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This video – which contains a Volkswagen ad – went up yesterday and already has over a million hits. It’s kind of a viral nirvana for any marketing department: Clearly there is something to be learned here: When needing to advertise a product, use a Star Wars theme with cute kid included. If you would [...]
313 Miles Per Gallon? Volkswagen’s XL1 concept car makes this claim
by Marshall Brain | January 27, 2011
Take one gallon of diesel fuel and drive 313 miles – that is the claim of Volkswagen’s XL1 concept car: VW unveils an ultra-efficient car The XL1, which seats two adults, combines a 0.8 litre two cylinder diesel engine with an electric motor. The car is constructed around a carbon fibre reinforced polymer monocoque to [...]
Imagine filling your gas tank in Boston and driving all the way down the east coast to Miami on a single tank of gas. A Volkswagen Passat Bluemotion car with minor modifications has done that: Passat BlueMotion enters record books after going 1,527 miles without refueling; that’s 74.8 mpg What makes it possible for this [...]
A bicycle is nice. An electric bicycle can be nicer, especially in summer, because it cuts down on sweat. But what about a lightweight folding electric bicycle that can fit in the space normally filled by a spare tire? That is Volkswagen’s concept, called Bik.e: The rear wheel has a hub motor that takes the [...]
Could your next car run on a one-liter gas tank? Volkswagen hopes so, and their new L1 gets more than 200 miles per gallon. Tune in as Scott and Ben break down the science behind the one-liter car in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.
So here’s the scoop…Volkswagen is currently running an ad on television that touts some pretty impressive mile-per-gallon stats. The commercial features a 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI Clean Diesel and if you’re not paying careful attention you just may get the impression that it gets 58 miles per gallon. That’s pretty remarkable, right? But is Volkswagen being deceptive?
Here’s a surprising tidbit of auto history for you today: The hybrid car idea is well over 100 years old.
Ferdinand Porsche, creator of Volkswagen and father of Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche (aka Ferry Porsche), is credited with developing an electric car way back in 1898 (not the first electric car, by the way). This was followed soon after by the first hybrid car in 1901. If you weren’t aware of this historic automotive fact already, you can get a fairly concise history of Porsche’s innovative electric car design as well as a glimpse of his first hybrid car design in this article by Peter Valdes-Dapena.
However, Porsche is not the first U.S. Patent holder for a hybrid car design.
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