ANS -- 2014 Volkswagen XL1: First Drive Of Wolfsburg's 261-MPG Car

Something more light-hearted for the holiday --- a car that gets 261 mpg.  (it goes 31 miles on a charge....) They are making a production run of 250 of them for Europe -- not safe enough for the US, because of minimizing the weight. 
This link is to the first page of a three-page article -- but there's lots of pictures. 
Find it here:  http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1085361_2014-volkswagen-xl1-first-drive-of-wolfsburgs-261-mpg-car
--Kim



2014 Volkswagen XL1: First Drive Of Wolfsburg's 261-MPG Car

2014 Volkswagen XL1: First Drive Of Wolfsburg's 261-MPG Car

 
By Bengt Halvorson
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2014 Volkswagen XL1 (Euro spec) - First Drive, Wolfsburg, June 2013
HI-RES GALLERY: 2014 Volkswagen XL1 (Euro spec) - First Drive, Wolfsburg, June 2013

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Look out, owners of 200-mph testosterone-supplement poster cars. If there ever was a real hypercar, it's the Volkswagen XL1.

Although in recent years the term hypercar has been distorted­to include cars that are faster (and often even thirstier) than those supercars from Lamborghini, Ferrari, and others­we're getting back to basics: The XL1 is a hypercar in the way that might make Amory Lovins smile.

That's a nod to one of the creators of the original 1990s Hypercar project, from the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI). In short, the project championed fuel efficiency that was three to five times better than an ordinary passenger car , with an ultra-light structure, the extensive use of composites, and a hybrid powertrain.

We recently drove the XL1 on roads surrounding Volkswagen's Wolfsburg, Germany headquarters, and can testify that it's at once not like any other new or development car we've driven. It really is everything we'd expect of the concept, which aims to maximize efficiency without compromising usability too much. Yes, of course it's a little compromised­and frankly a little fragile-feeling­but it's emerged from Wolfsburg with a fun-to-drive element that we frankly hadn't expected.

Part vintage sports car?

Distilling it to a reference point: From behind the wheel­if you can manage to block out all the elements of futurism for the moment­it drives a lot like a vintage sports car.

There's no power assist, and this system, with its great centering, as you're so directly connected to the narrow 115/80R16 front tires (145/55R16 in back), reminds us what we're missing in bigger and heavier new vehicles. On the other hand, bumps ping through the carbon-fiber (plus some aluminum) structure, exposing the lack of noise insulation, and the structure doesn't feel rigid in the way that we've become used to in today's new cars .

When we get to the soundtrack, the vintage-sportscar comparisons do fall apart. Maybe cross it with just a bit of the aural personality of a perfectly-running Trabant. Whichever reference comes to mind­maybe a motorcycle engine running at limited revs, maybe an emergency generator­the 0.8-liter diesel twin has an unusual character in a car.

That engine­think a 1.6-liter TDI lopped in half and you really won't be far off­produces 48 horsepower; and packaged with it is a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox (DSG). Also, there's a 27-hp electric motor system sandwiched in there­fed by a 5.5-kWh lithium-ion battery. With a full charge, the XL1 can go 31 miles, while the powertrain altogether produces 68 hp and 103 lb-ft in its 'boosting mode.'

014 Volkswagen XL1: First Drive Of Wolfsburg's 261-MPG Car Page 2

 
By Bengt Halvorson
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2014 Volkswagen XL1 (Euro spec) - First Drive, Wolfsburg, June 2013
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You can manually select a pure-electric mode, although that mode was unavailable in our test car, so although the XL1 would take off on very light throttle applications in electric-only mode­and at lower steady-speed cruising the diesel twin would cycle on and off a bit like an A/C compressor, it seemed­the engine would be on whenever we were accelerating significantly.

Not quick, but perky enough

Some other sources that already drove the XL1 have called this a sluggish vehicle, taking an almost agonizing time to accelerate; but it's really all about expectations. Put the shifter in Drive and the XL1 feels quite perky­at least up to about 50 mph. Above there, the diesel twin and electric motor even together are a little less on their game; we reached 125 km/h (78 mph) pretty easily, but we wouldn't plan on a lot of two-lane passing. Top speed is limited to 99 mph.

