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Volkswagen Just Built an EV That Can Go Nearly 900 Miles on a Charge

50 points by thelastgallon 12d ago

Avicebron 12d ago
Why don't we just build high speed electrified rail and busses. Why this rollout of electrified golf carts? My car is fast and fun to drive, that's part of it's job alongside getting me where I need to go. If I just need to get somewhere, I want to take a clean fast train like Japan and then walk.
- Lio 12d ago
  Why can't an electric car be fun to drive? I have an old car I'm not planning on changing but electric cars I've driven just seem quieter, smoother and just better than ICE vehicles.
- eigenspace 12d ago
  Is this implication here that you think this car is an electrified golf cart? What makes you think that it wouldn't be fast or fun to drive? Most electric cars are extremely fun to drive due to their extremely high acceleration. The development and building of newer, more efficient electric vehicles does not preclude the investment in more high speed electrified rail and busses. That complaint is a non-sequitor.
  - crote 12d ago
    That depends on your definition of "fun to drive". Flooring it loses its charm within a week, and with the additional weight most EVs are awful when it comes to taking corners at speed. EVs might be fun for drag racing, but if you want to drive on a circuit ICE is still the better option for now.
    - eigenspace 12d ago
      Yeah I can't speak much to circuit racing (nor drag racing for that matter). I just know that the EV's I've driven have been fun to drive. I don't believe that most people talking about "fun to drive" are taking their cars to a racetrack either though. I guess I haven't taken any corners agressively enough to really notice the problems you describe with weight. I will say though that at least for non-racetrack scenarios, the extra weight isn't always as noticable as you'd think because the centre of mass tends to be extremely low relative to an ICE vehicle.
- noir_lord 12d ago
  More and more buses in my local mass transit system have moved to EV's (these specifically https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_GB_Kite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_GB_Kite) as they age out their older buses and build out the infrastructure they needed. I like them, they are smoother and quieter than the ones they replaced (in fairness that was the oldest diesel buses mostly), I don't like the new on board announcement "Next stop <X>, You are at <X>" style but that's because I'm not partially sighted/blind and it's a small price for making life a lot easier for those folks (and headphones exist).
- oklahomasports 12d ago
  How on earth would that work in Houston? Why on earth would people want to arrive at any destination soaked in sweat? Everyday on here someone makes a tendentious post about the viability of public transit.
  - eigenspace 12d ago
    What does that have to do with being soaked in sweat? I could understand if they suggested everyone get around by bike, but this is just silly. Electric busses and trains can have quite powerful and good air conditioning systems. The problem with this in Houston is the disgracefully stupid urban layout that makes it very hard to effectively serve the city with public transit.
    - oklahomasports 12d ago
      Trains can only get you right next to a very small fraction of the city. The rest of the way you have to walk(I call it the “last mile” problem)
      - eigenspace 12d ago
        Mostly due to the poor design of the city, yes. Do we really need to turn this into a discussion of lost causes? Yes, you monumentally fucked up urban design in many parts of your country. Yes, fixing it is theoretically possible. No, it can't be done in any reasonably small time scale.
        oklahomasports 12d ago
        Euros own hundreds of millions of cars
        eigenspace 12d ago
        What is your point?
    - 12d ago
- swiftcoder 12d ago
  > electrified golf carts I'm not clear how something that ran up to 138 kmph (85 mph) during an (intentionally low-speed) efficiency test, would be equivalent to a golf cart?
- rtkwe 12d ago
  That /just/ is bearing a lot of weight there. And what is Volkswagen going to do to build highspeed rail, they're a car company so they're making cars... The US is trapped in a local maximum due to history, geography and finally politics. There's a lot of local resistance specifically to highspeed rail because to stay highspeed the trains usually bypass smaller local towns so they don't get the benefit but all the negatives of it's construction.
- kotaKat 12d ago
  > Why don't we just build high speed electrified rail Good luck convincing all those Americans the rail line has to run through their property to freely give up the right-of-way. You're already dead in the first few hundred feet of rail when the first person says "fuck off, no" and starts challenging your eminent domain.
bryanlarsen 12d ago
That's 9 miles/kWh, compared to the Cybercab's 6.1 miles/kWh, compared to a typical EV at 3-4 miles/kWh. Part of the difference may come from using the easier WLTP testing cycle than the EPA cycle the Cybercab probably uses, but only part.
- serf 12d ago
  what do you call a dieselgate for ev? hmm coool interior and aero. all of the hyper efficient designs end up looking like the modern prius designs with the swan tail rear and hawk-beak nose.
klooney 12d ago
Bring back wheel covers!
swiftcoder 12d ago
Sign me up for all of these innovations in an actual production car. No idea why the whole market seems to be obsessed with ever-wider SUVs...
- glimshe 12d ago
  Because they are very comfortable. I'm not saying people should be obsessed about them, but that's part of why they are paying premiums for SUVs. Driving higher on the road on a wide car has a strong appeal for most people.
  - swiftcoder 12d ago
    As someone who lives in an area of Europe replete with narrow roads between stone buildings... standard SUVs have grown ~20cm wider in the last decade, and it sucks
  - crote 12d ago
    Ironically, larger crossovers have been among the least comfortable cars I have driven. Sure, they are a tad higher so someone with knee issues can more easily get in, but it seems most of the extra space they take up is somehow wasted. If you care about your rear seat passengers or carrying capacity, station wagons are far superior. The whole "higher on the road" thing is a red queen's race: if everyone is higher on the road, nobody is. You've got slightly better sight yourself until all the other people upsize, and in the meantime you are blocking everyone else's sight. Considering SUVs are more expensive, the only people winning are the car makers.
    - axus 12d ago
      A minivan has both high seating and tons of cargo space, after you remove the middle seats and fold the back ones.
  - rcMgD2BwE72F 12d ago
    >Most people Did you mean fat people? I'm curious to know if the evolution of the average car size tracks obesity.
helsinkiandrew 12d ago
Perhaps better info on VWs own press release: https://www.volkswagen-newsroom.com/en/press-releases/mission-efficiency-volkswagen-presents-the-worlds-most-efficient-near-production-electric-car-20691 https://www.volkswagen-newsroom.com/en/press-releases/missio... This is concept car that has no planned release date.
- bryanlarsen 12d ago
  Waymo should call up Volkswagen and place an order to ensure it goes into production. Waymo should have a mixed fleet of 2 adult passenger vehicles like this one, 4-5 passenger models as well as some vans. It'll save them a lot of money, and will make streets safer by normalizing small vehicles.
  - formerly_proven 12d ago
    In terms of footprint (4.8 meters long, 1.75 m wide) I'd say it's only small for US standards. It seems to look rather smaller than it is. > 188 inches (4,775 mm) long, 69 inches (1,744 mm) wide, and just 55 inches (1,392 mm) tall.
- everybodyknows 12d ago
  VW's term is "near-production" -- an achievement which, of course, can declared arbitrarily.
tromp 12d ago
> Volkswagen just build the world's most aerodynamic road car ever. A drag coefficient of 0.158 is not quite setting a record. Aptera's road-legal car has a coefficient of only 0.13, while Hyundai achieved a drag coefficient of 0.144 with the Aero Challenge concept car [1] (but it's not clear whether that vehicle is road-legal, or even what it looks like). [1] https://www.azernews.az/region/245135.html https://www.azernews.az/region/245135.html
- dasKrokodil 12d ago
  Aptera is even more vaporware-y than this though.
  - aeontech 12d ago
    Aptera is getting pretty close to shipping first customer cars this year, or at least seems to be, while this is a one-off research prototype - I think your comment is not quite fair.
    - dasKrokodil 11d ago
      Yes, it's a prototype. But it's from a company that has built countless production cars, and which also produced a road-legal limited production run of a pretty similar car (just with ICE instead of electric): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_1-litre_car https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_1-litre_car I'm pretty sure they could bring this to market almost immediately, if there was a sizeable market for this kind of vehicle. Aptera on the other hand has been around for a long time now, changing their product strategy every now and then, making announcements... I wish them all the best, I really do, but until they actually ship something, I will also stay skeptical.
BugsJustFindMe 12d ago
And with barely three millimeters of clearance you can effectively sweep the roads while you drive! Wake us up when it can safely navigate a speed bump or enter a driveway without smashing against the bottom.
lorey 12d ago
They did something very similar 20+ years ago called XL1 to achieve 1l/100km, never made it into production. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/VW_XL1 https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/VW_XL1
- formerly_proven 12d ago
  Seemed to have been produced a bunch for never making it into production > A limited production of 250 began by mid 2013 with pricing started at €111,000 (~ £119,000). As a plug-in diesel-electric hybrid, the XL1 was available only in Europe and its 5.5 kWh lithium-ion battery delivered an all-electric range of 50 km (31 mi),[3] had a fuel economy of 0.9 L/100 km (310 mpg‑imp) under the NEDC cycle and produced emissions of 21 g/km of CO2.[8] It was released to retail customers in Germany in June 2014.[3]
ketzu 12d ago
