Fuel Efficiency High on the List
For years now fuel efficiency and lower running costs have been a priority for car consumers, with fuel prices constantly rising it has become the most expensive element of owning a car. It is no wonder then that car manufacturers are constantly finding ways to lower fuel consumption. The obvious method of course is alternative fuel, and Vauxhall did very well with Low Pressured Gas (LPG) models.
LPG took off during the early part of last decade; LPG still costs half the price of unleaded fuel. Unfortunately cars fitted with LPG systems were prone to problems, Vauxhall eventually terminated DualFuel models from its line up in the later years of the last decade.
With the introduction of hybrid cars, LPG popularity also started to fade out. Many manufacturers such as Toyota, Honda, VW and BMW have introduced hybrid cars which offer more than 60 miles to the gallon. Some manufacturers such as Mazda have opted to keep tweaking the traditional combustion engine and the car structure to get better fuel efficiency.
Volkswagen has recently announced its latest technology, Cylinder Shut Off. It will debut in 2012 in the 1.4 litre TSI engine. If everything goes accordingly then VW will be the first manufacturer to implement cylinder shut off on a four cylinder TSI engine in high-volume production. The system works by shutting off two of the four cylinders temporarily under low to medium loads. By shutting off two cylinders fuel consumption is improved in the 1.4 litre TSI by 0.4 litres per 100km.
The VW technology sounds better than the TwinAir system used by FIAT, which is permanently only using two cylinders. It has not been confirmed whether or not the new technology will feature in the new Volkswagen Sharan in Leatherhead.
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