Volkswagen bags green car award

THE Volkswagen Group, one of the world's leading automobile manufacturers and the largest car producer in Europe, recently received the World Car Of the Year Award for its Passat BlueMotion, one of the most environmentally friendly cars worldwide.

Wolfgang Hatz, Head of Volkswagen Group Powertrain Development, received the award on behalf of the company in New York.

“With a fuel consumption of only 5.1 litres (diesel), the Passat BlueMotion is one of the world's most economical cars and is also affordable. Our BlueMotion label is becoming a model for a whole new generation of economical cars,” said Hatz.

Volkswagen has seven BlueMotion models in its range. This will increase to 10 in the near future.

Besides its low fuel consumption, the car also emits low carbon emissions of 136g per kilometre.
The BlueMotion is powered by a 77kW/105 hp TDI engine.

The “World Green Cars 2008” saw the Passat BlueMotion successfully competing against several hybrid models as well as a fuel cell vehicle.

Volkswagen Unveils Cars Wholly Developed in China

Volkswagen AG unveiled its Lavida and New Bora cars at Auto China 2008 (open to the public from April 22 to 28, 2008).

These models, slated for launch in summer 2008, were developed in China and exclusively targets the Chinese market. They are reportedly the first Volkswagen cars that were wholly developed outside Germany.

These models share the basic mechanism. Lavida will be manufactured and sold by FAW Volkswagen and New Bora by Shanghai Volkswagen.

The New Bora measures 4,540 (L) x 1,775 (W) x 1,467mm (H), and its wheelbase is 2,610mm long. Although information on the engine capacity has yet to be released, it comes in two types of four-cylinder gasoline engines mated to a six-speed automatic transmission with a manual shift mode.