The Hybrid variant of the VW Touareg can breeze on the road at 50 km/hr on a pure electric drive with zero emission. One of the diesel variants, the V6 TD that has a 7.6L now has the best numbers for its segment of the market in Europe.

Despite the shedding of pounds, the 2011 Touareg has better torsional rigidity by 5%. The aerodynamics of the car was improved too with this version being lower than its older sibling among other elements added to its design.

All of the variants are available with 8-speed automatic transmission which returns better number at more than 2 liters per 100 kilometers. The Touareg is being offered with the 4Motion variant which can handle climbing 31 degrees and another variant which has the Off-road program that activates everything needed to handle more challenging inclines and descents.

Aside from the engine and exterior improvements, the designers of Volkswagen also transformed the interior to become more functional and versatile. They gave it the biggest sunroof in the market and Area View which uses four cameras to monitor the surroundings. Safety has been beef up by the cameras together with the nine airbags in the car.

Volkswagen is expecting a great market response for the 2011 Touareg basing it on the performance of its first generation SUV which easily sold 500,000 units and was a great competitor for alternatives from BMW and Audi.

Toyota is not really that far beyond. The Japanese carmaker’s figures are also very significant but their 4 million vehicles since January is not fit to defend their position against Volkswagen.

The survey was released by the IHS Global Insight. They see that the laws being implemented by the governments of Germany, the United Kingdom, and China are reflected on the performance of the German automaker.

The group further explains that the call of Toyota to cut their production by as much as 50% during the first quarter of 2009 has affected their position in the market and helped how VW faired. Toyota’s output plan is just to produce 7.24 million units until the end of the year compared to their production in 2008 reaching 9.24 million vehicles.

Last year, it was Toyota that stole the reigns from American company General Motors. GM held the title for 80 years.

In another story, Qatar Holding which is the investment arm of the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar sold 50% of their in Volkswagen. The investment firm quickly added $2.4 billion in their financial columns.

The 2010 Golf R is a hot-hatch that will sport the same engine used by the Scirocco R. The new Golf R can output 265 horsepower and about 258 lb-ft of torque. Looking at the figures, the 2010 Golf R has the most powerful engine in the production of the Golf range.

The R32 successor can speed up from 0 to 62 mph in just 5.5 seconds when packaged with the DSG dual-clutch system. The manual transmission version is just a blink away doing it 0.2 second slower.

The 2010 Golf R is a big stride ahead of the R32 in terms of fuel efficiency. It is 21% better or about 27.7mpg combined on highway and city driving than the older generation Golf. The new baby of the VW garage also gets LED tail lights and daytime lights.

The styling of the new Golf R is very similar to the lines of the R32, attractive alloy rims, aggressive stance, and hunch of Mark VI Golf with the design formula.

The Golf R may not be sporting the powerful engine of the R32 but it will carry the more efficient 2.0L turbo engine that has a lot of room for tuning. The 2010 Golf R will be on sale in Germany before the year ends and it will be heading to U.S. shores by 2010.