GoKawiilis transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State.
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No, that’s not a Tesla Cybercab. That’s Volkswagen’s Mission Efficiency, the world’s slipperiest electric vehicle. The near-production 2+2 seat electric coupe prototype was built on VW’s MEB+ platform, incorporating front-wheel drive components from the upcoming ID. Polo and ID. Cross models.
True to its name, the mission of Mission Efficiency is to break records. With a drag coefficient of a scant 0.158, the prototype claims to be the world’s most aerodynamic road-approved vehicle. It also claims to have broken the record for energy efficiency, consuming 6.48kWh of energy per 100 kilometers during a constant-speed (68 km/h) test-drive on flat terrain with secondary features like AC deactivated. And lastly, the Mission Efficiency is “the most economical near-production electric car in its class” thanks to its platform sharing with the ID. Polo.
What does all this mean in practical terms? Well, think vast distances traveled with little thought paid to charging stops. Volkswagen recently completed a real-world 1,278.36 km (794.34 miles) trip from Wolfsburg to Vienna on a single charge of Mission Efficiency’s 54.9 kWh (net) battery. The EV used only 6.89 kWh/100 km (7.51 kWh/100 km including charging losses) at an average speed of 67.72 km/h — and still arrived at its destination with 164 km of range remaining.
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