The VW XL1 - VW's 280mpg Car

The Volkswagen XL1 was born out of a simple question. Can we make a practical car that can cover 100 km on just 1 litre of fuel? That’s a lofty goal - it’s a car that can do 280 miles per Imperial gallon. It was created at a time when Volkswagen CEO Ferdinand Piëch was challenging his team to new heights. The Bugatti Veyron would be the fastest car in the world, the Volkswagen Phaeton would be an affordable luxury limousine, and the XL1 would push fuel economy boundaries to their limits. So did Volkswagen succeed? Is it possible to create a practical car that can do 280mpg?
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[@BernardSamson-hf6fc]

When I worked at VW, and drove the prototype around London it achieved 339MPG. it has an 800cc diesel engine no door mirrors - the first car to have cameras instead - also the dash moves back not seat forward. the gull wing doors are cool, the rear quarter glass costs £4950 each. it is special glass, then sent to California for coating in anti-drag material. it does 99MPH I questioned the German engineer, he said if they made it go 100MPH it would need bigger wheel, bigger brakes, which would reduce fuel economy by 24%. they really did think of everything.

[@abelalexa9601]

But if the engine limit was removed could the car do atleast 200kmh?

[@drogenfeld]

@Tyler Durden Holy shit, how white washed can you be. You think EVs become the future? Do some research. They are already massivley destroying people's lives and environment just for profit, and there is not even that many people that buy EVs. Additionally, an all electric city block was already tested, and the load you put on the electric power grid is insane, it can't take it. You'd need to rip open every part of the world and lay down a lot more and a lot stronger power cables, just so everyone can quickly and conveniently charge their EVs. And where do you think the power comes from? Right, COAL generators, the most polluting factor in all of EU. Ever thought about what happens to the horribly produced batteries after their lifespan expires? They are burned and new ones are made. There is close to no one that gives a shit about recycling them. That was just a few points, go and do your own searching. You must be a lunatic saying IECs are dinosaurs and EVs are the new norm. Meanwhile countries deny the legal use of synthetic Diesel that would maje a 60+% improvement in emissions calculation, "because we want to push EVs forward, that fuel is not needed", yeah sure, who cares about the environment, lol. And why do you think development of IEC or other technology stagnates? Money. To make money. To repeatedly sell the same shit but in just newer versions. No one cares about true inventions anymore.

[@stefanweilhartner4415]

@@drogenfeld your so called "facts" are completely wrong.

[@astrofan8775]

@@stefanweilhartner4415 Not entirely. I found nothing credible about the burning of the Batteries, but he is right about the fact that atm there's no real recycling of them, because it is not economically feasible and the supply of raw material exceeds the current demand. He is also right about the power-supply beeing a bit dodgy, both in reliability on a large scale (although again i could not find proof of his claim that it did overburden any network, but i am sure it will overburden at least some, mostly in rural regions) and enviromentla impact, as it is in most countries not nearly as clean as we want it to be (not to mention that a lot of green energy is not even truly green, unless you have them running for 20-30+ year, depending on quality, needed maintenance and location/effective usage). What he didn't mention is the main problem with Batterie-powered EV's, which is the secondary effects on the environment. The primary effects are better than that of an ICE-Car, that is true (although various studys disagree on the milage you have to put on in a BP-EV to have a lower direct impact on the environment than a "normal" car, all agree that in the production the BP-EV is quite a lot worse, most say ~twice as bad), but we know that the sourcing of the raw materials for an ICE-Car has not that big an impact on the loval environment (yes, it has one, and it is visible, but in comparison, it's not that bad), while due to the extreme amounts of lithium and copper needed one should not avoid the problems that these bring with them, mainly copper, as it does result in acidic water and rain, which basically makes the surrounding areas into a wasteland. So although in conclusion i have to agree that a lot of the presented facts seem either not credible or wrong, the general point of BP-EV's not beeing sustainable and the ICE beeing not nearly as bad as is often thought is correct. Although imo the best way around both problems would be the further research and development of eco-friendly hydrogen-production, as you can make both EV's and ICE's run on it, while the EV's would require a lot less copper and (as far as i know) no lithium, which would open a lot of windows for a good combination. It'd also make the refuleing more like it is now, which is nice. And it would get around the biggest problem of BP-EVs, which is power density. Due to it beeing pretty low (the range comes out of the effective use under low load) the concept of BP-EVs can't really be used for freight, and freight-transport makes up a big portion of modern traffic, and is thus one of the more important problems to solve.

[@C_R_O_M________]

​@Tyler Durden it is because of people like you that everything is going to be more expensive, less affordable in the proximal future. The amount of BS you people believe is incredible! ICEs are a mature technology and emission-neutral (diesel) since Euro 6. That is IF emissions are the demon they present it to be! That's a fucking BIG "if".

[@BladedAngel]

Koenigsegg: Let's build a car that goes 280MPH+ Volkswagen: Let's build a car that gets 280MPG+ One gives Smiles per Gallon, the other gives Miles per Gallon!

[@foxlogistics3543]

It do be like that

[@edstratton]

I can tell you from my experience as an owner that the XL1 gives me more smiles per gallon (or per mile) than any other car I have owned - including many supercars and rare classics.

[@Datoda]

@@moonlightharmony4100 He literally has a review of his car lmao you look like an absolute clown now

[@edstratton]

Datoda He deleted his comment 🙄. It’s OK I’m used to people not believing I own an XL1. It’s amazing how few people even know it actually went into production or even that it ever existed!

[@Datoda]

@@edstratton Yeah I had no idea this car was sold to the public nor existed at all until this video popped up in my recommendations.