Based on the battery of 55kWh this is about efficiency, not packing more batteries: > 6.48 kWh/100 km At a constant 68km/h in perfect conditions (no up/down) and no additional consumers of energy (climate control). Even on a real route they apparently got some useful stats with 7.51 kWh/100km including charging. Cool. My car is around 17-20 kWh/100km at a 64kWh battery for a medium cost car in germany. I wish it was even close to that efficiency.
- secult 12d ago
  The lower is your state of charge, the more you are willing to reach the destination with your remanining capacity :) The time spend riding slower is usually not so different than when you drive normally, and it reduces the inconvenience of looking for a charger almost at the goal.
- Markoff 12d ago
  seems you compare apples and oranges, I very much doubt your stated consumption is under same conditions you describe for their consumption ordinary cars can get to 13kWh/100km which ain't that far from 7.5 you mention
  - ketzu 12d ago
    I mean I never drove Wolfsburg -> Poznań -> Vienna, and I would probably get a bit better milage if I drove an average of 70. However, even when my usage gets close to that, I still don't get down to the optimistic 17kWh/100km i put down. > ordinary cars can get to 13kWh/100km Unfortunately I don't have such a car. :) > which ain't that far from 7.5 you mention I'd say that needing a 30kWh battery for 400km range vs 52kWh is a significant difference, but that'd be opinionated hair-splitting. 13 is much better and much closer to 7.5 than what my car can do.
crote 12d ago
China has already solved the range problem by speeding up charging. When you can recharge 5 hours of highway driving in range during a 5-minute bathroom stop, an additional few hundred miles just isn't that useful anymore. You could also go the other way and use the improved range to shrink the battery, but with the ongoing battery cost drop that's not exactly a gamechanger either - and fast-charging long-range Chinese EVs are available for their domestic market for a fraction of the cost of entry-level Western models as well... Don't get me wrong, improving aerodynamics is a nice goal, but with the ongoing push towards gigantic SUVs there's zero chance anything even remotely resembling this concept car will ever see the light of day.
- toomuchtodo 12d ago
  I strongly believe these announcements are simply performance art for the capital markets to keep the share price higher than fundamentals would dictate. Great, you've designed and prototyped the vehicle. When will they be built at the rate BYD and other Chinese automakers are building EVs? Until then, it's vaporware. All that matters is deliveries (China is exporting ~4M more vehicles per year than VW delivers globally, as of this comment).
  - JumpCrisscross 12d ago
    If this is messaging fluff, it's aimed at regulators and politicians in Europe. Not shareholders.
    - toomuchtodo 12d ago
      I don't know man, they're cutting 100k jobs to keep the dividends flowing (The Porsche-Piëch family controls a majority of VW's voting rights through Porsche SE) while closing factories. That strikes me as "preserve the share price and profits while the ship sinks" versus investment to scale EV sales to compete. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49556939 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49556939 https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jun/26/vw-cut-jobs-shut-plants-volkswagen-china https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jun/26/vw-cut-jobs...
philipallstar 12d ago
This just makes the Tesla Model S P90D, from 14 years ago, just look even better. 509km range (in the lab) and incredible acceleration, and looks pretty normal and practical. And it doesn't make you bring your own phone and bluetooth speaker for infotainment.
- wlesieutre 12d ago
  How is the infotainment tablet in a 14 year old Model S performing these days? Haven't they progressively worsened its performance through software updates and then sold you a hardware upgrade to fix it for several thousand dollars? I'd rather just bring my phone, which gets replaced every 4-years or so anyway.
  - philipallstar 12d ago
    I understand I must've triggered some sort of prerecorded response, but this is pretty off-topic even given that.
    - wlesieutre 12d ago
      I thought that was a pretty direct response to "And it doesn't make you bring your own phone and bluetooth speaker for infotainment." As far as I'm concerned, not being able to bring your phone to the infotainment system is a negative, not something to brag about. I had my last car until it was 19 years old, and I have zero faith that an in-car computer will perform adequately for that long. The other specs of the Model S are still very impressive and I don't have anything to add about on those.
      - philipallstar 12d ago
        I think that expecting a 2012 car to have Apple Carplay (launched 2014) or Android Auto (launched 2015) support is a bit unreasonable, is all.
        12d ago
fullshark 12d ago
Maybe they learned from their blunder with the ID Buzz. At this point though I simply don't trust any legacy automaker when it comes to producing and supporting EVs for their lifetime.
fredley 12d ago
What do you do when your rear tyre gets a flat?
- swiftcoder 12d ago
