Volkswagen Revamps Range of Compressed Natural Gas Engines

Volkswagen has completely revamped its range of compressed natural gas engines. It will be fitting a third tank for natural gas in its Polo and Golf TGI models. It will now be possible for the Polo TGI to go 60 km farther in pure CNG mode when compared to its previous version. In the case of the Golf TGI, this increase in range is up to 80km. In the case of the Golf, Volkswagen has debuted a new 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine with 130ps.

The third natural gas tank that has been fitted in Volkswagen’s Polo and Golf models has been made from specially coated, high-strength steel. The Golf’s tank has a volume of 23 liters and enhances its total CNG tank volume to 115 liters. This increases the range to 422km in WLTP.

In the case of the Polo which is fitted with a 1.0-liter three-cylinder-engine, the additional tank has a capacity of 16.5 liters and this increases the total natural gas storage to 91.5 liters. The new version of the Polo can travel up to 368km on CNG in WLTP. Both models have a petrol tank as a backup.

The Golf TGI has a new 1.5 liter four-cylinder engine for better driving dynamics and efficiency. The new TGI engine increases efficiency and decreases emissions as it uses the TGI Miller combustion process with a high compression ratio of 12.5:1. A turbocharger with variable turbine geometry increases the boost pressure.