Mission creep

Back at the inaugural Ti Concours d’Appréciation, when everyone was ogling the two Volkswagen XL1s on parade and yearning for the embattled brand to make a modern-day version, little did we know a crack team of 50 engineers over in Wolfsburg was planning to do just that.

Yet, just weeks later, there I was in Austria, taking a break from driving the new Volkswagen ID. Polo, admiring a period XL1, as I waited to hear all about the new Volkswagen Mission Efficiency parked next to it. Or, if you like, the eco-friendly electric son of Piech’s diesel-powered marvel.

This was all most unexpected. Volkswagen hadn’t dropped any hints beforehand. The first we heard of it was the previous day during the press conference for the ID. Polo just outside Vienna airport. Then I got a brief glance at the physical car, curiously covered in road grime, before jumping into a Polo for the test drive. It would be a full 24 hours before I returned, eager to hear from Christoph Riechel, head of innovation and a core part of the Mission Efficiency team.