  Presumably the faring panel comes off, just like on an early-model Honda Insight
- rtkwe 12d ago
  The panel over them called a fender skirt comes off usually, this is far from the first car with skirts or spats. They used to be quite popular.
- mikestew 12d ago
  Same thing you did sixty years ago when your Cadillac got a flat: take the cover off the wheel well. https://photos.classiccars.com/cc-temp/listing/165/1814/34842253-1973-cadillac-fleetwood-std.jpg https://photos.classiccars.com/cc-temp/listing/165/1814/3484...
  - fuzzfactor 12d ago
    These were so fun to drive. 1973 had some of the longest Cadillacs in decades. Not everybody was aware at the time, but the turning radius was actually smaller than the Volkswagen beetle. Not the turning radius of the whole car, just the wheelbase ;)
    - mikestew 12d ago
      I’ve not looked it up, but I’d venture to guess that a ‘73 Fleetwood was one of the longest cars made. And, as you alluded to, absolutely bonkers length from wheel center to each bumper. Our Hyundai has the opposite problem. Because the flat battery pack allows the wheels to be shoved to the corners, it looks smallish but has a longer wheelbase than Hyundai’s large Palisade SUV. Which makes it a pig to park.
- fuzzfactor 12d ago
  No different than the front tire, same thing as any modern car which does not carry a spare tire either.
jrmg 12d ago
Shape reminds me a lot of the first gen Honda Insight - also built to be low drag. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Insight#First_generation_(ZE1;_1999) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Insight#First_generation...
tester756 12d ago
Let's hope aerodynamics can save us from SUV disease
gbil 12d ago
It is stated that this was a single charge trip >It’s also the most efficient EV in its class, consuming just 6.89 kWh/100 km without charging losses. >The VW Mission Efficiency covered 1,278 km (794 miles) on a single charge and still had 164 km (102 miles) of range left at the end of the trip. But at 6.89kWh/100km for a 1278km trip equals 88kWh battery and it is stated later that the battery is a 54.9kWh one and that was recharged during the journey. > The 54.9-kWh net battery was recharged only once during the journey.... It would be nice to have an article that makes sense from time to time...
josefresco 12d ago
I regularly drive 450+ miles to a family camp and need to stop at least once just to stretch my legs/change drivers/eat. The drive can take anywhere from 7-9 hours depending on traffic. 900 miles range is cool but it's not worth a huge price premium. Sort of like the Concord; while it's technically possible it's not worth the money.
- rtkwe 12d ago
  The extra range seems to mostly come from big increases in aerodynamic efficiency rather than just jamming a huge battery into the chassis so I'm not sure it would demand a huge premium, at least not because of the BOM.
m00dy 12d ago
don't get me wrong but VW is dead already.
- secult 12d ago
  In the long term we are all dead. But I think you mean that VW fleet electrification effort is dead. Which is not true either. You're underestimating the willingness of people in Europe to buy domestically produced cars. Even if they are not the state of the art from the perspective of picking up the latest EV technology. Don't forget the new china propagated LFP batteries are not better than the already existing NMCs. They may be cheaper, NMCs got cheaper too.
  - crote 12d ago
    Sure, but that was before European manufacturers started making already-installed seat heating a subscription service, started selling your data - including location - to anyone willing to pay, released EVs which were 5+ years behind Chinese options, and sold them at well over 2x the cost of the alternatives. Oh, and a huge chunk of those "European" brands aren't even European anymore. Most Europeans happily pay a premium for a well-engineered semi-local product, as we saw with the German manufacturers during the ICE era. But paying significantly more for a significantly worse product, just for that "Made in Europe" label? Not happening. VW & friends don't even seem to be aware yet that they are in a fight for survival, and that's what is dooming them. They are more interested in lobbying for tariffs and EV rollout slowdowns than in actually building EVs.
maxglute 12d ago
Somehow it looks cool for a movie, but ugly for real life.
kjksf 12d ago
1. It's at speed of 42 miles/hr. You can't compare those numbers to EPA or even WLTP numbers. Hypermiling records using Tesla cars: - 1078 km, Tesla S, 25 mph, - 975 km, Model 3, 20-30mph - 909 km, Model 3, 50mph The last one is comparable and available today. 2. It has solar panels. That tells me those are not serious people (or a PR stunt). Solar charging math on area that small is so brutal that adding cost / weight of solar panels on a car is sheer stupidity. Adding few miles of range per day (on sunny day parked outside) doesn't make sense. You're more likely to have a regular outlet in your garage and recharge 100 miles overnight.
euroderf 12d ago
Those headlights look straight out of the "Cars" movies.
shdshdshd 12d ago
500 miles on the updated article
hackerbeat 12d ago
Can someone out there please build a beautiful car? 99% of cars are ugly these days. They all look like angry vacuum cleaners.

