VW Car-Net
Good morning Warren and Friends
What a busy week!
At the beginning of the week I was at the #Vwdrive full-line event. The big news from the event;
Volkswagen is replacing the 2.5-liter with a 1.8-liter that will get the same horsepower. The fuel economy goes up from 22city/33highway/26 combined to 26city/36highway/30combined. The 0-60 goes from 8 seconds to 7.3 seconds. The biggest change is in the torque The torques changes from 177 lb-ft @ 4250rpm to 184 lb-ft @ 1500rpm.
VW also launched a new in-car system called VW Car-Net. Think of GM’s On-Star and you’re on the right track. The first six months of the service is free.
From VW we hightailed it over to the #toyotahybridnation in Michigan. According to Satoshi Ogiso, the Deputy Chief Officer that has worked on Toyota hybrids since the first generation, the next Prius, probably out around 2015 will get at least 55 mpg. (this is after the hints he gave and I did the math – no guarantee, but for Toyota to hint…). Toyota owns 70% of the hybrid market nationwide and yet only 16% of its sales are hybrids.
An interesting factoid – Ed Larocque, Toyota’s National Manager of Advanced Technology, told me that a Boston study group did the numbers and that if everyone drove a Prius hybrid-type sedan instead of a midsize sedan that would reduce the dependence of foreign oil by 70%. Once again, doing the numbers that would mean the United States could keep $255 billion dollars in our Nation!
Let’s chat about cars:
