EV Owners in California to Feel the Shock of Higher Electricity Rates

Woe betide the electric car. Outpaced by their petrol-powered cousins in the 1900s, saddled with heavy and potentially dangerous batteries in the 1970s and crushed in the name of the Almighty Dollar in the 1990s, it’s been a rough road from there to here.

And now, on the dawn of a new age where electric cars seem poised to take their rightful place alongside gasoline cars, the electricity companies are about to throw a wrench into the works. If you live in California and intend to buy a plug-in hybrid Toyota Prius or Chevrolet Volt or an all-electric Nissan Leaf, you could be in for a...shock.

If the energy giants have their way, the Chevy Cobalt, which would have to rate on my list as one of the least desirable cars built by GM, is more economical to own or operate than any of the above. The reason?

Read more »

Green for Green: The Truth About America’s Car Buying Habits

At the Society of Automotive Analysts' (SAA) 2011 Automotive Outlook Conference in Detroit, J.D. Power released some statistics on U.S. light vehicle sales in 2010. The figures make an interesting reading.

86% of vehicles sold were gasoline-powered, 8.7% were flex-fueled, 2.6% were diesels and 2.4% were hybrids. Their forecast for 2020 is perhaps even more stunning. An estimated 71.5% of vehicles sold will be gasoline-powered, 10% will be flex-fueled, 9.5% will be hybrids and just 1% will be pure electric.

More than seventy percent will be gasoline powered in 2020? Whatever happened to my Hydrogen-7 or Tesla Model S? As Rebecca Lindland, Director of Strategic Review for IHS Automotive explains, nothing.

Read more »

Our Automotive Future: Clever Tech Meets Clever Manufacturing

In a decade where green has become the new buzzword for almost every industry, automakers are facing two big problems: economy and emissions. The simplest way to achieve this is to reduce weight and reduce the size of the engine. With all the government mandated safety equipment and luxury features that today’s customers demand - power everything, air conditioning and the like - achieving the former is very difficult. And fitting a small engine into a heavy body is only going to stunt performance and make fuel economy all the more worse.

Fortunately, there are a few potential solutions. Carbon fibre is one. It’s said to be ten times stronger than steel and five times lighter. Unfortunately, it’s also four times as expensive, making it impractical for use in non-luxury vehicles. Now, engineers are looking to green energy and new manufacturing methods to make carbon fibre cheaper. Still, the results are yet to be seen.

Read more »

NOx, Hydrocarbons and Worse – What’s Else is Coming from your Exhaust Pipe?

As automotive consumers, we think we’re pretty well informed. We read all the blogs and all the magazines, pouring over the all important numbers: 0 to 60 times, miles per gallon and – increasingly – CO2 emissions. That last one is interesting, as it’s only come to the mainstream public’s attention in the last seven years or so. Anyone would think that the only noxious chemical cars put into the atmosphere are CO2, but you’d be wrong.

Nitrogen oxides (NOx), hydrocarbons, diesel particulates and carbon monoxide are also put out by our daily drivers. Think of the worst parts of cigarette smoke and the fumes from burning plastic and you’ll have a good idea what I mean. Premature births, lung cancer and smog – all attributable to these noxious chemicals.

Read more »

GM Building Parts for Chevrolet Volt from BP Oil Spill Booms

The new Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric car is doing its part in improving the environment by making the best use of the oil that was spilled into the Gulf of Mexico from the BP Deepwater Horizon rig. To explain, General Motors has began recycling oil-soaked plastic booms from the notorious spill into components for the Volt.

The Detroit-based automaker said it has developed a method to convert an estimated 100 miles of the material off the Alabama and Louisiana coasts into more than 100,000 pounds of plastic resin that will be used for parts that deflect air around the vehicle’s radiator.

Read more »

Super Green: The New Wave Of Environmentally Conscious Exotic Supercars

It's not that easy being green, least of all if you're a builder of exotic, high performance supercars or uberluxury sedans. Recently however, there has been a move towards improving fuel economy and reducing emissions by many of the world's biggest and most well known luxury and performance brands.

