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At the website in the metal event known as Green-Car-Guide Live! 2008, Volkswagen will be showing off a prototype right hand drive version of the CNG-powered Caddy EcoFuel for the first time. Left-hand versions are already available on the European mainland. No matter where the steering wheel is, the Caddy EcoFuel can burn either compressed natural gas of biomethane in a 2.0l 109 PS petrol engine, which offers lowered emissions and fuel costs. It's still a petrol engine, and does have a petrol reserve tank along with the CNG tank (both under the van) that give a combined range of 350 miles, VW claims. The one-day Green-Car-Guide Live! 2008 show takes place this Thursday (June 12) in Liverpool. Along with speakers on green car topics, other vehicles on display will include a 100 percent biodiesel racing truck, a Honda Civic hybrid rally car, an electric Smart, and electric vans from Smith and Modec.


[Source: VW]

Click the Passat for a high res gallery

At the Geneva Motor Show next week, Volkswagen will be premiering a new natural gas-fueled version of the Passat that they are calling the EcoFuel. Unlike most natural gas-fueled cars, which tend to be down on power compared to their gasoline equivalents, the Passat EcoFuel uses one of Volkswagen's turbocharged direct injected TSI engines. The TSI engine has been optimized for running on CNG and has an output of 150hp and fuel consumption of 5.2l/100km (45 mpg U.S.). The EcoFuel Passat goes on sale in Europe around the end of the year.

UPDATE: VW press release added after the jump.


[Source: Volkswagen]

We don't get any VW Caddy's here in the U.S., and definately none powered by natural gas. But, they do sell them in other parts of the world. Speaking of other parts of the world and the VW Caddy (excellent segue, right) it took Rainer Zietlow and its team only 142 days while driving 45,000 kilometers using only natural gas to travel over 5 continents in their VW Caddy EcoFuel. The journey ended on April 13th in Leipzig, Germany. This is a rather impressive feat, even more so considering that the crew made absolutely no stop for damage repair, according to this google-translated version of the original posting on Autobilde.de. I'd like to thank Christian from Germancarblog for sharing this story with us!

[Source: Autobild.de via Germancarblog.com]

Click on the image for a gallery of really sweet high-res images of the EcoFuel World Tour.

Hoping to prove that compressed natural gas (CNG) is a completely feasible and more environmentally friendly substitute for petrol and diesel, Rainer Zietlow embarked on the EcoFuel World Tour. The goal of the tour is to drive around the world using on natural gas in a Volkswagen Caddy EcoFuel. And they're not kidding about driving around the world - the route encompasses 5 continents and a total distance of 45,000 km / 28,000 miles.

The tour started back in October last year with the latest update being that they were meant to be in the U.S. by now but ran into problems with the air freighter that should have brought the VW Caddy EcoFuel from Brazil to Mexico running into technical difficulties. No news yet on whether this will push back the official scheduled finish of the 13th April at the AMI trade fair in Leipzig, the motor show for Central Europe.

Analysis: It seems like everywhere you turn these days there are road trips, tours and charity rallies going on to promote green fuels and vehicles. The EcoFuel World Tour has certainly done well in terms of distance travelled though. CNG is a far cleaner fuel than either petrol or diesel and research is underway in a number of countries to further natural gas technology.



Related:

• Voller runs prototype fuel-cell on compressed natural gas
• Southern California company specializes in converting diesel engines to CNG
• Government funds LPG program for highway trucks Down Under

[Source: EcoFuel World Tour]

Click on above image to see complete high resolution gallery.

Car and Driver have posted a feature article on the wide array of different powertrains that Volkswagen is testing in a bid to capitalise on new developments under way in a host of technologies. Ten different vehicles were available for test driving during the Volkswagen sponsored even in Valencia, Spain as Jared Gall reports:

"The mind-boggling array of vehicles present ran on six different fuels and included four different diesel-derivative engines: a current-production Polo BlueMotion diesel; a next-gen Jetta "Clean TDI" coming to the U.S. in '08 under the BlueTec banner; a New Beetle convertible running on SunFuel, a diesel fuel manufactured from biomass-plants, woodchips, and other forms of biological waste-and a Touran (think Mazda 5 tall wagon/mini-minivan) running VW's Combined Combustion System (CCS), a mixture of gas and diesel that is said to burn more completely and is therefore cleaner than either fuel on its own. We also sampled two compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles, a Touran and a Passat running VW's new TSI turbo- and supercharged engine (this engine was also present in two gasoline trims); a half-baked hybrid Touran; and a Touran powered by a hydrogen fuel cell."

A highlight was the compressed natural gas (CNG) powered Touran EcoFuel which emits 80-percent-less carbon monoxide, 23-percent-less carbon dioxide, and 80-percent less oxides of nitrogen than a similar gasoline engine. The EcoFuel Touran also costs about half of what a similar gasoline engine does to feed, and about a third less than a diesel.



The story continues after the jump.