VW Introducing Natural Gas Versions of Touran, Caddy

9 September 2005

The VW Caddy

Volkswagen is presenting natural gas-powered versions of its successful Touran minivan and Caddy light utility vehicle at the upcoming Frankfurt IAA. VW first showed them as advanced concepts at the AMI event in Leipzig in March 2005, and will put them on sale at the beginning of 2006.

The EcoFuel Touran and EcoFuel Caddy use what Volkswagen calls a quasi-monovalent approach: the vehicles are optimized for operation on natural gas, but they have a small reserve of gasoline. (Monovalent natural gas vehicles run just on gas or with a small emergency reserve of gasoline. Bivalent gas vehicles are designed to use either.)

The EcoFuel versions of the Touran and Caddy use 2.0-liter engines that deliver 80 kW (109 hp) of power, and have driving ranges of 310 kilometers (193 miles), and 430 kilometers (267 miles) respectively.

Both vehicles are Euro-4 compliant. The Touran emits 156 g/km CO₂, the Caddy 158 g/km.

Four natural gas tanks are positioned under the floor in the rear end. The Caddy has a capacity of 26 kg, the Touran 18 kg. The gasoline reserve tank has a 15-liter capacity (4 gallons US).

The Touran EcoFuel consumes 5.9 kg of natural gas every 100 kilometers, the Caddy EcoFuel 6.0 kg (about 26 mpgge US).