BlueMotion Efficiency for VW’s Most Popular Car

Blue is the new green as far as Volkswagen is concerned. The term “BlueMotion”is now used to identify the most fuel efficient version of a model in a product range. It’s already been featured in the Passat sedan and wagon, as well as the subcompact Polo. The landmark subcompact is capable of using an average of just 60 mpg of diesel without the aid of any hybrid components or idle shut-offs. Now BlueMotion is spreading into Volkswagen’s most popular vehicle, the Golf (now sold here as the Rabbit).

The Golf BlueMotion features a 1.9-liter turbodiesel inline-four that makes a reasonable 103 horsepower and an impressive 184 lb-ft of torque, power output that’s similar to the 2006 Jetta TDI. A similar non-BlueMotion engine has been available in the regular European Golf for quite some time, and in this application has been rated by the EU as consuming 46 mpg and as emitting 7.7 oz/mi of carbon dioxide. As for the BlueMotion, Volkswagen has been able to trim the consumption down to 52 mpg and 6.8 oz/mi. These changes allow the Golf to travel over 750 miles on a single 14.5-gallon tank of diesel fuel. Impressive!

What makes the BlueMotion so interesting is the fact that its improvements were made from changes that are fairly minor. Volkswagen’s engineers revisited the wind tunnel, modifying the front air intake and the size of the tires and have optimized the underside of the car to make it more aerodynamically efficient. This helps to drop the car’s aerodynamic coefficient rating from 0.32 to 0.30. Other internal changes include the lengthening of gears three, four and five in the BlueMotion’s standard five-speed manual gearbox. This accounts for a third of the gain, or 2 mpg.

Since the driver is ultimately in control, Volkswagen included a couple of motivational features to keep drivers on their most fuel-efficient efforts. These include an up-shift light and a standard trip computer to keep track of their habits.

Besides designating the most efficient model in a given range, Volkswagen is also using BlueMotion to prove that being fuel efficient doesn’t require shelling out for an expensive hybrid, with immediate recuperation of investment being realized right from the showroom floor. The BlueMotion version is only 315 euros more expensive than the equivalent base model, which can be regenerated in fuel costs in a matter of months, not years. The base price of the Golf BlueMotion is 20,615 euro ($28,020).

Now that Volkswagen Group has opted out of the Bluetec nameplate, which it was destined to share with Mercedes-Benz, expect to see a different sort of “Blue” pop up, such as the Touareg BlueTDI, scheduled to arrive in 2008. The Golf BlueMotion will debut at Frankfurt alongside the production-ready Tiguan. Rumor has it that a rear-engine, rear-wheel drive micro-compact called the City Expert will also show up.