Driving to work on Thursday, i did a double-take when I spotted a smallish grey minivan several car lengths ahead of me as I cruised (if you can call 20 - 25 mph "cruising") in the right lane of Connecticut's charming-but-congested Merritt Parkway. "That looks like a Touran," I thought. The Touran, if you're unfamiliar with it, is a Mazda5-sized MPV offered in other markets by Volkswagen. Naturally, I worked on catching up to it. Traffic was bumper-to-bumper when I first eyeballed it, however, so this feat would take some time.

Ultimately, after what seemed like an eternity of cat-and-mouse, I came up behind the car, and sure enough, it was a last-gen ('03 - '06) Touran TDI (it's been facelifted for 2007). Seeing one was surprising enough. Even more surprising was the fact that it appeared to be privately owned. With apologies for the lousy cameraphone shot, you'll notice the oval decal on the left side of the rear glass (it was one of those things that symbolized Nantucket or Block Island or wherever). The tag, which is obscured by glare, was from New Hampshire. Apparently, living free includes scoring forbidden-fruit automotive machinery from the other side of the Atlantic.

However the owner came to posses the vehicle, a tip of the cap is deserved. It's a nice little van, and figure on it getting at least 40 mpg highway with the 2.0L TDI. It looked nicely-appointed, too with a large sunroof that was open, bathing the driver in light. Morst importantly (to me, at least), finding it and checking it out broke up the monotony of yet another brutal morning commute.

For better shots of what the last-gen Touran looks like, see below.

The 2007 Shanghai Auto Show is set to get underway on the 20th of April and China's largest auto manufacturer, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp (SAIC), will be on hand to debut a new fuel-cell vehicle. SAIC, which recently made headlines when it bought the Rover brand off BMW, said that the Shanghai-branded fuel-cell prototype will utilise fourth generation fuel-cell technology developed in-house to produce a peak power output of 60 kW / 80.5 hp that should propel the vehicle to a top speed of 150 km/h / 93 mph.

SAIC is investing one billion yuan (US$129 million) in developing cleaner, more energy efficient vehicle technologies. The company plans to produce 50,000 electric vehicles of various types by 2010, some 95 percent of which will be hybrids. Via a joint venture with Volkswagen, SAIC is aiming to produce 500 Touran hybrids before the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Analysis: SAIC have also partnered with GM to develop hybrid vehicles of the booming Chinese market. Clearly they're planning to roll out the latest tech to the Chinese market as it comes online in Western nations as well. I think Shanghai is going to be an interesting show this year.

Related:

• Video: Rick Wagoner on GM's commitment to energy diversity. And new E-Flex concepts soon?
• Chinese government to promote greener cars
• Shanghai Automotive building a hybrid "Rover 75"

[Source: Shanghai Daily]

We know VW doesn't favor hybrids, but the company sure does like clean diesel, biodiesel and hydrogen. For example, I offer you the alternative energy technologies VW is showing off at the Designing Sustainable Mobility Summit in Southern California. For the ride-and-drive, VW has a Touareg V-10 TDI running on B5 biodiesel, a still-in-development, highly efficient, twin charger gasoline engine Jetta, and the Touran HyMotion hydrogen fuel cell vehicle (remember, the Touareg was just crowned the car that is meanest to the environment by ACEEE).

What's the engine in that Jetta? A TSI that gets high power output from a smaller displacement engine. It uses a supercharger to provide engine boost at lower rpms and an exhaust-driven turbocharger at mid-range rpms and higher. Already popular in Europe, the TSI is being considered for the U.S. market.

The Touran HyMotion hydrogen fuel cell vehicle uses a high-temperature fuel cell that VW says, "provides a more compact, lighter, and more durable fuel cell system."

Related:

• Volkswagen Twincharger TSI wins "Best New Engine of 2006"

[Source: Volkswagen of America, Inc.]

Click on above image to see complete high resolution gallery.

Car and Driver have posted a feature article on the wide array of different powertrains that Volkswagen is testing in a bid to capitalise on new developments under way in a host of technologies. Ten different vehicles were available for test driving during the Volkswagen sponsored even in Valencia, Spain as Jared Gall reports:

"The mind-boggling array of vehicles present ran on six different fuels and included four different diesel-derivative engines: a current-production Polo BlueMotion diesel; a next-gen Jetta "Clean TDI" coming to the U.S. in '08 under the BlueTec banner; a New Beetle convertible running on SunFuel, a diesel fuel manufactured from biomass-plants, woodchips, and other forms of biological waste-and a Touran (think Mazda 5 tall wagon/mini-minivan) running VW's Combined Combustion System (CCS), a mixture of gas and diesel that is said to burn more completely and is therefore cleaner than either fuel on its own. We also sampled two compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles, a Touran and a Passat running VW's new TSI turbo- and supercharged engine (this engine was also present in two gasoline trims); a half-baked hybrid Touran; and a Touran powered by a hydrogen fuel cell."

A highlight was the compressed natural gas (CNG) powered Touran EcoFuel which emits 80-percent-less carbon monoxide, 23-percent-less carbon dioxide, and 80-percent less oxides of nitrogen than a similar gasoline engine. The EcoFuel Touran also costs about half of what a similar gasoline engine does to feed, and about a third less than a diesel.



The story continues after the jump.