VW has had great success with their diesels overseas.  But they haven’t made much impact here in the US.  Even with the amazing mileage numbers they can get out of their diesels they know that they have to work on some kind of zero emission vehicle.  That’s where this new Rabbit/Golf comes in.

They call it a twin drive rabbit.  It has a small 1 liter 3 cylinder diesel engine that puts out 100 horsepower.  Along with that is an electric motor that is powered by a 350 pound battery pack.  The electric motor will be able to power the car for the first 30 miles before the batteries are depleted.  Of course you would plug in the car to recharge the batteries.

The twin drive version is no different on the exterior or the interior than the regular Golf/Rabbit.  Aside from under the hood the only noticable difference is that the battery pack takes up the space that the spare tire used to go in (sorry, they didn’t put hte spare anywhere else either).