so there we were in Qatar this small emirate is reputed to have a per capita GDP that ranks among the highest in the world it has energy to spare with plenty of oil and the world’s their largest reserves of natural gas the population produces three times as much carbon dioxide per person as does that of the United States premium gas costs the equivalent of just a dollar per gallon and that after a recent twenty five percent increase in the government subsidized price which caused serious consternation among the country’s v8 packing drivers the capital city of Johannes grid with light and heavily police streets that run among seemingly endless construction sites all having to amend having like skyscraper forest it was in his environment that we were introduced for the hyper efficient old swaggin xl1 the next step for the one leader car the exhale one is all plugins latest one leader car this term doesn’t refer to engine displacement but rather to the European method of expressing consumption which is to say the amount of fuel needed to travel 100 kilometers traveling that distance on one leader appeal translates to 235 MPG more for differently New York to Boston on one measly gallon of diesel a one liter car would simply be the world’s most efficient combustion engine passenger vehicle and VW says the xl1 actually needs just 0.9 leader to travel 100 kilometers which means the claims maximum efficiency is a heavy 261 mpg this VW is probably the first European car to have its world introduction preceded by thanks to allison shortly after its debut as the first ever caught our auto show the xl1 was examined by sheikh hamad bin jassim bin Jaber Al Thani the country’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and a member of Qatar’s ruling family his wife liked it and was reported as saying that she would like to have one most other visitors were bemused by the fuss over a little two-seater with the tiny engine and turn your attention to the Florrick Gold Edition and exercise in 24 karat ekta specially created for the local audience why would both dragon even think about launching its most brutal car in a land where no one gives the second thought is saving energy simple seventeen percent of Volkswagen Germany’s biggest car company is now owned by qatar holding a part of the company’s sovereign wealth fund it happened on the heels of portions failed bid to take over VW Porsche had solicited investment from Qatar and the time of the Lehman Brothers collapsed when it held options on millions of Volkswagen shared with portions net becoming part of the Volkswagen Group the colouring investment turned into a chunk of VW yet another peach brainchild the one leader part was furred and peaches idea and he drove the burden concept as cigar-shaped anthem to Peter for the 2002 board meeting at which he retired at the ER the intervening years produced a new leader prototype that was only shown internally as well as the l1 that appeared at the 2009 Frankfurt show BW became convinced during that time that a production one liter would require a plug-in hybrid drivetrain it was also need to have the lightest possible chassis and body panel world-beating aerodynamic and side by side rather than tandem seating we had no one has hybrid system consists of the 47 hd800 cubic centimeters two cylinder TDI turbo diesel engine at 27 HP 20 kilowatts electric motor and VW seven-speed dsg dual-clutch gearbox the DSG is programmed to operate only in automatic mode the TV I and the electric motor comply to deliver maximum torque of 103 lb-ft this amazingly compact powertrain is mounted transversely behind the passenger compartment and drives the rear wheels a 5 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack and a 2.6 gallon diesel fuel tank are nestled between the powertrain and passenger compartment the major factor in weight saving with the use of carbon fiber for the chassis and body panel the tender Monaco flash safety cell is hold it in one piece by rapid resin transfer process that’s quicker and cheaper than conventional had laid carpet BW development with the Austrian company carbo tank which also helped implement the sim the McLaren handsome for 150 prefer country our connection doesn’t come here and no one has aerodynamically optimized shape should achieve an extremely low drag coefficient of zero point one time about as broken as you’d expect will be X know our fundraising but an ultimate performance leisurely 0 to 50 miles per hour takes about 11.5 seconds and top speed is limited to 99 miles per hour considering the elaborate and expensive ways David measured she has elements heavier than one might expect and 1800 for socal its predecessor the l1 came in and acclaimed 840 pounds blame the 2 volt increase on the safety equipment and the comfort and convenience features required to turn the vehicle solely focused on efficiency into an acceptable every day card even though it ditches earlier versions tandem seating the xl1 remained narrow and papers at the rear so the passenger seat isn’t aligned with the drivers if ha special or just turned by a few inches to preserve shoulder room there is of course none of and period of the supercars that pioneer discard construction methods as with other vehicles that can operate here Leon electricity everything is remarkably quiet at step off and at low speed all be here to drum of tires on that fall once you press harder on the accelerator to command more power the people mentioned start without any jolt but with the Curia pretty ready and a gentle counter turn at the engine stopped instantly in restarts in milliseconds when you flex your right foot again you can however towards the car to run only on electricity collect that load and the key miay people is be flushed from the drive wheels at which point the NFL like the run for a claim 22 miles or reach a top speed of 50 miles per hour recharging the batteries by the plugs makes an hour and a few thin but the xl1 won’t leave you stranded like the chevrolet volt annually engine for VW evil power might take over when the batteries reach a minimum charge level and every day to a spot hunkering down into the carbon fiber driver key field special and you are confronted by a small steering wheel squared off at the bottom and a well equipped and nicely trimmed dashboard the xl1 has no rear window or side mirrors in place of the letter video cameras feed to small screens in the inner door panel design wise the interior is immediately recognizable as a VW on lookers seeing the doors can jugglers as we climbed aboard asked if it were a baby Lamborghini not quite we replied although some at Volkswagen believe perhaps optimistically that cars like this will be the supercars of an energy conscious future our drive through the city and outskirts of Bilhah suggested that the xl1 would be an acceptable daily driver this in spite of a rather lumpy rod blame the narrow emission line low-rolling-resistance tires which run at a firm 45 Sun but the exhale ones here accurately and easily without the need for power assistance the brakes are fitted with lightweight carbon ceramic discs and offer excellent stopping power although less experienced pilots or ahem younger ones may find the pedals feel awesome as it has unassisted as the steering a rarity in modern vehicles you’d need many miles behind the will or finely calibrated equipment neither of which was available to us that day to verify the official fuel economy figure which was calculated by the European authorities using a new drive cycle for plug-in hybrids the number reported with a bit better than BW expected at the equivalent of 261 mpg so here in the car primarily driven by a diesel engines with minimally mission 24 g / km of field conversor then the prior to 89 g / km that’s been claimed to be more efficient than more highly vaunted pure electric vehicle or now all the xl1 doesn’t make a statement until a prototype but BW group chairman martin winterkorn promises will be available by 2013 at an affordable price we get that will be somewhere around the equivalent of $50,000 kidhar won’t get it and the u.s.probably won’t either but this is just the thing european echo warriors have been waiting for .
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