Volkswagen will be rolling out Passat versions which are fuel efficient and with low emissions during the early part of 2009. Zooming out of the assembly line will be the new gen Passat BlueMotion, Passat TSI EcoFuel, and Passat Blue TDI.
The three new vehicles will be under a new brand, the BlueMotion Technologies. The range of cars under the umbrella will primarily be products that have low carbon dioxide emissions and efficient fuel consumption.
The BlueMotion Technologies will represent evolving solutions and systems that are still on the works like regenerative braking, stop-start system, hybrid systems, and electric drives.
The all electric vehicle 2e from Aptera Motors will go into production and is expected to be delivered by October 2009.
The three-wheeled vehicle Type 1, now coined as 2e, is a Carlsbad concept with investments from big names like Google and Idealab. The sleek electric vehicle is made from composite high strength materials with good aerodynamics. The e2 can travel 100 -120 miles in a single charge with a top speedometer reading of 85 to 90 miles per hour. Aptera boasts of the e2 passing the safety standards and crash testing with flying colors.
Production of the vehicles will early January or a year few weeks delayed from the original plan of late December 2008. It is not yet clear if the first batch of e2 will go the test fleet or to the consumers. It is certain though the mass production will be this fall.
Car experts declare that the days of the heavy and inefficient automobiles are numbered. Current trends are asking for solutions to solve the high cost of fuel and deteriorating state of the environment.
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.
With the constant threat of global scarcity of gasoline and global warming, big automobile companies have started developing vehicles that run on electricity. While Nissan vowed to be the leader in electric vehicle technology, its parent company, the French automaker Renault, announced its plans to release three electric vehicles in 2012.
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.
This Citroën C-Cactus is obviously a concept car, but apparently French car maker Citroën is planning on actually building a real car based on it…
“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…
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The Electric Mini E is looking for lease-holders! Check out the story at the Mini Car Blog — it’s great news for electric car lovers!
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.”
Chevrolet, a division of General Motors, has been manufacturing cars powered by biofuel for the last eight years. According to Beth Lowery, GM Vice President, Environment, Energy and Safety Policy, “at GM, we believe that the biofuel with the greatest potential to displace petroleum–based fuels in the U.S. is ethanol.” GM’s preferred form of ethanol is called E85, a mix of eighty-five percent ethanol to fifteen percent gas, and is presently produced from grain products grown in the US.
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.
Chrysler is moving quickly to advance its line of eco friendly vehicles. With ten years of history behind them in the electric car business, they have recently announced more models that will be added to the selection. Formerly known as Global Electric Motorcars, the division is now called Green Eco Mobility in accordance with the times and to show Chrysler’s determination to become a leader in environmentally friendly vehicles.
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.
The race is on to find reliable and realistic foodstocks to produce biodiesel. In keeping with the rest of the world to voluntarily contribute to the advancement of alternative fuels, Bharat Petroleum Corp, Ltd, the state run oil refinery of India, has recently announced that it will commit nearly four hundred and eighty million dollars to the production of biodiesel from jatropha plants. Rich in oil, the plants are perfect as a renewable resource as they are not edible and do not conflict with human food sources.
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.
Doing not talking is important. It is not enough to say that we need to find better ways to power modern day cars. The best solution is to do something about the dilemma. And that is exactly what Bio-Beetle from Maui, Hawaii has done. They have taken a stand against traditional, dirty polluting cars and opened an eco car rental agency with vehicles powered only by biodiesel.
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”.