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