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Page added on October 29, 2014
Volkswagen’s New 300 MPG Car Not Allowed In America Because It Is Too Efficient
You won’t find the 300 MPG Volkswagen XL1 in an American showroom, in fact it has even been denied a tour of America because it is too efficient for the American public to be made widely aware of, and oil profits are too high in America with the status quo in place. No tour has been allowed for this car because the myth that 50 mpg is virtually impossible to obtain from even a stripped down econobox is too profitable to let go of, and when it comes to corporate oil profits, ignorance is bliss.
Years ago I had calculated that it should be possible to get a small car to exceed 100 mpg by putting parallel direct to cylinder water injectors side by side with the fuel injectors, and using the exhaust manifold to preheat the water so it would enter the cylinders as dry steam, thus providing added expansion (which drives the engine) while allowing the combustion process to proceed without reducing it’s efficiency. But I was obviously wrong with my calculations, because they were in fact over 2x conservative.
The 100 mpg carburetor was indeed a reality, and the Volkswagen XL1 proves it with only straightforward nothing special technology we have had since the 1970?s.Though the XL1 can be plugged in to deliver a 40 mile all electric drive, it does not need to be plugged in EVER to achieve 300 mpg. And it does not cheat in any way to achieve the rating, it weighs over 1,700 pounds, has normal tires, and delivers a very good driving experience with a governed top speed of 99 mph. The XL1 could reach a top speed in excess of 110 mph absent governor and turns in a 0-60 time of 11.5 seconds which is by no means leisurely for a car designed for efficiency. The XL1 in no way cheats on performance to hit it’s rating. It is simply the car we should have always had, and have had taken from us in the name of oil profits.
Though the XL1 can hit 300 mpg under ideal driving conditions, it’s combined mileage is usually a little over 200 mpg, and if you do city driving only that will drop to a minimum of 180 mpg under the worst driving conditions. But I’d be happy with that no doubt.
What does that kind of fuel economy really mean?
If the XL1 was equipped with an 18 gallon fuel tank, and you did all highwaydriving, you could fill it up with an oil change and when the next change was due you could change the oil and keep driving without filling up for and additional 2,400 miles. But it comes with a much smaller fuel tank, because if it could go that long on a single tank chances are the fuel would foul before it got used. The tank is only 2.6 gallons to prevent fuel age related problems from happening. So fill ups are cheap.
Many of the publications which speak about the XL1 did so when it was a concept car predicted to get right around 250 MPG. But in 2014, after extensive testing of cars now produced, test drivers report economy above 300 mpg under the correct driving conditions, which would be close to sea level, a flat straight road with no stops, and reasonable speeds. To get rid of miles/imperial/U.S. gallon confusion, in the metric system the XL1 is rated to deliver 100 kilometers per litre. Translated for the U.S., that means approximately 65 miles per quart.
I remember how I laughed at the Smart Fortwo, because even a full size 4 doorChevy Impala significantly beat the “Smart’s” fuel economy, and with the Impala you would get a whole car. The Volkswagen XL1 is clearly the two seater the Smart should have been if it really was what the name implies, and the XL1 is in contrast, a car I’d be proud to be seen in.
You will NOT see the Xl1 in America,
One excuse is that “they don’t meet American crash test standards”, but the real truth is that the Fed simply refused to ever crash test them because of what they are, in Europe even the XL1 is considered to be a very safe car in crashes, and the Jetta station wagon is obviously even safer and you CAN buy the non TDI versions of the exact same car in America. The only thing different is the engine, WHAT GIVES?
The answer is obvious. Simply for the sake of raking in huge profits from $4 a gallon gas, getting guzzled at 10X the rate it should be, the corporations have via campaign contributions and other types of pay outs succeeded in getting the FED to legislate the best cars off the road for irrelevant trumped up reasons.
The XL1 will not meet American emission standards NOT because it is not clean enough, it will not meet them simply because inefficient parts that are mandated by the EPA are not part of the XL1?s power train. We will never see truly clean running and efficient cars in America, because the FED has mandated that American cars be intentionally stifled by horribly fuel wasting parts that add to the cost of the vehicle and do absolutely NO GOOD, how much more efficient and clean can you get than 300 mpg? The exhaust from the Xl1 has to, by simple math and the laws of physics, run at the theoretical threshold of emissions perfection.
All is not rosy for Europe however
The Xl1 is SO MUCH the car that the oil companies do not want that there will only be 2,000 made. And no production line was set up for them, they are all hand made. And irrelevant “lightweight” parts are added to the frame, consisting of carbon fiber and other exotic materials to add to the mystique. But the materials and production limits are a load of BUNK, the car STILL weighs over 1,700 pounds, if it weighed just 100 pounds more everything exotic could be removed, because “exotic materials” are not doing much anyway, they are just marketing.
