Volkswagen has taken the covers off one of the most dramatic-looking electric vehicles of recent times and claimed that this amazing machine can do around 500 miles on a single charge before you need to replenish the EV’s battery again. And it takes inspiration from another car Volkswagen has built.
Back in 2013, Volkswagen took the covers off the XL1. This was a limited-production plug-in hybrid with diesel power, with seating for just two people. Thanks to its small turbo-diesel hybrid powertrain and incredibly aerodynamic design, it could travel 100km on just one litre of fuel.
Now, the German manufacturer has taken the covers off the VW Mission Efficiency, a slightly larger reinterpretation of the XL1, but this time with electric power under the hood. It picks up where the original XL1 concept left off, and it looks just as incredible as its predecessor.
Using the MEB+ platform, VW has said that the concept has managed to travel up to 500miles on a single charge, and it was able to go for 794 miles after just a single charging stop. The company also said that at the end of that journey, it still had enough range for another 102 miles.
The New VW Concept Is an Incredibly Impressive Vehicle
The car looks like it has just escaped from a wind tunnel, and the numbers certainly back that up. It has a drag coefficient of just 0.158, and it is claimed to be the most aerodynamic road-legal automobile ever built. That is further backed up when you realize the frontal area of the car is just 22.4 square feet, which aids in giving the Volkswagen that incredible drag coefficient.
The car rides on the VW MEB+ platform, which uses front-wheel drive. It also shares its electric motor and battery with the VW ID. Polo supermini, meaning there isn’t some fancy powertrain under the hood of the car. It uses a powertrain we can have access to, and VW has focused most of its attention on weight reduction, aerodynamics, and minimizing energy losses.
Volkswagen tested the car under ‘ideal drive conditions.’ This involved the car driving at a constant 42mph, with no gradients, and all other extra features in the car switched off. In those conditions, the car was able to consume just 6.48 kWh/100 km, but the most impressive stats came from a much longer journey that the car did. Volkswagen drove the car from its development center in Wolfsburg to Vienna via Poznań, Poland, and Olomouc, Czech Republic.
The Mission Efficiency Concept Proved Its Worth
The official length of the route that the car took was 794 miles. The VW was able to achieve an average speed of 42mph, and it got up to a top speed of 86mph during the journey. Incredibly, it consumed only 7.51 kWh/100 km, and that included losses from charging. Without them, it was 6.89 kWh/100 km. The Volkswagen team only recharged the car once during its journey, and when it arrived in Vienna, there was still enough range in the battery for another 102 miles.
That meant that with just one top-up, this remarkable car could have driven for over 870 miles before needing another recharge. VW also had the car certified by Germany’s Record Institute (RID), and it is the most efficient near-production electric car for everyday use with four seats. It is also a 2+2 coupe, with a much larger tailgate than what we saw on the XL1, which could only seat two people. This does feel like the spiritual successor to the XL1, reborn for the modern era, although it doesn’t appear there will be production examples of the Mission Efficiency.