Skip to main content

Volkswagen Beetle Hybrid in the Pipeline?

The Volkswagen Beetle isn’t long for this world, but the German brand could have one last derivative planned before production ends.

A filing by supplier Magneti Marelli depicts a VW Beetle’s gauge cluster, but also includes a bar for an electric charge. Green Car Reports reported Friday the gauge is awfully similar to the e-Golf’s cluster with the addition of tachometric functions.

The filing was made last month and Magneti Marelli requested part of the document be kept confidential until December 14 of this year. We could see a Beetle Hybrid surface for the 2019 model year as the nameplate prepares to depart. VW confirmed last March the Beetle will exit production and the reborn Microbus, based on the ID Buzz electric van concept, will serve as a retro-inspired model.

 

It’s unclear what will power a potential Beetle hybrid model, but VW previously showed a Beetle Hybrid concept in 2015. The show car featured the Jetta Hybrid’s 1.4-liter engine married to a 27-horsepower electric motor. The Jetta Hybrid, however, is longer in production. No matter what technology it potentially packs, it seems awfully strange to invest in a new model ahead of the car’s death.

The Beetle nearly lived on, however. Plans were reportedly in place to move the Beetle to VW’s MEB platform for electric cars. Such a vehicle would have remade the Beetle as a rear-wheel-drive car closer to the original with an electric powertrain at the rear.

This article originally appeared on HybridCars.com

The post Volkswagen Beetle Hybrid in the Pipeline? appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex https://ift.tt/2uZOhXR
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2018 Lamborghini Aventador S Roadster Review

“Supercars just don’t excite me anymore.” These words, spoken to me over a month ago by another journalist, friend, and (so-called) enthusiast were echoing in my head for far too long, but they’ve finally been drowned out. Drowned out by the wail of a naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12 engine mounted in the middle of the new Lamborghini Aventador S Roadster. My friend’s point is that back in the good old days, there was a crop of supercars that captured the imagination with amazing style, sounds, performance, and more. Today, it seems like everything is capable of supercar performance, with large luxury sedans outdoing some of the best and most dedicated teams of car nuts, while former pillars of automotive excellence are suddenly pumping out family-friendly SUVs. Beyond that, another league of supercars, dubbed hypercars have cropped up with hybrid gas-electric powertrains that make magical things happen quickly, but at the cost of the acoustic drama, visual flair, and engag...
Post a Comment
Read more

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

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