[@Ihyabond009]

I watched "curb your carbon emissions" video and got recommended this lol

[@edstratton]

The true (genuine) CO2 emissions of the VW XL1 is 21 g/km of CO2, which is actually the lowest of any fuel powered ICE or hybrid production car in the world. That's a fact. The tragedy is that VW's reputation on all combustion engined cars was later ruined, because shortly after the XL1 hybrid was launched VW started cheating emissions on their mass produced cars (not the XL1), so then nobody believed that the amazingly low XL1 emissions figure of 21g/km was genuine!!

[@Thawhid]

Lool

[@Noahmaelkekoo]

lol same greta is proud

[@deanslegos1990]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/mJ-alqWhg5igpK8

[@fritzdaddy-135mmgetstagger4]

Haha ya his curb emissions video was hilarious cause i sure wont fucking do that ,fuck i care about nature 😂

[@razorsex92]

Used to work at a VW garage, we had one. I took it out, fair to say I got a few looks in it. Rarest car I have ever driven and probably ever will do.

[@farreledviantbatubara8358]

What does it felt like

[@Enzoxvx]

Probably like every VW: almost the same as every other VW

[@razorsex92]

@@farreledviantbatubara8358 noisy it's a vw diesel at the end of the day

[@edstratton]

​@@farreledviantbatubara8358 I own an XL1. Here's what it's like to own: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mJKtnqqvhbNmsMU

[@ES-wy2xj]

"If you want to save the planet, you'd better have deep pockets"

[@joe125ful]

Lol 98.000Euros...i rather buy Jaguar F type to enjoy driving:)

[@JonnyParker-]

Funny thing is that electric cars are WAY worse for the environment than petrol or diesel ,that is a fact that the governments don't want to bring up. Everything is an inversion now .

[@glennbartlett416]

Let it depreciate a couple of years first n drive a vauxhall combo 1.3 cdti 70mpg

[@tonystanley5337]

@@JonnyParker- Completely wrong, where is your evidence? Some oil company propaganda perhaps comparing non-existant coal powered battery plants and recharging with only burning diesel in the most optimistic conditions, and ignoring the pollution and energy from fuel collection/refining etc lol

[@JonnyParker-]

@@tonystanley5337 how much energy does it take to make those batteries used in cars ?? How much energy does it take to dig up all the rare earth metals used for them ? And then look how much energy it takes to get some steel and mill it out . It's world's apart . You have bought the propaganda hook line and sinker . Dr. Vernon Coleman put out a great video a few weeks back about how electric cars are much worse for the environment. Check it out - but you probably won't.

[@JD-hy6yc]

“Only 190 MPG” Bruh I get 11.9 i would kill to get 10% of that

[@mouaxiong8618]

I tow everyday with my toyota 08 Toyota tundra and oh boy you're right...

[@christopherjc54]

He said that customers reported around 120mpg

[@mrfancypanzer549]

How do you get so poor fuel economy? Do you drive a house?

[@GeneralKenobi69420]

*Laughs in European*

[@alfresco4976]

Are you stupid? You don't have to kill to get 19mpg. Incidentally I've achieved a best of 72mpg in my rusty old Metro.

[@rowancucanic]

Sounds almost as good as Volkswagen’s emissions ratings...

[@nelzelpher2088]

*cough* diesalgate.

[@Kay0Bot]

Got em!!!

[@9nxt]

If they can deliver, than they would take step 1 to make up for what they did

[@ramnarayanansr1]

544ŕ e2e

[@tobiwan001]

Well, it's still more efficient and cleaner than any EV today, so...

[@bispal]

This should be the future, lightweight, small, minimal. Not huge MPV's with 3 tonnes of materials and batteries! The XL1 is a genius design, I call it the worlds slowest supercar.....

[@kanervatie]

Good point.

[@kanervatie]

I wanna see a car that makes 100km with 0,5l of pure alcohol.

[@aaronheaney2694]

Make an ultra light EV with 50kg of batteries.

[@semirsemir7016]

@@kanervatie it call " the man"

[@edstratton]

Well said!!!!!

[@Kara714]

It’s actually „Das Volkswagen 1 Liter Auto“.

[@richardgrant2019]

🤣🤣🤣

[@BigCar2]

Thanks. I've made the change (I didn't have access to a PC all day). The subtitles were kindly translated by a Patron (thanks Hans!), but the title was auto translated by me.

[@WeezyWho]

@@BigCar2 Stop translating the title. It is annoying as shit.

[@wolfgangk2824]

When you see the price tag you realize it is cheaper to buy a 12 cylinder car.

[@ccllvn]

@@WeezyWho ich finde es gut

[@fastinradfordable]

The real diesel scandal should be that we did not get tons of 100mpg small cars

[@williamrae9954]

Too true...diesel was the future, not electric...thanks EU for your emissions scam!

[@OldSchoolZ-wy2yx]

Instead, we have more and more SUV's and trucks, that get larger every year

[@eleventy-seven]

​@@OldSchoolZ-wy2yxPeople need trucks to haul their guns around to make up for their little.........

[@amnottabs]

that XL1 Sport looks like a bastard son between a VW Scirocco (rip) and an Audi R8 and I like it a lot

[@besnikrudnick3781]

it looks pretty sweet tbh

[@TD1237]

Lol funny analogy but I agree, it looks awesome

[@peterlewis3540]

I was lucky enough to sit inside one, in the VW Sinclair dealership in Swansea. The car was not for sale, but was owned by the Sinclair group, and was used as a promotional vehicle. A beautiful thing, and had it been for sale, and I had enough money, I would gladly have bought it.

[@sabersz]

I saw one at Beaulieu a few years back. I didn't realise what it was until this video 😂

[@edstratton]

@@sabersz Ha ha yes some very generous soul actually donated one to the Beaulieu Museum!

