Volkswagen is tired of Toyota getting all the glory for its Prius petrol-hybrid vehicles, so will be introducing one of its own in 2009. The first model will be a Jetta and will achieve better economy than the normal TDI versions currently available on the market. The current Jetta gets a fuel economy rating of 35/42mpg, so it wouldn’t be too far-fetched for a hybrid variant to get 50mpg on the highway.

Seeing as the Jetta is basically a Golf with a boot, it’s fairly likely the next-generation Golf will also come with a hybrid option. What we’re really looking forward to is when companies start building diesel-hybrids that could allow a full-sized car to get ratings of up to 80mpg.