Hot Cars

GM’s New Electric Concept Car

General Motors announced last week the revival of its electric car. Their new design, the Volt, will mass market the electric car and use little to no gasoline.

The Volt draws its power from a next generation battery, the E-flex system, which is recharged by a small onboard engine. According to GM, when the battery is depleted, a 1L, three-cylinder turbocharged engine spins at a constant speed to create electricity and replenish the battery.

The motor will not provide forward propulsion and is only used to recharge the battery. The car is said to reach 40 miles on one charge and save close to 500 gallons of gasoline a year.

This new development sprouted from the failed EV1 project GM began in 1996 and abandoned in 2003. They were heavily criticized for abandoning the experimental electrical vehicle program, but with the Volt, GM hopes to improve on their previous ideas of the EV1.

Some improvements on the new model include more passenger space, longer battery life, smaller battery size, and higher cruising speeds.

While most ultra-clean and efficient vehicles on the market today use hybrid gasoline-electric powertrains, the Volt will use E85 fuel which is a blend of 85% Ethanol and 15% gasoline.

Since the project is still in the concept stage, a final production version of the car is not projected for another 3 to 5 years.

Six-cylinder Bio-ethanol Engine For The Volvo XC60 Concept

The powertrain for the All Wheel Drive Volvo XC60 Concept, due to make its world debut at the Detroit show in January, is a six-cylinder, 3.2-litre bio-ethanol engine. The engine offers dynamic performance with 265bhp and 340 Nm of torque – with 80 per cent lower carbon dioxide emissions compared with the same engine running on petrol.

“We believe that the FlexiFuel also has great potential for larger engine sizes and we are planning to expand our range of bio-ethanol-powered engines in the coming years,” says Magnus Jonsson, Senior Vice President, Research & Development at Volvo Cars.

The powertrain for the Volvo XC60 Concept uses the same six-cylinder, 3.2-litre, in-line petrol engine that was introduced in the all-new Volvo S80 and revised XC90 in mid-2006. The engine has been optimised for E85 (85 percent bio-ethanol, 15 percent petrol). This gives acceleration from 0–60 mph in 8.2 seconds and a top speed of approximately 143 mph. Fuel economy when running on E85 reduces to 19.2 mpg, as the energy content of ethanol is 40% lower than that of petrol.

Environmental benefits

Bio-ethanol is an entirely renewable fuel that can be produced from just about any biomass source, such as corn, wheat, sugar-cane or cellulose. On top of these environmental benefits, in many markets the car owner is compensated at the fuel pump through the lower price of bio-ethanol.

“One single renewable fuel will not be able to replace today’s fossil fuels, and the range of alternative fuels will probably be far wider in the future. Many different fuels and technologies are therefore being developed in parallel. Ethanol reduces dependency on fossil fuels and Volvo’s FlexiFuel programme makes a vital contribution to our strategy of environmental sustainability,” says Fredrik Arp, President and CEO of Volvo Cars.

Bio-ethanol – the future?

The demand for renewable bio-ethanol is growing steadily in Europe. There are already 23 plants producing ethanol in Europe which is expected to rise to just over 60 by 2008. Approximately 720 million gallons of ethanol are produced annually within the European Union, primarily from sugar beet and various grains. Capacity is expected to increase threefold by 2008.

In comparison, the USA has 101 bio-ethanol plants with a capacity of 4.8 billion gallons per year. It has a further 39 bio-ethanol refineries under construction, which will add more than 2.5 billion gallons capacity. There are already about 1,000 filling stations for E85 in the USA.

Volvo Cars has already launched a four-cylinder bio-ethanol-powered FlexiFuel engine in three of its nine models – the C30 SportsCoupe, S40 saloon and V50 Sportswagon – which are available in several European countries – Sweden, France, Norway, the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, Belgium, Austria and Switzerland – and plans to introduce them to more countries in 2007, including, probably, the UK. Volvo predicts sales of 7,000 FlexiFuel cars worldwide in 2007.

Rinspeed Presents Ethereally Transparent Concept Car eXasis

Is it just a clever 3-D projection or maybe a mirage of a four-wheel art object? Or is it actually a real car sitting there? Some visitors to this year’s Geneva Auto Show (March 8th thru 18th) will ask themselves just these questions when faced with the new fully transparent Rinspeed creation “eXasis.” The insect-like body and even the floor pan of the seemingly “glass” concept car from the renowned Swiss powerhouse for new designs and ideas actually consist of a transparent high-tech plastic with a tinge of pale yellow.

The “eXasis” has open wheels, a cigar-shaped body with fore and aft tandem seating, and has elements of the legendary Auto Union race cars from the first half of the last century combined with a modern Baja-1000 off-road vehicle.

