappler stated, the numbers are equally good when you break sales down by region. Brazil and Russia were the most improved markets (22% and 20%, respectively), while strong sales in Europe and China (u...
2 comments
Read more

Project Golf SportWagen- Intro

I’ve never really been one for SUVs and crossovers.  The current offerings aren’t the body-on-frame, go-anywhere specialty tools I remember from my youth, and what they lack in capability, they also lack in on-road performance. The current crop isn’t terribly good at handling or being efficient, which in my opinion are major components of our ideal driving experience.  So when it comes to space or utility, I usually look for something of the wagon variety- and it seems that I’m not alone. We hit quite a few shows around the east coast each summer, and we see modified Jetta SportWagens at nearly every event. Even amongst common consumers, these cars are highly sought-after. They don’t depreciate much, making even early Mk 5 2.5 versions expensive in comparison to other Jettas or Golfs of the same vintage. This year, Volkswagen launched their latest SportWagen, which is now billed as a Golf.  In many ways, this latest SportWagen is the best yet and it has certai...
Post a Comment
Read more