Been writing an article about how long it will be before we see the first car to break through the magic 100mpg barrier. Ignore hybrids, plug-in hybrids and futuristic fuel cell vehicles – I’m talking a good old-fashioned internal combustion engine working on its own. The best on sale now is the Smart ForTwo diesel (above), which officially can top 85mpg. On the face of it, any car that can take fuel economy into three figures is likely to be powered by a low-capacity oil-burning unit. However, there are a range of issues about getting those clean enough to meet the next generation of emissions laws. Setting that aside, there are a few contenders to take us to 100mpg. The next generation ForTwo is an obvious one, along with VW’s new small city car, marketed below the Polo as a production version of the UP! concept. An outside bet might be a replacement for the Citroen C1/Peugeot 107/Toyota Aygo triplets. Insiders say nothing is due on that score for at least a couple of years, but Citroen did briefly offer a C1 diesel back in 2005 when the model first when on sale and squeezed close to 70mpg from it. One thing is clear; in the current climate, the PR value of being the first to get to 100mpg would repay all the engineering costs and then some.
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