The XL1's curb weight of around 1,750 pounds is one of the main talking points; another is its coefficient of drag: just 0.189­which, if you keep tabs on such things, just narrowly undercuts that of the GM EV1.

While that's quite a bit heavier than the 639-pound 1-Liter Car concept from 2002 (with that car's 0.159 coefficient of drag), the XL1 at this stage is a production-bound vehicle. The lightweight carbon-fiber resin monocoque includes a core passenger cell that weighs just 197 pounds in all. Single-shell carbon-fiber seats don't look like they'd be all that comfortable, but they seemed to offer great support. The dashboard is made of a natural fiber, with a magnesium crossmember, while side windows are polycarbonate­think Subaru SVX, but you roll them with a hand-crank.

Again for aerodynamics, the XL1 is narrower at the rear, with the rear wheels staggered inward several inches. This results in an unusual driving experience, in which you're actually hitting different portions of pavement­and bumps­with the rear wheels than with the fronts. Visibility is horrible, too, but the camera systems alongside the vehicle, with little smartphone-sized screens, do help. And also in the interest of frontal area, VW has made the cabin profile as low as possible. At 6'-6", I felt a bit claustrophobic when turning my head for parking (and I ducked when closing the gullwing doors); I could be comfortable in this car for hours, but a colleague who's 6'-8" felt too tightly wedged.

Triple-digit miles per gallon

Volkswagen claims a consumption rating equivalent to 261 mpg; but that's using the full charge of the battery. Driving the XL1 gently on some of the lower speed access roads and roundabouts around Wolfsburg, with our depleted battery, we did take note, quite carefully of consumption during a limited drive. We managed a pretty amazing 0.7 liters per 100 km, according to the trip computer, on those. Then we headed out on a stretch of divided highway­for about 15 miles in all­the trip computer had registered a trip average of 1.4 l/100km.

That's 168 mpg.

2014 Volkswagen XL1: First Drive Of Wolfsburg's 261-MPG Car Page 3

 
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2014 Volkswagen XL1 (Euro spec) - First Drive, Wolfsburg, June 2013
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Of course this still doesn't give us a good idea what the XL1's consumption would be day in and day out. Volkswagen waves the 261-mpg figure, but also notes that it will go 310 miles in all, starting out on a charge, on its 2.6-gallon (yes, that's right) fuel tank.

They're going to make 250 production XL1s for Europe. But in the U.S., the XL1 is forbidden fruit in the truest sense; engineers openly note that the model wouldn't meet U.S. safety requirements, and that reengineering it to meet them simply isn't in sight as part of the project. It doesn't even have a passenger-side front airbag, and was granted a special EU exemption.

Where does it go from here?

And as Volkswagen has already confirmed, some of the technology from the XL1­like its dual-clutch modular hybrid powertrain configuration­is destined to filter down to other models.

In the longer term, there's a lot to think about in the XL1. Its rear-engine layout, rear-wheel drive, and 'simple' feel­even if it isn't­of course remind us of the original air-cooled VWs.

If VW could slash costs on materials while keeping weight under control, we daydream to think of what else could come of this hypercar. A green Karmann Ghia for the 2020s?

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ANS -- How Swedes and Norwegians Broke the Power of the ‘1 Percent’

Here's a fairly short article outlining the economic struggle of Norway, which remained stable in the crash of 2008 because of their history of running the country for the common good, and not letting "the 1%" have a lot of power.  We should take a lesson....
Note that the article is a year and a half old.
Find it here:  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/01/26-3   
--Kim


Published on Thursday, January 26, 2012 by Waging Nonviolence

How Swedes and Norwegians Broke the Power of the '1 Percent'

by George Lakey

While many of us are working to ensure that the Occupy movement will have a lasting impact, it's worthwhile to consider other countries where masses of people succeeded in nonviolently bringing about a high degree of democracy and economic justice. Sweden and Norway, for example, both experienced a major power shift in the 1930s after prolonged nonviolent struggle. They "fired" the top 1 percent of people who set the direction for society and created the basis for something different. A march in Ådalen, Sweden, in 1931.