[@edstratton]

@@silasmayes7954 The Ageing Wheels video on the XL1 is one of the better ones - they did a great job - unlike the Regular Cars video which is complete crap and full of incorrect information!

[@edstratton]

Ah yes, the XL1 in the Sinclair Group showrooms is reg number "CN65 BZG", chassis number 141, white, with red seat inserts!

[@fritzdaddy-135mmgetstagger4]

Im sorry to hear you would buy one

[@marcclarence2260]

Does anyone else remember when VW tried to advertise there engines as "clean"

[@fryphillipj560]

Well, they where/are efficient. Just not clean

[@scotty1928]

Fry, Phillip J they are efficient, just not as efficient as advertised. And dirty.

[@DontEatTheAnimals]

Advertise where ? There !

[@al3xxx918]

@@fryphillipj560 The car's are clean as well.

[@stefanweilhartner4415]

yes, because they are very efficient

[@flori5548]

Got to drive one in 2014 - crazy car. The XL1 didn’t have power steering and the engine was quite noisy but it is a fun car to drive...reminded me a lot of a Porsche 944, including the seating position. A shame it never was released to the VOLK, really.

[@scoutthecat161]

Prius: I get 65mpg Volkswagen: cute

[@volvo245]

Actually by VW own testing the XL1 never needed any fuel. It was in fact the first machine in history to achieve over-unity. Amazing but totally true, because Volkswagen would never lie or defraud their customers.

[@MicrobyteAlan]

First thing I do is go full screen. Interesting and well presented, I didn’t know of these cars. Thanks

[@BigCar2]

Me neither until someone suggested it.

[@bavariancarenthusiast2722]

I forgot about the car - the sold one this year for 90k€ - and produced 200 of them. It was a technical tour de light force. Piech was famous and feared as one of the great automaker of all times, worth to make a movie about him

[@1968matrix]

It's a pity you didn't mention the Audi A2 and VW Lupo 3l. It was impressive the 3 liters per 100 km.

[@carpediemarts705]

Never heard of this.

[@1968matrix]

never imported to US. You can see a lot of Audi A2 in the movie with Will Smith "I, Robot"

[@thomassutherland5188]

Nice cadence in your speaking and of course your accent rocks. Love high mpg tech. Thank you.

[@BigCar2]

Thanks Thomas!

[@Olliebobalong]

Diesel technology has so much to give in the real world. My 2019 Audi A6 2.0TDI can get 72MPG on a 350 trip averaging 65MPH, while sprinting to 60MPH in 7.9 seconds, and that's a large, heavy car.

[@miguellopez3392]

eventually batteries will over take it, model 3 gets 141mpge, goes 300 miles at 60mph and 0-60 in 3.2 seconds for a 4000lb car.

[@jenspetersen5865]

@@miguellopez3392 It is very debatable if you do a life cycle analysis. Most EVs are charged when people come home from work, which is when surplus electrical power is covered 100% by fosil fuels, and EV fanatics tend to forget that most EVs never reach the milage required for them to actually pollute less (life cycle value) than a comparably sized diesel. Most EV's have to be on the roads for 20-40 years before hitting break even, though admittedly Tesla's tend to do better than most EVs.

[@bavariancarenthusiast2722]

@@jenspetersen5865 Good point - we here talk about a CO2 Rucksack the car is produced, that depends on the overall energy which was used and also for charging. If you use fossil energy which producing or driving it is even dirtier then normal ICE cars. Do you have a statistic by country / producer maybe?

[@S3l3ct1ve]

@@jenspetersen5865 indeed... The problem is very simple, for electricity you convert the energy at least 3 times before it is being used for the travel needs - You need to burn the fuel to convert it in to a steam, and then the steam converts it in to the electricity and only hen the car use it to move itself... Not even accounting for the energy loss when the electricity is being transferred... As for fuel - you dig it out and you place it in to the car to burn it straight away. That is the least energy loss there could be..

[@jenspetersen5865]

@@bavariancarenthusiast2722 No I don't - Bjørn Lomborg referenced a German study in a video though. The tricky part though is that it all depends on the fuel mix when current is actually being consumed. There is so little interest in actually comparing factual aspects. We have a study in Denmark from the ones advising our government which uses 200000km as the distance by which an elecrical vehichle is scrapped, and then it uses the 24hr energy mix to arrive at great numberes for the politically correct electrical vehicle, yet if you look at EVs as Nissan Leaf/Renault Zoe then the average car for sale has driven 5000km/year. The CO2 balance is much different between Gasoline and Diesel.

[@SpeedDemonExpress]

The two most important features, efficiency and it looks damn cool!

[@edstratton]

Exactly! That's why I bought one. And never regretted it.

[@ms-kg4pc]

@@edstratton Do you actually own one?

[@edstratton]

@@ms-kg4pc Yes I ordered it from VW UK in October 2014 during the short window that they were available and it was delivered nine months later in July 2015. It's chassis number 148. I've done almost 8000 miles in it now including taking it to over 100 motoring events. It got a runner-up in class trophy at the Salon Privé Pirelli Supercar Concours in 2015. I use it in all weathers but spend a huge amount of time looking after it. Last time it want for its annual service they told me it has the highest mileage of any of the 28 UK cars but is in by far the best condition which I was pretty chuffed about. I've found it to be a very reliable car, and easily the most fun of any car I've ever owned, and that's really saying something. Here's my XL1: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mJKtnqqvhbNmsMU

[@Conceptcreator]

are we surreee it does that? I mean it's volkswagen... xD

[@manoman0]

My Chevy Volt: 250mpg+.

[@hugheszie]

If we all drove these, fuel companies would make fuel £20 a gallon.

