Volkswagen Unveils Ridiculously Efficient “Mission Efficiency” — But Why?

Volkswagen has built a car it calls Mission Efficiency, showing off just how far electric vehicle design can go. It uses a very slippery body shape (a drag coefficient of 0.158, a measure of how easily air flows around a car) and averaged 6.89 kWh per 100 km on a real 1,278-kilometer test drive from Germany to Vienna, charging only once. That is a strikingly small amount of energy for that distance, better than most electric cars on the road today. The car also has a small solar panel built into its roof and trunk lid that can add up to 30 kilometers of range a day, and it uses efficient tires developed with Continental to cut rolling resistance.

None of this is something you can buy. Volkswagen says the car uses the same motor, battery, and platform as its upcoming ID. Polo and ID. Cross models, but Mission Efficiency itself is a one-off prototype built to demonstrate what the company's engineers can do, not a product headed to dealerships.

For a homeowner thinking about home energy upgrades, this doesn't change anything about your house or your options right now. It's mainly a signal that automakers are finding ways to squeeze more range out of the same batteries and motors already going into production cars, which could show up as small efficiency gains in electric vehicles you can actually buy in the next few years, including ones you might charge at home.