While Toyota grabs the eco high ground with its Prius, Europe’s makers are also trying to elevate themselves to the sunny green uplands with a range of hybrid-rivalling misers. From Econetic Fords to Efficient Dynamics BMWs; from Blue Efficiency Benzes to Ecoflex Vauxhalls; from Ecomotive Seats to Bluemotion Volkswagens. They’re all at, concocting increasingly daft model names to levitate their greenest offerings.
Volkswagen, which has been building fuel-sipping specials (remember the freewheeling Ecomatic Golf?) long before Toyota first started to court green preeners, has just launched a new range of Bluemotions, from 90g/km Polo Bluemotion to 114g/km Passat Bluemotion.
We concentrate here on the big-selling 99g/km VW Golf Bluemotion, Europe’s first sub-100g/km mid-sized hatch (the new 99g/km Ford Focus Econetic follows early in 2010). It’s just as well we’re writing about the Golf, because the over-geared, sluggish and noisy Polo Bluemotion is about as appealing as a diet of tofu and lentils. (The Passat Bluemotion is much more of a feast, but that’s another story.)
So how is the VW Golf Bluemotion different from a regular Golf?
Start with the normal 105bhp 1.6 TDI Golf, which uses one of the sweetest diesels around. Power and torque stay the same when Bluemotioning. Add stop-start (so the engine shuts down when the car is stationary) and regenerative braking (capturing kinetic energy to top-up the battery). Improve the aerodynamics so it cleaves the air cleaner (note lower ride height, revised grille, new front bumper and the small rear wing).
It doesn't end there. The tyres have less rolling resistance. The five-speed manual gearbox has longer ratios in third, fourth and top, allowing for an easier low-revving gait.
The changes add just over 10mpg (on the official combined cycle) and about £1500. That’s about two years' fuel costs (if you do 10,000 miles a year), and because the Golf Bluemotion squeezes under the crucial 100g/km barrier, there’s zero road tax if you live in the UK. So it makes sense financially, as well as ecologically.
