VW first advertised a concept “one-liter car” some-time in 2002, which was supposed to be made almost completely out of carbon fiber, and was incredibly fuel efficient. Concepts may soon be coming to reality as the German car manufacturers have announced that they may start production of a small number of the XL1 one-liter cars sometime in 2013.
The XL1 boasts an incredible mileage of 100km in exchange for a paltry 0.9 liters of petrol. With today’s oil-crunch, we’d all give an arm and a leg for that kind of a vehicle, but sadly, the XL1 is just a prototype for now, and around a 100 cars will go into production in a couple of year’s time. The XL1 is made almost completely from carbon-fiber that makes it incredibly light at just 795kg. In addition to saving massive amounts of petroleum, the car also manages to keep pollution to a minimum. It releases 24 grams of CO2 into the atmosphere per kilometer.
The carbon-fiber body parts of the XL1 currently cost around 5000 Euro, which isn’t bad at all. The price of the Lithium-ion battery required to power the car, too, is expected to plummet to around 250 Euro by 2013. Let’s hope that the production is successful so we don’t have to sell our houses to afford the luxury of driving in the near future.
Via: Autonews
