The Los Angeles Times reports, "One of the less pie-in-the-sky concepts of this year's Geneva International Motor Show (although the Rinspeed sQuba car was rather cool) is this VW Golf TDI Hybrid." The hybrid Golf (Golfs are sold as Rabbits in the U.S.) mates an electric motor to a 1.2-liter, three-cylinder diesel engine. "Bottom line, in a European fuel economy test cycle, the Prius achieves 54 miles per gallon. This VW could get 69, an improvement of about 28%." VW says the car is near production-ready, but because U.S. emissions laws are tougher than European standards, "more effort has to go into making diesel engines cleaner" before the vehicle could be sold here.
Autoblog, however, notes that VW may be reluctant to bring the car stateside because of its likely high sticker price. "VW's diesels already cost about $2,000 more than gasoline models. Add in what the hybrid system will cost on top of that," and the "Rabbit TDI Hybrid may price itself out of the market."
The gasoline-powered edition of the Rabbit ranks # 6 in U.S. News' rankings of affordable small cars.