The transparency “dematerializes” the car to a large extent. Behind the seemingly fading matter the spirit of the “eXasis” reveals itself: The ideas, thoughts and imagination that were the basis of its development. For Rinspeed boss Frank M. Rinderknecht the “eXasis” symbolizes this development process, a process that takes immaterial spirit and turns it into matter, transforms a mere vision into a concrete car: “And in all its transparency the “eXasis” still seems as if it hadn’t arrived fully yet in the material world.”

Definitely part of the material world is the engine of the concept car: A compact and powerful two-cylinder 750-cc engine provides some 150 environmentally friendly horsepower for swift conveyance. Bioethanol that reduces CO2 emissions powers the tiny supercharged engine. With a projected vehicle weight of just 750 kilograms thanks to plastic lightweight construction each horsepower has to account for just five kilograms - on a level with a Porsche.

Altogether these figures give plenty of reasons to expect of loads of driving fun and numerous visionary technologies and innovations from Rinspeed’s “eXasis.” A very special thrill will be the view through the transparent floor pan - it will be an absolutely unique anniversary ride.

Cool Futuristic Concept Cars

Volkswagen Designers Create Futuristic Nanospyder Concept

A team of highly creative Volkswagen designers based in California have unveiled their own unique take on the future of modern transportation. The result is the Volkswagen Nanospyder. Futuristic nanotechnology supported by hydrogen fuel cells, solar power, wheel-mounted electric motors and inflatable organic body panels combine to form the unusual shape of the two-seater concept.

Nanospyder is the work of a team of three young designers – Patrick Faulwetter, Daniel Simon and Ian Hilton - based at the Volkswagen Design Center in Santa Monica. They created the Nanospyder in response to a challenge laid down by ‘Design Los Angeles’, a conference set to take place at the upcoming Los Angeles Motorshow in November. The brief – unlike the solution – was simple. To design a vehicle able to make the most of California without harming the environment.

The team met its brief by thinking well beyond current manufacturing techniques. According to its creators the Nanospyder would be formed out of a latticework of billions of tiny programmable nano devices measuring less than half a millimetre in diameter. Each of these tiny devices can be programmed to be as strong or weak as required meaning active crumple zones can be created. The ‘spine’ of the vehicle, onto which the rest of the components are attached, remains immensely strong.

Clothing the nano-lattice are panels formed out of a mix of organic materials some of which can inflate to provide further cushioning in the result of an impact. The material doubles as a power source as polysynthesis generates small amounts of electricity. This coupled with hydrogen fuels generates power to drive the tiny electric motors mounted within the hubs of all four wheels.

The Nanospyder, although purely intended as a concept vehicle, gives an insight into the depth of thinking going into the search for sustainable forms of modern transport.

The concept was created to be entered in the third Los Angeles Design challenge – the winner of which will be announced on November 30th at the Los Angeles Motorshow.

The Volkswagen studios, established in 1991, won the very first challenge in 2005 with the innovative Mobile Lounge concept.

Volkswagen Reveals Atacama Crafter Concept

Volkswagen has revealed a striking off-road vehicle based on the recently-launched Crafter van. Named Atacama, after the desert in South America, the four-wheel drive concept is the product of the Design Centre in Wolfsburg, Germany, and could become a limited production vehicle.

‘The Atacama concept is a fresh and modern interpretation of a four-wheel drive Crafter, combining function and individuality,’ says the team leader and exterior designer, Ralf Dekena. The design study gains its striking presence through its proportions. The front end, with slight modifications and the aluminium components such as the radiator, headlights or air vents, also add to the Atacama’s powerful appearance. The side air inlets in the wings lend the Atacama a sporty finish.

For protection during off-road use, the vehicle has been equipped with robust panelling and powerfully modelled wheel arches. Aluminium inserts further emphasise its off-road appeal and give the Atacama a more exclusive appearance. Offsets and stamps are repeated thematically on the wheel arches. The unique side window design demonstrates the integration of exterior and interior.

The designer responsible, Romain Chareyre, explains: ‘The design study shows further potential for the Crafter in the leisure and fun segment.’

The roof railing formed in a U-shape with integrated box is a modern interpretation of a carrier system. To match this element, the team designed the rear ladder which frames the brand logo in its shape and also has the door handle integrated in it.

The member of the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles board of management with responsibility for sales, Harald Schomburg, is very enthusiastic: ‘The absolute highlight of the Crafter presentation is the concept vehicle Atacama with four-wheel drive application by Achleitner.

‘It emphasises the strikingly masculine features of the vehicle and is our idea of a Crafter off-road vehicle. I’m very curious about the customer reaction – if it is positive we will build a series of up to 100 vehicles.’