The star attraction at Volkswagen's LA Show booth is the Up! Lite Concept, a three-door, four-seater version of the German firm's future small car. Tipping the scales at just 695 kg or 1,532 lbs, the concept model is powered by a hybrid powertrain comprising of a 51HP 0.8-liter turbo diesel engine and a 13HP electric motor.

The three-door study, which is the fifth concept model in the Up! series, has a top speed of 160 km/h (100 mph) and accelerates to 100 km/h in 12.5 seconds (0-60 mph in 12 seconds).

Volkswagen has us a bit confused with the Up! Lite's fuel economy as the company announces two different figures: a combined fuel consumption of 2.44 lt / 100km (equal to 96.6mpg US) in the European cycle, and 70mpg on the highway for those of us that live on this side of the Atlantic.

Either way, the Up! Lite is -in theory always- extremely fuel efficient

The Germans claim there's a good possibility that the Lite may enter production within the next three or four years as it makes use of many components from the firm' New Small Family of cars that are expected in the market by the end of 2011.