Geneva: Volkswagen’s 69 MPG Golf Diesel Hybrid Concept Will Inspire Production Version!

Yes that’s right; Volkswagen officially stated that the Golf TDI Hybrid is likely to inspire a production vehicle in the near future. Apparently, the production model will be based on the next generation Golf which is expected to be introduced at the end of the year. At the core of the Golf TDI Hybrid is a 1.2-litre 3-cylinder TDI diesel engine developing 75 Hp and 132 lbs ft of torque combined with an electric and the very latest generation of the 7-speed DSG gearbox.

Working either in tandem with the diesel engine or, on its own, the electric motor generates and extra 27 Hp but more importantly, 103 lbs ft of torque. The electric motor also operates as a generator, recovering kinetic energy from the car during braking thus charghing the 220 volt, 45 kg nickel metal hydride battery. -Continued

When driving, the electric motor powers the vehicle from standstill with the diesel engine engaging only should additional acceleration be required or at higher speeds. Under these circumstances the diesel engine takes over with the electric motor kicking in only if required to supplement the combustion engine – for example, during overtaking. When at a standstill the diesel unit shuts down completely. According to VW, the Golf TDI Hybrid achieves an impressive 69 MPG or 3,4 lt of diesel per 100 km on the combined circle emitting just 89 g/km of CO2.

Volkswagen’s engineers have also intervened with the Golf’s aerodynamics by adding a new, unique grille design and smaller front air intakes while the TDI Hybrid also sits lower than the standard Golf on revised suspension and adopts the front splitter from the Golf GTI Edition 30 to help further reduce aerodynamic drag. A unique interior further distinguishes the Golf TDI Hybrid from the conventional vehicle.

2007 Tokyo: Volkswagen Space-up! Concept

As anticipated, German carmaker Volkswagen presented the second iteration of the “up!” concept that was introduced at the Frankfurt Show in September (click here). The rear-engined “Space-up!” is basically a 4door version of the “up!” with an extended wheelbase (2.56 meter). Accordingly, at 3.68 meters the “Space-up!” is exactly 23 cm longer than its 2-door spouse while at 1.54 meter, the van also gains an extra four centimetres in height. Inside, the “Space-Up!” can seat four passengers with cargo space varying between 220 to 1,005 litres (depending on the positioning and use of the rear seats). As Volkswagen points out in its press release, the development of the production models of both the “up!” and “Space-up!” have already begun. -Press release and high-res image gallery after the jump

The space up! - Key Aspects

space up! – The biggest small Volkswagen since the Beetle

World premiere in Tokyo: space up! – The space wonder from Volkswagen

New Small Family: space up! – The second variant of a new world car

Wolfsburg, 24 October 2007

The “New Small Family” from Volkswagen is gaining speed on its journey to the future. Just six weeks after the world premiere of the up! – the two-door city specialist – Europe’s largest automobile producer is now introducing the second member of the “New Small Family” at the Tokyo Motor Show: The space up! concept car. “The world premiere of the up! at the IAA in Frankfurt served as an initial test to see how the concept of our New Small Family would be received in Europe. And the results of this test were more than favorable,” says Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg, Head of Technical Development. Volkswagen’s chief engineer continues: “The second member of this new family now follows in the space up!. The small van shows that we are consistently exploiting every millimeter of space and creating an emotional design.”

Walter de Silva, Chief Designer of the Volkswagen Group, underscores the assessment of the board member heading development: “In formal design terms, one can see that the space up! is fun and at the same time offers maximum space on the smallest of platforms. Our New Small Family brings a smile back to the road. An exceptionally amiable charisma unites the up! and the space up! now being presented in Tokyo. At the same time, it is apparent at first glance that despite all of the emotionality of this car we avoided superfluous gimmicks of any kind. This has created a very straight-lined and confident design.”

The space up! - Concept

The space up! is a small space wonder. On just 3.68 meters length and 1.63 meters width, it offers the space of a considerably larger vehicle. The clever space concept of the space up! is to a great extent attributable to its engine layout: The environmentally-friendly gasoline, diesel and electric powertrains of the future up! family are always located in the rear – just like on the Beetle and the Bulli (Microbus) of the past.

A brief comparison: The space up! is exactly 23 centimeters longer than the up! shown at the IAA in Frankfurt; accordingly, its wheelbase is also larger (2.56 meter). At 1.54 meter, the van exhibits a height gain of four cm.

In contrast to the two-door up!, the space up! has four doors. And in actuality there are even six. That is because the van concept car does not have a classic tailgate, but instead a two-part rear door. Hidden behind this door are 220 to 1,005 liters of cargo space, four seat positions that are multivariable in design, and an exceptionally innovative cockpit concept. Numerous functions are controlled via a touch-screen with 3D graphics and proximity sensors.

