Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/739032
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 16 OCTOBER 2016 II Motoring VOLKSWAGEN has confirmed it will reveal a new Golf hatch next month. The announce- ment follows accusations, subsequently denied, that the heavily face-lifted 'Golf 7.5' missed the Paris motor show over concerns it might up- stage the German car-maker's ground-breaking I.D concept. Confirming the new Golf will be unveiled sometime in "early November", VW hasn't claimed the next hatch will be "all-new" because it will be based on the current car's MQB archi- tecture. It is however tipped to herald a huge step-change in engine technology following the #Die- selgate emissions crisis. The new Golf will come with a state-of-the-art 48-volt petrol-hybrid powertrain. And with a shift in focus from laboratory to real-world perfor- mance, internally the German car-maker has set a target for real-world fuel efficiency of around 4.7L/100km. To help it achieve that econ- omy, the next Golf will feature new mild hybrid technology. Using the firm's recent turbo- charged 1.0-litre three-cylinder petrol engine as a starting point, an electrically-driven supercharger supplements 'normal' turbocharging and combines with an enlarged starter/generator motor. The advantage of the new mild hybrid engine is it avoids the need for a heavy separate electric motor and lithium ion batteries — the Golf sticks to a normal lead-acid battery. Clev- erly, the oversized starter/gen- erator has also been designed to kick in and actively assist the engine when needed, boosting performance. The process is then reversed to recover energy through engine braking. It's not known how much power the tiny engine will develop, but it's said to come with at least 110kW and more torque that a much larger 1.6-litre diesel. The e- supercharger provides instant lag-free throttle response low in the rev-range, which allows engineers to fit a far larger turbo for top-end power. Despite the added technol- ogy, the mild hybrid Golf will be priced around the same as an existing turbo-diesel. The British magazine also suggests that the updates are so comprehensive that, it's hoped within Volkswagen, that customers will regard the new hatch as an eight-generation Golf, rather than just a facelift. As well as the advanced mild hybrid 1.0-litre, VW will also offer a full-range of down- sized petrols and still continue to offer diesels globally. At the Paris motor show, senior Volkswagen execs hinted the next Golf diesel would come with the expensive urea injec- tion system that outperforms its existing technology for emissions. The new Golf is expected to be on sale in Europe in early 2017. Next VW Golf revealed next month Next-gen hatch to herald technological shift to advanced petrols with new focus on mild hybrids post #Dieselgate Audi pulls plug on electric R8 THE Audi R8 e-tron, launched in series-production trim to much fanfare at the 2015 Geneva auto show, is already dead. The company has pulled the plug on its all-electric tech showpiece and is in the process of delivering the last few units before production stops for good. It's a curious ending to the am- bitious, high-profile project. After last year's Geneva debut, the car was wheeled out once more two months later when it served as a showcase for autonomous driving at the CES Asia technology show in Shanghai. Then silence fell. There was no sales literature for the R8 e-tron, and the car never appeared in Audi's online con- figurator. Curious customers of the Europe-only car were referred by dealers to Audi's headquar- ters. The price? A cool 1 million euros (about $1.1 million). "We could have built more than we did," said an Audi representa- tive. But how many were built? No comment. "Fewer than 100" is the most precise number we could get. The R8 e-tron's illustrious public career began with a concept car unveiled at the 2009 Frankfurt auto show. In 2010, then-R&D chief Michael Dick drove a few laps in it on the 24 Hours of Le Mans course; two years later, his successor, Wolfgang Dürheimer, stopped the project. When Dürheimer's successor, Ulrich Hackenberg, put it back on track, Audi decided to turn it into a variant of the second-genera- tion R8, and it was launched at the 2015 Geneva show. During the development pro- cess, Audi decided to abandon the complex four-motor layout envisioned originally. The produc- tion car featured two motors on the rear axle, making it the only road-going R8 with rear-wheel drive instead of Quattro all-wheel drive. The R8 e-tron was inspired in no small part by the Mercedes- Benz SLS AMG Coupé Electric Drive—a battery-powered super sports car that was no more suc- cessful. Unlike the Audi, the SLS AMG Coupé Electric Drive made it to market with four electric motors and was rated at 740 horsepower. Around 2013, it came to market, priced at 350,000 euros (about $385,000); Daimler managed to sell a few, mainly to Norway and Germany. Total sales, however, never exceeded the low double digits. "We were too early," Daimler's subsidiary said. Three years later, Audi seems to have learned the same lesson.