This is the Volkswagen XL1. It comes as a result of 15 years long effort of the company to build a 235 MPG car (i.e. a vehicle that can burn just one liter of fuel to travel 100 kilometers, or 62.1 miles). To me, it looks like an alien car. And I really, really want to try it out on the road. As I may not have the chance to do so soon, I went through all the reviews I could find online and the result was not what I expected. I still want to try it, but now it would take a miracle to make me buy it. But let’s go to the facts I gathered.

The XL1’s efficiency is already legendary: in windless conditions it needs just 8bhp to maintain a steady 62mph (100km/h) and it can return up to 313mpg (133km/l). And yet if you were to deploy all available power it would hit 125mph (200km/h), although for now it’s governed at 100mph (160km/h). The twin forces which shaped this car are weight and aerodynamics. Everything possible has been done to optimize these two and some of the things they did just made me laugh – It doesn’t have electric windows, for instance, as hand winders weigh less. Really? There are no wing mirrors as these create drag. Instead, tiny rear-facing cameras transmit an image on to a screen on the door panels – now that’s a good, futuristic idea. But why would they put the screens on the door panels? It’s not like there is something in the mirror’s place. The car has fared-in wheels, skinny tires and an entirely flat bottom.

Inside, the XL1 looks remarkably normal. The car is so radical and challenging, the team said, that they wanted the interior to be familiar, calm and uncluttered. Much of the kit is the same as you’d find in a Golf. And if I wanted to drive a Golf, I would buy a Golf. If the car looks alien, make it alien all the way.

All the things I read about this car made me realize something. Volkswagen didn’t build it to make an efficient and clean car. They did it because they could.

Under note: Electrical means clean? Where do you think electricity comes from?

Self-driving cars may not be on the roads yet, but there are plenty of innovations that are not longer considered a luxury. Your next car will still need a driver behind the wheel, but it will be able to do a lot more on its own. Self adjusting headlights and an engine that “knows” how to save fuel – these are not reserved for high-class vehicles and experimental hybrids anymore.

And here’s a list of the feature that are becoming more and more popular every year.

The World Solar Challenge was born in 1982 when Hans Tholstrup and Larry Perkins decided to go from the west end of Australia to the east in a home-built solar car – Te Quiet Achiever. Now the race is held every two years and aims to inspire people to explore energy efficient vehicles and to make them more popular.

This year the race was won by the Dutch team NUON from the Delft University of Technology.  Its solar-powered Nuna 7 vehicle arrived in Adelaide at 10:03 a.m. on the morning of the fifth day of the event, having led from the front for the full 3,021 km from Darwin, crossing Australia from north coast to south in a total of a little over 33 hours. That puts its average speed at an impressive 91 km/h (57 mph). Nuon Solar Team’s overall time was a little behind its 2005 pace, when it completed the trip in 29 hours and 11 minutes achieving an average speed of 102.8 km/h (63.9 mph).

For more interesting stories from The Solar Challange visit the race’s official website: http://www.worldsolarchallenge.org/