Dr. Heinz-Jakob Neußer, Member of the Board of Management for the Volkswagen brand with responsibility for Development and Volkswagen Group Head of Powertrain Development, concluded this year’s International Vienna Motor Symposium by providing an outlook of the future of mobility and innovative technologies. The biggest challenges facing the industry are reducing CO2 emissions, electromobility and digitalisation.
At the symposium, Friedrich Eichler, Head of Powertrain Development for the Volkswagen brand, also presented the new 6.0 W12TSI. The new EU6 TDI engine family for light-duty vehicles was presented by Jörn Kahrstedt, Head of Diesel Engine Development for the Volkswagen brand.
In his concluding presentation, Dr. Neußer stated that the industry had changed more rapidly and more extensively in the last few years than in the preceding decades. However, environmentally friendly mobility remains the key topic for the automotive industry. “Climate protection is an integral part of our responsibility towards people and society. Moreover, customers demand models with reduced consumption and lower emissions and politics also makes high demands on the automotive industry,” Dr. Neußer continued.
The wide range of powertrains within the Volkswagen Group – ranging from petrol and diesel engines to natural gas vehicles, plug-in hybrids, purely electric cars and potentially even fuel cell cars – shows the Group’s enormous innovative strength. The Management Board Member in charge of development emphasised that: “The optimisation of the internal combustion engine is still an important field of innovation. High-efficiency TDI and TSI/TFSI engines – ideally in combination with DSG – will remain indispensable for the foreseeable future. The reduction of CO2 emissions from internal combustion engines is pure high-tech nowadays. Examples of this are our high rpm diesel as well as the high-performance three-cylinder TSI engine.”
Best-in-class values in terms of driving enjoyment and driving dynamics – alongside adequate power – are ensured by beefy torque curves and superior move-off characteristics over the entire rpm range, with a turbocharger with variable turbine geometry (VTG) being used for the performance levels up to 110 kW. For the top-of-the-range engine with 150 kW, the existing two-stage charging was completely redesigned and augmented by another variable turbine geometry in the high pressure stage.
