jawfish

Suddenly It’s Good Car Business to Go Green
john posted in rides, technologies on October 8th, 2007

This year’s Frankfurt auto show brings a deluge of new green or greener concept cars, most of which look like production-ready chassis with new drive systems. Normally, concept cars have a host of features which the manufacturer never intends to build, but is using to test public’s fickle taste. At this show the news has been more pragmatic, and the volume of new ideas makes me feel like this is a turning point in transportation history.

Peugeot-Citroen
Citroen Cactus, not bound for the US.
The Peugeot-Citroen conglomerate may have the greenest fleet of cars in a few years, relying on tiny high-efficiency diesels.

Quite suddenly its good business to build green. Comparable moves are happening in heavy trucks, bio-fuels, and even in ships and planes. There are startups, small companies and bike makers such as Phoenix, Zenn, Zap, Vectrix, and the Chinese and Indian makers. Interesting green cars from Brazil, Norway, and France are also available outside the US.

Obvio from Brazil

About a year ago I started looking at green vehicles, with an eye toward getting or building something for local commuting. There was much talk about various bio-fuels like ethanol and there is a dedicated bunch of bio-diesel advocates around. On the road, the hybrid Prius is popular, along with the Honda hybrids and a Ford Escape hybrid with more modest mileage improvement. There is little else on the market today, and none of the hybrids support pluggable electric drive where you recharge your batteries from the grid instead of your gas engine. Until this summer there hasn’t been much talk about the future from the existing automakers. Or so it seemed. It turns out the R&D boffins were hard at work, and racing for market introduction in secret.

Chevrolet started touting its Volt concept car, an advanced series hybrid, and Ford its fuel-cell cars, but both seem to be vaporware from companies that may well not be around in 2010. The low-production Tesla BEV sports car came out to great and well-deserved fanfare, but extreme performance prices it into the celebrity owner category.

Tesla

Tesla lithium BEV ( battery electric vehicle – look Ma no gas! )

here’s a roundup of cars which may be available in the US soon:

Mercedes
Mercedes 44 mpg F700

Greencarcongress writes:

Mercedes-Benz used the Frankfurt Motor Show to outline the product timeline for its introduction of a number of new hybrid models into the market beginning in 2009. The company also announced it would begin series production of a B-Class fuel cell car in 2010. The hybrid products include the ML 450 Hybrid…; the S 400 Hybrid; and four BLUETEC diesel mild hybrids, the E 300, S 300, C300 and S400.

Fuel consumption ranges from 30mpg – 51 mpg.

Mercedes
fuel-cell Mercedes

Autoblogreen says:

Mercedes-Benz has become the first manufacturer to announce that they will start series production of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. In mid 2010 they will kick off low volume production of their B-Class F-Cell using a next generation fuel cell stack.

Hyundai
Hyundai fuel-cell

Autoblogreen says:

Hyundai is showing off their first dedicated fuel cell design concept this week at the Frankfurt Motor Show. The i-Blue features Hyundai’s latest in-house developed fuel cell stack, sending electricity to a 100kW motor driving the front wheels. The fuel cell stack is mounted under the floor of this new cross-over platform that is likely to form the basis of a future Hyundai production model. The 115L fuel tank is filled with hydrogen gas compressed at 10,000 psi which seems to be the standard most car-makers are converging on. Hyundai is claiming an operating range of 372 miles and a top speed of 100mph.

GM
Opel Flextreme

Greencarcongress writes:

GM has unveiled the the Opel Flextreme, a plug-in diesel series hybrid that offers up to 55 km (34 miles) of all-electric range. A 1.3-liter turbodiesel powers an onboard generator to replenish the 16 kWh li-ion battery pack and extend the vehicle’s driving range to a total of 715 km (444 miles).

Volvo

Volvo Pluggable Hybrid ReCharge
Autoblogreen says:

The ReCharge is a plug-in series hybrid based on the compact C30 hatchback. The all-wheel drive propulsion will be provided courtesy of wheel motors at all four corners. Juice for the motors will come from a lithium polymer battery pack mounted in the trunk with sufficient capacity for 62 miles of electric driving.

Ford

Ford Verve with announced CO2 emissions under 99 g per km.

BMW

BMW X6 hybrid

Chevrolet

Volt concept, vaporware or lithium leader?

Autoblogreen says:

The engine is a turbocharged, 1.0L three cylinder engine with 71 hp that has no mechanical connection to the wheels. The ICE runs at about 1800 rpm and drives a 53 kW generator that charges the lithium ion battery pack. The engine starts and stops automatically as needed to charge the battery.

Porsche
Porsche Cayenne mild hybrid
Greencarcongress writes:

Porsche is initially targeting average fuel consumption of 24 mpg US for the Cayenne Hybrid. The company says that future developments may allow them to push it closer to an average fuel consumption figure of approximately 26 mpg.

Which may not sound like much, but it’s a big investment for a relatively small automaker.

Toyota

Greencarcongress writes:
Toyota iQ microcar

Toyota introduced its ultra-compact iQ concept at the Frankfurt Motor Show. The iQ is the world’s smallest four-seat passenger (three adults plus child) concept car.

VW

VW up! microcar
Greencarcongress writes:

Volkswagen unveiled the up! city car concept vehicle at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Based on a completely new platform and drivetrain and measuring just 3.45 metres in length, the up! marks a return to the rear-engined layout once seen in the original Beetle.

The up! is in the same category as the Smartfortwo, and the Toyota iQ.

Smart

Smart Fortwo 55mpg

Nissan
Nissan Mixim EV

Nissan says:

Powered by Nissan’s ‘Super Motor’ electric motor/generator and using compact lithium-ion batteries, Mixim has unusually rapid performance combined with a usefully extended range. One Super Motor powers the front axle and a second drives the rear axle, giving Mixim all-wheel drive.

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Even the Pentagon is spending green.

Air Force
ancient B52 runs cleaner
The USAF says:

By 2010, the Air Force goal is to certify all its aircraft to use the fuel blend which mixes JP-8 with fuel produced using the Fischer-Tropsch process — a process used to convert carbon-based materials into synthetic fuel.
…
“In (the B-52 engine) tests, the use of the alternative fuel blend was found to reduce soot emissions by 30 percent at max power and by 60 percent at idle,” said Dr. Tim Edwards, a senior chemical engineer for the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Fuels Branch. “Sulfur emissions were reduced by 50 percent. These emissions reductions are due to the very high quality of the Fischer-Tropsch fuel blend component.”

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Here’s Autoblogreen’s Frankfurt roundup article.

And just to show its a real auto show, here’s a Renault with roller blades.

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