Volkswagen unveils its NILS Concept for Frankfurt

  • Sep 3, 2011
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With a basic layout mirroring that of a Formula One race car, the solo seater from Volkswagen is a new form of minimalist mobility, and for the sake of an already ailing planet it's as green as they come

Designing a technically sound vehicle that flaunts all the glitterati and gizmos of the modern era, while at the same time filling its belly with as little of the world’s precious fuel as possible is very simply put, every major car makers dream for the near future. And while, it is a known fact that Volkswagen’s top boss Dr. Ferdinand Piesch has pioneered this movement to a great extend for the company and indirectly for the world, the scope and bandwidth of this vision was exemplified in the form of the XL1 concept car, that in real world conditions managed to cover an astonishing distance of a 100 km on a single liter of diesel.

That is to be quite frank, the true quest for super efficient small packaging, which now as we see it is slowly moving a step forward as Volkswagen unveiled for the very first time in its history, a single-seater all electric urban city concept that according to the auto giant is quite easily the newest and most fine specimen of a car flaunting the ‘minimalist mobility’ moniker.

Gaining a lot of attention at the very eve of the 64th Frankfurt Motor Show, where it will be looked upon a lot more closely and without doubt a tad of speculation, this racing car design inspired one man seater is what the company likes to  call the NILS Concept.

The first thing that ought to catch your attention is the fact that the car has four free-standing wheels, just like that of an F1 car. But, it’s not built for race track, but rather for transportation within the city, which as per German Traffic Demography data seems to make a lot of sense.

Built to be as compact as possible, the NILS will definitely make city drives a lot more hassle free thanks to its meager proportions. It is 3.04 metres long, which is about 50 cm shorter than one of Volkswagen’s latest urban hatch offerings for the world, called the up!

Just 0.39 metres wide from wheel to wheel, and a mere 1.2 metres tall, the NILS’s lightweight 460 kg body houses its 19 kg engine at the rear, where like all plug-in electric cars of the modern day, the 15 kW lithium-ion battery pack can be recharged at an electric vehicle charging station.

NILS Concept designer Thomas Ingenlath, has kept the proportions of this single-seater quite bare minimum, but curvaceous and aerodynamic at the same time, which brings us to what sort of performance one can actually expect for a one man city car like NILS.

Well, a top speed of about 130 km/h to begin with is not bad at all, for a car that will do service primarily on city roads. Add to that its ability to cover a 0-100 km/hr sprint in less than 11 and you have for yourself, a cost effective athlete that unfortunately for its future owners will be better off within city limits. The reason for this being, the quintessential problem that most skeptics have has with regards to any electric car till date, its ‘Range’. Well the NILS as we can see has not been built to tire out the Nissan Leaf or even the superfast Tesla Roadster on miles. It’s a city car, and 65 km on a full charge is all you’re going to get out of it.

2011 Frankfurt Motor Show: Hot launches & brilliant concepts, click here


So what does a car this small really boast of apart from zero emissions? Well, to really understand that you’ll have to dismantle it only to be left amazed at the cutting edge technology and high-grade material Volkswagen has used to complete its torpedo like structure.

Safety has most certainly been given the highest priority with ESP (Electronic Stabilisation Programme) and more importantly, an automatic distance control system.  Not only are the four disc brakes used to brake; electric traction by electric motor and battery regeneration can be used to brake as well.

 
For driver engagement and vital information display, a seven-inch TFT display conveys important data like the speed and the energy that is represented by bars.  Another graphic display offers information on the driving range.  A second central instrument is a mobile multifunctional device that manages tasks related to Navigation, Radio, Media, Telephone, Trip computer and pre-configuring the driving range.

The NILS concept from Volkswagen will be on display at this year’s Frankfurt Motor Show along with its performance subsidiary Audi, which in case you don’t already know will also showcase some breathtaking out of the box designs concepts like the Urban (1 +1 seater) Concept Car in both hard top and open top versions, and a far more anticipated A2 Hatchback Concept all under the same IAA roof at Frankfurt.

2011 Frankfurt Motor Show: Hot launches & brilliant concepts, click here

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