Fast, fun, 62 mpg - NOT YOURS in the U.S.
:Edmunds.com ...the Polo Blue Motion promises Toyota Prius -beating fuel economy at the low price of $19,990.
Its Lupo 3L, the advanced 78-mpg city car masterminded by former chairman Ferdinand Piëch, proved just what is capable if a carmaker is prepared to forgo profits. Unfortunately, the disappointing sales figures — only 28,000 units were sold in six years — meant the mileage champ was ultimately dropped from the German carmaker's lineup. That's a 8.3-mpg improvement over its standard sibling, made even more impressive by the car's 717-mile range.
Great 2006 Comments from source at: treehugger
What about the the Billion dollar prize at 100mpg posted by The L.A. Times? Time to pony up Dan... The VW Lupo 3l actually does close to 100 mpg not just the 78 mpg. The mathematics are really pretty simple. In the UK a gallon = 4.5 litres. The car goes 100km on 3 litres of diesel so it goes 150km on 4.5 litres or 1 gallon. 150km converts to 93 miles so the Lupo 3L does 93mpg. Even better, it can be simply converted to run on 100% rapeseed oil which is completely renewable and the only co2 emitted is that which was absorbed by the rapeseed plants when they were growing. Rapeseed oil can be bought for 50p a litre in the UK compared to diesel which is now approaching £1 per litre!
So, to conclude, we should all be buying up Lupo 3l cars and running them on rapeseed oil. How does £9 to travel 372 miles sound?
I as well fail to see how this is breathtaking. My parents used to drive a Toyota that got 50pmg from the 70's. Good Ol' Fashioned engineering maybe, but it is certainly not fascinating. If automotive technology had kept it's innovation at the same pace as CPU technology, we would be driving some amazing vehicles.
But US manufacturers are still using the same basic combustion engine design that was invented in the late 1800's. This is probably one of the few industries that have been manufacturing 100+ year old technology.
