VW Confirms 1L Concept Will Become Reality in 2010
Image source: Wikipedia
There’s been talk about the VW 1L concept for years. Since VW built the original, fuel economy, safety, price, and release date has been speculated upon and argued about, and I’d finally stopped thinking it was ever going to happen. However, according to VW’s CEO, it should hit the market in 2010.
The VW 1L is so named because, in theory, it only consumes one liter of fuel per 100 kilometers traveled. For those of us in the US, this translates into about 235 MPG. Definitely far and above anything on the market currently. The concept, developed in 2002, actually got better fuel economy, scoring a sweet .89L/100km in VW testing. It’s likely to use more fuel in real world use, but with that kind of mileage in testing it’s unlikely that anyone would complain about an “unsatisfactory 200 MPG.”
The thing is, that kinda of fuel economy comes at the price of riding in an extremely small two seater, with the two seats being one in front of the other, a la jet plane, rather than a standard side by side. The 1L also looks frighteningly close to the ground, which is part of how it pulls off a drag coefficient of .159, much better than any current production vehicle. While the final design isn’t done, VW will probably power the car with a 1 cyclinder diesel engine of displacement lower the .5 L, meaning the car’s speed will top out at 120 km/h.
The other obvious issue is the one I’m sure you’re all wondering about too. How safe is this thing? While I’m not usually one to complain about small cars, the 1L is extremely light and low to the ground. If it were released in the US I could easily see it being run over by any old F150 or Hummer. Nothing is out right now about safety, but as the production date nears, I’m sure VW will be doing lots of testing to reassure the public.
2010 isn’t that far off, in fact, it’s about the same time the Volt is supposed to be hitting the streets, so you’ll likely hear a lot more good and bad about this car in the coming months.
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Source: Motorauthority
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It would only be dangerous because of all the a**holes driving Hummer’s and Escalade’s. If everyone drove a sensible sized car, smaller cars would be much safer. For the record, the Smart car is safer than most mid-sized cars because of it’s frame construction. You don’t know anything about the construction of this VW, so this might be equally safe.
Someone please put out an efficient, small, 4 door, diesel pickup truck…. it can’t be that hard for one to beat the <20mpg of my Nissan Frontier 4dr 4×4.
If they can make the EU market with this efficiency, I would expect the US legal market to get the 160MPG if it meets US motorcycle standards, and under 80MPG if it has to meet US 2010 car standards. And under 60MPG by 2012.
Tightening emissions and safety standards is not cost free, no matter what the Greens tell us.
I’d be a little worried about two guys loading it into the back of their pickup truck to steal it…
Since when does 100 kilometers = 236 miles? More like 62.1 miles
For plug-ins and other alternative vehicles or combos, we need to start talking about miles per dollar, not MPG.
And include the subsidies that contribute to the bottom line cost.
“Sometimes, Capitalism just does NOT work….”
Yeah, we’d be better off driving Trabants. Sheesh.
If all the genius anti-capitalist, anti-oil-company conspirazoid greenies would pool their awesome brainpower together, maybe they could build their fairydust-powered dream cars that The Man is keeping from them. Instead of just complaining.
Anyway, I think this machine is pretty cool. If it goes for under twenty grand and can handle snow, I’m in.
That would be the perfect commuter car, and the looks are OUTSTANDING. If people will buy a ‘Smart’, they’ll snap these things up as fast as they make them if the price is anything close to reasonable.
If they bring it to the US, I rather hope they ’sacrifice’ a little bit of the mileage (gee, only 175 mpg…) to get the top speed up to a more reasonable 100 mph (160 km/hr), which is fairly common out west.
Heck, the average speed on 128 around Boston is either 20 or 90 mph.
“Since when does 100 kilometers = 236 miles? More like 62.1 miles”
1 liter = .26 gallons. 100 kilometers per liter = 238 mpg. You’re reading it wrong.
Bev, it’s 100km per Liter (or, very roughly, a quart). So it’s 400km per gallon, which is 240 miles, rounding everything off quite a bit.
I’m sure it would be great as a city car, especially in Europe. Its proposed top speed works out to 72 mph, which is only slightly lower than my old Geo Metro (I got it up to 80 once, but it wasn’t easy). Not a car for the Interstates, for sure. Or freeways in general, unless its light weight gives it decent acceleration. I agree with some of the others: shoot for 100 mpg in a slightly larger, slightly more powerful car, keep it simple and crank them out to keep the price down, and it’ll kill in the US market.