Volkswagen: How the Polo saves with natural gas
DURATION TEST It's cheaper to drive with natural gas. But by how much? That's what we wanted to find out. And also how far our long-term tester Polo TGI will make it before the last drop of gasoline and natural gas are used up. According to Volkswagen, the Polo TGI is supposed to travel 1190 kilometers before it definitely has to go to the next gas pump. Of this, about [...]
According to Volkswagen, the Polo TGI will travel 1190 kilometers before it has to stop at the next gas pump. The natural gas drive accounts for around 365 kilometers and the 40 liters of gasoline in the tank for 825 kilometers. However, it should not consume more than 3.0 to 3.2 kilos of natural gas per 100 kilometers (equivalent to about 4.5 liters of gasoline per 100 kilometers). That doesn't seem easy, since our display shows an average consumption of 6.1 liters per 100 kilometers or 4.3 kilos of natural gas per 100 kilometers in daily urban traffic.
Save cruise control and kilometers on the highway
In order to get as close as possible to the specified value, we needed to drive as economically as possible. And indeed: For a large part of the experiment, we drove continuously with the adaptive cruise control ACC on the busy highway between Zurich and Oensingen. Apart from being very comfortable, the software did an excellent job. In the end, the natural gas was enough for 383 kilometers (target exceeded) and the gasoline for another 772 killometers (target not reached). In total, we drove 1155.3 kilometers and missed the factory specification by only 35 kilometers.
Significant price differences depending on gas supplier
Natural gas is considerably cheaper than diesel or gasoline. The calculation based solely on fuel costs showed a price per kilometer for natural gas of six centimes, while ten centimes are charged for the same distance with gasoline. We were somewhat surprised by the price differences at the gas stations, ranging from 1.50 francs to 1.65 francs to 1.71 francs per kilo. These prices are set by the regional gas suppliers. The bottom line, however, is that natural gas is always much cheaper than gasoline. Even at 1.71 francs, the price of gasoline is only 1.15 francs per liter.
