Volkswagen XL1 Super Efficient Vehicle (SEV) does 313mpg

Volkswagen XL1 Super Efficiency Vehicle

The Volkswagen XL1 Super Efficient Vehicle (SEV) is being rolled out at the Qatar Motor Show. It’s a two-seater diesel-electric hybrid and the latest in a series of concepts dating back to 2002. But it won’t be in a showroom near you anytime soon.

The VW XL1 SEV is a test-bed for all that VW believes points to an eco future for cars. It is no more likely to go in to production for sale in your local Volkswagen showroom than McLaren’s F1 car. But just as McLaren use much of the knowledge gained from their F1 programme to make their road cars exceptional, VW are doing the same at the other end of the spectrum with the XL1 SEV.

The predecessors to the XL1 were far less car-like than this. But with the XL1 Volkswagen has managed to produce a vehicle that actully looks (quite) like a car and allows the passenger and driver to sit alongside one another, instead of sitting tandem fashion as they had to in previous iterations.

Thanks to modern, lightweight materials which include carbon fibre reinforced polymer (for the body), magnesium (for the wheels), ceramics (brake discs) and aluminium (all over the place) the VW XL1 tips the scales at just 795kg.

That very low weight allows the XL1 to work very adequately with a small, two-pot diesl of just 800cc and 48hp which is attached to a 27hp electric motor. The XL1 gets a seven-speed DSG /box with an auto clutch mounted between engine and motor.

The XL1 can work in EV mode at up to 35mph with the diesel engine cutting in as power needs increase. It can manage – when both electric motor and two-pot diesel are buzzing along together – a top speed of 99mph and 0-62mph of 11.9 seconds.

In terms of size, the XL1 is about the same as a VW Polo, but is a lot lower. Its slippery shape leads to a drag coefficient of just 0.186 and that, coupled to the hybrid diesel powertrain and low weight lead to an average fuel consumption of 313mpg.

As we said, the VW XL1 SEV is a laboratory. But a laboratory that will yield big improvements in VW’s cars ecomomy in the coming years.

By Cars UK