Cost is not the issue either Even after being hand made with “exotic” materials in an intentionally limited edition, the Xl1 still only costs $60,000. There is a lot more of a market for this car than 2,000 units at that price, have no doubt, this car is being held back on purpose. If it can be hand made for that little, automated assembly lines could do it for half. And if a 1,700 plus pound Xl1 can get 300 mpg, a 3,400 pound Chevy Truck should be able to deliver at least 150 MPG, the Xl1 lays the mileage scam bare, with every hybrid that gets 40 mpg and every truck off the line that gets 20, Americans are getting the shaft and they do not even realize it.
I was first infatuated and impressed with the 85mpg Volkswagen TDI Blue Motion wagon and wished I could get one in America (when I was still there), and then the 300 mpg Xl1 came along, what a rude awakening and slap in the face for the American car buyer.
184 Comments on "Volkswagen’s New 300 MPG Car Not Allowed In America Because It Is Too Efficient"
B747-8f on Thu, 30th Oct 2014 8:11 am
Seriously? What hard proof do you have that this $160,000 money-loser has been “banned” from the US because it is “Too efficient”. What agency denied entry? Fact is this is a money-loser… every unit costs VW money. They are NOT going to make a North American spec car because that would mean throwing more GOOD money after BAD money to develop and test. I just can’t stand inaccurate, slanted pieces like this with an agenda… it’s worse than Faux-News.
kuasyk on Thu, 30th Oct 2014 8:15 am
I liked this part: it only costs $60 000! Has anybody considered the fact that aside from Toyota’s Prius none of the vehicles provide any savings in gas purchases?
Terry on Thu, 30th Oct 2014 8:21 am
Crazy… the next article will probably say the oil companies are not going to allow motorcycles on US highways.
Rob C on Thu, 30th Oct 2014 8:30 am
If you do a Google search for Asian diesel cars you will find that most foreign manufacturers build and sell highly efficient diesels sold throughout the world EXCEPT here in the good oil US of A. The Honda Civic diesel is rated at 78mpg imperial, the CRV SUV obtains 62.8 mpg and most of the others have similar ratings. If the excuse for not importing them here is because of safety issues
why not build them to our standards.
There HAS to be a better explanation a to why they are not on our roads.
Because they actually get better mpg than hybrid perhaps the folks pushing hybrids have a say in the decisions?
GregT on Thu, 30th Oct 2014 9:20 am
Personal transportation is of the least of our worries boys. The drive, shop, consume lifestyle is coming to an end. Higher gas milage isn’t going to change that reality. At best, it would only kick the can down the road for a few more years, at the expense of the planet that we rely on for our very survival.
Learn how to feed yourselves, or learn how to go hungry.
Max on Thu, 30th Oct 2014 9:52 am
There are a lot of cars that don’t meet US crash test standards. I don’t see why it is hard to believe that the XL1 is any different. If VW could make a profit on them and they could meet US standards….do you seriously think they wouldn’t be selling them?
Jerry Ski on Thu, 30th Oct 2014 10:04 am
Which Dept. in the US Banned the Car.
And who’s signature is on the form that Banned the Car?
Don’t write articles without KEY Facts like this.
I would like to Call this person and ask some questions. Your Article does not allow us to do that.
Davy on Thu, 30th Oct 2014 10:06 am
Great point Greg. This article generated so many comments. It just shows how entrenched the car culture is and how hard the needed lifestyle changes will be.
GregT on Thu, 30th Oct 2014 10:17 am
Unable to see the forest through the trees, immediately comes to mind.
That, and the trees are on fire, and are threatening the burn the forest to the ground.
Judging from the comments here, we are in far worse trouble than even I had imagined.
TSK on Thu, 30th Oct 2014 10:24 am
JD Rockefeller died in 1937 yet you act like he is alive and well and still controlling us politicians. The demand is there for super high mpg vehicles but the automakers cannot supply. In simple dollars and sense hybrids on the market generally cost more than the gas savings at $4 a gallon over their regular gasoline counterparts. Gas dropped like a rock so the value proposition is even worse. This vehicle will be a low production vehicle where VW is going to build this for their home market. No different than many low production exotics being built for the home market even when they could sell plenty in the US. Chevy Volt falls into this same category where to sell the car for what they do they lose money. You seem to think GM and Ford are going to give up big profits so large oil can keep making big profits. GM started working on hydrogen fuel cell cars in the 80s. Now others including several Japanese automakers see hydrogen as the future. If we had a hydrogen infrastructure we could already have clean cars with no worries about running out of fuel. The government just has to stop wasting all the money they do on every little social program and pork belly spending and pool that money to put the middle east out of the oil business.
