At the 34th International Vienna Motor Symposium Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn, Chairman of Volkswagen AG confirmed the development of a high-performance diesel engine delivering a specific output of 100kW per litre of displacement and a new 10-speed dual clutch gearbox. Next thing you, manufacturers are competing with Lance Armstrong’s race bike for ratios.
Volkswagen Group are also working on a few other significant things, namely lowering the European new car fleet’s CO2 emission level to 95g of CO2/km by 2020; natural gas drive systems as seen on the new eco-up!(the world’s most economical natural gas car) which emits 79g of CO2/km, a technology which will be applied to the Golf TGI BlueMotion and Audi A3 g-tron; and plug-in hybrid technology with a purely electric range of up to 50 kilometres, with the advantage of recharging from a socket at home. The VW Group’s first plug-in hybrids, the Porsche Panamera and Audi A3 e-tron, will go into production soon, followed by the Passat, Audi A6 and Porsche Cayenne.
The term ‘specific output’ must be new to most auto-journos. Well! We learn something new everyday, don’t we!
