VW's new XL1: The arrival of the future we were promised?

The new Volkswagen XL1 prototype really got me excited. I'm a total sucker for streamlined cars with faired-in rear wheels. But I really love this promotional image of the car speeding along an empty highway towards a futuristic city that is actually the real location of Doha, Qatar!  The fact that this vehicle is a driveable reality, and that this glittering city is a real place is enough to make even a cynic stop and think, wow, 2011 is more like 2011 than I ever thought!

The XL1 is the lastest in a string of "1-Liter of fuel per 100km" car concepts done by VW in the past few years, but this is the first one to look and feel like a real, viable passenger car rather than a one-off curiosity.

Another thought that crossed my mind was how this remarkable new vehicle hearkens back to the VW Type 64 (below), from 1939. What I love about the XL1 is that it doesn't make a single direct reference to the Type 64, but it feels like the same car, as if it evolved through time, incorporating styling trends and new aerodynamic discoveries along the way. My hat is off to the designers at VW. I think this car is a very exciting view of the present.  See all the promotional renderings here.

Below are the previous "1-Liter" VW Concepts

Hybrid Horrors!

No, I am not talking about runaway Toyotas here.  I am talking about runaway marketing managers.  Why in the world do so many car manufacturers feel the need to plaster gigantic, tacky graphics over their cars proclaiming them as hybrids?  I am all for green initiatives, local organic apple pie and motherhood, but what ever happened to tasteful restraint??  Luxury and performance hybrids are a bad enough joke as it is, but can't they keep the joke to themselves?

It seems the worst offenders are the SUVs.  Both the GM and Porsche SUV Hybrids have massive "Hybrid" markings down the rocker panels as if to say "Please don't key my massive, hideous truck.  It gets marginally better mileage than the one I drove until last year!" Pathetic.  If you need to drive one of those absurd luxury barges, you should have the balls to carry it off without having to beg everyone's forgiveness, or dare I say praise.

Sports cars are also getting in on the fad for cheesy graphics.  In the old days, a supercar may have had the word "Turbo" emblazoned across it in order to advertise the fact that the car was faster than yours. But now, even supercars are getting "greener than thou," and this really turns my stomach.  Perhaps the worst offender is the new Lotus Evora Hybrid.  Not only does it have bad graphics on the side, but there is a rear window sticker on the clear engine cover that evokes circuit boards.  Can you get any more sophomoric?  And Ferrari showed off its new eco-friendly technology in Geneva by painting their show car...wait for it...GREEN! And in case you were too dumb to catch that subtle metaphor, they slapped on a tacky windshield graphic just to top it off.

I'll end here by just saying that this has to stop. Now. Please.  Last time I checked, the Tesla Roadster silently zips along producing zero emissions, and no one has to know about it but the driver and whoever can identify one on the street. Now that's earth-friendly and eye-friendly.