A fuel efficient vehicle may give you the range of 400 miles, maybe 500 miles, or perhaps even 600 miles with a diesel. Those are impressive distances, but to show off what their latest BlueMotion technology can do, Volkswagen just set the single-tank distance record by traveling a staggering 1,527 miles.
Starting from Kent, England with a full tank of diesel fuel, the 1.6-liter TDI-equipped VW Passat BlueMotion accomplished a feat that few hybrids can match. The Passat was a production model and and featured Stop/Start technology and low rolling resistance tires, which both aid fuel efficiency.
The team averaged 45 miles per hour and attempting to drive from Kent to the South of France and back. The Passat finally ran out of fuel around Calais. Despite being unable to make it back to England, the car was able to set a Guinness World Record.
Although the Passat BlueMotion is technically rated at 64.2 miles per gallon (which is extremely impressive), this record breaking drive resulted in an overall fuel consumption of 89.83 miles per gallon.
To put this into perspective, the VW Passat BlueMotion traveled a distance equivalent to driving from London to Malaga, without needing to refuel or from New York to Los Angeles with a single stop for diesel.
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I still think that diesel is the better way to go in the short term. Hydrids are heavily subsidized and will be expensive to fix when things go wrong.
I still think that diesel is the way to go in the short term, Bravo VW.
These mpg numbers are for Imperial Gallons not US Gallons, still very impressive mpgs. also they were probably using hyper-miling techniques to do this.
The correct distance from New York to Los Angeles is closer to 2700 miles, so it would be (2) tanks….
That’s nice and all, but I took my 2002 VW Jetta from Eugene, OR to the Canadian border on a half a tank of gas… That’s 1000 miles. Please email me if you would like for me to break the record again haha. Thanks, great story though!
They didn’t specify, but usually these super-high mileage stunts are done by ripping out stuff from the car to reduce weight, which is the largest mileage-killer. If they did this without pulling out the heater core, rear seat, washer reservoirs, door trim, spare tire, radio, replacing the rear window with plastic, etc…, it really is an impressive feat.
Ya there was some study with a prius and a mustang I think where the mustang just had to follow the prius around and they got about the same gas mileage. The prius just makes you drive and accelerate like a sally so you get tremendous gas mileage always
Sorry, it’s a 2002 VW Jetta TDI
New York to Los Angeles???? If you left New York and traveled 1,527 miles you’d end up out of gas somewhere between Oklahoma City and Amarillo. (It’s about 2,800 miles from New York to Los Angeles).
Well I guess they did say with a “single stop” okay I read that as without a single stop the first time. I retract my sarcastic remark
The facts are a bit off. It’s more like 3,000 miles from New York, NY to Los Angeles, CA (2,790 miles to be exact.) Therefore the car did not drive as far as they are suggesting.
That said, this is still very impressive. Good work VW.
Uh, I hate to poke a stick in the lovefest but to do more than “put this into perspective,” I’d rather be ACCURATE:
“a staggering 1,527 miles” is not equal to “from New York to Los Angeles”
That’d be closer to 2462 miles.
The feat was using a stock, not stripped, Passat TDI Bluemotion. This car is readily available in Europe and easily gets 65 mpg.
I have a 16 years old VW Passat 1.9 TDI and I’m able to do 1200 km (745 miles) at average speeds… VW really builds efficient motors since a long time ago.
Last time I checked the distance from New York to Los Angeles was around 2700 miles. Please let me in on the shortcut.
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