Both countries had a history of horrendous poverty. When the 1 percent was in charge, hundreds of thousands of people emigrated to avoid starvation. Under the leadership of the working class, however, both countries built robust and successful economies that nearly eliminated poverty, expanded free university education, abolished slums, provided excellent health care available to all as a matter of right and created a system of full employment. Unlike the Norwegians, the Swedes didn't find oil, but that didn't stop them from building what the latest CIA World Factbook calls "an enviable standard of living."

Neither country is a utopia, as readers of the crime novels by Stieg Larsson, Kurt Wallender and Jo Nesbro will know. Critical left-wing authors such as these try to push Sweden and Norway to continue on the path toward more fully just societies. However, as an American activist who first encountered Norway as a student in 1959 and learned some of its language and culture, the achievements I found amazed me. I remember, for example, bicycling for hours through a small industrial city, looking in vain for substandard housing. Sometimes resisting the evidence of my eyes, I made up stories that "accounted for" the differences I saw: "small country," "homogeneous," "a value consensus." I finally gave up imposing my frameworks on these countries and learned the real reason: their own histories.

Then I began to learn that the Swedes and Norwegians paid a price for their standards of living through nonviolent struggle. There was a time when Scandinavian workers didn't expect that the electoral arena could deliver the change they believed in. They realized that, with the 1 percent in charge, electoral "democracy" was stacked against them, so nonviolent direct action was needed to exert the power for change.

In both countries, the troops were called out to defend the 1 percent; people died. Award-winning Swedish filmmaker Bo Widerberg told the Swedish story vividly in Ådalen 31, which depicts the strikers killed in 1931 and the sparking of a nationwide general strike. (You can read more about this case in an entry by Max Rennebohm in the Global Nonviolent Action Database.)

The Norwegians had a harder time organizing a cohesive people's movement because Norway's small population­about three million­was spread out over a territory the size of Britain. People were divided by mountains and fjords, and they spoke regional dialects in isolated valleys. In the nineteenth century, Norway was ruled by Denmark and then by Sweden; in the context of Europe Norwegians were the "country rubes," of little consequence. Not until 1905 did Norway finally become independent.

When workers formed unions in the early 1900s, they generally turned to Marxism, organizing for revolution as well as immediate gains. They were overjoyed by the overthrow of the czar in Russia, and the Norwegian Labor Party joined the Communist International organized by Lenin. Labor didn't stay long, however. One way in which most Norwegians parted ways with Leninist strategy was on the role of violence: Norwegians wanted to win their revolution through collective nonviolent struggle, along with establishing co-ops and using the electoral arena.

In the 1920s strikes increased in intensity. The town of Hammerfest formed a commune in 1921, led by workers councils; the army intervened to crush it. The workers' response verged toward a national general strike. The employers, backed by the state, beat back that strike, but workers erupted again in the ironworkers' strike of 1923–24.

The Norwegian 1 percent decided not to rely simply on the army; in 1926 they formed a social movement called the Patriotic League, recruiting mainly from the middle class. By the 1930s, the League included as many as 100,000 people for armed protection of strike breakers­this in a country of only 3 million!

The Labor Party, in the meantime, opened its membership to anyone, whether or not in a unionized workplace. Middle-class Marxists and some reformers joined the party. Many rural farm workers joined the Labor Party, as well as some small landholders. Labor leadership understood that in a protracted struggle, constant outreach and organizing was needed to a nonviolent campaign. In the midst of the growing polarization, Norway's workers launched another wave of strikes and boycotts in 1928.

The Depression hit bottom in 1931. More people were jobless there than in any other Nordic country. Unlike in the U.S., the Norwegian union movement kept the people thrown out of work as members, even though they couldn't pay dues. This decision paid off in mass mobilizations. When the employers' federation locked employees out of the factories to try to force a reduction of wages, the workers fought back with massive demonstrations.

Many people then found that their mortgages were in jeopardy. (Sound familiar?) The Depression continued, and farmers were unable to keep up payment on their debts. As turbulence hit the rural sector, crowds gathered nonviolently to prevent the eviction of families from their farms. The Agrarian Party, which included larger farmers and had previously been allied with the Conservative Party, began to distance itself from the 1 percent; some could see that the ability of the few to rule the many was in doubt.

By 1935, Norway was on the brink. The Conservative-led government was losing legitimacy daily; the 1 percent became increasingly desperate as militancy grew among workers and farmers. A complete overthrow might be just a couple years away, radical workers thought. However, the misery of the poor became more urgent daily, and the Labor Party felt increasing pressure from its members to alleviate their suffering, which it could do only if it took charge of the government in a compromise agreement with the other side.

