VW unveils car that does 250 miles a gallon
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Your support makes all the difference.A car that requires passengers to sit one behind the other and looks as if it has escaped from the set of a sci-fi film was revealed yesterday as Teutonic engineering's latest triumph.
Volkswagen raised the curtain on what it claimed is the world's most economical vehicle powered by fossil fuels – a cigar-shaped hi-tech bubble with the unfortunate registration of WOBL 1.
Such was the German car firm's sensitivity about its snub-nosed offspring, produced in a dull shade of black, that it was surrounded by a convoy of other VWs on its first outing to prevent photographs. But what the vehicle, catchily called "The One Litre Car", lacks in looks it more than makes up for in performance. It has a top speed of 120kph (75mph) and miserly fuel consumption of 0.99 litres of diesel for every 100km (250mpg).
Fashioned from a mixture of ultra-light magnesium, aluminium and carbon fibre, the car is being hailed as a breakthrough in energy-saving technology by VW.
The One Litre was presented to shareholders yesterday in Hamburg after being driven up the autobahn by the company's outgoing chairman. Dr Ferdinand Piech, who makes a point of test-driving all new models, drove the 280kg car from VW's headquarters in Wolfsburg with his wife in the passenger seat.
The 1.25m-wide vehicle, is packed with environmentally-friendly electronics, and devices .Volkswagen's scientists have achieved their aim of maximum fuel efficiency by building a 26kg aluminium single-cylinder engine linked to gears that the driver selects by turning a switch.
To add to the futuristic nature of the car, the driver sits in a large fibre-glass "cockpit" that can only be accessed through a 1.5m-long gullwing door that opens without a conventional lock.
The absence of any wing mirrors ("too bulky" according to VW) is compensated by a number of on-board cameras, concealed in indicators and brake lights, that aid parking and manoevring.
But despite Volkwagen's trumpeting of the One Litre as the car of the future, environmentally aware motorists should not rush down to their local dealership. The stylish and striking concept car is still a long way from the production line.
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