Engine and all-wheel drive technology

V6 and V8 engines. The all-wheel drive Touareg is available – depending on the sales region – as a model with a turbodiesel (V6 and V8 TDI), petrol (V6 and V8 FSI), turbocharged petrol (V6 TSI) or Hybrid (V6 TSI & electric motor) drive system. The V6 engines come with an 8-speed automatic gearbox. All engines have a stop-start system as standard; they also utilise regenerative braking to recover kinetic energy.

4MOTION. In the base version, all Touareg vehicles have the 4MOTION all-wheel drive system with Torsen differential lock (max. climbing angle: 31 degrees). In addition, all Touareg versions have an off-road driving programme that is operated via a two-stage rotary switch. It configures the ABS, EDS and ASR systems for off-road use and activates hill climb assist and gearshift points of the automatic gearbox. As an option, customers can order the Touareg V6 TDI with 190 kW / 258 PS with the Terrain Tech package; in this case, instead of a Torsen differential the vehicle is equipped with a differential that is designed to be even more sturdy for off-road use. It includes a reduction gear stage and central and rear differential locks that offer up to 100 per cent locking (4XMOTION: max. climbing angle of 45 degrees). This version has a five-stage turn wheel which the driver uses to configure the SUV for different uses.

European diesel – V6 TDI with SCR-DPF catalytic converter and V8 TDI. In Europe, customers can choose from three TDI engines and the Touareg Hybrid. The TDI engines produce 150 kW / 204 PS, 190 kW / 258 PS (10 kW more now) and 250 kW / 340 PS. The Touareg Hybrid has a total system power output of 279 kW / 380 PS. The two V6 TDI engines will now conform to the EU6 emissions standard that takes effect in September 2015. As part of this conversion, the two engines are now equipped with a new SCR-DPF catalytic converter module, an SCR metering module (AdBlue) and an additional blocking catalytic converter (removes excess ammonia); in addition, the emission control system has an oxidation catalytic converter. At the same time, fuel consumption of the 204-PS V6 TDI BlueMotion Technology version was reduced from 7.0 l/100 km (equates to 184 g/km CO2) to 6.6 l/100 km (174 g/km CO2). As mentioned, the power was boosted in the 258-PS version: The "large" V6 TDI now develops 10 kW / 13 PS more power; and yet its fuel consumption was reduced from 7.2 l/100 km (equates to 189 g/km CO2) to 6.8 l/100 (178 g/km CO2). The most powerful diesel continues to be the V8 TDI with 250 kW / 340 PS.