As one of the pioneers of the segment, Mark I VW Golf established a recipe for family hatchbacks which has remained pretty much intact for getting on half a century now. But for the next generation model the Golf is set to reinvent the hatchback and introduce new technologies that will make it the most economical mainstream car ever.
In the olden days making a family hatchback was simple. You needed a small body, four seats, a small engine, and a transmission hooked up to the front wheels. The 2019 VW Golf though will be packing more tech than the space shuttle!
According to Autocar who has given this matter some serious thought and acquired inside information, the next Golf will benefit from a number of advanced technology features that will make it extremely frugal and efficient. One of them is an ingenious flywheel system which is used to drive the rear wheels of a front-wheel-drive car, much like an electric motor in a hybrid.
Internal combustion engines will live on, but they will be getting fuel saving measures like variable compression ratios and electric turbocharging to work more efficiently. Coasting is another interesting new feature which will allow transmission decoupling and engine shut-down when cruising at speed, travelling downhill or approaching traffic lights that are about to turn red.
Visually, aerodynamic requirements will dictate the shape of the vehicle and the most drastic change will be the use of enclosed wheel housing so airflow doesn’t get trapped as it travels under the car, thus reducing drag. All this is to achieve CO2 output figures of well under 90g/km and fuel efficiency levels of more than 300mpg.
