Driving On The Light Side

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Shaped like an upside-down V, the crossbeam provides a cavity in which to place the engine and the gas tank. The body of the Loremo is made of thermoplastic, a light and flexible synthetic material currently used in the airline and rail industries. The car sits low to the ground; air shafts built into the underside of the frame channel air through to the rear, pushing the car closer to the road, which adds to stability and reduces air resistance. Sommer claims that this design saves weight, improves aerodynamics and still provides resistance in a crash to the same level as other sports cars and subcompacts.

The result is the Loremo LS, a car with a two-cylinder, 20-horsepower, turbo-diesel engine that maxes out at 160 km/h and is expected to cost just €11,000. The sportier version, the Loremo GT, has a three-cylinder engine, gets 100 km to 2.7 L of fuel and can hit speeds of 220 km/h.

There are, however, a few design issues that could give consumers pause. For example, the Loremo has no side doors. Passengers enter the car through the front end, which lifts forward. The driver steps into the front seat and pulls down the hood section, which incorporates the dashboard and steering wheel, to close the car. The car's door locks and windows are manually operated, and a navigational computer does not come as a standard feature. These were stripped out to save weight and cost. "What's wrong with manually opening the window?" asks Heilmaier.

Well, nothing, perhaps. But history suggests that austerity does not always sell. In 1999, German carmaker Volkswagen launched the Lupo 3L TDI in Europe, a no-frills subcompact that got 100 km on 3 L of gas. Volkswagen built 29,500 Lupo 3Ls and then last year yanked the car from the market. "It was too frugal," says Hartmut Hoffmann, a product spokesman for VW. "Customer interest faded."

Other manufacturers have flirted with ultralight models, but few have dared bring them to market. In 1997, Ford announced plans for what it called the P2000, which promised to be 40% lighter than conventional family sedans. And in 2002, Opel, the European subsidiary of General Motors, unveiled the Eco-Speedster, a sleek, low-riding sports car that gets 2.5 L of fuel to 100 km. But none of the manufacturers ever intended to offer their ultralight cars for sale. "The real problem is that consumers are still very wary of these cars," says Garel Rhys, director of the Centre for Automotive Industry Research at Cardiff University Business School in Wales. "People don't buy a car solely for its environmental impact but for a host of other reasons, the way it drives and how it looks."

But with fuel prices at historic highs, all that may be about to change. ceo Heilmaier says 10,000 people have signaled interest in buying a Loremo since March, when a model was shown at the Geneva auto show. That's not bad for a car that hasn't even been driven yet. The first drivable prototype is to be built this year, and Sommer expects to go into production of the first 5,000 to 10,000 cars in 2009 and ramp up to 100,000 by 2012.

At least one major investor, Kosmo Technology Industrial Berhad, a Malaysian auto components maker, is on board. Kosmo has invested €2 million in Loremo, a big chunk of the €5 million Loremo has raised so far. The company will launch another financing round in September to raise €60 million to fund its production plans. If consumers are finally ready to embrace radical fuel efficiency, then Sommer and his team will have truly nailed it.