I drove the Touareg Hybrid for a few miles and I was pretty impressed.

I you go very easy on the accelerator, you can go up to 50km/h on "full" electric mode, then the regular engine is kicking in and you cannot notice it, you just hear a bit of noise.

If you floor the gas pedal, then the beast is turning into a "monster", plenty of torque and HP.

The 3.0l V6 Petrol TSI is delivering over 300hp whilst the electrical engine is delivering an additional 80kw ... and its coupled with an 8 speed automatic gearbox. The Touareg felt much faster than my Cayenne S (Gen I) ...

Then, when you lift your foot of the gas pedal, the car is in "coasting" mode, ie recuperating energy and rechargin the batteries ...

Additional weight is around 170kg and to be honest I didn't drive the car long enough to feel if the car felt heavier than usual or not. Also I'm use to drive a Cayenne and not a Touareg ....

VW is shooting for a (normalized) fuel consumption of 8.5l/100km and therefore just below 200g Co2/Km ... 

It will be available in 2010 and the Cayenne will have the exact same powertrain as the Touareg.