[@StanleyMessie]

What about the VW Lupo 3L. The 3L standing for 3L/100km. I've owned a 3L for 5 years, and yes, it really does 3L per 100km, if you dont drive faster than 100kmph. It has a lot if aluminium in its chassis, aluminium engine block and transmission housing, alloy wheels and a magnesium steering wheel. It has a 3 cylinder 1.2L turbo diesel engine with I believe about 70BHP. With powersteering and its light weight it was an absolute joy to drive in the city, though it was also comfortable in longer voyages. I've driven it all across Europe on vacation (Netherlands to Romania and back for example). Its electronic gearbox with shifting robot has failed on me once, which was a pricey repair (900euros). My sister owns it now and she hasn't had any mayor problems. It now has driven more than 300.000km.

[@manoman0]

You would have been better off with a Chevrolet Cruze 1.7 TD. Verified best and most efficient diesel powered car. Or the Chevy Volt. The TRUE 1-litre-car.

[@belustigungspanda6128]

@@manoman0 Except the Chevy Volt didn't release before 2010 and the Chevrolet Cruze didn't before 2008. The VW Lupo 3L TDI hit the market in 1999.

[@manoman0]

@@belustigungspanda6128 Well, you see what you got with the 3L, it's entirely different car and the 3L wasn't a true 3L. Germans cheat with their emission figures. Forgot that?

[@belustigungspanda6128]

@@manoman0 The 3L wasn't about emission but about fuel consumption...and it indeed achieved its goal of 3 litres per 100km (2.99 to be exact). If you wanted a fuel efficient, small car in 1999, it certainly did the job.

[@myjacklist]

@@belustigungspanda6128 @Manomano. the Cruze runs over 50% more fuel then the Lupo 3L. I run the even more efficient sistercar Audi A2 1.2 TDI 3L 2001 . even a little more efficient then the lupo due to lower weight an better drag. This is due to the aluminium total structure. (Audi space frame) which is in engineering equal to the A8 . It weighs 825 kg . The engine is the same as the above VW except it has a 3 cilinder instead of a 2 and has therefore 1200 cc instead of 800. it has performed 84Miles/gallon.

[@tundras4ever552]

We either need all cars on the road to be like this or none , and I say that solely because of safety and crashes. Everyone here drives jacked up trucks that would literally destroy anyone inside

[@roy04]

Username checks out

[@Anonymous-xn2xh]

Anchit Roy completely erases the seriousness of the comment

[@roy04]

@@Anonymous-xn2xh I am totally for it if it was possible, but realistically it's not. Long ass answer: It's far more expensive to make a car significantly lighter than to design it better with proper crumple zones, better rigid frames and better sensors to prevent accidents in the first place. Also, you cannot simply make a car lighter, the frame and chassis has to be rigid no matter what. Using exotic expensive materials for a mass market product like cars is simply nuts. Also the way the industry is transitioning to EVs, cars will only get heavier. When batteries and material science gets there, I'll totally support it

[@Anonymous-xn2xh]

Anchit Roy no matter how good AI or sensors get, accidents will always happen and errors will always occur. But in terms of EVs, the batteries used in Gas and diesel Cars are made of Acid which is renewable energy. However if EVs become common, it would cause mass use of batteries that simply can’t be made. The only suppliers of Batteries in the world are China, Central Africa and India and India and China are looking to heavily restrict mining due to the irreversible Environment damage already caused by this. I don’t think Electric Cars will be very common unless they manage to draw heavy voltages from an Acid battery, which with current technology is very difficult to efficiently pull off

[@roy04]

@@Anonymous-xn2xh Yup, accidents will still happen. The next line makes no sense. Yup, the industry quickly needs to come up with better solutions for recycling or we'll end up having another problem. No, most of the mining takes place in Australia and Southwest region of South America. Again it's not correct, I am Indian, and India imports lithium let alone having enough mines to export it. Also the Indian government couldn't care less about the environment. I can't speak for China but common sense tells me they care more about money and growth (including earned from mining) than the environment. And finally yes, EVs won't popular if they use lead acid batteries. Your last line makes no sense from a scientific point of view. Lead acid batteries neither allow too much power nor energy for the same mass as an li-ion/lipo battery, not "heavy voltage". Voltage, power and energy are all three different things. PS. I don't see what you said has anything to do with safety of cars.

[@albertarbelo]

For some reason this looks like a car Robocop would drive.

[@RDCST]

Or a cop in San Angeles....

[@nathanjoseph4284]

Big Car has made my day once again! Great videos as always, and cheers from America! 🇺🇸

[@BigCar2]

Glad you're happy Nathan!

[@andrewbolivar3040]

This car is gorgeous and I want one. It’s reminds me of a sleek, high tech, efficient VW branded R8 in looks. I love funky cars. It’s too bad this was too expensive.

[@Mike-sd5ww]

I would drive this in a EV

[@charlieb2176]

Fuck EV’s. The Diesel electric is way better. You don’t need to wait two hours to charge the thing and it barely uses any diesel.

[@rbheaven1969]

I was very fortunate to actually go for a drive in one of these cars a few years ago when I met a guy at the Swiss Italian border whose wife had bought a prototype from the Volkswagen CEO as they were great friends they had travelled down from Germany to Italy for €40 and whilst we were waiting at the border I got chatting to him and he invited me me to go for a ride in the car it was amazing if a little harsh suspension it had door cameras instead of wing mirrors for the the aerodynamic value and was powered by a small Ducati motorcycle engine obviously it was only built for two people and very limited luggage space they were very excited about owning this car I believe at the time it cost around €90,000 and I don't think it ever went into full production as I have never seen another one it attracted amazed looks where ever you drove it it and I shall never forget the experience

[@edstratton]

You were very lucky to have that chance! What a great guy he sounds. By the way VW did put it into production as a limited edition and sold 200 of them.

