Browse over 9,000 car reviews

Paris show Volkswagen Passat BlueMotion II


What makes it special has nothing to do with its styling, even though Paris is all about fashion and flair, and everything to do with the engine.

The Passat BlueMotion II was rolled out at the end of an hour-long Volkswagen Group presentation on Wednesday night which highlighted some wickedly quick and costly cars, from a Bugatti Veyron with the world's most expensive umbrella - a pop-up emergency roof for a new $2.2 million targa model - to a 200 miles-an-hour Bentley and a wickedly ugly new Lamborghini Estoque.

Volkswagen also unveiled its latest Golf GTi and Audi previewed an all-new compact called the A1, but it was the BlueMotion Passat which got the big build-up for the final flourish.

"I can tell you, very confidently, that the Volkswagen Group is green," said company chief Dr Martin Winterkorn as he began the pitch for the Passat.

"We think we should be the pace-setters for sustainable mobility."

With that, he called out a Passat which produces just 109 grams of CO2 for every kilometre it travels, a mark which Winterkorn called a new benchmark. It was eventually displayed alongside a new Volkswagen Golf which does even better at just 99 grams.

The Passat also set up the inevitable conflict of Paris '09.

On one side there are fast and flashy cars which reflect the current golden age of motoring, and on the other there are super-green cars with lean engines and the best environmental-protection technologies.

Volkswagen Group managed to cover it all with its eight brands, which run from Seat and Skoda at the bottom end to Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini at the top.

Winterkorn's speech was the culmination and he gave a green power presentation which highlighted the 91 cars built by VW Group which currently produce less than 140 grams/kilometre of C02, including 20 below 120, and the number of cars which already satisfy the Euro 6 emission standard which does not become law until 2014.

But there was fare more interest in the exotics once the official part of the evening was over, just as it will be the supercars - including the Mercedes-Benz McLaren 722 roadster to be unveiled on Thursday - which will hog the headlines.

Still, VW Group made its points with the preview night, which cost an estimated $1 million and was touted as host to 12 world previews. It was run ahead of the start of the official show press events on Thursday morning for more than 1000 guests who were shuttled to a giant warehouse, close to Charles de Gaulle airport on the outskirts of Paris, which had been specially converted for the event.

The action began with the Audis as all nine group brands, including Seat of Spain and Volkswagen commercials, revealed their newest and best.

But Volkswagen is still likely to have more for the show itself, as executives talked openly before the event of three concept cars for the French event and only the GTi hatch qualifies from the pre-show cavalcade. Even counting the Passat BlueMotion II that leaves at least one for Thursday and beyond . . .