Welcome to Wednesday Want. Each week, our team will pluck a car from our thousands-strong Car Suggestions forum and give it some time in the spotlight. From the weird to the wonderful, we’ll be covering the full automotive spectrum. You can check out past Wednesday Want entries right here.
Everyone’s played this little thought exercise. You’ve got £100,000 (around $130,000 at time of writing) to spend on one car, so what do you get?
Most of the answers are obvious. A Porsche 911, a Dodge Challenger Demon, something cheap but rapid and the rest on mods. Well, how about a 74hp, diesel-electric eco car, capable of 313mpg?
This was exactly Volkswagen’s sell in 2013. In exchange for £98,515, Wolfsburg would give you the two-seat, hybrid XL1. It rather sounds like the worst deal in the history of deals, maybe ever, as POTUS 45 might say.
XL1 was the product of more than a decade of research, to produce a “One Liter Car”. That’s not the engine capacity, rather the fuel economy: one liter of fuel per 100km driven. That’s the equivalent of 235 miles per US gallon, or 282mpg Imperial. The technologies required to achieve this are no small deal.
For a start, the car needs to be aerodynamic. The original L1 concept used a tandem layout, with the driver seated ahead of the passenger, but in the interests of practicality the XL1 uses a more conventional approach. Wider at the front than the rear, Volkswagen designed the car specifically to present as little of itself to the air as possible, and knit it neatly behind it once it had passed.
There’s a number of little tricks to clean up turbulence too. The wheels and wing-mirrors are the source of most aerodynamic losses, so Volkswagen uses an optimised wheel design at the front, covered wheels at the back and cameras instead of mirrors. You won’t find a radiator grille either, although there is an air intake under the nose.
All together, this gives the XL1 an astonishing 0.189 drag coefficient — 30% better than a Toyota Prius and the lowest figure of any production vehicle. The XL1 is also tiny. It’s lower to the ground than any Ferrari and only 5 feet wide, presenting less than 16 square feet to the air ahead of it.
It’s light too. The 47hp, 0.8-liter diesel engine and 27hp electric motor and battery pack together weigh just 500lb. The running gear, including 7-speed DSG gearbox, is another 337lb. Even the body is just 507lb, thanks to a significant quantity of carbon-fiber. All-in, the XL1 tips the scales at 1,750lb.
With all of this automotive witchcraft put together, the XL1 needs just 8.3hp to maintain a 62mph cruise. Official fuel economy is 0.9 liters per 100km, equivalent to 261mpg US or 313mpg Imperial. This means that despite the tiny, 10 liter (2.6 US gallon) fuel tank, the XL1 has a range of over 500 miles.
Of course all of the research, development and exotic materials didn’t come cheap, as the £98,515 price tag reflects. But if you could afford it, the XL1 is an exclusive little car; Volkswagen made just 250, and only sold 200 to the public.
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