Madmot on Thu, 30th Oct 2014 11:03 am
Unfortunately all those super efficient little cars that we used to laugh at from the 80’s probably wouldn’t meet today’s crash standards.
You know if we taught people how to drive better we wouldn’t need to have different safety standards then the rest of the world. The US is like the kid that his mother dressed him in so many layers to go play in the snow that he can’t move.
If it doesn’t clatter it doesn’t matter
Dan on Thu, 30th Oct 2014 11:41 am
Free market at work or not?
Steve on Thu, 30th Oct 2014 11:45 am
Just think about it, in 1975 cars were getting about the same gas milage as 1990’s. A 1977 Chevette with a 1.6 lt got around 30-40 miles gal. A mazada 1.6 doesn’t even get 30 mpg 5 years ago.
Someone is regulating something to ensure cars can’t get good gas milage. beleive or not.
GregT on Thu, 30th Oct 2014 11:51 am
Unfortunately, all of those super efficient little cars that we used to laugh at back in the 70s, (the ones that we all drive today) did nothing but kick the can further down the road, and allowed us to continue on with BAU and exponential growth for a few more decades. The end results will be worse, not better. We should have listened 40 years ago, now it is too late.
mid on Thu, 30th Oct 2014 1:10 pm
We need to start a petition on change.org
Its time for the Feds to update their policies. We are still a democratic country. “Government of the people, by the people, for the people!”
Speculawyer on Thu, 30th Oct 2014 1:47 pm
This story is an embarrassing conspiracy theory. VW is not really selling the car in Europe either . . . it is just a low-volume high-price science project.
There are plenty of very efficient cars already on the USA market in the form of electric cars. And they can be relatively inexpensive. Less than $30K. Look at the Spark EV, the Smart ED, the base Leaf S model, the iMiEV, etc. They are small and have limited range but if you want to get off oil, you can. And they all qualify for a $7500 fed tax-credit.
Mark on Thu, 30th Oct 2014 2:21 pm
What about Tom Ogle? If everyone takes the blinders off, they will realize the technology is there. We’ll never see it in our lifetime because of profit. Greed trumps everything. Honestly our government couldn’t run without the tax dollars from gas. If we had 100mpg gas would be $7 a gallon.
Craig on Thu, 30th Oct 2014 3:53 pm
Jalopnik drove the blasted thing nearly a year ago in Manhattan during a US tour of the car by VW.
Idiots.
http://jalopnik.com/we-drove-the-261-mpg-volkswagen-xl1-in-manhattan-becaus-1482688104
“Volkswagen is taking three XLs on tour around the U.S. at the moment, and while they’re extremely limited in where they can go on public roads for a variety of reasons, your Jalopnik staff talked VW into letting us all take the briefest of spins around Manhattan.”
A. WILLIAMS on Thu, 30th Oct 2014 5:17 pm
You can get an AK47,21ROUND CLIP FOR HAND GUNS,MAKE ANY GUN FULLY AUTOMATIC BUT CAN’T GET THIS CAR….HUMMM
fredjohnson on Thu, 30th Oct 2014 8:50 pm
This story sure sounds like a whole bunch of lies and exaggeration. You have any proof of all your accusations? If a car meets US safety standards they can sell it here. Obviously VW doesn’t want to do that. Nothing stopped TESLA from creating a popular 150 mpg electric car, so who’s stopping VW? This story is all BS.
jl on Fri, 31st Oct 2014 12:07 am
great looking car. it’s too bad it’s a volkswagen. the new ones are only good for about 50k miles unless if you really baby the car.
Davy on Fri, 31st Oct 2014 7:22 am
Bullshit J, I have a jetta tdi going on 70K and I have not had one single problem. I don’t abuse it but who should abuse a car?
Jaye Harding on Fri, 31st Oct 2014 8:49 am
Sound like B*ll Sh*t? See the documentary “Who Killed The Electric Car” which is now being shown on TV for an education as to how Corporate America F…s the American people for sake of the almighty dollar.
A waste of lives for something the world doesn’t need for fueling automobiles and energy: we’re constantly being mislead and lied too!
Investigate the inventions of Stanford R. Ovshinsky who was America’s extremely downplayed premier inventor and humanitarian of the century. Read his book “The Hydrogen Economy”!
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/19/technology/stanford-ovshinsky-an-inventor-compared-to-edison-dies-at-89.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
I’ve been constantly told there is no such thing as perpetual motion: so how is it Mother Earth has been rotating for billions of years without a motor?
monty on Thu, 6th Nov 2014 11:45 am
The author of this article is a f’ing conspiracy nut. And some of the posts by morons about perpetual energy…. It’s called angular momentum that’s why mother earth is still spinning – there’s no counter torque. Oh, try learning about the 2nd law of thermodynamics too. Hell, just go back to school and take physics or engineering.