[@rbheaven1969]

@@edstratton many thanks for the info regarding the 200 produced

[@aniloveindividudumm9416]

„Das“ instead of „Der“. Thank you for the great story. Greetings from Bavaria

[@BigCar2]

Thanks. I will correct it, but I need to be near a PC.

[@insertcoins5001]

I ordered one , tried to drive it home , at 400. ,000000 miles it ran out of fuel , not happy at all .

[@MrMoccachinoo]

In a nutshell: they build a motorcycle and put a lawnmower-Engine inside and were than surprised it consumption was like a moped.

[@adambutler1513]

Wow man. Volkswagen really show what German engineering is capable of in so many aspects. Even if dieselgate was a bad spot they are always pushing the boundaries. And I just love how they are always innovating.

[@dragospahontu]

Did this car have a gearbox?

[@adambutler1513]

@@dragospahontu I believe so. I think it was an 8 speed or something over the top like that. More gears usually means better gas mileage after all.

[@dragospahontu]

@@adambutler1513 the Toyota hybrid is more efficient because it doesn't have a conventional transmission. The electric motor and the ice always work together to put the power down to the wheels. It only becomes more inefficient than a conventional transmission after 120km/h. So if Volkswagen would've figured out a method like Toyota it could've been even more efficient.

[@adambutler1513]

@@dragospahontu I believe you're referring to braking replenishing the batteries. Or going downhill in a low gear. I've had relatives and driven their priuses so ik what you're referring to. I think the newer vw car on here had it but not sure about the earlier prototypes.

[@dragospahontu]

@@adambutler1513 I've watched Doug DeMuro's review but he didn't go to technical unfortunately. But from the research I've done the XL1 probably had a gearbox. And even nowadays all European hybrid vehicles have a normal ice set up and an electric motor powered by a battery. That's the reason the japanese hybrid systems (Honda, Toyota) are more efficient because they cam make do without a gearbox and the electric motor always works when the petrol engine is least efficient and vise versa.

[@Marques_239]

Volkswagen: Pushes the limits in every single automotive category. Volkswagen: Owns many of the valuable automotive brands and still preserves their original spirit, legacy, and design values. Volkswagen: Produces the cars people need and also the cars people want. Volkswagen: Designed some of the fastest engines, some of the most powerful engines, some of the most reliable engines, some of the slowest engines, and some of the most efficient engines. Volkswagen: Races against themselves on several motorsports events. Volkswagen: Is severely hated by people who pay for other people to fix their cars and pretend to understand what was done.

[@edstratton]

All true!!

[@miguellopez3392]

Volkswagen:: also hides their lethal levels of NO emissions to save a bit of money.

[@Marques_239]

@@miguellopez3392 so dos the others

[@miguellopez3392]

@@Marques_239 and that makes VW good how?

[@Marques_239]

@@miguellopez3392 that just doesn't make it bad, its the enumeration on my original coment that makes it good

[@shellscript2747]

in title: Liter in video: mph and "gallons" Stay with the metrik system when talking about a car that is not from usa. People from outside of your imperial island have no idea what you are talking about.

[@sirsanti8408]

Just fuckin convert like me, or get a basic understanding of how much those measurements are, it really isn’t hard

[@KokkiePiet]

Hear Hear Metric is king

[@MazdaRX7007]

Well topgear uses mpg as well, and so do most car channels, regardless of country.

[@Atlas_21]

@@MazdaRX7007 Because they are British. Non anglo countries don't use that. They also drive on the wrong side of the road, that should tell you everything.

[@rabbitdrink]

this guy is british. let people use whatever units they want or ill start an american engineering company where commie units are banned and freedom units are the only ones allowed

[@mrpicky1868]

well diesel is dirty usually when it used out of its optimal regime .and maybe has poor "cat"s. diesel hybrids could be pretty good actually if done the correct way... no transmission.. just generator .

[@mrg-ghx8052]

The XL1 was built by Karmann who famously built the Karmann Ghia, but not so famously built and still build many other VW's. They are a convertible specialist and also built vehicles for many manufacturers like Ford, Chrysler, BMW, Nissan, Renault, Porsche. Automotive Companies like Karmenn and Magna or even suppliers like Webasto and Valeo could make for interesting topics because they help push boundaries and are responsible for a lot of the innovations OEMs get the credit for👍.

[@sang3Eta]

The reason fuel is more and more expensive in the UK is because Fuel Duty + VAT is double taxation effectively creating a 140% tax! Example 50p/l fuel at the pump + 57.95p Fuel Duty + 20% VAT = 120p/l at the checkout!

[@simonlangner]

"THIS...is the VW XL1 story" - you only learn from the best, good sir! 😅🤠🙈

[@MichaelOZimmermannJCDECS]

Simon, babe! Are you talking about the BS-company? VW. Fortunately people are either permanent ignorant or forget very quickly, being brain-washed by the worst of all industries, the advertisement mafia!

[@sparky4878]

Prof. Michael O. Zeee JCD ECS, I think he was referring to the Doug Demuro style “This....”

[@simonlangner]

@@MichaelOZimmermannJCDECS Well, I actually made a Doug reference. But apart from that, VW manufactured the best diesel engines, at least when it comes to efficiency. But of course to a certain price...

Hell even half of that would be wonderful. Wish it would happen.

[@AtheistOrphan]

I remember seeing this lurking in the back of the VW UK range brochure back in the day: ‘One colour available, LHD-only’ and most importantly ‘Price on application’. I never knew what that price was until today.

