Volkswagen is taking the next step in the ultimate quest for lower fuel consumption and this comes on the form of a two-cylinder turbodiesel engine that will be launched in the Up city car in Europe from next year.
This was announced by VW's R&D head Ulrich Hackenberg at the Sao Paulo Motor Show on Monday.
While no power or consumption figures have been made available, VW is clearly trying to offer an alternative to Fiat's two-cylinder Twinair engine, which is offered in the Panda and 500. Fiat's 875cc petrol engine produces between 63kW and 78kW, with fuel consumption from 4.1 litres per 100km, but we suspect the VW diesel will be more about economy and less about output.
Hackenberg also revealed that the engine would be derived from the unit fitted to the radical XL1 concept car, which uses an electric motor and extremely low weight to compensate for the fact that the engine puts out just 35kW. We trust VW will be beefing it up a tad.
Sources: Autocar & Volkswagen