Dependent upon your age, you may either remember seeing Bubble cars on the road, in a museum or occasionally in a movie – probably a whacky comedy one. Bubble cars were sold in the sixties and were a bit of an odd fashion fad at the time, but offered great mileage for one or two passengers, they usually had three wheels and were classified as a motorcycle in many countries.
Well, it might be a case of déjà vu, but with four wheels this time and it won’t be classified as a motorcycle. Volkswagen, who just merged with Porsche and could soon be the world’s largest car manufacturer once GM finally goes bust, have designed and manufactured a great little car that is rumored to go on sale in Shanghai (China) in 2010. The Volkswagen L1 prototype was first revealed in 2002, but the internet has been awash with unconfirmed rumors that it is scheduled for production and sale.
The L1 prototype (named after its one-liter engine) is a single seat, aerodynamic, teardrop-shaped 4 wheel mini-car, reminiscent of Bubble cars of yesteryear with a high-tech one-liter diesel engine (6.3kW or 8.5bhp), highway speed of around 120kph (75mph) and gets the holy-grail fuel consumption figure of less than 1 liter of gas for 100kms of travel (0.99liters per 100kms to be exact, around 258mpg). It had a super low drag coefficient of 0.16, no mirrors (using rear facing cameras instead and an internal display) and had an extremely low weight of 290kgs (638lbs) through the extensive use of magnesium, titanium and high-strength aluminum. With its 6.5liter (1.7 gallon) fuel tank, it has a 646km (404 mile) range.
Apart from being really small and likely to get trampled over by a Dodge Ram or Hummer, it actually looks really cool and would be one of the most fuel efficient cars in the world.
Now if only they could market the car to the rest of the world – provided it meets road safety requirements. It has a high-tech body incorporating carbon fiber skin (unpainted to save weight), anti-lock brakes and electronic stability control. Then again, I doubt motorcycles really pass head on collision, or roll-over tests either so why not bring them over and classify them as something between a motorcycle and a car – they would certainly find a market niche for downsizers, eco-geeks and hippies whose VW Beetles have finally fallen apart.
Let’s hope the rumors are true and that Bubble cars make it back onto the roads again so we can put those Hummers in the museums instead.
Trevor Williams is a University of Victoria Mechanical Engineering PhD candidate specialising in renewable energy, power grid modelling and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. He has a bachelors in Aeronautical Engineering, a Masters in Management Science and over 23 years international experience in the space industry, having worked on Earth observation and telecommunications satellites. He is the author of the Eco-Geek blog.
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written by Andrew , April 06, 2011