[@95blahblahhaha]

Sometimes I don't have time to watch a whole video but when I see he uploads one I just throw it like real quick because I know it's going to be an excellent video like always 👌👌

[@Paul-yw7bf]

Just some clarification. This car wasn’t born out of a question of extreme fuel saving, it was born out of a settlement with the EPA.

[@joe125ful]

Who cares..it cost 100.000Euros...

[@lars9805]

Hahahaha you're so funny we get it, VW diesel scandal hahah

[@Glaggle]

​@@lars9805 It's not a joke. If a business doesn't find tree-hugging cars profitable, then they won't make them--climate change be damned.

[@joe125ful]

@@Glaggle But noone buy this thing..look on price..

[@Glaggle]

@@joe125ful That's the point. VW doesn't want people to buy it because it isn't profitable.

[@TomBell]

For years I've wanted to do a "sort of replica" of this car as an EV and drive coast to coast on a single charge :-)

[@gabrielmalta1962]

Might be doable on something like a heavily modified Tesla chassis If you can please try!

[@TinyBearTim]

So a Tesla that will be monstrously heavy

[@Commentator541]

May I just say this, I love your videos!

[@BigCar2]

Glad you like them!

[@mastro4065]

1:28......”I’m Popeye, the sailor man”......

[@-POISON-]

The XL Sport would have been a nice one.

[@svak10000]

Look like audi R8

[@poplaurentiu4148]

i really don't know why they did not want to produce that car even as a limited edition series would have been so cool !

[@eriktempelman2097]

Fun fact about magnesium: it's not just light but it also absorbs vibrations.

[@buggs9950]

And it's really quite flammable, try welding near it..

[@manoman0]

Here's the thing: GM put out a car that could do 230mpg, was very very practical and actually sold it at a good price point. It was called the Chevrolet Volt. I seriously wonder why german car manufacturers are always so cheered.

[@BigCar2]

It was a cool car, but for some reason very few were sold, even in areas that traditionally bought GM cars.

[@manoman0]

@@BigCar2 Well, their marketing, their marketing. Like they wanted it to fail.

[@Sven.Bornemark]

This story is SO exciting! Thank you for a terrific video! :-)

[@BigCar2]

You’re welcome as always Sven!

[@ewan_clegg06]

At the front it kinda looks like a scirocco

[@ericgeorge5483]

Not a bad thing!!

[@operatorpsyduck2035]

The scirocco goes from Berlin to Warsaw in one tank!

[@EnhancedNightmare]

@@operatorpsyduck2035 this one to moscov haha

[@EnhancedNightmare]

Yeah the front has a ton of scirocco feel that when I saw it in real life I assumed it was some kind of special version of Scirocco.

[@InheritTheField]

The body shape hints of the R8, the back end of the A7.

[@jmd1743]

They should make an EV version. Just plain gorgeous.

[@edstratton]

Agreed!

[@djneo92nl]

The low drag factor would be amazing in an electric car. Great range with less battery

[@jmd1743]

@@djneo92nl I want this Volkswagen and the BMW i8 to be electricfied. I don't care if they have to make it 10% fatter to fit in the battery pack,it's looks still great after all these years including the roadster. Shame on Honda for destroying the looks of those EV concept cars. They looked MUCH better than Teslas, my only complaint was the shape of the steering wheel.

[@unclegeorge7845]

Nice video. Thanks. The world is starving for beautiful cars. These two XL body shapes would sell. Funny how folks have the guts to cheat on the world stage but not present eye catching practical motor cars.

[@Tristan-fc9eu]

People don't understand that volkswagen didn't ever want to sell this car in big numbers, they built these because they wanted to experiment on what's possible

[@edstratton]

Exactly!! It is very rare to find someone who understands that! How do you learn, how do you become better than your competitors, if you don't push hard to experiment with what is possible? VW spent over 1 billion euros on developing the XL1. They only wanted to sell 200 of them. If they had wanted to get their money back from those sales of 200, they would have to sell each one for more than 5 million euros! Surely it should be obvious to more people that the XL1 was purely a research and development exercise, and that the big rewards and profits will come in the future when they sell millions of their mass produced models which are more efficient than their competitors' cars because of what they learned from the XL1 project.

[@Mymohawkisblue]

There is a shorter way to achieve this. Cheat!

[@GreatGloves]

Greetings from Finland!

[@EnhancedNightmare]

The XL sport one looks very interesting. VW lineup now lacks anything so fun and light, this might give MX-5 a run for its money.

[@themistaken9571]

I'm sorry to inform you this is a car from around 2015 I'm not sure if they're still made but it wasn't cheap

[@timkahn2813]

cool i had a bug it was 38 h p and was just all i wanted or needed . i had just gotten back from viet nam .and needed to calm down . that bug helped a lot .

[@maxufeiss1301]

By year 2000 VW was already selling "regular" passenger car that had better fuel economy than Honda Insight, named VW Lupo 3L. My 2001 Audi A2 1.2 TDI has same engine, averaged 90(uk)/75(us)Mpg (3,14l/100km) during last tank, normal driving, doing mostly 56/68Mph (90/110kmh). And it's huge inside compared to Insight.

[@Martindyna]

Don't know why they dropped the A2 TDI, should relaunch.

[@maxufeiss1301]

​@@Martindyna Dropped because aluminium car is expensive and selling other cars makes profit. Today people still would not buy that in numbers, in my region they'll buy SUV or something and whine about fuel prices... If there was money to made making good economic cars, we'd see them more. And to think that 20 year old car gets better fuel efficiency than most modern economic cars, shows that people will choose power and luxury over economy. But that also means i got to buy it with normal old car price. Considering my other car fueling needs, it will pay itself in 2 years from fuel savings alone, while being very CO2 friendly :) Since my other car is A8, it's was huge step to take and i'm very happy taking it. A2 even has more headroom and can carry much larger things in it, always surprising people just how large it is inside for such a small car. Truly a car made by engineers, not designers. Of course people still think i'm crazy, while slowly accepting the fact that it saves ton of money and opens up the world, since driving it is so cheap.

