Daily Archives: February 21, 2015

2015 VW Golf 7 GTE (204hp)

Automann-TV

Fast Autobahn acceleration test of the 2014/2015 Volkswagen Golf 7 GTE with the twin engine concept delivering 204 hp and up to 350 Nm of torque. While the 1.4 TSI with 150 hp is already not really slow, they added the 102 hp electric motor out of the e-Golf to make this a proper GT(E). As you can see, this car really pulls once you put it in “B” (Boost?) and GTE-mode. I don’t really know why it is significantly faster than what VW claims but it also feels like more than 200 hp! Especially as I tested the Golf 7 GTD and GTI (220hp) I can tell that this hybrid is very close to the GTI! Besides that you get an “E-Mode” that let’s you accelerate pretty decent up to 130 km/h and drive totally quiet in cities….I personally like it! On top of that you get the quick shifting DSG (6-speed) that also shifts in E-Mode…very cool!

See also: Gas2.org: Is The Volkswagen Golf GTE As Fast As The GTI?

Fossil Fuel Consumption Subsidies (Image: IEA)

One upside of cheap oil — countries are ditching their fossil-fuel subsidies

Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and Comment

In 2013, governments around the world spent $548 billion to subsidize the use of oil, gas, and coal. This practice drives economists absolutely nuts: they say it’s wasteful, eats up budgets, and leads to more pollution and global warming than would otherwise be the case.

Yet countries have long been reluctant to scrap these fossil-fuel subsidies. After all, if the government stops underwriting the cost of gasoline, prices will rise at the pump. That makes people upset — and can lead to protests or riots, as happened in Nigeria in 2012.

Lately, however, that’s started to change. The price of oil has been plunging, and gasoline is getting cheaper. And that’s made it less painful for nations that are trying to rein in bloated fossil-fuel subsidies. Back in July, Egypt began slashing billions in government energy subsidies. Indonesia has been doing the same. So has Ghana. India is now deregulating its diesel prices. Iran has been slowly hiking its artificially low gasoline prices.

It’s all starting to add up. In November 2014, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported that 27 countries have been cutting back on fossil-fuel subsidies in some form or other. The agency no longer expects total subsidies to soar to $660 billion by 2020, as it once projected.

Fossil Fuel Consumption Subsidies (Image: IEA)
Fossil Fuel Consumption Subsidies (Image: IEA)

If these cuts continue, this could end up being a big deal: scaling back these subsidies is seen as one of the most straightforward ways to bolster the global economy and help address climate change.

Read More: Vox