[robchalmers]

It kind of went away VW is still playing with the hybrid idea on the V8 Toureg, (polishing a turd, eco-wise imho) but the current gen golf blue motion runs huge MPG with out the weight, cost and complexity of development

oh and 2 other things:

1.The lupo wasn't an over priced failure - or even a failure of any kind, it came to the end of its design life along with the Arosa and the only thing Group had to follow it was the Fox.

2.Gassers aren't always cheaper than Diesels from a build point of view. Simple economies of scale v's development cost spread across the 4 group brands + outside partners means the diesels can be more than just fuel sippers but income generators. Over here and especially in mainland europe i'd say its almost a 70/30 diesel/petrol split of cars bought or running.