TDIs have had electric supplemental heat since 1995, they just upped it in 2005. Before then they had 3 glow plugs in the coolant flange on the side of the cylinder head. 2005 and later have electrically assisted power steering too, because of all that our car has a 180 amp alternator!
It does a regen every 800 miles and whenever the DPF loads up. You can't tell it's happening while driving; the only way to tell is when stopped because the idle speed is slightly higher and the radiator fans run on high speed. It only impacts me because I wait for the turbo to cool off before shutting down the car.
All of the trim and body is made in the USA, as are most of the electrics.
Yes, AdBlue is the DEF you see at truck stops. And it works, much better than the system in the Golf / Jetta that doesn't use DEF... they get worse fuel economy than the larger Passat! Because the car uses so little the cost is negligible.
The antenna is a Wilson 5000
-J