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Volkswagen background and Volkswagen deals news

The most popular Volkswagen (also known as VW) is the Golf, with over 60,388 DVLA registrations. They are the 3rd most popular car brand in the UK, with sales of over one million cars last year. Due to their impressive model range, Volkswagen should have no trouble selling over one million cars again in 2016.

Volkswagen Group has made a significant statement of intent by committing to achieving average carbon dioxide emissions of 95g/km in its European new car fleet by 2020. Any car that emits less that 100g/km CO2 is currently considered clean and in many cities qualify for congestion discounts, hence such low average emissions across Volkswagen’s range of cars would be an enormous step forward in reducing pollution. Volkswagen is currently the largest new car maker in Europe and the second largest globally behind Toyota.

Audi, Volkswagen, Skoda, SEAT and Porsche are all brands in the Volkswagen collective. Volkswagen was the first manufacturer to commit to the 95g/km CO2 target.

The Bluemotion programme sees VW’s introduction of ‘eco’ models which aim for high mpg ratios and low carbon dioxide emissions. For example, the three door Polo Bluemotion offers over 70mpg and under 99g/km of carbon dioxide emissions.

According to VW, the medium-term future of ecological motoring lies with biofuels – therefore they are developing a new type of engine known as the Combined Combustion System (CCS) which blends the best advantages of petrol and diesel into one, and is claimed to be flexible enough to run on so-called ‘designer’ biofuels such as SynFuel and SunFuel, created from sustainable organic crops and natural gases – widespread use of these would significantly reduce the burden on non-sustainable fossil fuels, although there are side effects, such as the rise in price of crops in areas where such organic matter is produced.

VW’s longer view is aimed towards a high temperature hydrogen fuel cell, with the idea being that the fuel cell will power an electric motor that drives the car allowing for silent running and zero exhaust emissions. VW acknowledges that coolant systems for hydrogen cell power cars currently are one of the reasons for high cost of such vehicles, and therefore as a workaround is looking to develop a fuel cell that has a greater tolerance to higher temperatures and thus requires less coolant to maintain energy efficiency.
Volkswagen prides itself on the high environmental standards maintained throughout VW group factories with the majority of them having attained the ISO 14001 certification that encourages good environmental practice.

VW is also well-advanced with fuel cell technology and intends to offer fuel cell vehicles by the middle of the next decade. The company has a policy of building cars that last longer and require servicing less frequently which eases the burden on raw materials. Volkswagen is aiming to include lighter, more recyclable materials in the production of its cars.