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239 MPG Car

Posted by michael on from the bio-what? dept.

Kozmik writes "VW/Audi has a history of being a leader in creating super fuel efficient vehicles. They currently sell the most fuel efficient car in the world, 3L Lupo and the Audi A2, and the most fuel efficient station wagon (Jetta TDI Wagon). Now VW is experimenting with something along the lines of the Honda Insight ( a 2 person vehicle ). The 1L VW concept car can achieve .89L/100kms or 239MPG. With Biodiesel and Ultra low sulfur diesel becoming available, hopefully more of these vehicles will come to North America. These fuels are already available in Europe and combined with the new catalyst technology they use, these new engines produce very low emissions." It's nice to talk about alternative fuels, but I have yet to see a gas station selling one of them.

6 of 638 comments (clear)

  1. VW is doing great work on practical cars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Well the rest of the world is chasing dreams of perfect cars VW has done a lot of work on creating practical cars that are also enviromentally friendly for the meantime. Note that they are also working on ideas that are not yet practical.

  2. Wrong country by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's nice to talk about alternative fuels, but I have yet to see a gas station selling one of them.

    And you're probably not going to any time soon. You've got a government hell-bent on keeping the flow of cheap petroleum open at all costs. The US simply isn't interested in this type of stuff...typically you're probably 20 years behind where Europe is with this type of thinking and technology. Enjoy your dumb Detroit 5.0 litre pushrod V8 engines while you can...

  3. Here in Scotland, UK... by JKR · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Argent Energy have announced plans to build a £10m plant in Motherwell to convert waste cooking oils into biodiesel - starting construction in 2003. Looks like an Austrian firm BioDiesel International is supplying the know-how. There's been a standard for BioDiesel (composition, flash point, etc) since 1991 in Europe.

    Jon.

  4. About this concept car by BadDoggie · · Score: 5, Interesting
    It was more a marketing gimmick than anything else. They worked hard to get that car legal for the road and highway in Germany. I'm kind of surprised they didn't have it following closely behind a semi (lorry) to slipstream and get that mileage down even further.

    There's a small article about it here, and the Sueddeutsche Zeitung has both this picture and this article (with more pictures). The car ran on diesel (not any alternative fuel) at an average speed of 75km/h, or about 46mph. Some sections of Autobahn have a minimum speed of 80km/h (50mph).

    This was a concept car which isn't much more than a motorcycle on three wheels with a cockpit rather than a fairing. However, VW is a big name in fuel efficiency. The Lupo, a production car, needs less than 5l/100km, or close to 50mpg, and that with a top speed of 199km/h or about 120mph. In Europe, with fuel about three times the cost of the US (for many reasons including taxes and ecological concerns), this is important.

    Bio-diesel is gaining acceptance and outlets in Germany, as is LNG (liquid natural gas), but this car wasn't using them. DaimlerChrysler is still working on hydrogen power, a much more sensible fuel.

    Is it really "News" in December when this car ran in April?

    woof.

  5. some info about biodiesel by tanveer1979 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This page talks about an abundant source of biodiesel. Esp nice for countries which have warm climates.

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  6. more diesel tech by Zemran · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Diesel has come a long way recently and I hated having to go back to petrol with my latest car (but it was a good deal). I am used to 60 mpg and no break downs. The analagy with OSs has already been made but to take it further...

    Diesels are cheaper to run, not just because the mpg but also because they break down less often. The stories about vibration are old hat, that is like saying Linux only works from the command prompt. If you try a VW TDi you would not know you were in a diesel, they are as fast and as smooth as a petrol car. You can hear the difference from out side but I tend to sit inside my car. Most car breakdowns are caused by engine electrics and diesels do not have that.

    Also, if biodiesel gets off the ground all those poor whining farmers can grow fuel instead of having to survive on subsidies. It is corn oil based so we can grow our own and forget the middle east !!! That is ecologically and economically sound.

    So it is cheaper, more reliable and gets us away from the reliance on the current monopoly...

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