Drive Green - Saturday, April 12, 2008 7:48 - 0 Comments

BMW and Mercedes talk to Magna about Mila

The Magna MILA Alpin concept car shown in Geneva has gotten the attention of both Mercedes and BMW. The button-cute 4-wheeler rode on a flexible platform, could utilize a variety of fuel sources, climb 45-degree angles, and get up to 120 mph. Those capabilities, and the ability to be easily rebodied and cost-effectively manufactured, have the two premium brands looking at ways to bolster their lineups and enviro-credentials. Mercedes is known to be working on developing a 4-wheel-drive A-Class sedan. While the sandwich floors in the A-Class and B-Class cars were specifically created to allow flexible drivetrains, it is open to exploring options with BMW.
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Drive Green - Thursday, March 20, 2008 9:50 - 0 Comments

New York 2008: And the Green World Car of the Year is …

Efficient Dynamics has claimed its first scalps of the year, taking the World Car of the Year Green Award. The three finalists were all Rudolph’s children, being of the diesel variety: the BMW, the smart fortwo cdi, and the Volkswagen Passat 1.9 TDi BlueMotion. The specific rationale for choosing the BMW wasn’t given, but the roominess, real world practicality, miserly emissions and fuel needs, and Efficient Dynamics are probably all good suspects. It’s a nifty little car and a well deserved award, so kudos to you, BMW. Now if you could get that diesel Isetta going, we’d really get to cheering for you.

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Drive Green - Friday, March 7, 2008 6:25 - 0 Comments

Only 11% of new car buyers willing to pay extra for green vehicles

One of the biggest challenges carmakers face in selling eco- friendly vehicles is convincing customers to pay a premium for the privilege of knowing that they’re doing their part to help the environment. One of the key problems is that the majority of new car buyers aren’t willing to pay this premium. That’s the finding of the latest study run by J.D. Power and Associates based on responses from 44,931 new car buyers in the U.S.

The study found that although many new car buyers may want to purchase an environmentally friendly vehicle, only 11% are “very willing” to pay more to do so. In particular, new car buyers who express a strong willingness to pay more for environmentally friendly vehicles are more likely to be female and are highly educated with the highest concentration located in western U.S. and the lowest in the Midwest.

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Drive Green - Wednesday, March 5, 2008 3:35 - 0 Comments

Toyota Will Expand Hybrids Across Model Lineup

Following in Chrysler’s footsteps, Toyota announced at the Geneva Motor Show that it too will offer hybrids models throughout its entire lineup. “We hope to offer a hybrid version of each model in the 2020s,” said company president Katsuaki Watanabe.Since introducing the  hybrid into its lineup in 1997, Toyota has sold more than 1.3 million gasoline-hybrids. Last year, Toyota increased global sales of hybrid cars to 429,000 units from 312,000 units the year before. Toyota said it plans to sell 1 million hybrids annually sometime in the next decade, according to Automotive News.

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Drive Green - Tuesday, March 4, 2008 9:22 - 0 Comments

Tara’s Tiny EV to be the World’s Cheapest Car (But Not by Much)

Officially unveiled only a month ago to deafening praise, the Tata Nano, or “one lakh car,” is already in danger of being overtaken by a new Indian Challenger - Bengal Enamel’s Tara Tiny. Priced at just a fraction of a dollar less than the Nano - 99,999 rupees vs. 100,000 rupees (roughly $2,500) - the Tara Tiny, unlike its rival, will be a battery-powered EV; the four-seater will have a range of 62 miles (100 km) and a top speed of 43 mph (70 km).

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Drive Green - Friday, February 22, 2008 14:53 - 0 Comments

Lotus announces Hybrid & Electric Vehicle Group

Just last week we saw a product of Lotus Engineering’s focus on hybrid and electric vehicle technology with a device that synthesizes the sound of a petrol engine for cars that are so quiet they pose a danger to pedestrians. Far more than a simple noise maker, the device actually makes the car sound real. Today Lotus announces the formation of the Hybrid & Electric Vehicle Group to further support the company’s work in pioneering technologies for this emerging automotive field.

Although Lotus Engineering has been working on projects that would fall under this umbrella for some time, the formalization of the group will help to entrench Lotus as a leader in the field of green transport engineering, hopes Group Lotus CEO Mike Kimberley. That reputation will be built on the already significant foundations of Lotus’s contract production of the Telsa electric sports car and other, smaller projects for its engineering clients like the Lotus EVE (Efficient, Viable, Environmental) hybrid tech demo or the Low CO2 project working with Continental Division Powertrain (CDP).

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Drive Green - Tuesday, February 19, 2008 14:54 - 0 Comments

Geneva ‘08 Preview: Fiat 500 Aria gets green

At the upcoming Geneva auto show, Fiat will take the 500 minicar in two directions: red and green. The red we already know about: that’s the 500 Abarth with a 135-hp 1.4-liter turbo four and beefed-up bodywork. But Fiat will also be showcasing the 500 Aria concept, a rolling demonstration of the green technologies that the company is developing.

The concept draws on the theme laid out by the previous Fiat Panda Aria concept, which the company showed in Frankfurt. The 500 Aria, however, uses Fiat’s 1.3-liter 16v Multijet diesel, a particulate filter and robotic Dualogic gearbox with start-stop technology that reduces fuel economy by 10% in the city and cuts carbon emissions down to 98g/km.

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Drive Green - Tuesday, February 19, 2008 8:17 - 0 Comments

Japanese market Toyota Crown gets a revamp, adds hybrid option

Toyota has just introduced a new generation of their Crown luxury sedan. The Toyota Crown is a model that is only available in the Japanese market and a few other Asian countries. The rear wheel drive or all wheel drive sedan has been a staple of the Toyota brand since 1955 and the latest edition has an all V-6 engine lineup. The conventional models range from 2.5L to 3.5L in displacement, but the new 2008 model now offers a hybrid setup as well. The 3.5L V-6 hybrid is borrowed from the Lexus GS450h. One interesting feature available on the Crown is Active Noise Cancellation. Like noise canceling headphones, this system has a microphone detected engine noise and the system generates an opposite sound wave with the speakers to cancel the noise. The new Crown Hybrid is rated at 33mpg (U.S.) on the JC08 test cycle.

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Drive Green - Tuesday, February 19, 2008 5:20 - 0 Comments

Mitsubishi’s Lancer Evolution X features a few unusual efficiency improvements

Mitsubishi announced ten “design details” of the Lancer Evolution X today. Most of them are somewhat blusterous PR hype (read about Mitsubishi’s ETACs in the press release after the jump for a good example), but I thought I’d highlight the three that are focused on efficiency:

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