Take Ferrari's stop-start equipped California HELE or Mercedes-Benz's SLS AMG E-Cell concept, for instance. And there's more on the horizon, including the plug-in hybrid 918 Spyder from Porsche and BMW's Vision EfficientDynamics, the latter of which allegedly will offer M3 performance with a CO2 emissions rating of just 99 grams per kilometer.

And it's not just these four who are in it for the environmental crowd cred: other makers including Lotus, Audi, Lamborghini, Jaguar and Bentley are also looking to green up their model ranges.

Read more »

Philadelphia High School Students Build Automotive X Prize Contender [with Videos]

Some people are just meant to go places. In the case of 16-year old Azeem Hill and the rest of Simon Hauger's West Philadelphia-based high-school hybrid team, that place is somewhere into the vastly expanding world of alternative fuel technology.

The West Philly Hybrid X Team, builders of the EVX GT and EVX Focus, is the result of an after-school program at the Academy of Automotive and Mechanical Engineering meant to educate youth about the future of hybrid tech and transportation. What's more impressive is that this young underdog team was in the running for this year's Automotive X Prize.

Read more »

Volvo wants in on the EV Business, Starts Developing C30 DRIVe Electric with Fuel-Cell Range Extender

With even the likes of Porsche going green – not to mention the Chevrolet Volt or the Nissan Leaf, it's no surprise that Volvo wants a piece of the "Look at me, I'm saving the planet!" action.

They partnered up with Powercell Sweden AB (with backing from the Swedish Energy Agency) and hope that the Volvo C30 DRIVe Electric will be ready for testing on the road by 2012.

Read more »

Credo E-Bone has Funny Name, Bulbous Styling and Hydrogen Power

In the future, we will all ride around in hydrogen fueled plastic caterpillars. Or at least we will if Hungarian industrial design Peter Simon has his way. His vision for a greener public transport future is a hydrogen fuel cell - electric bus called the Credo E-Bone [is it just me, or does "E-Bone" sound like something you'd buy at an adult shop and plug into your USB port?].

Read more »

Ford Develops Eco-Friendly Wheat-Straw Reinforced Plastics, First Application on 2010 Flex

Powertrains aside, automakers are also looking in other areas to make today's vehicles more environmentally friendly. One such example is a newly developed natural fiber-based plastic that contains 20 percent wheat straw bio-filler developed by the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, as part of the Ontario BioCar Initiative. Ford is the first automaker in the world to make use of this new bio-material on the 2010 Ford Flex's third-row interior storage bins.

According to the company, this application alone reduces petroleum usage by some 20,000 pounds per year and CO2 emissions by around 30,000 pounds per year while the bio-material is said to demonstrate better dimensional integrity than a non-reinforced plastic and weighs up to 10 percent less than a plastic reinforced with talc or glass.

But what makes this initiative even more impressive is that it also represents a sustainable usage for wheat straw which is the waste byproduct of wheat. Ford said that in Ontario alone, where the Flex is produced, more than 28,000 farmers grow wheat, along with corn and soybeans. At any given time, there are some 30 million metric tons of available wheat straw waste in Ontario.

"Wheat is everywhere and the straw is in excess," said Dr. Ellen Lee, technical expert, Ford's Plastics Research. "We have found a practical automotive usage for a renewable resource that helps reduce our dependence on petroleum, uses less energy to manufacture, and reduces our carbon footprint. More importantly, it doesn't jeopardize an essential food source."

Ford said that it is considering the use of natural fiber-based plastics for other applications in the near future including the center console bins and trays, interior air register and door trim panel components, and armrest liners.

Study Shows that Supercar and Luxury Automakers Reduced Average CO2 Emissions in 2009

It's not only volume brands that are reducing their average CO2 performance across their fleet, so are supercar and luxury vehicle makers, according to a report by auto consultancy JATO Dynamics that compares the average CO2 output of vehicles sold by selected specialty car brands in the first half (H1) of 2008 to the same period in 2009. With the exception of Maserati that recorded a 20g/km increase in CO2 output, all other makers included in the study showed a reduction in the average CO2 emissions of the cars they sold in the first half of 2009 compared to H1 2008.

