T7 Hybrid 4 Motion collected today

[WelshGas]

That would make sense. I seem to remember that some California’s have two separate auxiliary heaters one for the engine and the other for the passenger compartment.

Diesel engines have a coolant diesel powered heater that runs off the engine battery as diesel engines warm up slowly compared with a Petrol engine. Normally this function is automatic if ambient temperature is 5c or less. But in Transporter based Californias there was an option for a remote control for this heater in some Northern European markets.

 

[Peter Chequers]

In the Hybrid there is a little unit by the rear axle which I was told uses the vehicle petrol… you can definitely hear it working with outside and there is a small exhaust which gets very hot

 

[WelshGas]

In the Hybrid there is a little unit by the rear axle which I was told uses the vehicle petrol… you can definitely hear it working with outside and there is a small exhaust which gets very hot

Most likely the Petrol Parking Heater.

 

[NZCol]

>The car definitely in default settings favours using battery power... In winter conditions I can envisage running out of battery and therefore 4Motion unless proactive use of the tool to reserve battery power is used carefully<

That's not how the 4Mo works, even if your battery is showing 0% for drive and you are on petrol mode the 4Mo works as there is electric drive to the axles, it is always active, HTH.