In all honesty, haven't heard about Blue Motion Technology in Audi
Vehicles. Volkswagen (VW) however, has been promoting the same in their
vehicles. As per VW it's a technology which not only provides cars
which are great to drive but are environmentally friendly too.
Since VW owns Audi and if Audi vehicles do come with Blue Motion
Technology, then VW would definitely be sharing technologies amongst its
various can companies it owns. The extent to which the overlap is there
is not known to us, but from an overall perspective, I believe, one can
study VW Blue Motion Technology to understand the same.
Blue Motion as per VW is ‘Efficient, Eco-Friendly Approach to Mobility’.
The product descriptor does sound exciting and worth spending one’s
time in understanding the same. It refers to a set of technologies that
drastically reduces carbon-footprint of the car, enhances fuel
efficiency, while maintaining driving fun. So what does this great
technology consists of;
Optimised Gear Ratios – DSG and Manual gear in VW cars are designed
with such gears ratios, that ‘Gears up-shifts early, while the
downshifts are delayed’.
Our Question - Sister concerns Audi and Skoda do have cars that offer
DSG. Aren’t they optimised, similarly ? Not to forget most other car
manufacturers would have transmission boxes with gear ratios almost
similar level of optimisation if not equal. After all who would not like
to make their cars more fuel efficient today.
Auto Start Stop - In a traffic jam or red light situation engines of
VW cars equipped with Bluemotion Technologies automatically stops once
the driver takes off his foot from the clutch in a manual transmission
car or the accelerator in case of DSG Transmission.
So how is this different from m-Hawk engines in the Scorpio or XUV 500
where the engine stops automatically, when the car is idling? Most other
premium marquees also boast of similar Auto Start Stop feature too.
Brake Energy Recuperation – Simply speaking, this means, that every
time a drivers applies brakes to his car, the Kinetic Energy generated
due to the braking action is converted into Electrical Energy which is
stored in the Battery. Full marks to VW on using technologies developed
and tested on F1 and other formula racing circuits.
Gear Shift Indicator – This simply means that the car recommends most optimal gear to be used to the driver basis the cars speed in real-time.
Great feature, but unfortunately not unique. Even Hyundai i10 offers this feature, not to forget the i20 and Fluidic Verna.
Basis above data it seems that Bluemotion Technologies is nothing more
than a bundle of features, clubbed and branded, to create a product
differentiator for marketing VW Cars. It’s definitely not an engineering
break-through as the company would like us to believe.