Volkswagen wants to promote with Power Hybrid and protect the environment

This summer VW wants to start the electric offensive with the ID.3. With him, group boss Herbert Diess wants to lead the Wolfsburg car maker to the promised Stromer country. But Volkswagen doesn’t just rely on pure electric cars either. Plug-in hybrid models are equally important in electrical strategy.

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In addition to the Passat Variant GTE, VW plans to launch six other PHEV vehicles this year alone: including the Golf e-Hybrid with probably 204 HP (150 kW) and the more powerful Golf GTE with 244 HP (180 kW). The Arteon and Arteon Shooting Brake are also electrified. It is quite possible that these two models are also offered in different performance levels. The SUVs include the Touareg R PHEV and the Tiguan PHEV.

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More and more popular

In Germany, the share of GTEs in the Passat rose from three to 15 percent in one year, and also in Switzerland, the share with the revision of the Passat rose last year from a rather small share to around ten percent. This encourages the VW strategists that the plug-in hybrids will also prevail in the other series. In addition, GTE customers can drive purely electrically most of the time. The Passat offers a range of 54 kilometers, while VW customers only travel an average of 42 kilometers per day.

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Good bait catches mice

Even more important for Switzerland: The GTE models, such as the Touareg Hybrid R with 462 hp (340 kW), should be the most powerful engine on offer. The strongest drive is often sold, especially in Switzerland. With this strategy, Porsche is already generating good plug-in hybrid sales figures Panamera and Cayenne. And the more plug-in cars are sold, the better the fleet consumption and the lower the possible fines. The Volkswagen Group is confident of becoming a CO_2nd-To be able to completely miss buses.

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The limits of plug-in technology

VW developed a very compact parallel hybrid module. The electric motor, disconnect clutch and double clutch gearbox are in one housing, which is why it can be used with longitudinally and transversely installed motors. The modular kit for cross-mounted motors (MQB) has its limits, however. That is why not all VW models will initially be available as plug-in hybrids: “PHEV technology requires a minimum of installation space, which is why the Golf is the lower limit,” explains plug-in project manager Kai Philipp.

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This also limits the electrical range. This should not increase dramatically in the near future because there is no space for larger batteries. Greater range can only be achieved through a higher energy density of the battery, better battery cells, more efficient electric motors and better software. But it is precisely with the energy density, with which the manufacturers have recently been able to gain a lot of new reach, that the optimization curve flattens out.

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What about the diesel hybrid?

VW will initially only combine gasoline engines with electric motors. The costs for exhaust gas aftertreatment would add up to those for plug-in hybrid technology and would make diesel hybrids very expensive. With more units, prices would also drop. But for that, the cars would also have to be sold in China, although the customers there rely almost exclusively on petrol engines.

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But the internal combustion engine is actually a minor matter. After all, the plug-in hybrids at VW have a pedagogical task: They are supposed to make electric mobility appealing to customers and let them drive electrically for the first time. That should arouse the desire for more.