It's kinda ugly and could be pricey, but damn, 235MPG!??!

Ultimate fuel miser
Justin Couture, Canadian Auto Press

To attend his last business meeting before retiring as VW's CEO in 2002, Dr. Ferdinand Piëch drove himself in VW's One-Litre concept car.

It was designed simply to be the most fuel efficient car on the planet, and on his drive he used just 0.89 L/100 km (or 317 mpg). With today's high fuel prices, many other solutions have come to the forefront of the alternative energy/fuels segment, ranging from plug-in hybrids and pure electric cars, to hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, but for a car to achieve this while powered solely by an internal combustion engine is the stuff of dreams. But a dream car it's not anymore, because according to British automotive magazine Car, the 1L VW is now headed to production.

View LargeVW is aiming to keep the curb weight as low as 300 kg (660 lbs), which will help the car to meet its target goal of 1 L/100 km (235 mpg), much like the concept car.

According to the article, much of what we saw in the concept car will be converted into production trim. Its body will be ultra low and streamlined with a tandem seating arrangement, and will be constructed from a combination of carbon fibre, plastic and magnesium in order to keep weight down to a minimum. VW is aiming to keep the curb weight as low as 300 kg (660 lbs), which will help the car to meet its target goal of 1 L/100 km (235 mpg), much like the concept car.

What will change from concept to production is the engine. VW is seeking to double the cylinder count in the production version from one to two, which will boost performance, however, by making the vehicle a mild hybrid, VW hopes to recuperate some of the difference.

Due to its extremely costly structure, the car is pegged to be produced at VW's preproduction facilities, which has the capacity to build up to 1,000 units per year. The One-Litre car won't be cheap, with an estimated price range between 20,000 and 30,000 euro, but such is the price for the ultimate fuel miser.

i'd be MUCH more excited by the 69.9 MPG diesel hybrid Golf.

I would be much more excited about a more valuable dollar and lower taxes, in which a gallon of gasoline would only cost one of George Washington's notes.

Cha, this car will be on US shores before this happens.

at least they made it look retarded

it would be tits if someone photoshopped this into the driver's area.

It looks like the bumper of an SUV would hit the very top of this vehicle. That would be a fun collision to be in.

Silly Schoolboy, pretty soon, no one will be able to afford to drive SUV's

I would love a super efficient vehicle, its just that many Americans have been more concerned about supposed 'safety' ie massive SUVs than fuel efficiency. I imagine thats why the Suburban in the choice of soccer moms everywhere. It may be a hurdle.

My school's SAE supermileage vehicle is pretty much a cart, and looks to be only nominally smaller than VWs production model. I wouldn't have imagined that idea to be implemented so directly.

I think the bigger issue is space moreso than safety. Gotta haul the kids and all their equipment somehow.

Except for Al Gore and his cronies...who are ironically, the only people who can afford sensible alternative energy cars.

Define "sensible alternative energy cars".

The first report I saw about this car the other day said that it had excellent safety technology, at least the equal of something like a Honda Civic. You can't fight momentum and mass, but you can build strong crumple zones and well-placed airbags.

So long as there are moms and dads with over-protection instincts for their children, how ever irrational you and others may think they are, there will be SUVs and vans. In my opinion, and the opinion of many others, it would be far wiser to find ways to make fuel efficient versions of vehicles that real people actually buy. In short, market less to the oft-unemployed coffee-shop dwelling young dreamer with vehicles such as this and more to the double-income soccer moms and dads who actually have the money to both buy and fuel vehicles.

Newton was full of shit. Its a known fact that he was part of the vast left wing conspiracy.

Listen, when I was a kid I kicked a bowling ball at full speed not knowing it was a bowling ball. I can testify that Newton was right.

That bowling ball gained inertia because by contacting it, you sullied it with your sin. Sin is also why things fall to earth. Fact.