'One-seat VW' for Frankfurt

Volkswagen will show a single-seat, electric, commuting car at next month’s Frankfurt show, according to press reports.

It’s thought that if the concept makes production, it could be sold as a package with either a sustainable power supply or, possibly, with a solar panels package.

Jurgen Leohold, VW’s head of research, told the Financial Times that because the car is so small and light and only has to accommodate a single occupant, its effective Co2 output would be ‘even better’ than the XL1’s 24g/km (313mpg equivalent).

Read Autocar's VW XL1 first drive

This concept appears to be part of VW’s wider move to use increasing amounts of sustainable energy to run its operations.

VW has already spent £120m on two hydro-electric plants (one has been operating since 2010 and the other is due in 2013) in Brazil to provide as much a 40 percent of all the power needed by its factories.

Last month VW signed a supply deal with Austrian power company Verbund that will see 10 percent of the power used by VW’s German plants provided from hydro-electricity.

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