Australia too hot for key VW green technology
BY JAMES STANFORD | 17th Feb 2009
Bluemotion represents a raft of fuel saving improvements including stop/start technology, weight-saving features and regenerative braking, and is available for most Volkswagen models in Europe.
The latest generation Bluemotion model is the new Golf, which runs green features including stop/start technology that kills the engine at idle in traffic and restarts in again when the throttle is applied. VW now plans to upgrade the Passat Bluemotion with similar technology.
The stop/start feature has not been cleared for so-called hot countries including Australia.
Volkswagen Australia could still launch the Bluemotion sub-brand without the stop/start technology, but is reluctant to do so, given this feature makes a significant difference to fuel economy.
Volkswagen Australia managing director Jutta Dierks told GoAuto her company would like to launch the Bluemotion sub-brand with the upcoming Passat version.
Ms Dierks indicated that VW Australia was likely to wait until the stop/start feature had been cleared for Australia, rather than launch the Bluemotion sub-brand without it. “That could delay our entrance because I think that (not having stop/start) would take away one of the things we really could talk about,” she said.
“We haven’t made a decision yet, but I’m not really keen.” Ms Dierks said missing out on stop/start would lessen the impact of the Blumotion arrival, but said that if it took too long to work through the issues and have the technology approved for Australia, VW Australia might go ahead and launch the sub-brand anyway.
“If you bring in a new car you should bring in the whole package, but maybe that is too long, maybe you make a decision to bring it in and try it,” she said.
“In a perfect world I would say that we wait, but if it is years then maybe I say we would try it. That is a problem we have for being a hot country.” Volkswagen and Audi classify areas including Australia, South Africa and South America as hot countries, and have previously altered technology to cope with extreme temperatures or simply refused to allow the technology to be introduced.
Ms Dierks and VW Australia had fought to have vehicles that had been deemed unsuitable for hot countries cleared for launch in Australia.
“The Passat R36 is an example,” Ms Dierks said.
“They say ‘you can’t bring in that it because a hot country is too difficult’, but we worked on a solution and it is not difficult, so I hope they will do the same (with stop/start).” Ms Dierks said she understands VW must make sure that its vehicles were able to cope with extreme temperatures, and said Australia was not the largest market.
“With these innovative technologies there are a lot of things that you have to look at,” she said.
“Being in Australia really isn’t easy. Honestly, it is nice to be able to generate 30,000 cars, but if you look at six million cars sold per year we are sometimes not on top of the card and I understand that.” Ms Dierks said the issue of trying to have the stop/start technology cleared for Australia meant that it was difficult to estimate when it would introduce Bluemotion locally.
She said it was unlikely Bluemotion would arrive in 2009, but there was more chance of a 2010 launch.
Ms Dierks said VW Australia planned to introduce Bluemotion versions of several VW models, rather than launching a Bluemotion version of a single model.
“I don’t want to go down that path because you just have too low volume and people think there must be something wrong with the car, when you can wait a little bit longer and bring the right equipment in, and hopefully generate volume as well,” she said.
“To be honest I would like to have a Bluemotion model in all volume models in our range. That would be really perfect.” Ms Dierks said being able to offer a Bluemotion variant of the key models would be important even if it didn’t represent a large increase in sales.
“I do think that we need a more environmentally protective alternative for the customer,” she said.
“We don’t know whether they would embrace that idea, but I think that at least we should have customers who should have an alternative to choose.” Ms Dierks said that while VW Australia was interested in Bluemotion technology it was not keen on a potential Touareg petrol-electric hybrid because the existing diesel models were so efficient.
The Bluemotion sub-brand seems to be gaining traction in the UK, with the local VW arm claiming it is one of the most widely recognised environmental labels in the country.
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