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Originally Posted by 2Hybrids
Now if they can just improve their reliability ratings...a problem that has been plaquing them as of late.
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Hardly "as of late"; reliability has always been a problem for all European car makers. VW is actually pretty good compared to the others, but of course they're nowhere near the Japanese. And their diesels require more maintenance than the gas engines. Even so, their current diesels are not bad cars and a diesel hybrid would be really great. Hybrids greatly reduce the inefficiency of decelerating and accelerating, but when cruising they don't do much more than a gas engine alone. Diesels do, so a diesel hybrid combines the best of both worlds. And even though diesels are slightly more polluting in some ways (though that's largely the fault of our own subpar diesel fuel, not the car), high fuel efficiency automatically reduces effective pollution since less gas is consumed and spat out.
Of course a diesel hybrid will not be cheap but given that many people buy $27000 Priuses, I think VW will give it a shot. Plus it might convince Europeans that hybrids are not worthless since it would no longer be a question of diesel OR hybrid.
VW Set to Sell Hybrid
Volkswagen will produce a hybrid passenger car for sale in 2007, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. The paper says that the new VW's hybrid powertrain will be a "full hybrid" like that offered by Toyota and Ford, meaning that it can be operated in electric-only mode. VW will source components from Continental AG and ZF for the new vehicle; the actual model line that will be converted to hybrid technology was not reported. VW's Audi subsidiary has confirmed it will offer a hybrid Q7 in the near future, and a corollary Porsche Cayenne hybrid also has been acknowledged publicly. Hybrid sales are expected to grow by 268 percent in the U.S. in the next six years, estimates J.D. Power and Associates.