[@myjacklist]

@@maxufeiss1301 and it always bring a big smile. It s only a little vulnerable technically....mine has achived 183 kph on the navi system so actual. great car. 1 of 5000 ever build.

[@wiks101]

will never believe anything ever that comes from VW after diesel gate!

[@cucumberblyat]

Every other brand did the same.. Volkswagen just said that they cheated while the other brands are lying.

[@wiks101]

@@cucumberblyat wrong they only admitted it after an investigation ; prior to that they kept denying

[@Winston.S.1984]

make amerika great again Tom! Lol

[@topkek3409]

You should cover the Monotracer by Peraves, such a unique and little talked about vehicle 😊

[@clavo3352]

Damned valuable video! Thanks much.

[@Derry_Aire]

It's amazing how many of these "cars of the future" look like a Citroën from 1972.

[@cromulentcommodore5896]

Ferdinand Piëch, he gets to decide if you get to have air you can breathe.

[@Cross-xm2fr]

Lock him up

[@BigCar2]

That might be hard. He died 5 years ago.

[@shanelulberry]

Yeah VW, I trust you with high MPG cars... When has your company ever lied about mpg?...

[@lucarnetrange]

VW is taking care of the planet : Veyron was sold, Phaeton was sold, but fuel-efficient prototypes remained prototypes.

[@edstratton]

Yes Veyron was sold (about 450 of them were built and sold) and VW XL1 was sold (200 of them were sold). The XL1 was not a prototype, it was a production car, but only a very limited quantity. I think you agree, that what the world needs is a super-efficient car like the XL1 but in mass production. A big company like VW should make and sell millions of them. But sadly it won’t happen.

[@lucarnetrange]

@@edstratton : yes that was my point.

[@dj_paultuk7052]

So it really did 120mpg. Not bad, but lets not forget the 2001 Vauxhall Astra 1.7 Dti ECO4. A special limited edition with an Eco drag package and a special ratio gearbox. Its in the Guiness Book of records as they did a test from John-o'groats to Lands End and managed 101mpg average. From a Practical 4 door family car. I had one for a while as a company car and it was pretty good to be fair.

[@JP212nyc]

expensive today, but in 2050, when diesel will only be available in the shape of olive oil at a supermarket near you, this might be the last affordable self-driving car around.

[@fastinradfordable]

You can make oil from growing beans. Diesels ain’t goin nowhere. I have a later vw tdi engine swapped into a mk1 rabbit I keep patching the rust as it is the only thing that can stop me from going forever

[@weedmastersr]

What are you on about? You can make diesel from almost any oily plant and gasoline from anything that burns. Internal combustion cars have an infinite supply of fuel.

[@stevenanderson9660]

When I was in High school in the 1970’s they told us we would soon run out of oil, still waiting.

[@cricket12ish]

It looks like a futuristic hot pocket

[@JS-1983]

Complied with EU6 emission standards 😉 🤣🤣 Love your humor and commentary in these videos.

[@BigCar2]

Thanks!

[@sebastiannobile758]

In the Wolfsburg museum of VW you can find a 1-liter-car from the 1960s. No joke. Seen it as a child.

[@oliverfasola19]

Imagine this for every delivery person

[@TopCarsTV]

I was well aware of this car, but it is fascinating to see how it all started and all the iterations along the way.

[@edstratton]

Very interesting that to date you have made over 60 videos on your Big Car channel, but this one about the VW XL1 has already had the most views even though it's only been online a couple of weeks. Apparently, people find it the most interesting car. But then I knew that!

[@BigCar2]

This video has gone crazy! There’s no rhyme or reason to it.

[@user-xg3ks8jx9s]

Watching your about the history of vehicles sure my day good thank you Big Car.

[@Rafagafanhotobra]

Lets see if Donut Media will do a video on this subject just after Big Car does, again...

[@josep9599]

Yeah I noticed that and called them out for the Jimny video

[@karacop78]

Well spotted!

[@ccllvn]

Cannot stand the corny narrator on Donut Media, overuse of effects and stupid "joke" references you can tell instantly it's for broad mass low attention span people

[@MehdiTirguit]

the same idea crossed my mind, but to be faire a video like this take days to prepare it's probably just a coincidence.

[@Rafagafanhotobra]

@@MehdiTirguit considering the size of their team and budget, how many interns they can hire and dedicate them to a specific content, a video like that could be fully edited in a couple of days, max.

[@hydrochloricacid2146]

I'd really like to buy something like this, but I can't seem to find anything like the xl1 on the market. The closest alternatives I can find are the new Citroën Ami and Renault Twizzy, but neither of those, can legally be driven on a motorway and have poor range.

[@tbthegr81]

The Twizzy has 2 versions, one aimed at 45km/h and the other at 80km/h, surely the stronker version is legal to drive on a motorway? In Sweden the only requirement is that a vehicle is designed for at least 40km/h and is not a "Class 1 moped" (Like the 45km/h version is)

[@sie4431]

If you'd like the most efficient car possible electric cars are far more efficient than something like the XL1. For the price of 1L of fuel you could go twice the distance the XL1 could without the limitations

[@simonlangner]

I can recommend you something like a Lupo 3L or a Audi A2 1.2 TDI. Have you ever heard of it? I myself drive the Audi, a fantastic car, fully made of aluminium, and even with AC on you regularly achieve 3.5 Liter Diesel per 100 Km. I guess to this date the Audi is the most frugal automobile for the mass market. Unfortunately I don't know where you live - it was sold in heartland europe..