The space up! - Exterior design

Volkswagen is introducing the space up! as the second model variant of the “New Small Family”. The up! concept car presented at the IAA in Germany and the space up! now being shown in Japan are unified by a common design philosophy. The cars are characterized by a simple, clear language of forms. The designers consciously omitted any superfluous gimmicks. Like the up!, the space up! is characterized by a completely new harmony between technical layout, on the one hand, and emotional design on the other.

Front end: Distinguishing the front end of the “New Small Family” are the headlamps that take an inward diagonal line, between them the horizontally integrated air inlets (minimized aperture optimizes aerodynamics), the VW logo arranged on the front hood (as the only exterior detail kept in chrome) and the smooth-surfaced bumper with a lower segment. An important new aspect when it comes to the headlamp design of the space up!. Here they extend far into the fender, and this also affects the side profile.

Side profile: On its sides, the concept car – like the “Bulli” in earlier days – exhibits a long extended window section and a clearly distinctive, powerful C-pillar whose form is typical of Volkswagen. The A-pillar is positioned far forward. The space between the A and C pillars is spanned by the line of butterfly doors with opposing hinges. Both the front and rear doors are opened by door handles at the height of the B pillars. Since they open in opposition, in the style of the legendary Samba bus, and extend across nearly the entire space between the wheel housings – i.e. the entire sill length – all four seating positions are exceptionally convenient to access. A key concept here is wheel housings: Hidden under them are the self-confident and large 18-inch wheels with size 165/50 tires. Distinctive in this area are the short front and rear overhangs. The front overhang, from the axle hub to the outer skin of the bumper measures just 53 centimeters; in the rear it is 59 centimeters. The result: Crisp proportions.

Rear end: Also unmistakable are the design features of the rear end. Take the example of the rear door: It fills out practically the entire car area above the bumper. Similar to the smaller up!, the door – split 1/3 to 2/3 here – consists of a transparent material. Integrated beneath it are the taillights. Fully opened, the door offers a cargo width of 101 centimeters. The bumper itself was designed to match its counterpart at the front end.

Thanks to the wide track width of 1.42 meters the outer edges of the wheels are in line with the wheel housings. The effect is that the entire vehicle width of 1.63 meters seems to consist of axles plus tires and wheels. Meanwhile, the only details that boldly jump outside of the vehicle width are the round-shaped outside mirrors, like the ones on the up!

The space up! - Interior design

The space up! is a full-fledged four-seater. In the rear, a bench seat is implemented with two integrated child seats. To convert them from adult to child seats, the seating surfaces are simply folded over, and two shoulder supports are folded out on each side. Finished. But not only will children travel comfortably in a production version of the concept car. The reason: The cushions of the four seats – for driver, front and rear passengers – consist of an airflow foam that automatically adapts to individual anatomies. In addition, the seating position is pleasantly high, making it extremely comfortable.

With the exception of the driver’s seat, all seats can also be folded and removed. If the seats are “only” folded, this creates a level cargo area with a capacity of up to 1,005 liters. With four people on board, cargo capacity up to window level height is still 220 liters. Since the low-profile engine of the space up! is located in the rear, objects with a maximum length of 2.8 meters can be stowed in a pass-through to the front cargo space. Remember: The concept van is just 3.68 meters long and thereby 15 centimeters shorter than the Fox, which is the most compact Volkswagen today.

The space up! - Intuitive interface

Since the car’s cockpit was conceived as a module to be applied across all models of the “New Small Family”, the cockpit unit was copied from the up! concept car presented in Frankfurt, with slight modifications. It is a cockpit with a great future. In detail, the space up! has two central displays: In the cockpit, an 8-inch monitor displays information such as vehicle speed, fuel level and range as well as momentary CO2 emissions. In the middle of the instruments a 7-inch monitor shows how future human-machine interfaces might look and operate. Here all conceivable functions are controlled via a touchscreen that – using proximity sensors – reacts to gestures as well, i.e. specific hand movements.

Menuing was retooled and reorganized so that people without computer science educations would be able to operate the system. The developers intentionally separated “display” and “control” levels from one another. Always shown on the screen is a control bar with standard functions such as climate control or audio volume control. Developers packaged functions of other higher-order systems – navigation, telephone, radio, Internet, images, films, etc. – on a display level that has been referred to internally as the “main menu carousel” – a type of virtual carousel. It consists of the icons of different system functions (telephone, navigation, etc.). When the user touches the “main menu carousel” it can be rotated by touchscreen. Visually, this control is just as spectacular as it is intuitive. When the desired function appears on the main menu carousel – such as the telephone – the user just needs to move his or her hand to the display to switch to the telephone menu thanks to proximity sensor technology. It was true on the up! and it also applies to the space up!: The new type of user control is fun, easy to understand in any cultural environment and very safe. That is precisely what is typical of Volkswagen. Toward the end of this decade, the first Volkswagen customers might be able to enjoy this new generation of intuitive controls aboard the New Small Family. The development of production models has already begun…’

