VW’s one-seat concept or experimental car will showcase the carmaker’s ambition to build vehicles that generate no carbon dioxide, even on a “well-to-wheel” calculation that takes into account the carbon dioxide generated by power plants.
“It’s a new kind of mobility – a new vehicle concept,” Mr Leohold said. “Also, it’s physics. If you limit a car to one person, you can make it smaller, less weight, you need less energy to transport the person, and then obviously … it can be better on CO2 and fuel efficiency”.
Mr Leohold said that the single-seater concept car, to be unveiled within weeks, was designed for limited purposes, such as commuting, and that most drivers would want a larger vehicle for longer trips.
He declined to reveal the car’s range, top speed or other details ahead of its unveiling.
VW’s research head said that the one-seater would be “even better” than the XL1 Super Efficient Vehicle, a diesel-electric plug-in hybrid capable of 313 miles per gallon which the company unveiled in January.
Mr Leohold said that the car’s CO2 count “depends on what kind of electricity you put in the battery”, but if powered from renewable sources it would be “zero”.
Single-passenger vehicles are a rarity in the car industry apart from niche products such as the Segway scooter – which is prohibited from roads in many countries – or the ill-fated Sinclair C5, a British-designed electric tricycle launched in 1985 that flopped because of safety and other concerns.
Ferdinand Piëch, VW’s chairman, has spoken of launching a super-efficient microcar. In 2002 he drove to a shareholders’ meeting with VW’s then chief executive Bernd Pischetsrieder in a the back seat of small, teardrop-shaped two-seater, a forerunner to the XL1.
VW wants to capture a lead in electric cars and other new technologies as it aims to become the industry’s largest carmaker by 2018. On Friday the company said it delivered 4.75m vehicles in January to July, bringing it closer to its goal of overtaking Toyota and General Motors.
VW will in 2013 launch electric versions of its Golf and forthcoming Up! small car, which is due to be unveiled at next month’s Frankfurt auto show. Martin Winterkorn, chief executive, wants battery-powered cars to make up 3 per cent of its sales by 2018.
Environmental watchdogs have criticised carmakers for promoting electric cars as zero-emission if their batteries are charged by electricity from coal or gas-fired power plants.
Mr Leohold said that VW, which is diversifying into power generation in a bid to cut CO2 emissions at its plants by 40 per cent this decade, planned to sell electric cars in a package with renewable energy.
“You buy a VW, you get a VW energy package, and all your visions are fulfilled,” Mr Leohold said.
In recent months, the carmaker announced plans to invest €120m to build two hydropower plants in Brazil, and to buy hydroelectric power from Austria’s Verbund aimed at covering about 10 per cent of demand of its plants in Germany.
By John Reed and Chris Bryant taken from http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/07090e56-cc00-11e0-9176-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1VlSfN6Lv
“It’s a new kind of mobility – a new vehicle concept,” Mr Leohold said. “Also, it’s physics. If you limit a car to one person, you can make it smaller, less weight, you need less energy to transport the person, and then obviously … it can be better on CO2 and fuel efficiency”.
Mr Leohold said that the single-seater concept car, to be unveiled within weeks, was designed for limited purposes, such as commuting, and that most drivers would want a larger vehicle for longer trips.
He declined to reveal the car’s range, top speed or other details ahead of its unveiling.
VW’s research head said that the one-seater would be “even better” than the XL1 Super Efficient Vehicle, a diesel-electric plug-in hybrid capable of 313 miles per gallon which the company unveiled in January.
Mr Leohold said that the car’s CO2 count “depends on what kind of electricity you put in the battery”, but if powered from renewable sources it would be “zero”.
Single-passenger vehicles are a rarity in the car industry apart from niche products such as the Segway scooter – which is prohibited from roads in many countries – or the ill-fated Sinclair C5, a British-designed electric tricycle launched in 1985 that flopped because of safety and other concerns.
Ferdinand Piëch, VW’s chairman, has spoken of launching a super-efficient microcar. In 2002 he drove to a shareholders’ meeting with VW’s then chief executive Bernd Pischetsrieder in a the back seat of small, teardrop-shaped two-seater, a forerunner to the XL1.
VW wants to capture a lead in electric cars and other new technologies as it aims to become the industry’s largest carmaker by 2018. On Friday the company said it delivered 4.75m vehicles in January to July, bringing it closer to its goal of overtaking Toyota and General Motors.
VW will in 2013 launch electric versions of its Golf and forthcoming Up! small car, which is due to be unveiled at next month’s Frankfurt auto show. Martin Winterkorn, chief executive, wants battery-powered cars to make up 3 per cent of its sales by 2018.
Environmental watchdogs have criticised carmakers for promoting electric cars as zero-emission if their batteries are charged by electricity from coal or gas-fired power plants.
Mr Leohold said that VW, which is diversifying into power generation in a bid to cut CO2 emissions at its plants by 40 per cent this decade, planned to sell electric cars in a package with renewable energy.
“You buy a VW, you get a VW energy package, and all your visions are fulfilled,” Mr Leohold said.
In recent months, the carmaker announced plans to invest €120m to build two hydropower plants in Brazil, and to buy hydroelectric power from Austria’s Verbund aimed at covering about 10 per cent of demand of its plants in Germany.
By John Reed and Chris Bryant taken from http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/07090e56-cc00-11e0-9176-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1VlSfN6Lv
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