"Of course, supercars are starting from a high base and have more scope to reduce emissions than mainstream cars, but the speed with which they are improving their CO2 performance should be credited," commented David Di Girolamo, Head of JATO Consult.

"Sales volumes might be on a smaller scale, but those manufacturers we studied sell close to 100,000 cars combined each year, and we know well that the days of supercar makers being excluded from the environmental debate are over," Girolamo added.

Ferrari showed the highest reduction in CO2 emissions as the Italian supercar maker recorded a 40.4 g/km improvement in CO2 output of new cars sold in H1 2009 over the same period in 2008.

JATO Dynamic claims that this is the greatest volume reduction of any brand on sale in Europe representing a 9.5% improvement matching that of the best performing volume brand of H1 2009 (in Europe) which is Chevrolet.

This also shows that Ferrari is well on its track to achieving its goal to trim down CO2 emissions from 400 g/km per vehicle to 280-300 g/km, by 2012.

Percentage-wise, the overall winner in CO2 volume reduction is Alpina, a German maker that sells modified BMW cars, with a 14.1% improvement over H1 2008 - although notably on a smaller scale than many of the other companies included in the study.

However, readers should be aware of a significant factor when it comes to CO emissions and that is none other than the annual km / miles covered by these specialty cars. Meaning a Ferrari or a Lamborghini may deliver for example 350g of C02 per km, but many of these cars are driven less than 30,000 km / 20,000 miles in a period of ten years. Do the math and that comes to a (theoretical) average of 7 tons of CO2.

A VW Golf 1.4 TSI 122HP with a manual transmission for example returns 144g of CO2 per km but will cover an average of around 20,000km or more per year which comes to 28.8 tons of CO2 in ten years of use (that is, if the car has been well serviced during that time).

Mercedes Announces Production of Hydrogen-Powered B-Class F-Cell

This is Mercedes-Benz's B-Class F-Cell, the company's first ever series production fuel-cell car. According to the German automaker, production will begin in late 2009 with the first of around 200 examples of the hydrogen-electric hybrid to be delivered to customers in Europe and the USA at the beginning of next year. Based on the B-Class hatch, the F-Cell uses a new generation fuel cell system, in which gaseous hydrogen reacts with atmospheric oxygen at 700 bar to generate a current for the electric motor, with water as a by-product.

As in conventional hybrids with combustion engines, the fuel-cell car makes use of a lithium-ion battery with an output of 35 kW and a capacity of 1.4 kWh to boost power and recover braking energy.

The drive components of the F-Cell powertrain are located in the sandwich floor, meaning that passenger and luggage space (416 liters) remain unaffected..

The vehicle's electric motor produces an output of 100 kW or 136 horsepower and a maximum torque of 290 Nm or 214 lb-ft allowing the five-door Merc to reach a top speed of 170km/h or 105mph. We don't know how Mercedes made the calculation, but the firm claims that the zero-emission car fuel cell drive consumes the equivalent of 3.3 liters of diesel fuel per 100km or 71.3mpg US.

The B-Class F-Cell is said to have a driving range of around 400 km or 250 miles while it takes about three minutes to refuel the car with hydrogen.

The Stuttgart automaker said that it has addressed the cold-start issues that affect hydrogen-powered vehicles with the B-Class F-Cell being able to start in temperatures as low as minus 25 degrees Celsius while vigorous testing ensures that the car offers the same level of safety as in other Mercs.

Official: BMW to Unveil Green Sports Car Concept at Frankfurt Motor Show

In what could be described as a 'hot-cold shower' type of announcement, in addition to confirming their decision to pull out from Formula One racing at the end of the 2009 season, BMW officials also revealed today that the Bavarian automaker will swipe the covers off an all-new 'green' sports car concept at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September. The announcement was made by Klaus Draeger, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Development, at the press conference on the realignment of the German firm's motor sports activities.

