VW Touareg with a hybrid version comes as something of a surprise.
2011 vw touareg hybrid reviews
The Truth About Cars have published a review of the 2011 VW Touareg Hybrid. 'From the outside, the Touareg Hybrid's most distinctive feature is VW's latest aggressive corporate grille, which blends well with the standard (on Hybrids only) HID headlamps and LED accent lights.
As a longtime champion of clean-diesel technology in the American market, Volkswagen’s decision to launch its all-new Touareg with a hybrid version comes as something of a surprise.
From the outside, the Touareg Hybrid’s most distinctive feature is VW’s latest aggressive corporate grille, which blends well with the standard (on Hybrids only) HID headlamps and LED accent lights. While the Global Hybrid Two-Mode Hybrid transmission is a technological marvel combining two electric motor/generators and a 4 speed automatic transmission with CVT functionality, the transmission is both complex and expensive. Combined the system generates 380HP at 5,500RPM and 428lb-ft of torque at only 1,000RPM. The innovation inside the 121-pound Hybrid Module is an engine disengagement clutch allowing the Touareg to drive in electric-only mode up to almost 40MPH. For SUV duty the "VW hybrid "arrangement pays real dividends. Since there is no delicate CVT or complicated 2-mode tranny involved, the Touareg Hybrid retains all the off-road and towing cred of the non-hybrid models. If you recall, the raison d’être for the expensive 2-mode hybrid transmission was supposed to be world-class towing capacity and off-road ability. In reality the 2-mode system in GM’s full-size SUVs and pickup trucks are rated to tow 26% less than the 7700lb rating of the Touareg Hybrid. The X6 Active Hybrid’s towing rating is 32% less and the ML450 hybrid rings in at a whopping 35% lower than the Touareg.
Back in 2008 Jonny Lieberman waxed poetic about the Touareg V10 TDI’s air suspension and AWD system, but nearly fainted at the sight of the $79,650 price tag. That Touareg was born with Phaeton pricing but sold like ice cubes to Eskimos. A V6 FSI model starts at $40,850 or $54,000 even when comparably equipped to the base Hybrid model. How did VW slash pricing on the Touareg? Few Touareg shoppers opted for the air suspension when it was offered and even fewer took their VW off-road.
Thankfully VW has decided to make the new 6.5” LCD Nav system standard on the Hybrid models (optional on other Touareg models). Out on the road the lack of 4xMotion in the US model combined with the crash diet yield huge benefits in handling and road feel over the previous Touareg. Given the design of the hybrid clutch system, I was expecting transitions between hybrid modes to be jerky but instead was rewarded with nearly seamless operation. Economy is supposedly the reason we have hybrids? Right?
Back in 2002 VW launched the Phaeton and Touareg in America, two vehicles with fantastic attention to detail and similarly high price tags.
The 2011 Volkswagen Touareg is more Main Street, more Fashion Island Mall. Good Ol' Dependable NiMH
We kept looking at the 2011 Volkswagen Touareg Hybrid and then looking again. Under battery power, the "2011 Volkswagen Touareg Hybrid" can reach 31 mph before dipping into the 329-horsepower supercharged V6 engine up front. Jochen Bohle, VW project manager in charge of Touareg Hybrid powertrain development, says, "Really, the key — practically speaking — is not running on just the battery power for extended periods. The hybrid has the same 7,716-pound towing capacity as all Touareg models, not something of which the 2010 Lexus RX 450h can boast.
For the Touareg Hybrid, most VW engineers stare at the Lexus RX 450h or Mercedes ML450 Hybrid.
The Touareg Hybrid with its Honda-style parallel system feels utterly natural, whether you're accelerating from a stop or coasting at speed.
Though it's bigger on the inside, the second-generation Touareg is just 1.6 inches longer overall, with a wheelbase that's 1.5 inches longer, while it stands 0.7 inch shorter. Aerodynamically the Touareg is slightly sleeker, with a 0.36 Cd versus the previous 0.38 Cd. The 2011 Volkswagen Touareg Hybrid also comes standard with 18-inch Goodyear Eagle F1 low-resistance summer tires, 255/55R18s front and rear.
Touareg for Touareg, this new, second-generation beast has dropped between 450 and 520 pounds. Despite all of the added heft of the hybrid systems in the Touareg Hybrid, it weighs just 4,938 pounds, some 148 pounds less than the first-generation, V6-powered Touareg.
All the powertrain engineering packed into the 2011 Volkswagen Touareg Hybrid largely goes unnoticed, even though there is always a lot going on.
The 2011 Volkswagen Touareg Hybrid and its sister 2011 Porsche Cayenne Hybrid will be the only models sold worldwide by the VW Group using this strictly parallel hybrid system with a NiMH battery pack. A Volkswagen Golf Hybrid will soon arrive with a lithium-ion battery pack.
