VWXL1

A diesel hybrid peaking below 70bhp hardly screams 'evo icon', yet the Volkswagen XL1 is a tantalising glimpse of how sports cars could have grown a conscience

- STEPHEN DOBIE

PITY THE VOLKSWAGEN XL1. DESIGNED TO SLOW the worrisome pace of climate change and the extreme weather events brought with it, and here we are driving it right into the eye of a wintry storm. The idea was a noble one: setting an urban-centric eco-car free into the Welsh wilderness to truly explore the potential of its surprisingly promising mechanical makeup. The reality is it's being buffeted around by 50mph gusts while its weeny tyres - just 115mm wide up front - slice through frequent standing water. Its single wiper is working overtime. Aston Parrott resembles a recently overboard trawlerman every time he emerges from this familiar stretch of Snowdonia scenery, yet he's grinning even more than normal. It turns out VW's endearing little weirdo is just as bewitching to photograph as it is to drive.

With a carbonfibre tub, mid-mounted engine, and rearwheel drive, it's not far off being a miniature McLaren. And that's before you've swung open a diminutive butterfly door and nestled low into an interior rich with more carbon weave and with a broad windscreen affording an enticing view of the road ahead. I'd swear it even smells the same as a Woking-born supercar...

The spec sheet brings me back to earth with a thump. This is what plug-in hybrids resembled before they morphed into SUVs limboing under company car tax barriers, mating a 47bhp, 89lb ft 800cc two-cylinder diesel engine - effectively VW's ubiquitous 1.6-litre TDI sliced in half to a 27bhp, 103lb ft electric motor, and 5.5kWh battery, which charges from a socket or tops up via brake regen. Engine and motor never fully combine, though; instead, the peak whole-system outputs are 68bhp and 103lb ft. Top speed is electronically limited to 99mph (the car's ultra-slippery 0.186 Cd profile can enable more) and the contemporary brochure proudly claimed that if necessary, the XL1 can accelerate to 62mph in just 12.7 seconds'. Kinda says it all.