On April 16th, 2002, Volkswagen introduced a prototype of the world's most economical car licensed for road use. The 1-Liter Car gets approximately 239 mpg fuel economy, or 100 km per 1-liter of fuel burned. It is aerodynamically shaped, and weighs just 290 kg (comparable to a lightweight motorcycle with 1/10th the air resistance), so that an 8.5-horsepower engine gives lively acceleration and agile performance. In its debut testdrive on the Autobahn in Germany it covered 230 km on just 2.1 liters of diesel, at an average speed of 75 km/hr (46.6 mph), and a top speed of 120 km/hr (72 mph). With a 6.6-liter fuel tank, it can travel 650 km (390 miles) on a single tank of fuel. The car incorporates regenerative braking, which uses the alternator during braking to charge an onboard nickel-metal hydride battery. Because of the highly aerodynamic shape and the low-rolling-resistance tires, the engine is designed to use intermittent power technology, automatically turning off when reaching cruise speed, and allowing the car to coast until speed drops a few miles per hour before re-activating. This saves enormously on fuel.
The interior is compact, providing space for the driver and one passenger, as well as an 80-liter luggage compartment. Safety features include simulated crash tests, front crush zone with crush tubes that leave the footwell unaffected, safety belts, airbag, rollover protection, 4-wheel disk brakes and antilock braking system (ABS), low center of gravity and electronic stability program (ESP), rearview video cameras, parking brake, electronic door lock, LEDs for interior illumination at night, and remote keyless entry. The safety standard of the Volkswagen 1-Liter Car is equivalent to that of a GT race car.

In addition, if Volkswagen mass produces the 1-Liter Car for sale in Canada, cleaner diesel fuel will be available by the year 2006. Generally diesel is not used for personal transportation because they are heavily polluting. For example, diesel tractor-trailers and other heavy-duty vehicles account for 2 percent of the vehicles on the road, 6 percent of the miles driven, and yet generate over 70 percent of the cancer-causing soot and smog-forming nitrous oxide (NOx) emissions hanging over the city of Toronto. In December 2001 the Canadian government approved new Clean Diesel standards which will reduce the sulfur content of diesel by 95% to just 15 parts-per-million by 2006, which will in turn enable the use of after-processing hardware to be fitted in diesel vehicles to remove soot and NOx from exhaust. Furthermore, Chevron is now selling a new diesel fuel formulation called Proformix which reduces the size of fuel droplets and allows cleaner, more complete burning during the engine's combustion cycle. Proformix fuel will reduce soot emissions by a further 65%, and NOx emissions by 16% even before the use of after-processing hardware.

Clean Diesel standards will facilitate the introduction of super fuel-efficient, super low emissions vehicles such as the Volkswagen 1-Liter Car into Canada. Here is a detailed description of the Volkswagen 1-Liter Car prototype:

VW Vortex Special Announcement