The race is on to make lighter vehicles to improve efficiency using hybrid technology, bio fuels, fuel cells, and combinations of these resources. The lighter vehicles also decrease the wear and tear of other components like the tire and suspension.

Amid the pressure from consumers, international regulations, and global warming concerns, the automobile game changes. Aluminum is starting to be the name of the game to answer all these concerns.

Car manufacturers are steadily funding the development of aluminum to be used in their production lines. Studies have concluded that use of the high technology metal gives way better fuel rating of trucks and cars.

Lighter vehicles have shown to have better fuel mileage and are friendlier to the environment with the lower emission of greenhouse gases.

Aluminum is also among the most recycled material in our planet. Seventy five percent of the aluminum used by our ancestors in the early 19th century may most likely be in use today.

The pliability of the material also allows car designers to predict how the car chassis will behave during crashes. Experiments conducted have proven that aluminum passes the most stringent safety standards. The A8 of Audi is an all aluminum bodied car and was given the highest rating of safety in recent tests.

More car manufacturers are expected to integrate aluminum into their future designs.

According to the scoop in Autocar, the French electric vehicles will include an electric version of the Kangoo MPV, a new electric car patterned after the Megane sedan, and a new smaller 5-seater model.
At present time, Renault has been testing the electric versions of Megane Sedan in Israel, the results of which will serve as the basis for the production of several more electric vehicles by the same company. The electric version of Megane will be released in the market sometime in 2011 while the Kangoo MPV electric car will follow shortly.

While the new Renault electric vehicles will emerge as compact city cars, it will not have the boring and nondescript designs like its counterparts in other brands. The French automaker is eager to make the new electric models fun and youthful with a unique look and cool driving features.

Expect these three Renault electric cars to make waves in the global market by 2012. Renault is eager to finish and perfect its production in time for the 2012 Olympics in London, as the company is planning to use the new electric vehicles for transportation for both the athletes and spectators. Talk about the perfect advertising scheme.

“The C-Cactus has a simple design that decreases the number of elements - even doing away with the dashboard - which contributes to a reduction in weight, cost and impact on the environment.”

Okay, maybe that’s true — but it’s pretty ugly if you ask me. If Citroën wants to score, it’s going to have to make the C-Cactus (or whatever name it’ll have) a better look…

A quick excerpt:

“The car will depend on lithium-ion battery which will propel the front wheels by transferring the energy through a gearbox without producing any sound and emissions. The battery of the Mini E was especially engineered for the vehicle and has a rating of more than 150 miles per charge.”

And whether one agrees with the way in which ethanol feedstocks are produced and the fact that ethanol powered vehicles still rely on fossil fuel gasoline in some way, Chevrolet presents a diverse selection of alternative fuel vehicles including the Avalanche, Impala, HHR, Silverado, Suburban, Tahoe and Express.

For those that feel eco friendly vehicles compromise the rugged nature of a solid vehicle or that biogases lessen the power of the “he-man” truck, think again because even the big V8 engine in the Silverado is being offered in E85. In fact, it is believed that E85 offers more octane than traditional gas thereby increasing the horsepower to some extent in vehicles using the biofuel. The thought now is that E85 is in reality more powerful, contrary to the beliefs of the naysayers who are still caught in some time warp using any excuse to smash down technology.

In addition, Chevrolet seems to have added another model to the E85 group according to television commercials airing in Canada. The most recent addition, which will be made available to the public December 2008, is the sedan class 2009 Chevy Malibu E85 FlexFuel.

Further reading:

• http://www.gm.com/experience/fuel_economy/altfuel/vehicles/sedan/2009_malibu_e85/index2.jsp
• http://www.chevrolet.com/biofuels/

Their newest innovation, the GEM Peapod, announced mid-September, will be the perfect “around town” vehicle. Short trips are said to cause the worst type of pollution. By driving the Peapod to run local errands, the environment will be much healthier. No gas and no emissions, the Peapod is considered the next generation of electric vehicles with production beginning in 2009.

Current GEM cars come in a choice of six models including a two, four and six passenger car as well as three utility vehicles. An impressive thirty-eight thousand vehicles on the road, they are legally permitted to travel on public roads in forty states.

A live announcement was seen on CNBC introducing another set of vehicles, the Chrysler ENVI, also electric vehicles but electric available in more mainstream models such Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge. Lithium-ion batteries will power the Dodge EV (based on the Dodge Viper), while the Jeep EV will also use an integrated generator system. The Chrysler EV will be produced in many models but the seven-passenger van will run on eight gallons of gas to four hundred miles.

At least one of the group of three new vehicles will go on sale as soon as 2010 in North America.

Online resources:

• http://www.gemcar.com/
• http://www.greenecomobility.com/peapod
• http://www.chryslerllc.com/en/innovation/envi/overview/

In a joint venture with Nandan Biometrix, Ltd, the jatropha grower and Shapoorji Pallonji Co. Ltd, a construction company, the newly formed company Bharat Renewable Energy Ltd will be responsible for converting the jatropha to biodiesel. One million hectares of the plants will be planted and harvested in the next four years in response to the September 11th announcement by the Indian government to require a twenty percent mixture of bio fuels in all transportation fuels sold by the year 2017.

To keep valuable farmlands available for edible food sources, the government is encouraging organizations to use wastelands as growing areas. One such area, in which the national petroleum company has invested, is in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. To further encourage production of biodiesel, new policies allow for tax and duty concessions. In addition, the government has banned the importation of animal fats previously used as the raw materials to make biodiesel oil.

Unlike fossil fuels such as gasoline and diesel, biodiesel used to run these cute little Beetle cars, comes from discarded cooking oils. Imagine fueling a vehicle with a restaurant’s old vegetable oil used to cook French fries. Another aspect of the Bio-Beetle is that it also uses earth friendly coolants, synthetic oil, and non-toxic cleaners. The company employees wear organic cotton uniforms and the company mission is “to be the greenest and best rental car company on the planet”.

The company goal sounds like a grandiose ideal but considering the fact that the owners personally funded the development and realization of these Bio-Beetles with their own monies, it is a testament to their dedication to finding alternative fuel solutions. As funds allow, they purchase more cars for development to add to their eco rental fleet. And believe it or not, there are places to refuel the cars other than the rental agency itself.

In addition to discarded cooking oil, biodiesel can also be made with inferior oils that do not meet food quality standards and mixtures can be blended from more than one plant. The most common plants used to create the oils are safflower, castor, palm, olive, peanut, soy bean and mustard.

More info on the Bio Beetle Website at bio-beetle.com!

Well, it’s a Hydrogen Mini using BMW’s CleanEnergy technology!

I wouldn’t mind driving one of these…

For those who do not know the meaning of natural gas, here is a small refresher. Millions of years ago, plants and animals died and were later on buried deep inside the earth. These fossils and other organic materials, due to the extreme pressure and high temperature beneath the earth’s surface, got converted into gas. This is what is known as natural gas. You are already using one natural gas for your home cooking which is known as propane. There are other natural gases like butane and ethane. Using natural gas car fuel will help to reduce the burden on the earth’s dwindling oil resources.

As always. Honda is running in front of the pack in this one — surprises anyone?