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Volkswagen to Enter the RAC Future Car Challenge

The German automaker today announced that three Volkswagens are set to compete in the very first RAC Future Car Challenge on November 6, 2010. The event follows a route from Madeira Drive in Brighton to Pall Mall in London, during which the participating vehicles are measured for the energy they use. As expected, the winner is the vehicle found to have used the least energy on the 57-mile route.

One of the vehicles involved, which also makes its debut in the UK, is the new Golf blue-e-motion prototype, an electric vehicle developing 115 PS through an electric motor which is powered by a series of lithium-ion batteries with a total capacity of 26.5 kilowatt hours. The Golf blue-e-motion is capable of accelerating to 62 mph (100 km/h) in 11.8 seconds.

“The Golf blue-e-motion prototype serves as an indication of the future direction of Volkswagen’s electric vehicle programme with the first production model planned to go on sale in 2013,” a company statement reads.

Joining the Golf blue-e-motion in the RAC Challenge are a pair of production vehicles, both powered by highly efficient internal combustion engines.

The Polo and Golf BlueMotion models, emitting just 91 g/km and 99 g/km of CO2 respectively, use a series of aerodynamic and mechanical changes to maximise the efficiency of their refined common rail TDI diesel engines. In the case of the Polo BlueMotion, this results in combined economy of 80.7 mpg (2. l/100km).

“Based on this figure, the Polo BlueMotion would complete the 57-mile run from Brighton to London using just 3.21 litres of  diesel (0.70 gallons) costing a total of GBP3.78 based on today’s average fuel prices,”
Volkswagen says.
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