"Sustainability is becoming increasingly important," said Draeger in his speech. You will see a product of sustainable development at the IAA in Frankfurt in a few weeks in the form of a concept car. The BMW EfficientDynamics Vision will demonstrate how efficient a sports car can be. It will also prove that sustainability does not apply to the drive train alone, but to design and materials as well".

"Anyone who takes a closer look at this concept car will understand the direction in which we are developing our technology. And it will become evident that we will have to dedicate more human and financial resources to this type of development work," Draeger concluded.

Although Draeger did not get into any specific details, previous reports suggest that the concept sports car study may very well act as a teaser for a production model that could hit the market as soon as 2012 rivaling the likes of the Audi R8 and Porsche 911.

It has also been reported that BMW's 'green' supercar will be a two-seater mid-engined coupe equipped with the latest fuel-saving technologies from BMW's Efficient Dynamics programme including direct injection, brake energy regeneration and stop-start systems plus enhanced aerodynamics.

As for the EfficientDynamics Vision's looks, your guess is as good as ours, but hopefully we'll see something in the likes of Idres Noah's independent concept study which you can check out in detail here.

BMW Concept Photos: Idries Noah

New Peugeot 207 Economique with Aero Tweaks and Engine Mods Returns 61.8MPG - 3.8lt/100km

Sometimes, a few tweaks here, a few tweaks there, are more than enough to create an ultra fuel-efficient vehicle with extremely low emissions. Such is the case with the new Peugeot 207 Economique. First shown at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show, the Economique is based on the recently facelifted 207 hatchback. It is powered by a 1.6-liter HDI diesel with 90HP that benefits from specially developed engine management software and the addition of an EGR heat exchanger to cool the re-injected exhaust gases.

Peugeot also fitted the Economique with a modified five-speed manual gearbox with a higher final drive ratio than the standard 207 hatchback while the supermini rides on low resistance Michelin 185/65R15 VLRR (Very low rolling resistance) tires.

Furthermore, Peugeot's engineers lowered the ride height by 5mm and added a special aerodynamic package that consists of a new lower bumper trim and deeper side extensions, optimized air intakes, under tray covers and special wheel trims plus a two-part rear spoiler. As a result, the 207 Economique has a drag coefficient of only 0.274, compared to the standard 207 HDi 90 hatchback of 0.30.

The French automaker claims that the 207 Economique returns an average fuel consumption of just 74.2mpg UK (61.8mpg US or 3.8lt/100km) with C02 emissions of 99g/km.

The new Peugeot 207 Economique will go on sale in the UK in October and will be available in two trim levels, Economique and Economique + with prices starting at £12,995.

Obama Announces 35.5MPG Average for 2016 and National Standard For Tailpipe Emissions

The Obama administration today announced tougher fuel mileage standards and tailpipe emission limits forcing automakers to meet a fleetwide average of 35.5 miles per gallon (6.6lt/100km) by 2016, four years sooner than what Congress required in 2007, when it called for an average standard of 35mpg by 2020. Under the new plan, passenger cars sold in the U.S. will be required to travel on average 39 miles per gallon while light trucks will have to return a combined figure of 30 mpg by 2016.

According to a senior administration official, the new program will add an extra $1,300 to the price of producing a vehicle (compared to the $700 forecasted by the Bush administration's 2007 fuel efficiency proposal) but it is expected that consumers will bank around $2,800 over the car's life from fuel-savings.

The new regulations are said to save 1.8 billion barrels of oil and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 900 metric tons.

"The status quo is no longer acceptable. We have done little to increase fuel efficiency of America's cars and trucks for decades," Obama said in an address from the White House.

"As a result of this agreement, we will save 1.8 billion barrels of oil over the lifetime of the vehicles sold in the next five years," Obama added. "And at a time of historic crisis in our auto industry, this rule provides the clear certainty that will allow these companies to plan for a future in which they are building the cars of the 21st century."

Via: MSNBC & Detnews (photo:flickr)