[@KarlsGeoguessrAbenteuer]

Like he mentioned: a Honda Insight maybe? I was looking myself at some Honda CR-Z, they seem to be pretty interesting, too. With low drag and hybrid technology, they should be quite efficent.

[@alaininswitzerland]

Hydrochloric Acid I own both a Audi A2 1.2 TDI and a Twizzy 80. The Twizzy is not motorway legal in France or Switzerland and indeed I would not feel comfortable on the motorway with it. It is very convenient for my situation but unfortunately my 400’000 km Audi A2 is way more reliable than the 30’000 km Twizzy.

[@jameslatimer1432]

Love all your videos memory buster 🤩😀😁

[@tim1polman]

I LOVE that modern itteration of the Messerschmitt Kabinenroller. Such a shame that never went into production.

[@DaAsianJuan]

That is more fuel efficient than my 110cc motorcycle lol

[@dxutube]

9:29 nice to see they finally put the steering wheel on the right way round

[@Happymali10]

I actually saw an XL1 at a meet in Germany in 2019, and it...doesn't stick out as much as one would think.

[@Ashquacks]

The XL Sport actually looks so good

[@banjopete]

So spats WERE a good idea!

[@fabianhenrich4697]

Physically there is less CO2 emitted, you only can get so much carbon out of one liter of fuel.

[@stupersyn1]

So is it safe to assume this car also cheated emissions in order to get better fuel economy numbers? There is only so much CO2 in a given liter, but the catalytic converter reduces hydrocarbons and NOx with the byproduct being more CO2 and H2O.

[@quietcorner293]

I know VW got a bad rap, but I liked the last Golf I owned. it was 1.9TDI and drove great, efficient, clean (wink wink), good quality and reliable. I'm driving now a Hyundai due to €€. My i30 is also a great car but I miss some of the little features with my Golf. I just didn't feel like those extras were worth 8,000€.

[@GrrMeister]

*Got 85.6 MPG at Average Speed 53 mph over 108 Miles the other day, in my 2019 Mercedes B200CDi AMG. (Cold Start A46/M1 & A14) One of the latest innovations with the 8 Speed Gearbox is if you select ECO Mode when lifting throttle, downhill EG or approaching roundabouts, it enters Neutral and 'freewheels' with engine ticking over at 750 RPM. Used wisely it's amazing how far you can 'coast' for using little or no fuel - if you're not that bothered it will easily do 145 MPH and in Sport Mode goes like a scalded cat, and cruise all day at 100 mph still giving over 50 mpg {on German Autobahns of course} (Added at **3:35** Drag best in it's Class at .24)*

[@maxufeiss1301]

Audi A2 1.2 TDI from 20 years ago has that too. Lifting throttle starts freewheeling and touching brake while doing so starts engine braking in gear, downshifting when needed. While engine braking mode, touching accelerator disables engine braking and continues with freewheeling. Amazing really how much there is to save from using those wisely, and seeing that sometimes on slight downhill where car freewheels at steady speed, engine actually brakes car in gear, using more fuel... And start-stop has it's use in city... Just amazes me how much people will sit on accelerator just to stomp on brakes, when it's plain to see that they need to stop or slow down anyway.

[@GrrMeister]

@@maxufeiss1301 Thank's didn't know that. None of the reviews I have seen on KZbin mention it.

[@UlyaothPargon]

"Curb your fuel economy"

[@tpayling]

“Volkswagen were masters of Diesel engines”. That’s one way of putting it 😉 #dieselgate

[@Malc180s]

They make excellent diesel engines. It's the only way of putting it.

[@Malc180s]

@Munshat Rahman So do they make excellent diesel engines or not? Or are you talking about something completely unrelated? No need to answer

[@Malc180s]

@Munshat Rahman So tell me about how bad that makes their diesel engines? It's literally not connected. I heard a BMW sales rep got in a bar fight in manila - all BMW engines are crap. Is that how it works?

[@Malc180s]

@Munshat Rahman You're the only one talking about emissions testing here. They're good engines.

[@curtn7076]

It's suprising that you never mentioned the Chevy volt. It's a better thought car for the real world, while not burning much gas and has better engineering

[@andreasyahoomail7956]

Damn I remember seeing this in Wolfsburg autostadt facility back in 2012

[@juanmanuelroman8377]

My metric system mind cannot understand that miles per gallon thing

[@BigCar2]

Turn on subtitles - I have everything in metric for you!

[@juanmanuelroman8377]

@@BigCar2 Knew it already, just joking. Thank you for your awesome content.

[@WitchyWhale]

I can’t think of the XL1 without thinking of RCR.

[@germaineliew2012]

"I AM THE GREATEST MANUFACTURER OF ALL CONTINENTS"

[@projectno5]

i was almost waiting for the whole "you are the valley" bit to play

[@estebanvasquez2307]

A E S T H E T I C

[@SaturnCanuck]

Thanks. A great idea.

[@BoostKrip]

We have one at VW South Africa AutoPavilion museum.very nice to drive by at night and see those fantastic lights when they are on

[@davidorama6690]

VW were masters of Diesel engines... yes, well, that expertise aged well...

[@Patrick_AUBRY]

The front of a Wolksvagen, the middle of civic 9th gen. and the back of a Honda Insght...

[@kugul1683]

I have to say it looks stunning. I saw some while I visited Autostadt

[@darrensmith6999]

Nice one thank you! I work for VW and we had one of these on display in one of our showrooms in Newcastle for a while caused a lot of interest. (: