The Volkswagen XL1 was a 250-mpg Bugatti Veyron — Revelations with Jason Cammisa

Volkswagen once made a 2-seat, carbon-tubbed, mid-engine, butterfly-door pint-sized supercar with only 68 hp. This is the amazing story behind the most efficient internal-combustion car ever made.

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Volkswagen's chairman, Dr. Ferdinand Piëch, didn't believe in the impossible, and in 2002, he stated that VW would be the world's first automaker to produce a 1-liter car: that's a car that uses less than 1l/100km of fuel, or roughly 250 mpg.

The development process lasted more than 10 years, through four cars: the 1L prototype, the L1 prototype, the XL1 prototype, and finally the production XL1.

What looked like an impossibility in hitting the 1-liter mark was solved by swapping from the hybrid (1.38l/100 km) L1 to the plug-in-hybrid XL1, which received a final EU rating of just 0.9 l/100 km and 21g of CO2 per km.

Volkswagen committed to sell 200 of the XL1s to the public, which it did — at the astronomical price of €111,000.

By the time the 1-liter car went into production, Volkswagen's all-electric e-Golf was already in production — in theory rendering the XL1 obsolete.

But, like any parent throwing the "because I said so," Piëch said VW would make a 1-liter car, and it did.

And besides, in the process, Volkswagen created one of the coolest cars ever made.

[DerHesse-zxut]

I feel like there should be an honorary mention of the VW Lupo 3L or even the Audi A2. Proper cars with genuinely amazing numbers in real-life conditions.

[oification]

That engine noise is confusingly unique. I would have to compare it to something antique, partly because of the two-cylinder layout, but also because of the mechanical diesel noises. What a time rally car!

[t-]

Ayy, finally some real coverage of the XL1. One of the coolest looking production cars ever

[penzlic]

Fact that VW made both 100km/l and 0, 01km/l cars in same time is mindblowing.

[patrickdgarez]

All that has ever mattered about vehicles like this is that someone in power decided to create it, completely disregarding the bean counters. It still looks modern, in 2024, which is a testament to VW's designers at the time. Hats off, as always, Mr. Cammisa and Hagerty. =)

[sweetroll]

Babe wake up new Jason video just dropped.

[steved]

Saw this car in the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville, Tennessee several years ago. It’s a thing of beauty.

[goose]

No-one should forget the freaking XL Sport with the Ducati V4, since it actually made more sense than the regular XL1

[MTKARusty]

I saw one of these parked on the road in Salzburg, Austria and i turned into a 6yr old child over it for 10min. They're super small in real life.

[rdworldgarage]

I drive an ugly little Prius C as a daily and it sees about 1, 000 miles a month. The fuel cost is about $50 per month (the total monthly cost is about $290 when you factor in repairs, maintenance, tires and insurance) . At some point, fuel efficiency reaches a point of diminishing returns where the cost to improve it outweighs the actual savings. The XL1 is that car. BTW, a 1st gen Insight with a 5 speed is one of my dream cars!

[NeutraltEAmza]

This was a fantastic dive into one of the coolest cars from the Piech era. As a TDI owner, the sound of this little 2cyl fills me with joy 🥹

[ethanfass]

Jason hooning the baby diesel at the end is cherry on top

[arthimmig]

Won’t lie, I couldn’t wait to see Jason hoon it on Lucas Valley Road at the end. Did not disappoint! 🙃

[jsquared]

The fact that it is still "good to drive" (as per Jason and some other journos) despite every compromise and design decision being biased towards economy, really goes to show that the "lighter is better" axiom is the automotive holy grail.

[AlexReyes-ti]

I'm really hoping that Honda Insight introduction is a tease of a possible Revelations episode.
Something I love about the Honda Insight story is that it's similar to the NSX for hybrids. It's why Honda lost the race to become the hybrid king to Toyota with their Prius. Were it designed with scaleability in mind, Honda might've been the leader of Hybrid technology before Toyota !

[VladisAnalogEscape]

I just wanted to pop in to appreciate Jason's craft and also his snap-snap-clap at 13:18min - I thought I was the only one doing those.

[pvtcmyers]

What an awesome video! The cinematography and writing are just amazing. Never. Stop. Making Videos.

[morbvsclz]

It's basically the rare instance of concept car put pretty much straight into production. And I'm sure they lost a lot of money on every unit, but this was about proving a point, not about economics. And it still looks good and exotic in 2024. I guess they probably all ended up in collections somewhere.

[antrikshmukerji]

Im always amazed with how experimental Ferdinand Piëch was with always trying to push engineering limits, which I never expected from a leader of a global auto conglomerate. The VW Phaeton, I still feel is an underrated car considering the advancements and design ambition, but it never quite caught on. Hope Jason covers it one day.

[WeirdNeville]

One of the stories i love about "x litre cars" in the economy era is that VW got wind of Renault building a 3 litre Clio. They dint want to get beaten so they set to work on the Polo with a 1.2 diesel and skinny tyres and got it to do 3L/100km: the Polo bluemotion. Then Renault released the Clio with a 3 Litre V6 mid mounted. 😅