This it did. In a compromise that allowed owners to retain the right to own and manage their firms, Labor in 1935 took the reins of government in coalition with the Agrarian Party. They expanded the economy and started public works projects to head toward a policy of full employment that became the keystone of Norwegian economic policy. Labor's success and the continued militancy of workers enabled steady inroads against the privileges of the 1 percent, to the point that majority ownership of all large firms was taken by the public interest. (There is an entry on this case as well at the Global Nonviolent Action Database.)

The 1 percent thereby lost its historic power to dominate the economy and society. Not until three decades later could the Conservatives return to a governing coalition, having by then accepted the new rules of the game, including a high degree of public ownership of the means of production, extremely progressive taxation, strong business regulation for the public good and the virtual abolition of poverty. When Conservatives eventually tried a fling with neoliberal policies, the economy generated a bubble and headed for disaster. (Sound familiar?)

Labor stepped in, seized the three largest banks, fired the top management, left the stockholders without a dime and refused to bail out any of the smaller banks. The well-purged Norwegian financial sector was not one of those countries that lurched into crisis in 2008; carefully regulated and much of it publicly owned, the sector was solid.

Although Norwegians may not tell you about this the first time you meet them, the fact remains that their society's high level of freedom and broadly-shared prosperity began when workers and farmers, along with middle class allies, waged a nonviolent struggle that empowered the people to govern for the common good.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License


George Lakey is Visiting Professor at Swarthmore College and a Quaker. He has led 1,500 workshops on five continents and led activist projects on local, national, and international levels. Among many other books and articles, he is author of "Strategizing for a Living Revolution" in David Solnit's book Globalize Liberation (City Lights, 2004). His first arrest was for a civil rights sit-in and most recent was with Earth Quaker Action Team while protesting mountain top removal coal mining. E-mail: glakey1@swarthmore.edu

ANS -- Pay It Forward: Innovative Oregon Proposal Could Solve Problem of Student Loan Debt

Here is a very short article about something they are trying in Oregon to help people go to college without huge debts building up.  There are lots of comments at the site. 
Find it here:  http://thecontributor.com/education/pay-it-forward-innovative-or-proposal-could-solve-problem-student-loan-debt   
--Kim

Pay It Forward: Innovative Oregon Proposal Could Solve Problem of Student Loan Debt

Home Posted July 1, 2013 - 11:19pm
 19  913
 

By creating a new social insurance program, Oregon politicians hope to create a system where students are able to graduate with no debt and no interest payments

As politicians in Washington continue to ignore the plight of students drowning in student loan debt, a new proposal developed by students in Oregon takes an innovative approach that could alleviate the need for student loans all together.

Under the proposal, referred to as Pay It Forward and lauded by Senator Mark Hass as an example of "out of the box thinking," local students would be able to attend public universities and community colleges in the state for free.

Instead of taking out costly loans, students would enter a social insurance program and pay about 3 percent of their adjusted gross income for graduates of four year programs, or 1.5 percent for two year programs, for a total of 24 years. Students would graduate with no debt, no interest and the percentage of their income they had to pay would never change. 

�As a student who will graduate with over $40,000 in student loan debt, I think that we need creative solutions like Pay It Forward. It will eliminate the initial barrier to attend college, and students won�t be burdened with a crushing debt for the rest of their lives,� said Alexandra Flores-Quilty, a junior at University of Oregon.

After passing in the Oregon House last week, the proposal was unanimously passed in the Oregon Senate on Monday. If signed into law, the bill would direct the Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC) to draft a Pay It Forward pilot program to be considered for implementation by the 2015 legislature.

Initially, the plan would require start-up funding until the first few generations of students graduate and find jobs. But once they're able to begin paying into the system, the proposal would create a stable funding stream for Oregon's public higher education, and could serve as a model for other states looking to solve the problem of long-term student loan debt.

�Students are being priced out of higher education, and fear of debt is pricing them out of majors that we desperately need, said Rep. Michael Dembrow. "I think it's great that the Legislature is taking the problem of student debt so seriously, and I applaud the students who have tirelessly pursued this."