VW announces world’s fastest hybrid car

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VOLKSWAGEN has announced that its 2013 Jetta became the fastest hybrid production-based car in the world during the Southern California Timing Association’s (SCTA) annual Speed Week in August. In order to comply with SCTA rules, VW says that the company’s R&D team in Wolfsburg, Germany altered the record-breaking Jetta’s power train to ramp up the available horsepower. Engineers from the Volkswagen Test Centre California took care of drivetrain implementation and final calibration.
“It was a real challenge to integrate the complex hybrid elements and generate the power needed to run at these speeds,” said VW’s Marc Trahan. “The Jetta Hybrid Land Speed Record project shows both the sporty nature of our Hybrid offering and the technical excellence of our engineers in Wolfsburg and in the Test Centre California.”
The 2013 Jetta Hybrid was announced in January 2012 and is scheduled for release in the US toward the end of this year. VW expects the vehicle to achieve a combined fuel economy of 45 mpg (19.1 km/l), using about 20 per cent less fuel than a similarly powered sedan with a conventional drivetrain. It features a 1.4-litre turbocharged, direct-injection four-cylinder TSI gasoline power plant that weighs just 216 pounds (98 kg) and develops 150 horsepower. It can get to 0 to 60 mph (96 km/h) in less than nine seconds and is also claimed to be the first hybrid car to use a seven-speed DSG dual-clutch automatic transmission.