VW Chairman promises 1L/100KM car in 3 to 4 years
Monday 16 April 2007

On the eve of his 70th birthday, Volkswagen’s Chairman Ferdinand Piëch assured reporters during an interview that a super-efficient vehicle capable of achieving mileage rates as impressive as 1L/100km is in development and could be sold at a reasonable price within four years. A simple calculation shows that the vehicle could theoretically travel up to 5,000km on a single 50L tank of fuel, most likely some form of bio-diesel.

Piëch was one of the pioneers that saw the creation of VW’s previous 1-Liter concept pictured above, a prototype that he himself drove from Wolfsburg to Hamburg at an average fuel consumption of 0.89L per 100km. Speaking with German newspaper Brauschweiger Zeitung last Friday, Piëch boasted that VW could have a production version of the 1-Liter ready in three to four years time and that we could see a more practical 3L/100km capable car based on its entry-level Lupo before then.

After working with suppliers, VW will now be able to source the expensive materials required to build such cars for around €5,000 in around two years time. Current prices for the same resources stand at close to €35,000. When he switched over from CEO, development work for both cars were well underway but his successor Bernd Pischetsrieders was not a fan and the project got shelved for a few years. Now it seems, things are in full swing.