VW To Launch Turbocharged CNG Passat

Volkswagen aims boosts its share in the highly competitive fleet market by offering the world’s first turbocharged engines that can run on both gasoline and compressed natural gas.

Cars with this technology are expected to offer fuel costs up to 50 percent lower than cars with a gasoline or diesel engine. The cost of CNG is less than .90 euro a liter while and price for gasoline is about 1.35 euro a liter.

Reiner Mangold, the managing director of Volkswagen Individual, told Automotive News Europe sister publication Automobilwoche that a Passat with a 1.4-liter TSI gasoline engine that can also run on compressed natural gas will arrive in early 2008.