VW Concept Slipstream: 2007 LA Show Design Challenge

VW’s Californian Design Center has come up with a two-wheeled teardrop shaped vehicle for this year’s “Design Los Angeles” (see here). According to VW’s design team, the Slipstream travels in an upright orientation occupying one fifth the size of a traditional vehicle when it’s used in the city. When on a special freeway lane called the “Slipstream,” the VW’s pod tilts to a horizontal orientation thus optimizing its aerodynamic shape. Rear fins slide out to allow the rear of the vehicle to float like the tail section of an airplane to achieve speeds in excess of 250 mph. The Slipstream is powered by the energy stored in the hyper-efficient solar panels that cover the vehicle. If only it were so simple in real life... -More pictures after the jump

Clarkson Pawns The 650Hp VW Golf GTi W12 Concept - Full Episode

In Top Gear’s latest episode that aired this Sunday, Jeremy Clarkson had the “dreadful” task of driving the VW Golf GTi W12 Concept (click here). Though it may look like nothing more than a… bloated Golf GTi, in fact we’re talking about a total different vehicle as this concept features a mid-mounted, 650Hp 6.0-liter 12-cylinder engine that powers the rear-wheels. According to VW, the GTi W12 accelerates from 0 to 100km/h (62 mph) in just 3.7 sec and it achieves a top speed of 325km/h (202 mph). Did we mention that it’s a one-off concept? Yeah, right, wait until you see what Clarkson put the Golf GTi W12 through in the test track!

Via: Youtube

Frankfurt: Volkswagen’s Rear-Engine "Up" Concept

Theoretically, the up! concept represents VW’s twenty-first century Beetle. Tech wise that may be true as the up! is not only an economical proposition but it also revives the original “people’s car” rear-engine, rear-wheel drive layout. However, the 3.45m long up! comes no where close to the Beetle in terms of emotion.

It’s as if Walter de Silva, Chief Designer of the Volkswagen group was summoned upon by his fellow engineers to draw up a sketch for the up! a couple of weeks prior to the Frankfurt Show opening. Completely soulless and a letdown when compared to Toyota’s beautifully penned iQ mini-car concept (see here). However, from what we learned, VW will present alternative proposals for the up!’s design in upcoming major car shows. Maybe as soon as the L.A. Show in November. -Press release and image gallery after the jump

The up! - Key Aspects

Volkswagen Reinvents the Volkswagen

World premiere: Volkswagen up! concept car with rear engine
Multivariable: City specialist offers more space, more variability and more fun

There are cars that endure for all times. They are icons of their type, masterpieces of craftsmanship and technology; they put ideas into motion, make progress tangible and sometimes quite simply make everyday life better, more practical and enjoyable. Many of these cars carry the VW logo. “Bug, Beetle, New Beetle”, “T1, Bulli, Samba bus, California”, “Golf, GTI”. Now Volkswagen is presenting – as a world premiere at the International Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt – a concept car that once again has the right stuff needed to move more than just one generation. It is a small, pure and high-spirited Volkswagen that pays tribute to its environment. The overall concept is marked by an innovative, clear, intuitive functionality. The name of the concept car: up! – a positive name that is a synonym for departure, activity, dynamics and the future. “For Volkswagen”, says Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg, Board Member with Responsibility for Technical Development, “the response of IAA visitors will be a decisive test to determine whether the concept has the same kind of potential possessed by the Beetle at one time or by the Golf today.”

The up! - Concept

The up! is a city specialist, a car for four persons and all languages, for the job, the university, the drive to the beach and the excursion outside the city gates. A small car that shows a lot of size, because it offers more space than any other car of similar length (3.45 meters) and width (1.63 meters). Its engine – conceivable here are all facets of technology that can be sensibly applied – will run in the rear. And that changes everything: Space, mood and design.Walter de Silva, Chief Designer of the Volkswagen group, sums it up like this: “The up! is not a car whose form will become obsolete within a very brief period of time. It shines in its cleverness and yet is made with loving care. And so the up! is a clear and strong statement for future Volkswagen design.” Furthermore, the team of designers and engineers has envisioned the up! concept car as the first member of an entire model line; other facets are entirely conceivable.

