THE EVO BLUEPRINT FUTURE POWER
WHAT IS THE BEST PACKAGE FOR A NEXT-GENERATION SMALL PERFORMANCE CAR SUCH AS A HOT HATCH: BEV (BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLE), HEV (HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLE), PHEV (PLUG-IN HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLE), OR FCV (FUEL CELL VEHICLE)?
Dr Frank Welsch, board member for technical development at Volkswagen: ‘PHEV is currently the best solution; it can drive with zero local emissions, has the advantage of lower maintenance costs, and also offers very good performance values with its two drives. The new Golf GTE has a system output of 180kW [242bhp], for example. That puts it on exactly the same performance level as the GTI.’
‘It could be BEV or HEV. HEV gives the instant torque benefits of an EV plus the range performance of an ICE [Internal Combustion Engine]. For cost and packaging HEV is better than PHEV. The obvious