50 points by thelastgallon 12d ago

Why don't we just build high speed electrified rail and busses. Why this rollout of electrified golf carts? My car is fast and fun to drive, that's part of it's job alongside getting me where I need to go. If I just need to get somewhere, I want to take a clean fast train like Japan and then walk.

Lio 12d ago
Why can't an electric car be fun to drive? I have an old car I'm not planning on changing but electric cars I've driven just seem quieter, smoother and just better than ICE vehicles.
eigenspace 12d ago
Is this implication here that you think this car is an electrified golf cart? What makes you think that it wouldn't be fast or fun to drive? Most electric cars are extremely fun to drive due to their extremely high acceleration. The development and building of newer, more efficient electric vehicles does not preclude the investment in more high speed electrified rail and busses. That complaint is a non-sequitor.
- crote 12d ago
  That depends on your definition of "fun to drive". Flooring it loses its charm within a week, and with the additional weight most EVs are awful when it comes to taking corners at speed. EVs might be fun for drag racing, but if you want to drive on a circuit ICE is still the better option for now.
  - eigenspace 12d ago
    Yeah I can't speak much to circuit racing (nor drag racing for that matter). I just know that the EV's I've driven have been fun to drive. I don't believe that most people talking about "fun to drive" are taking their cars to a racetrack either though. I guess I haven't taken any corners agressively enough to really notice the problems you describe with weight. I will say though that at least for non-racetrack scenarios, the extra weight isn't always as noticable as you'd think because the centre of mass tends to be extremely low relative to an ICE vehicle.
noir_lord 12d ago
More and more buses in my local mass transit system have moved to EV's (these specifically https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_GB_Kite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_GB_Kite) as they age out their older buses and build out the infrastructure they needed. I like them, they are smoother and quieter than the ones they replaced (in fairness that was the oldest diesel buses mostly), I don't like the new on board announcement "Next stop <X>, You are at <X>" style but that's because I'm not partially sighted/blind and it's a small price for making life a lot easier for those folks (and headphones exist).
oklahomasports 12d ago
How on earth would that work in Houston? Why on earth would people want to arrive at any destination soaked in sweat? Everyday on here someone makes a tendentious post about the viability of public transit.
- eigenspace 12d ago
  What does that have to do with being soaked in sweat? I could understand if they suggested everyone get around by bike, but this is just silly. Electric busses and trains can have quite powerful and good air conditioning systems. The problem with this in Houston is the disgracefully stupid urban layout that makes it very hard to effectively serve the city with public transit.
  - oklahomasports 12d ago
    Trains can only get you right next to a very small fraction of the city. The rest of the way you have to walk(I call it the “last mile” problem)
    - eigenspace 12d ago
      Mostly due to the poor design of the city, yes. Do we really need to turn this into a discussion of lost causes? Yes, you monumentally fucked up urban design in many parts of your country. Yes, fixing it is theoretically possible. No, it can't be done in any reasonably small time scale.
      - oklahomasports 12d ago
        Euros own hundreds of millions of cars
        eigenspace 12d ago
        What is your point?
  - 12d ago
swiftcoder 12d ago
> electrified golf carts I'm not clear how something that ran up to 138 kmph (85 mph) during an (intentionally low-speed) efficiency test, would be equivalent to a golf cart?
rtkwe 12d ago
That /just/ is bearing a lot of weight there. And what is Volkswagen going to do to build highspeed rail, they're a car company so they're making cars... The US is trapped in a local maximum due to history, geography and finally politics. There's a lot of local resistance specifically to highspeed rail because to stay highspeed the trains usually bypass smaller local towns so they don't get the benefit but all the negatives of it's construction.
kotaKat 12d ago
> Why don't we just build high speed electrified rail Good luck convincing all those Americans the rail line has to run through their property to freely give up the right-of-way. You're already dead in the first few hundred feet of rail when the first person says "fuck off, no" and starts challenging your eminent domain.

bryanlarsen 12d ago

That's 9 miles/kWh, compared to the Cybercab's 6.1 miles/kWh, compared to a typical EV at 3-4 miles/kWh. Part of the difference may come from using the easier WLTP testing cycle than the EPA cycle the Cybercab probably uses, but only part.

serf 12d ago
what do you call a dieselgate for ev? hmm coool interior and aero. all of the hyper efficient designs end up looking like the modern prius designs with the swan tail rear and hawk-beak nose.

klooney 12d ago

Bring back wheel covers!

