The XL1 follows sports car design principles -- low weight, low drag, and a low center of gravity. Its winged doors are made from carbon fiber-reinforced plastic. (Source: Volkswagen AG)
There aren't really any tricks - get the road weight, cross section, drag coeeficient and tire heating down, and Bob's your uncle. Simple things like the precision of fit-up of body panels and under-body skins make a difference. Electric motors have a high intermittent stall torque and horsepower relative to continous ratings which allows them to pack a lot of performance into a low continuous horsepower rating. Well deployed hybrid technology allows the combustion engine to work into sweet spots. As you point out, no magic is needed.
The 1,753 pound weight is 40 pounds more than the 1,713 pound weight of the '84 Honda CRX HF that I used to have. That car didn't have any carbon fiber or anything more exotic than aluminum for the engine bllock and transmission case. Of course, it didin't have any airbags either but we haven't heard whether the new VW meets those American requirements. Likely not. BTW, the Honda was rated at 50 mpg highway, a figure that was achieved by many owners. No tricks, just a well engineered light car that met American regulations of the era.
If you google freedomev and hit image the black vehicle that pops up is my all composite body/chassis stronger than steel but only 235lbs.
A very old wiki freedomev I think is somewhat good now. It had been hacked by chinese though have no idea why as rhey did it in chinese!!
Once my 2wh EV Streamiliner is presentable and a few products in the next 6 months, I'll come out with a serious website but not smart to do if no product yet now. I could do a website now but wouldn't have any time left because of all the questions and have too much work still to do.
So much hype. If it's so eff then why does it need more energy that a 3000lb EV-1 of which the lead version only used 175wthrs/mile or the GM Impact, it's prptotype they should have built at 100wthrs/mile?
It's grown from 1000lbs IIRC to now the 1700+lb unit yet their MPG claim doesn't change!!
As far as weight my all composite body/chassis weighs far less that the VW does and not an once of CF. There is no reason it should weigh over 1200lbs and should be under 1000lbs.
Anyone want to bet this never gets produced? So I'd certainly call it a paper car. Sad as we need this class but done right.
JRoque: I, too, have to admit to having someskepticism about this, albeit not as much as you. I do believe VW will build this vehicle in very small quantities. I'm guessing maybe 5,000. However, I do not believe in the 261 mpg figure. If you apply the EPA methodology to this vehicle, I can gurantee the figure will drop.
In terms of local economics, I don't know how much effect we'll see from this, bobjengr. VW has said this vehicle will have "limited production," which could mean many things. But I think the number will vary from between 250 to 25,000 (these are my guesses; VW hasn't put a number on it). All you can hope for is that the excitement generated by this vehicle will convince VW execs to go to higher production volumes.
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