Test Drive Volkswagen Touareg since 2010 SUV
Hybrid winter
A long test VW Touareg Hybrid: we understand why environmentally friendly SUVs are needed. Hybrid cars are still rare guests on Russian land. Actively hybrids in Russia trade only Toyota and Lexus, and that with O-O-very large reservations. And the number of SUVs with environmentally friendly power plants in our market and can be counted on the fingers of one hand: Lexus RX450H, Cadillac Escalade, Porsche Cayenne S Hybrid and Common VW Touareg Hybrid.
Moreover, Volkswagen pondered over the Russian debut of his hybrid for a very long time dealers began to take orders for the hybrid taouareg only last November, a year after the conclusion to our market of ordinary versions of the SUV. And after a couple of months after the presentation VW Touareg Hybrid, one such purely was prescribed for a month in our garage.
What for? For several reasons. First, we wanted to understand: why do you need hybrid SUVs in Europe (and in Russia), where His Majesty of Diesel, economical and relatively inexpensive, is reigning. Secondly, it was interesting to test a hybrid installation in the context of the Russian winter and domestic frost. And thirdly Touareg Hybrid is the most expensive taouareg, and we wanted to understand why the buyers are asked so much money.
Seemingly ordinary tareg, only with a pacemaker
After all, they are asking for a lot: the basic modification of the hybrid SUV costs 3 million 240 thousand rubles, and the test vehicle was equipped with options for another 440 thousand rubles! Among them is a sports pneumatic suspension for 113 thousand rubles, a navigation system for 89.5 thousand rubles, a rear view camera for 50 thousand and more details, a tire pressure control system, adaptive head light, heating of the rear seats, aluminum salon decoration, a three-spoke steering wheel heated etc.
And this is not all that can be installed on Touareg Hybrid. On a test car, for example, there was no DYNAUDIO music with a TV tuner for almost 100 thousand rubles, a circular review system based on four camcorders for 77 thousand, panoramic roof for 60 thousand, 19-wheels for 59 thousand and expensive leather decoration of the cabin for 71 thousand rubles. In general, bring the price of a hybrid SUV to four million rubles in a few minutes of picking in the configurator. But it will still be less than asking for the most affordable Porsche Cayenne S Hybrid with exactly the same power installation, the prices for which they just start with 4.45 million rubles!
We admit honestly - the top, the general photo of the salon of the hybrid taguega is not ours. Because ours is lost. Well, that only she. And the main difference between the test car from the picture shown in the picture - in the aluminum finish (in the photo below) instead of a wooden.
However, the high cost of a hybrid from Volkswagen has a clear marketing justification: this model should have replaced with top modifications with V8 gasoline engines in the USA and Europe. The total power of the hybrid power plant is 379 horsepower, and the maximum torque reaches a mark of 580 nm. From scratch to a hundred kilometers per hour, a hybrid accelerates in 6.5 seconds, and its maximum speed is 240 kilometers per hour. The model of the previous generation with the usual 335-strong eight under the hood of Touareg Hybrid in all parameters is laid on both blades. Including fuel consumption: if an eight-cylinder car demanded a minimum of 14 liters of gasoline per hundred kilometers mileage, then the claimed fuel consumption of a hybrid is only 8.2 liters in a mixed cycle almost double difference!
On Tuareg, a fairly simple, so-called parallel hybrid power plant, which does not require global technical alterations of the base model. The traditional motor of the gasoline three-liter six with a mechanical supercharger, developing 333 horsepower, through the friction set is connected to the 46-strong electric motor, which, in turn, is aggregated with a conventional eight-adjusted automatic machine. Most often, the hybrid moves due to the traction of the traditional motor and only when driving or at low speeds (in traffic jams, for example, or on parking) electronics jams the engine and when the clutch is unloaded, disconnecting the engine from the gearbox to reduce mechanical losses.
But no hope in Russia in the model line of the new VW Touareg there is a version with a modern gasoline V8 with a capacity of 360 horsepower, which in the database costs almost 200 thousand cheaper hybrid, and the main version with an eight-cylinder diesel engine, which develops only 340 horsepower, but He has a crazy torque of 800 nm. And it was precisely the large diesel engine that was the fastest among Tuaregs - from scratch to a hundred kilometers per hour, such a car accelerates in 5.8 seconds, while spending in a mixed cycle only 9.1 liters of diesel mileage at a hundred kilometers
The problem is that the hybrid VW Touareg is terribly heavy. Its cutting mass is 2315 kilograms. This is 300 kilograms more than that of diesel V6, 200 kilograms are harder than the version with gasoline V8 and 40 kilograms more heavyweight with diesel eight. And all because the hybrid has to carry a 79-kilogram battery with a cooling and heating module, an electric motor and a bunch of excess wires with control electronics.
Plus, the Touareg Hybrid is not strong in its design, but still more difficult than its usual fellow. In order to teach Tuareg to ride only on the electrician, he had to put an electric powerover, an additional oil pump for the gearbox, upgrade the brake system and use an electric compressor for the climate installation. All this will surely affect the cost of maintenance and, if necessary, repair the car. How much more expensive is the hybrid vw touareg in operation, and whether we will definitely try to find out at all.
So what's the charm of a hybrid for the owner? For example, in the awareness that you are going on the most technological Tuareg of our time. And not somewhere in Green Norway or California, but here, along the usual winter Moscow.
In order to tell friends and colleagues, and I came here on Hybrid Tuareg; Yes, it is one that with an electric motor and show all red-haired wires under the hood and nickel battery in the trunk, screwed to the body with beautiful chrome plates. Or is to poke the e-mode button on the center console and drive past familiar in full silence, exclusively on the electric shirt. True, in winter, the effect spoil the studded tires mounted on the test car very loudly clashes.
In a solid pull, which provides a coprec-protective V6 + electric motor, and in non-frightening, while fuel consumption at the level of SUVs with traditional six-cylinder engines. This means somewhere 15-17 liters a hundred kilometers of run in the city cycle with traffic jams and rare stacks in the evening highway.
What else? We will tell about it in the following note. And also about what is the real fuel consumption of a hybrid in Moscow, how many VW Touareg Hybrid drives on an electric shirt in 15-degree frost and much more.
Exploitation
Common car mileage, km 1280
Mileage from the beginning of the test, km 376
Fuel consumption, l. 16.7
Specifications VW Touareg Hybrid
Engine type gasoline V6 + electric motor
Working volume, cm 2995
Max. Power, hp / rpm 379 (333 + 46) / 5500 - 6500
Max. Moment, nm / rpm 440/3000 - 5250
Drive type complete
Transmission 8-st. Automatic
Front suspension independent multi-type
Rear suspension independent multi-type
Brakes disc ventilated front and rear
Dimensions (DHSHV), mm 4795x1940x1709
Wheel base, mm 2893
Clearance, mm 201
Curb weight with driver, kg 2315
Max. Speed, km / h 240
Acceleration 0-100 km / h, from 6.5
Fuel consumption (combo), l / 100 km 8.3
Fuel tank volume, l 100
price, rub. from 3 240 000
A source: Magazine Motor [February 2012]
