Volkswagen reveals its TGI engines

The use of natural gas is growing ever more widespread across Europe and, although Fiat holds a clear lead in the use of this gas (through sales in Italy, where 5% of vehicles run on gas), Volkswagen does not want to lose ground. The German brand has unveiled its new line of TGI engines, which forms part of the Golf range.

The bi-fuel Golf offer (natural gas and petrol) has started with the TGI variant of the BlueMotion, which will continue with the estate version in early October. The Golf TGI has a range of 420 kilometres running on gas alone and a further 940 kilometres of range on petrol. In gas mode, the car consumes 3.5 kg of natural gas per 100 km. The Golf TGI BlueMotion thus joins Volkswagen’s current EcoFuel range, which includes the Passat, Touran, Up and Caddy.

The idea is to have at least one natural gas version for every model, now that the MQB platform is gaining momentum. That platform was designed with this type of propulsion in mind (with room for larger gas and petrol tanks), and it will also be adopted for other gas models from Audi, Skoda and Seat.

For now, sales of Volkswagen’s gas vehicles are on a good track. According to Jato Dynamics, the brand has sold just over 7,000 gas vehicles during the first months of this year. But the German brand also hopes to set a benchmark with its new TGI technology, just as Audi did in the 1990s with its TDI diesels. Cost also works in CNG’s favour. Volkswagen will continue with its gas-powered models on the premise that developing the appropriate engineering to make emissions truly low is expensive, but it is cheaper to achieve this with a gas vehicle than with a hybrid or an electric one.

Source | Automotive News

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