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Volkswagen considering a four-door, four-seat XL1

According to a report in Autocar, Volkswagen might have more in mind for the XL1 than mining it for advances to grace the next-generation Golf. Aiming to fight the Honda FCEV due for public consumption next year, we're told VW executives have put a four-door, four-seater version of the XL1 - it could be called XL2 - on the drawing board. The impetus is said to come from the top, with VW Group chairman Ferdinand Piëch intent on staying in the deep end of "super-efficent vehicles."
Autocar suspects the necessary changes could raise the weight of the car from 1,749 pounds to 2,068 pounds, which would make it four pounds less than the 2,072-pound Up! we drove a few years ago. Crucially, however, the mag thinks the extra capacity wouldn't change the two-seater's 310-mile-per-gallon rating, with tech tweaks and the aerodynamic benefit of a longer car offsetting the weight. Speculation is that the back seats would be staggered like the fronts in order to maintain the XL1's overall profile.
We recently heard about another XL1 variant that's gone off the radar entirely, the Ducati-engined XLR that we thought we'd see at the Geneva Motor Show and that was said to be going into production, so this one could go the same way. The biggest hurdle to making such an idea a reality, though, could be the price: the current XL1 costs 110,000 euros ($146,116). If VW really is going to compete with the Honda FCEV and the Toyota FCV - $70,000 in Japan - that might be where it wants to start.

VW to pay $1B in settlement with US government over V6 diesels

Volkswagen and the US government have come to a settlement for the civil claims against the automaker's 3.0-liter, diesel V6s. Over 83,000 V6 TDI-powered models are currently prowling US roads in violation of emissions laws. The settlement allows VW to recall over 75 percent of its cheating V6 diesels – about 63,000 units – and bring them into compliance. These represent newer VW Touaregs, Audi A6, A7, A8, Q5, and Q7s, and Porsche Cayennes built between 2013 and 2016. According to the company, the recall will bring these so-called Generation Two engines up to emissions specs, provided the EPA and CARB okay the modifications. Should the regulators say no to VW's tweaks, the company will buy back or terminate leases with the affected owners. For older V6 TDIs built between 2009 and 2012, Volkswagen will do broadly the same thing, only in reverse. It will lead with buy backs of older Touaregs and Q7s – the only vehicles the company sold with the earlier engines – but could offer fixes if EPA/CARB give the okay. As part of its agreement over the emissions-cheating V6s, Volkswagen will contribute $225 million to the "environmental remediation trust" it established as part of its settlement over cheating 2.0-liter TDIs. VW is also on the hook for $25 million with CARB, bringing the total for the six-cylinder part of its emissions cheating scandal to around $1 billion, Automotive News reports. This initial agreement still needs approval from US District Court Judge Charles Breyer. Related Video:

Volkswagen pushed back against Takata airbag recall

Volkswagen and Audi will recall about 850,000 vehicles in the US to replace their Takata-supplied driver side airbag inflators, but the automaker doesn't believe the safety campaign is entirely necessary. In a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the company pushes the agency to re-evaluate the recall's scope because the parts are allegedly safe, it claims. VW asserted in the letter, which NHTSA posted online (as a PDF) with other documents about the company's safety campaign, that the vast majority of the automaker's recalled vehicles used Takata inflators from the supplier's factory in Freiburg, Germany. Only the US-built Passat had components from Takata's plant in Mexico. VW's argues to NHTSA that its recall is unnecessary because there are no reported airbag ruptures in the German-made parts, and the plant has better quality control than Takata's factories in the US and Mexico. In addition, the Mexico-manufactured components in the Passat are also allegedly safe because they come from a time after significant upgrades to the plant to address humidity and welding concerns. "We do not believe the facts known to date support the scope as defined in the Takata defect notification," VW's letter says. To be clear, VW is not refusing the Takata recall and plans to fix the affected vehicles. Instead, this letter shows the automaker expressing an opinion that NHTSA's scope for the campaign is too broad. VW now plans to do its own analysis on the inflators to strengthen that case, according to The Detroit News. "We respectfully request that, should such results be shown, the agency work with Volkswagen and other manufacturers to revisit the scope of these recalls," the letter said. Takata's recalled inflators use ammonium nitrate as a propellant, and experts believe that long-term exposure to high humidity can make the chemical more likely to cause a rupture during airbag deployment. The spray of metal shrapnel from the exploding parts has links to at least 10 deaths. Related Video: