Volkswagen XL1 caught on video
The VW XL1 arrived at the Qatar Motor Show in 2011, a two-seater diesel-electric hybrid with a design that looks like it came from a 1920s view of the future, and claims of a gazillion miles to the gallon.
At the time VW debuted the XL1 we reckoned there was as much chance of it going in to production as McLaren’s latest Formula One car making it in to a showroom, and that the XL1 was just a test bed for all the future tech that might just find its way in to Volkswagen’s road cars. Wrong.
VW are planning a limited run of the XL1 – said to be fewer than 1000 cars – at prices that will reflect the tech that goes in to the XL1. So VW are obviously looking for 1000 wealthy eco-mentalists with a green halo to polish.
But actually, the XL1 is so much more sensible than the pure EV cars starting to be pushed by every car maker desperate to lower their corporate average CO2. It gets an 800cc two-cylinder diesel engine at the back with just 47bhp and an electric motor with a further 26bhp.
VW claim economy of 313mpg for the XL1 and emissions of 24g/km. The usual disingenuous figures that are doubtless based on a big chunk of EV only running (which VW admits is just 22 miles – but not in the cold. Or if it’s hot. Or if you turn on the radio), but even ignoring the claimed figures as fantasy land in the real world, the XL1 will certainly stretch a gallon as far as just about anything else.
We’ll have to wait and see if the same powertrain makes it in to the production XL1. But if it doesn’t, we really don’t see the point of building it.
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