First Drive: 2011 Volkswagen Touareg Hybrid

Fuel economy is a funny thing. In Europe, better efficiency has always boiled down to two simple concepts: diesel fuel and turbos. But like the 35-year-old who won't drink tequila because of a bad experience in college, American buyers' stomachs start turning whenever manufacturers talk about oil-burners – clean or otherwise. That's a problem for carmakers like Volkswagen. You see, the company can build an arsenal of clean diesel vehicles that have no problem turning out excellent fuel-economy numbers without the weight, complexity or burden of lugging around a partially electric drivetrain, but that doesn't mean Americans will buy them. Nope. On this side of the pond, fuel efficiency translates into just one word: hybrid. And that's exactly why Volkswagen has taken to electrifying its beefy 2011 Touareg, the very first production hybrid in the company's history. Volkswagen has made no secret of the fact that it plans to be the world's number one automaker, and that part of its plan for global domination involves broadening its appeal in the still-juicy American market. If you were wondering exactly what that meant for the company's lineup on our side of the world, wonder no more. We're living in the future, and it's a place stocked with a blazingly-quick, fully capable and quasi-efficient SUV from Germany with love.