Diesel-electric Volkswagen XL1

http://www.techradar.com/news/car-tech/ ... km-1135463

Means feck all to me, so I'll let you judge

So what don't you understand. 127 mpg is brilliant fuel economy. Though what will the government do if people buy this in the millions? There will not be enough fuel tax to fund road repairs.

Easy - raise taxes.

Not so bad for drivers of these but not everyone will benefit.

Why do I get the feeling that 127mpg is the equivalent of a builder's estimate? Or would see you driving everywhere at 30mph? Like I say, I don't know much about cars, so...

You are right to an extent. Manufacturers make claims of fuel economy that few could get near, though that is more down to bad driving than anything else. The whole idea is that it costs less to get between two points but if you get stuck in traffic, or have to do lots of starts in cold mornings then the savings start to disappear.

Don't think for one moment that the tax breaks for having a highly economic and environmentally car will last forever. At some point you'll get hit by tax. It will likely be via road pricing, with a bug in our car.

I would imagine that the new car tax breaks are no where near enough to convince people to switch. It might be £5000 on a £35 000 car which is much higher than most peoples budget. Initially I suspect that the main buyers in the UK will be people in London for whom this might be handy as it will probably be exempt from the Congestion Charge.

That is built in the old Carmann factory in Osnabrück, about 10 minutes down the road from here.


VWs have always been economical. My old Passat 2L petrol (1991 model) would made an average of 52mpg over 100,000 miles. We have a diesel Passat estate at work and I get just under 70mpg out of it on a run (and that is the normal 2L engine, not the fuel efficient Bluemotion version). Mixing diesel and electric motors could easily bump that over 100mpg, especially if the whole car is designed from the ground up for fuel economy, the Passat is still very nippy.

Yes I read an interesting comment on reddit about the Bluemotion Passat and how economical it was to drive, and how the US would not allow its importation.

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/03/h ... -retron-4/

Love it

Clever idea, pretty niche but will make trawling through charity stores worthwhile.

Apparently the VW car will be able to do 261 mpg though that might be less because of US measures, but it will cost €100 000.

It's not even nice to look at. (8+\

Mark

Well a heavy driver in the UK would make that back in petrol savings in a few weeks