Graz Perrelli on Fri, 7th Nov 2014 9:11 pm
Yeah, that little company called Volkswagen doesn’t have the means or know-how to get a car thoroughly tested and accepted for the American market.
What a load of shit.
I’m sure there’s some technology is out there which get amazing mpg, but ideas like that can’t get stopped. Yes, they stopped the ev1, but I truly believe that today, the government won’t be able to stop breakthrough inventions, anymore.
The Internet is too big, and the government can’t just sweep things under the rug as easily as they once could.
Check out the Aptera.
tamil new year on Fri, 26th Feb 2016 7:28 pm
this is nice
tamil new year on Fri, 26th Feb 2016 7:29 pm
I’m sure there’s some technology is out there which get amazing mpg, but ideas like that can’t get stopped. Yes, they stopped the ev1, but I truly believe that today, the government won’t be able to stop breakthrough inventions, anymore.http://tamilnewyearwishes.com
Phoenix Real Estate Photographer on Thu, 13th Oct 2016 8:28 pm
Wow, that’s incredible. I don’t even remember hearing about this. That’s probably on purpose!
Slarti Bartfast on Sun, 16th Apr 2017 7:57 pm
Utter rubbish. VW aren’t importing it as certifying any car for sale in the US is very” expensive and they are only making 200 of these. Diesels aren’t sold much in the US as there is very little demand for them. A few have been imported over the years, but they’ve been sales flops, and each model costs a lot to certify… There is no conspiracy, it’s simple economics that a lot of each model needs to be sold for it to be worthwhile.
Andrew Zmegac on Wed, 31st Jan 2018 3:57 am
Picture this a petrol engines inefficiency ;
on the third stroke fuel is ignited , because of the dozens of octane levels in gasoline and the fact that a maximum of 25% is vapour , only a small amount ignited at peak compression , liquid doesn’t burn, so the remainder starts to burn when vaporised in the combustion chamber , all the way through the third stroke , and also partly into the compression stroke , now appossing the desired engine rotation . The fuel is still not effectively burnt as it has run out of oxygen , thus wasted fuel to extreme . This causes engine heat build up ( about double of a fully vaporised fuel carburettor type engine ) , engine early wear out .
Antius on Wed, 31st Jan 2018 6:45 am
Don’t quite understand your comment AZ, but I’m a bit thick.
I would assume that the high cost of this vehicle has (had – the article is over 3 years old!) more to do with lack of scale economy in its manufacturing than inherent engineering costs.
Even a 100mpg car would do a lot to reduce pressures on oil supply if it could be rolled out on a large scale in global markets. Given that hybrid technology is now far from being cutting edge, it is hard to see why this is not being pursued with more vigour, especially in European markets where fuel costs are high.
rudolf uhlenhaut on Mon, 4th Jun 2018 4:05 pm
the 376 mpg opel was according to shell oil. Ben Visser with a 1959 1.5 liter diesel and tires pumped to 200 psi; burn and coast. Today, with active suspension, a two stage tesla steam turbine, 300 mpg is doable. match the rolling resistance, and thermal cycling and you have it.
Bruce on Sun, 12th Aug 2018 1:29 pm
This article provides info about an actual test driving experience about this fantastic car and what a very cool car it it! I would have bought one in a heartbeat if it was made available! I used to own a VW Jetta TDI Sport Wagon which got up to 50 mpg on a straight flat stretch of highway. This is a FACT because I saw the read out on my dash. However, it’s much safer, has way more torque and horsepower, handles much better and has more cargo capacity and towing capacity than any Toyota and Honda anemic hybrid cars! Lastly it accelerates faster than just about any car on the road and can smoke any Toyota or Honda hybrid car! Only a fool would have bought a Toyota or Honda Hybrid car instead of a VW Jetta TDI Sport WAgon! Just as the other auto manufacturers and the US Federal Government pounced on VW’s superior TDI Technology it doesn’t surprise me at all to see that the VW XL1 was prevented from being imported into the USA! What a joke! My 2010 Jetta TDI Sport Wagon never emitted any black soot and the emissions smelled like cooked french fires when I put biodiesel fuel into the the fuel tank. It’s never made any sense to me why VW got pounced on for it’s clean burning, ultra low emissions and fuel efficient TDI Technology yet American diesel truck manufacturers and engines makers like Cummins have been permitted to continue making and selling very high emissions, very dirty diesel engines which emit lots of black soot. What’s up with that?!…That’s crazy and wrong!!! I was behind one of those stupid red neck pick up trucks the other day at an intersection and was completely enveloped in dirty black smoke when the light turned green! Those damn things should be banned immediately!!! 🙁
jules rosen on Fri, 20th Sep 2019 7:02 pm
WOW – great looking car . when can we get them ??