VW prototype undercuts the 1-litre level... Smart, isn't it?

Volkswagen study XL1 – the dream of a 1-litre car was already dreamt by Ferdinand Piech two decades ago. Now the time has come: The company from Wolfsburg get things going and present an extremely economical XL1 hybrid with gullwings. This premier is staged in the oil-wealthy desert state of Qatar of all places, where the petrol price is of no importance. Volkswagen presented another study of its 1-litre car on the eve of the Qatar Motor Show which takes place from 26 to 29 January. The plug-in hybrid car whose official name is XL1 is designed to consume only 0.9 litres on 100 kilometres which means that the vehicle only emits 24 grams of CO2 per kilometre to the environment. This efficiency is also achieved by the light construction of parts of carbon-fibre-reinforced plastic and the cW value of 0.186 which is obtained thanks to a particularly aerodynamic shape.

(Sources of the German text: www.wiwo.de and www.handelsblatt.com)
See also: (VDI nachrichten, 11 February 2011, no. 6)

First visible success

"Bosch increases speed for electromobility"

Bosch already has a programme for hybrid vehicles and electric drives. As first full hybrid vehicles with parallel technology of the Stuttgart-based company the new VW Touareg and Porsche Cayenne have been launched. Bosch invests € 400 million per year in hybrid and electric vehicle technologies. At present the first series production of electric motors and powerful electronics is set up in Hildesheim and Reutlingen. The large series production of Li-ion batteries from the Samsung-Bosch joint venture, SB LiMotive, is scheduled to start in 2011.


Image source: Robert Bosch GmbH

Link (content only in German):
»»» http://www.bosch-kraftfahrzeugtechnik.de/~electrification