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RPM TV Website | March 28, 2024

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Extreme efficiency technology for 8th generation Golf

eGolf
Adam Schoeman

According to some insiders, work has already started on the next generation Volkswagen Golf, which is meant to reach dealers in 2019.

It might seem a little premature to already be allocating resources to a vehicle that is five years away from being released to the public, but it actually underpins the amount of engineering work that is needed to make the Golf 8 viable.

The biggest concern for the next generation of vehicles is not what their competitors are doing, but rather the European Union’s fleet average CO2 emissions standards, which take effect in 2020.

The current estimates are that Volkswagen needs to reduce the CO2 emissions of its fleet by between 22 and 27 percent.

Previous, equally rigorous standards have been met, thanks to advancements in engine technology, but Volkswagen’s engineers have now gone looking for other design aspects to optimise.

Aerodynamics is a category of fuel saving that has been underutilised in the past, and seeing how much publicity Volkswagen’s extreme XL1 has been receiving, making its cars more slippery is a great place to start.

For this reason the next-generation Golf will probably inherit a lot of visual cues from the XL1, but this is not easily achieved, since the XL1 was built for a function, and that function is not to be a family hatch back.

The long and low stance of the XL1 aids its aerodynamic credentials, but will be impossible to replicate in the context of a hatchback such as the Golf. Instead, the use of an extended rear spoiler over the rear window will help the car’s drag coefficient without sacrificing too much utility.

The new car will also be built on the same MQB platform as most of the Volkswagen Group’s current range of cars, which will also mean that the Mk 8 Golf will be very much the same size as the current generation, further limiting what is possible.

The hatch also needs to shed a significant level of weight as the targeted weight estimate for the new car is 1 100 kg. Volkswagen cannot simply fabricate the car from low weight materials such as aluminium and carbon fibre-reinforced plastic (CFRP) because this will increase the cost of the car, which is already under cost pressure from the enhanced aerodynamics.

Apart from the aerodynamics, Volkswagen is experimenting with a few technologies that should help ots engines become more efficient, the most interesting of those being a hybrid power approach that uses a flywheel connected to the rear wheels.

The flywheel is charged by braking forces which can later be harnessed to power an electric motor. The solution is less complex, lighter and costs a quarter of a traditional hybrid set-up.

Audi has successfully developed an engine with a variable compression ratio, altering the compression in the cylinder head depending on load. It hasn’t said how this was accomplished or what the savings will be, but it is a development that engineers have been chasing for quite some time. And since Audi is part of the VW Group, this new-tech engine could also find its way into the Mk 8 Golf. One thing’s for certain, though: the next-gen Golf will be more efficient, and more frugal, than the current model.

From a South African perspective, however, the big question will be whether these new engine technologies will be compatible with local unleaded fuel – an aspect that is already threatening the availability of some advanced engines in locally sold vehicles.

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