Ralf-Gerhard Willner, Director of Concept Development, has final responsibility for the technical layout of the up! He and Walter de Silva had already achieved a new balance in the mutual interaction between form and function at Volkswagen before the start of the project. “Absolute harmony of the basic technological concept and the emotional aspects of the design”, note Willner and de Silva in unison, “can only be achieved in a hard clash of ideas between engineers and designers. That is the only way to produce icons.” That is precisely why the up! is not your run-of-the-mill, small, tightly packed car, but instead is a clever, innovative whole. Its form is pure. It just had to look like this, no other look would do. There is nothing superf luous, and its functionality – and so also its design – speak for themselves. Simultaneously – and this is typical of Volkswagen – uncompromisingly attention was given to refining every line and every surface until we had created a friendly and masterful car.

The up! - Exterior design

The fact that the engine of the up! runs in the rear has a decisive inf luence on its exterior design. That is because the up! has no classic radiator grille. It forges links to the Beetle. This fact alone gives it a great deal of independence. Dominant design characteristics are the headlamps that take an inward and diagonal line, between them the horizontally arranged air vents, the VW logo (as one of the few details kept in chrome), the tailgate that extends far forward and the smooth bumper with a circumferential black stripe as a detail of the “happy face” that is typical of Volkswagen.

In many areas, technology and design have melded into a vehicle architecture that is not only appealing, but is also very utilitarian. The rear end of the up! is a good example of this. The tailgate was produced using a transparent material. Under this gate developers also integrated the high layout of the taillights. This is where design and technical-conceptual aspirations come together on the economical car. The goal is to have the rear window wiper clean the taillights too as necessary. Another feature that is technically and visually new is the location of the VW logo in the tailgate; it is also located behind glass and illuminates when the light is on. The rear bumper was designed to match the “happy face” in front.

The powerful appearance of the up!, despite all of its compactness, is emphasized by a very wide track width (1.42 meters) relative to vehicle width. The wheels are flush with the sporty outboard wheel arches and side skirts. The radial design of the wheels and surfaces extending right up to the edge of the rim make the 15-inch alloy wheels appear significantly larger than they actually are.

The wheels that are arranged far outboard in the bumper areas reduce body overhangs to a minimum. All of these features are part of an unmistakable side profile with a very long roof arch as well as clear and large surfaces. Giving shape to its style here are the large doors (with a special space-saving opening mechanism) and the lateral window surfaces, which incline sharply upward at the height of the rear wheel arch and thereby help to form the very independent C-pillar design.

The up! - Interior design

Mounting the engine in the rear opened up entirely new interior concepts. Relative to its exterior size, the space offering is exceptionally forward-thinking. The same is true of its variability: Except for the driver’s seat, all other seats can be folded and removed. Since they are designed as light shells, they can be quickly stowed in one of the cargo areas – besides the front trunk there is also one in the rear – to free up space. Afterwards, the entire passenger compartment length can be utilized as a storage area for especially bulky objects.

To achieve the high level of seating comfort that is usual at Volkswagen, besides their ergonomic design, in the case of the up! this level of comfort is also attained by a simple yet very effective trick: Similar to a self-inf lating air mattress, air can be sucked out of the seat surfaces via a valve. This means that the seats can be adjusted 1:1 to the body anatomies of the occupants who have just taken a seat.

The up! - Intuitive interface

On its up! concept car, Volkswagen is presenting some completely new solutions when it comes to operator controls. Klaus Bischoff, Chief Designer for the Volkswagen Brand, comments on this: “Another reason the up! is so fascinating is because everything, every detail, was thought out anew. In the interior we have a touchscreen with new proximity sensor technology for controlling the navigation, radio, trip computer and climate control systems. It is operated absolutely intuitively. As a result, the most complicated functions can be controlled like child’s play.”

The up! has two central displays. In the cockpit, a 7-inch monitor shows the driver key information such as vehicle speed, fuel level and range, as well as momentary CO2 emissions.

In the center of the instruments – equally easy for driver and front passenger to see and control – an 8-inch monitor shows the way that future human-machine interfaces will look and operate. Here all conceivable functions can be controlled via the mentioned touchscreen, which also reacts via proximity sensor to gestures, i.e. specific hand movements.

Menuing was restocked and reorganized so that people without computer science educations would be able to operate the system. The developers intentionally separated “display” and “control” levels from one another. Always shown on the screen is a control bar with standard functions such as climate control or audio volume control. Developers packaged functions of other higher-order systems – navigation, telephone, radio, Internet, images, movies, etc. – on a display level that has been referred to internally as the “main menu carousel” – a type of virtual carousel. It consists of the icons of different system functions (telephone, navigation, etc.). When the user touches the “main menu carousel” it can be rotated by touchscreen. Visually, this control is just as spectacular as it is intuitive. When the desired function appears on the main menu carousel – such as the telephone – all the user needs to do is move his or her hand to the display to switch over to the telephone menu, thanks to proximity sensor technology. The new type of user control is fun, easy to understand in any cultural environment and very safe. That is precisely what is typical of Volkswagen.