Ulrich Richter, general manager of VW's newly-announced performance subsidiary, Volkswagen R GmbH, - Wolfsburg's answer to BMW's M division and Mercedes' AMG - says he will be focusing on diesel and all-wheel drive.
In a recent interview at the R skunk works in Warmenau, Germany, near VW's Wolfsburg headquarters, he dismissed hybrid drive as a performance tool, saying: “You can get the same increase in efficiency as a hybrid by dropping 100kg.”
He admitted that the classic “light stuff” - carbon fibre - was too expensive for mainstream use, but said aluminium should play an important role in future products.
He declined to comment on what those might be, beyond saying that almost any VW product could be a candidate for the R treatment, which given that we have recently seen R concepts based on the Polo, the Golf Cabrio and even the new Beetle, comes as no surprised.
He said R GmbH, with more than 350 employees, had already taken over the Scirocco and Golf R, the R-Line design packages and the Exclusive range of accessories, and he promised that future R models would be even more sporty.