The world’s most fuel-efficient hybrid car, the Volkswagen XL1, will go on display in the Design Museum in London alongside other examples of design excellence and Designs of the Year award nominees from a range of disciplines from today until 25 August.

Now in its seventh year, the Designs of the Year exhibition gathers together cutting-edge innovation and original talent, showcasing the very best in global Architecture, Digital, Fashion, Furniture, Graphic, Product and Transport design.

The Volkswagen XL1 features in the Transport category, and was nominated for the exhibition by author and automotive design and technology expert, Andrew Nahum, whose publications include ‘Fifty Cars That Changed The World’.  Designed by a team led by Klaus Bischoff, Head of Design for the Volkswagen brand, the XL1 is a limited series production two-seater car that explores the limits of energy efficiency for a road-legal production vehicle. 

The design brief for the XL1 was to produce a ‘one litre’ car – that is to say, a car that uses one litre of fuel per 100 km, equivalent to 282 miles per gallon.  The resulting vehicle uses just 0.9 litres per 100 km, or 313 mpg, and this high mpg figure correlates to a very low carbon dioxide emissions value of just 21 g/km. 

To achieve this fuel consumption figure, the XL1 was aerodynamically optimised, adopting the classic ‘tear drop’ shape and utilising innovations such as removing traditional wing mirrors and replacing them with small cameras called e-Mirrors which transmit exterior images to interior displays.  With a drag coefficient of 0.189 the XL1 can maintain 100 kmh on a level road in still air using just 8.4 PS. 

The super-innovative XL1 looks like a vision of the future, while its drivetrain melds a two-cylinder 48 PS 800 cc diesel engine with a 27 PS electric motor.  Power is served through a seven-speed triple clutch transmission.  Like any good supercar, it is also low (just 1,282 mm high) and features scissor-opening wing doors.  The XL1 is ‘handcrafted’ using small series production processes at Volkswagen’s Osnabrück factory in Germany.  For the required combination of lightness and strength, its body is made largely of carbon-fibre reinforced polymer.  Approximately 30 XL1 vehicles are expected to find homes in the UK.

The Designs of the Year exhibition at the Design Museum is a reflection of everything that is current and exciting in the world.  Alongside the Volkswagen XL1, it features, among other items, Kate Moss’s favourite app, a floating school in a Nigerian lagoon, friendly lamp posts and a mobile phone you can build yourself.  Exhibits come from a variety of sources including international design stars such as Zaha Hadid, David Chipperfield and Miuccia Prada, as well as crowd-funded start-ups and student projects.  

Visitors to the Design Museum will be able to pick their favourite design from the exhibition.  New for 2014 is the Social Vote which sees two nominations fight it out each day through the exhibition’s online platforms, and broadcast to over one million of the museum’s Twitter and Facebook followers. 

For more details on the XL1, please visit www.volkswagen.co.uk. To find out more about the Designs of the Year exhibition and to purchase tickets, go to www.designmuseum.org.

 
Article source: www.volkswagen.co.uk

The process of turbocharging increases temperature by compressing the fresh air in the turbocharger. As heated air takes up more space than cool air, the cylinders fill with less air than the system's boost pressure prescribes and the risk of knock in petrol engines also increases. For this reason, the compressed air is cooled by the engine's coolant or the outside air. The intercooler reduces the thermal load on the engine. At the same time, the exhaust-gas temperature, nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions and fuel consumption are reduced.

Article source: www.volkswagen.co.uk

Crumple zones are part of the tough safety shell of our cars, helping to protect you and your passengers in the event of an accident

Our cars are designed and engineered with a range of safety features to help protect you and your passengers in any eventuality.

All our cars are built with a tough safety shell. We 'test-drive' our designs through accurate, computer-simulated accidents to make sure the safety shell stays intact when you need it to.

To further enhance your safety, we include crumple zones at the front and rear of the shell. Crumple zones are designed to absorb impact energy during a collision so that most of the energy is dissipated across these zones, and not in your passenger compartment. The strong outer shell comes with front and rear crumple zones that help to absorb the impact of a crash, increasing the safety of occupants.

Article source: www.volkswagen.co.uk

Engine drag torque control prevents your wheels locking on slippery surfaces if you take your foot off the accelerator suddenly or shift down a gear fast. The braking effect of the engine can cause the driven wheels to skid when they temporarily lose traction. In such situations, engine drag torque control maintains directional stability and boosts safety. The system's control unit receives information from the wheel-speed sensors and the engine control unit or transmission control unit via the CAN data bus. If it detects wheel slip, it sends a signal to the engine control unit to increase engine torque, until the driven wheels are turning at a rate appropriate to the car's speed. This keeps your car steerable and maintains directional stability.

Article source: www.volkswagen.co.uk

The electronic stabilisation programme uses a sensor to measure the lateral acceleration acting on the car in order to calculate its actual position. The lateral acceleration sensor is located in the same housing as the rotation (Yaw) rate sensor (duo-sensor). Lateral acceleration acts on a car sideways to the direction of travel. It is noticeable as a centrifugal force moving a car to the outside of a curve when cornering, for example.

Article source: www.volkswagen.co.uk

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VW Specialist London Blog