Volkswagen Up! gets XL 1 tech
It was just last week when we were talking about the Volkswagen XL-1 and how it is lighter than the Volkswagen Up!. Today we’re going to be talking how the latter is going to benefit from the former.
It appears now that the Up! hybrid will be inheriting the ground-breaking diesel plug-in technology from the XL-1, thus making it one of the most fuel-efficient cars on the market.
The Volkswagen Up! hybrid is set to launch by the end of 2014 and it is reported to use about three litres of fuel per 100km by borrowing the XL-1’s hybrid system made up of a 35kW/120Nm 0.8-litre two-cylinder diesel engine, a 20kW/140Nm electric motor and a 5.5kWh lithium-ion battery.
We also mentioned that the Volkswagen XL 1 tow-seater will be produced only in limited numbers, starting with about fifty, however the pioneering drivetrain will have a much wider reach when used in the Up! hybrid, since this model will be produced on a considerably larger scale.
We obviously have only Volkswagen offered estimates about the Up! hybrid, however going from those, if the 3.0L/100km estimate is accurate it means that the mass-produced hybrid will be about forty percent more fuel efficient than the current 1.0litre three-cylinder petrol-powered Up!, which burns 4.9L/100km when on the combined cycle.
It’s interesting to note that the hybrid system used in the XL1 won’t be as simple as a straight transplant, because in the XL 1 the battery is positioned on the front axle, while the rest of the components – the diesel engine, electric motor and automatic transmission are situated at the rear. This is the reverse of the Up! hybrid, so that will be a bit of a problem.
Just like the XL 1, the Up! hybrid will also have zero-emission pure-electric range of 50km, and the total hybrid range will depend on the size of the fitted fuel tank.