swiftcoder 12d ago

Sign me up for all of these innovations in an actual production car. No idea why the whole market seems to be obsessed with ever-wider SUVs...

glimshe 12d ago
Because they are very comfortable. I'm not saying people should be obsessed about them, but that's part of why they are paying premiums for SUVs. Driving higher on the road on a wide car has a strong appeal for most people.
- swiftcoder 12d ago
  As someone who lives in an area of Europe replete with narrow roads between stone buildings... standard SUVs have grown ~20cm wider in the last decade, and it sucks
- crote 12d ago
  Ironically, larger crossovers have been among the least comfortable cars I have driven. Sure, they are a tad higher so someone with knee issues can more easily get in, but it seems most of the extra space they take up is somehow wasted. If you care about your rear seat passengers or carrying capacity, station wagons are far superior. The whole "higher on the road" thing is a red queen's race: if everyone is higher on the road, nobody is. You've got slightly better sight yourself until all the other people upsize, and in the meantime you are blocking everyone else's sight. Considering SUVs are more expensive, the only people winning are the car makers.
  - axus 12d ago
    A minivan has both high seating and tons of cargo space, after you remove the middle seats and fold the back ones.
- rcMgD2BwE72F 12d ago
  >Most people Did you mean fat people? I'm curious to know if the evolution of the average car size tracks obesity.

helsinkiandrew 12d ago

Perhaps better info on VWs own press release: https://www.volkswagen-newsroom.com/en/press-releases/mission-efficiency-volkswagen-presents-the-worlds-most-efficient-near-production-electric-car-20691 https://www.volkswagen-newsroom.com/en/press-releases/missio... This is concept car that has no planned release date.

bryanlarsen 12d ago
Waymo should call up Volkswagen and place an order to ensure it goes into production. Waymo should have a mixed fleet of 2 adult passenger vehicles like this one, 4-5 passenger models as well as some vans. It'll save them a lot of money, and will make streets safer by normalizing small vehicles.
- formerly_proven 12d ago
  In terms of footprint (4.8 meters long, 1.75 m wide) I'd say it's only small for US standards. It seems to look rather smaller than it is. > 188 inches (4,775 mm) long, 69 inches (1,744 mm) wide, and just 55 inches (1,392 mm) tall.
everybodyknows 12d ago
VW's term is "near-production" -- an achievement which, of course, can declared arbitrarily.

tromp 12d ago

> Volkswagen just build the world's most aerodynamic road car ever. A drag coefficient of 0.158 is not quite setting a record. Aptera's road-legal car has a coefficient of only 0.13, while Hyundai achieved a drag coefficient of 0.144 with the Aero Challenge concept car [1] (but it's not clear whether that vehicle is road-legal, or even what it looks like). [1] https://www.azernews.az/region/245135.html https://www.azernews.az/region/245135.html

dasKrokodil 12d ago
Aptera is even more vaporware-y than this though.
- aeontech 12d ago
  Aptera is getting pretty close to shipping first customer cars this year, or at least seems to be, while this is a one-off research prototype - I think your comment is not quite fair.
  - dasKrokodil 11d ago
    Yes, it's a prototype. But it's from a company that has built countless production cars, and which also produced a road-legal limited production run of a pretty similar car (just with ICE instead of electric): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_1-litre_car https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_1-litre_car I'm pretty sure they could bring this to market almost immediately, if there was a sizeable market for this kind of vehicle. Aptera on the other hand has been around for a long time now, changing their product strategy every now and then, making announcements... I wish them all the best, I really do, but until they actually ship something, I will also stay skeptical.

BugsJustFindMe 12d ago

And with barely three millimeters of clearance you can effectively sweep the roads while you drive! Wake us up when it can safely navigate a speed bump or enter a driveway without smashing against the bottom.

lorey 12d ago

They did something very similar 20+ years ago called XL1 to achieve 1l/100km, never made it into production. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/VW_XL1 https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/VW_XL1

formerly_proven 12d ago
Seemed to have been produced a bunch for never making it into production > A limited production of 250 began by mid 2013 with pricing started at €111,000 (~ £119,000). As a plug-in diesel-electric hybrid, the XL1 was available only in Europe and its 5.5 kWh lithium-ion battery delivered an all-electric range of 50 km (31 mi),[3] had a fuel economy of 0.9 L/100 km (310 mpg‑imp) under the NEDC cycle and produced emissions of 21 g/km of CO2.[8] It was released to retail customers in Germany in June 2014.[3]

ketzu 12d ago

Based on the battery of 55kWh this is about efficiency, not packing more batteries: > 6.48 kWh/100 km At a constant 68km/h in perfect conditions (no up/down) and no additional consumers of energy (climate control). Even on a real route they apparently got some useful stats with 7.51 kWh/100km including charging. Cool. My car is around 17-20 kWh/100km at a 64kWh battery for a medium cost car in germany. I wish it was even close to that efficiency.

