Sunday, May 18, 2008

VW will sell a 200-mpg car in 2010

http://green.yahoo.com/blog/ecogeek/497/vw-will-sell-a-200-mpg-car-in-2010.html

VW will sell a 200-mpg car in 2010
By Hank Green
Wed May 7, 2008

So you're excited about the 2010 Prius with its modest mileage gains. Or maybe you really want a Chevy Volt with a 40-mile all-electric range.

2010, as we've noted, is going to be a good year for green cars.

But this is ridiculous.

VW has been talking for a long time about its L1 concept, so called because it uses a measly 1 liter of gasoline to go 100 km. For us Americans, that translates to about 230 miles per gallon.

Of course, the amazing mileage comes at a price. The car is tiny, more of a toboggan than a car. The single passenger actually sits behind the driver, like in a small airplane.

The tiny engine will only get the car up to about 75 mph and, as such, VW doesn't expect to sell a lot of these vehicles. Safety concerns might also keep the car from being a best seller. But, since it does have four wheels, it will have to meet all of the normal safety regulations for cars.

VW will continue to release details on the car, but it is firm that this vehicle will be produced by 2010. And, in terms of pure efficiency, its only real competitor will be the 300-mpg Aptera.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Give us some reference URLs. This design counters the Nissan/Renault and TaTa philososphy of zillions of cheap throw-away vehicles sold at or below cost ($2500), like cheap printers, apparently to scavenge profits by corporate restructuring to profit from petrol and consumable sales related to the millions of such vehicles on the road- another form of expanding markets for the prolongation of classical capitalism.