Volkswagen Formula XL1 burns 0.9 L/100 km!

At the dawn of the new millennium, Volkswagen and Prof. Dr. Ferdinand Piëch formulated the visionary goal of bringing to the market a production car that was practical for everyday use with a fuel consumption of 1.0 litre per 100 kilometres. Crazy, don't you think? But try to wrap your head around this: the VW Formula XL1 plug-in hybrid concept soon to be unveiled at the Qatar Motor Show burns as little as 0.9 L/100 km!

The car uses an ultra-lightweight unibody construction and carbon fibre add-ons to achieve a very low drag coefficient of 0.186. Under the hood are a 47-horsepower, two-cylinder TDI engine and a 19-horsepower electric motor along with a 7-speed dual-clutch transmission and a lithium-ion battery.

In addition to its phenomenal fuel efficiency, the new Volkswagen XL1 only emits 24 g/km CO2 and can also be driven for up to 35 kilometres in pure electric mode. Similar to most plug-in hybrids, regenerative technology is used to capture kinetic energy when braking or decelerating and charge the battery on the fly.

The XL1 incorporates side-by-side seating rather than the tandem arrangement seen in both the first 1-litre car presented in 2002 and the L1 presented in 2009. Wing doors also make it easier to enter and exit the car than having to lift the top.

According to Volkswagen, a viable limited production run of the XL1 is possible even though the car employs F1-style carbon fibre-reinforced polymer parts (CFRP). Together with suppliers, the company has developed and patented a new system for CFRP production that allows significant reductions in production costs.

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