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This summer VW wants to start the electric offensive with ID.3. With him, the head of the group, Herbert Diess, wants to take the Wolfsburg-based automaker to the promised country Stromer. But Volkswagen doesn’t just depend on pure electric cars either. Plug-in hybrid models are equally important in electrical strategy.
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. These two models may well be offered at different performance levels as well. SUVs include the Touareg R PHEV and the Tiguan PHEV.
Increasingly popular
In Germany, the proportion of GTE in the Passat increased from three to 15 percent in one year, and also in Switzerland, the ratio with the Passat overhaul increased last year from a fairly small proportion to around ten percent. This encourages VW strategists that plug-in hybrids will also prevail in the other series. Plus, GTE customers can drive fully electric most of the time. The Passat offers a range of 54 kilometers, while VW customers only travel an average of 42 kilometers per day.
You catch mice with bacon
Even more important for Switzerland: GTE models, such as the Touareg Hybrid R with 462 hp (340 kW), should be the most powerful engine on offer. The strongest album 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 will be the consumption of the fleet and the lower the possible fines. The Volkswagen Group hopes to become a CO2nd-To be able to completely lose the buses.
The limits of plug-in technology
VW developed a very compact parallel hybrid module. The electric motor, disconnect clutch, and dual-clutch gearbox are in one housing, so it can be used with motors installed longitudinally and transversely. However, the Modular Kit for Cross-Mount Engines (MQB) has its limits. That is why not all VW models will initially be available as plug-in hybrids: “PHEV technology requires minimal installation space, so the Golf is the lower limit,” explains plug-in project manager Kai Philipp.
This also limits the electrical range. This should not increase dramatically in the near future because there is no room for larger batteries. Longer range can only be achieved through higher battery power density, better battery cells, more efficient electric motors, and better software. But it is precisely with the energy density, with which manufacturers have recently been able to obtain a new scope, that the optimization curve flattens.
What about the diesel hybrid?
VW will initially only combine gasoline engines with electric motors. The costs of exhaust gas aftertreatment would add to those of plug-in hybrid technology and would make diesel hybrids more expensive. With more units, prices would also fall. But for that, cars would also have to be sold in China, although customers there rely almost exclusively on gasoline engines.
But the internal combustion engine is actually a minor matter. After all, plug-in hybrids at VW have a pedagogical task – they’re supposed to make electric mobility attractive to customers and enable them to drive for the first time. That should spark a desire for more.
