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Volkswagen Passat TDI sets Guinness World Record for fuel economy

A classic among record drives for fuel economy is conquering all US-States without Alaska and Hawaii in one piece. A Volkswagen Passat TDI, produced at the Volkswagen Chattanooga (Tennessee) plant, now has covered the distance of 8,122 miles or 13,071 kilometers with record low fuel consumption and within 16 days. The record drive was witnessed by officials of the Guinness World Record Organization.

The driver team, blogger Wayne Gerdes and engineer Bob Winger, achieved a fuel consumption of only 3.02 liter on 100 Kilometers, which means a range of 78 miles per gallon. "We felt we had a good chance of beating the existing record with a series production Passat TDI," Gerdes said, "but to smash it by averaging 77.99 mpg is really impressive and a testament to the potential of Volkswagen's TDI vehicles. It shows how much the fuel consumption depends on the driver." The previous world record was set at 67,9 miles per gallon.

Volkswagen's advanced turbocharged and direct-injection TDI engine offers an official highway fuel economy of 43 miles per gallon (EPA) when equipped with the six-speed manual transmission (5.5 Liter per 100 km).