secult 12d ago
The lower is your state of charge, the more you are willing to reach the destination with your remanining capacity :) The time spend riding slower is usually not so different than when you drive normally, and it reduces the inconvenience of looking for a charger almost at the goal.
Markoff 12d ago
seems you compare apples and oranges, I very much doubt your stated consumption is under same conditions you describe for their consumption ordinary cars can get to 13kWh/100km which ain't that far from 7.5 you mention
- ketzu 12d ago
  I mean I never drove Wolfsburg -> Poznań -> Vienna, and I would probably get a bit better milage if I drove an average of 70. However, even when my usage gets close to that, I still don't get down to the optimistic 17kWh/100km i put down. > ordinary cars can get to 13kWh/100km Unfortunately I don't have such a car. :) > which ain't that far from 7.5 you mention I'd say that needing a 30kWh battery for 400km range vs 52kWh is a significant difference, but that'd be opinionated hair-splitting. 13 is much better and much closer to 7.5 than what my car can do.

crote 12d ago

China has already solved the range problem by speeding up charging. When you can recharge 5 hours of highway driving in range during a 5-minute bathroom stop, an additional few hundred miles just isn't that useful anymore. You could also go the other way and use the improved range to shrink the battery, but with the ongoing battery cost drop that's not exactly a gamechanger either - and fast-charging long-range Chinese EVs are available for their domestic market for a fraction of the cost of entry-level Western models as well... Don't get me wrong, improving aerodynamics is a nice goal, but with the ongoing push towards gigantic SUVs there's zero chance anything even remotely resembling this concept car will ever see the light of day.

toomuchtodo 12d ago
I strongly believe these announcements are simply performance art for the capital markets to keep the share price higher than fundamentals would dictate. Great, you've designed and prototyped the vehicle. When will they be built at the rate BYD and other Chinese automakers are building EVs? Until then, it's vaporware. All that matters is deliveries (China is exporting ~4M more vehicles per year than VW delivers globally, as of this comment).
- JumpCrisscross 12d ago
  If this is messaging fluff, it's aimed at regulators and politicians in Europe. Not shareholders.
  - toomuchtodo 12d ago
    I don't know man, they're cutting 100k jobs to keep the dividends flowing (The Porsche-Piëch family controls a majority of VW's voting rights through Porsche SE) while closing factories. That strikes me as "preserve the share price and profits while the ship sinks" versus investment to scale EV sales to compete. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49556939 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49556939 https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jun/26/vw-cut-jobs-shut-plants-volkswagen-china https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jun/26/vw-cut-jobs...

philipallstar 12d ago

This just makes the Tesla Model S P90D, from 14 years ago, just look even better. 509km range (in the lab) and incredible acceleration, and looks pretty normal and practical. And it doesn't make you bring your own phone and bluetooth speaker for infotainment.

wlesieutre 12d ago
How is the infotainment tablet in a 14 year old Model S performing these days? Haven't they progressively worsened its performance through software updates and then sold you a hardware upgrade to fix it for several thousand dollars? I'd rather just bring my phone, which gets replaced every 4-years or so anyway.
- philipallstar 12d ago
  I understand I must've triggered some sort of prerecorded response, but this is pretty off-topic even given that.
  - wlesieutre 12d ago
    I thought that was a pretty direct response to "And it doesn't make you bring your own phone and bluetooth speaker for infotainment." As far as I'm concerned, not being able to bring your phone to the infotainment system is a negative, not something to brag about. I had my last car until it was 19 years old, and I have zero faith that an in-car computer will perform adequately for that long. The other specs of the Model S are still very impressive and I don't have anything to add about on those.
    - philipallstar 12d ago
      I think that expecting a 2012 car to have Apple Carplay (launched 2014) or Android Auto (launched 2015) support is a bit unreasonable, is all.
      - 12d ago

fullshark 12d ago

Maybe they learned from their blunder with the ID Buzz. At this point though I simply don't trust any legacy automaker when it comes to producing and supporting EVs for their lifetime.

fredley 12d ago

What do you do when your rear tyre gets a flat?

swiftcoder 12d ago
Presumably the faring panel comes off, just like on an early-model Honda Insight
rtkwe 12d ago
The panel over them called a fender skirt comes off usually, this is far from the first car with skirts or spats. They used to be quite popular.
mikestew 12d ago
Same thing you did sixty years ago when your Cadillac got a flat: take the cover off the wheel well. https://photos.classiccars.com/cc-temp/listing/165/1814/34842253-1973-cadillac-fleetwood-std.jpg https://photos.classiccars.com/cc-temp/listing/165/1814/3484...
- fuzzfactor 12d ago
  These were so fun to drive. 1973 had some of the longest Cadillacs in decades. Not everybody was aware at the time, but the turning radius was actually smaller than the Volkswagen beetle. Not the turning radius of the whole car, just the wheelbase ;)
  - mikestew 12d ago
    I’ve not looked it up, but I’d venture to guess that a ‘73 Fleetwood was one of the longest cars made. And, as you alluded to, absolutely bonkers length from wheel center to each bumper. Our Hyundai has the opposite problem. Because the flat battery pack allows the wheels to be shoved to the corners, it looks smallish but has a longer wheelbase than Hyundai’s large Palisade SUV. Which makes it a pig to park.
fuzzfactor 12d ago
No different than the front tire, same thing as any modern car which does not carry a spare tire either.

jrmg 12d ago

Shape reminds me a lot of the first gen Honda Insight - also built to be low drag. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Insight#First_generation_(ZE1;_1999) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Insight#First_generation...

tester756 12d ago

Let's hope aerodynamics can save us from SUV disease

gbil 12d ago

It is stated that this was a single charge trip >It’s also the most efficient EV in its class, consuming just 6.89 kWh/100 km without charging losses. >The VW Mission Efficiency covered 1,278 km (794 miles) on a single charge and still had 164 km (102 miles) of range left at the end of the trip. But at 6.89kWh/100km for a 1278km trip equals 88kWh battery and it is stated later that the battery is a 54.9kWh one and that was recharged during the journey. > The 54.9-kWh net battery was recharged only once during the journey.... It would be nice to have an article that makes sense from time to time...

josefresco 12d ago

I regularly drive 450+ miles to a family camp and need to stop at least once just to stretch my legs/change drivers/eat. The drive can take anywhere from 7-9 hours depending on traffic. 900 miles range is cool but it's not worth a huge price premium. Sort of like the Concord; while it's technically possible it's not worth the money.

rtkwe 12d ago
The extra range seems to mostly come from big increases in aerodynamic efficiency rather than just jamming a huge battery into the chassis so I'm not sure it would demand a huge premium, at least not because of the BOM.

m00dy 12d ago

don't get me wrong but VW is dead already.

secult 12d ago
In the long term we are all dead. But I think you mean that VW fleet electrification effort is dead. Which is not true either. You're underestimating the willingness of people in Europe to buy domestically produced cars. Even if they are not the state of the art from the perspective of picking up the latest EV technology. Don't forget the new china propagated LFP batteries are not better than the already existing NMCs. They may be cheaper, NMCs got cheaper too.
- crote 12d ago
  Sure, but that was before European manufacturers started making already-installed seat heating a subscription service, started selling your data - including location - to anyone willing to pay, released EVs which were 5+ years behind Chinese options, and sold them at well over 2x the cost of the alternatives. Oh, and a huge chunk of those "European" brands aren't even European anymore. Most Europeans happily pay a premium for a well-engineered semi-local product, as we saw with the German manufacturers during the ICE era. But paying significantly more for a significantly worse product, just for that "Made in Europe" label? Not happening. VW & friends don't even seem to be aware yet that they are in a fight for survival, and that's what is dooming them. They are more interested in lobbying for tariffs and EV rollout slowdowns than in actually building EVs.

maxglute 12d ago

Somehow it looks cool for a movie, but ugly for real life.

kjksf 12d ago

1. It's at speed of 42 miles/hr. You can't compare those numbers to EPA or even WLTP numbers. Hypermiling records using Tesla cars: - 1078 km, Tesla S, 25 mph, - 975 km, Model 3, 20-30mph - 909 km, Model 3, 50mph The last one is comparable and available today. 2. It has solar panels. That tells me those are not serious people (or a PR stunt). Solar charging math on area that small is so brutal that adding cost / weight of solar panels on a car is sheer stupidity. Adding few miles of range per day (on sunny day parked outside) doesn't make sense. You're more likely to have a regular outlet in your garage and recharge 100 miles overnight.

euroderf 12d ago

Those headlights look straight out of the "Cars" movies.

shdshdshd 12d ago

500 miles on the updated article

hackerbeat 12d ago

Can someone out there please build a beautiful car? 99% of cars are ugly these days. They all look like angry vacuum cleaners.