More good news for the British auto industry

Following the news of Jaguar Land Rover announcing a net profit and re-entry of Lotus into F1, there is more good news for the British auto industry.

The British Government recently announced £381 mil. support for Ford motor and Nissan and has extended a £20.7 mil. grant to Nissan. Nissan plans to manufacture their Leaf electric car for the European car market at it's plant in Sunderland here in the UK.

Nissan Leaf at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show: Tennen-Gas

For your info, the Leaf is a five-seater hatchback and said to have a range of 100 miles with top speed of more than 90 mph.

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Green Ferrari

Never thought I would hear the two words "Ferrari" and "Green" together but as they say ...

Ferrari recently unveiled their the 599 GTB Fiorano, their HY-KERS vettura laboratorio (experimental vehicle) at the Geneva Motor Show. The car features a electric motor mated with a V12 petrol engine. The electric motor powers the power steering, power-assisted brakes, air conditioning and on-board systems.

According to Ferrari the vehicle reduces CO2 emissions on the ECE + EUDC combined cycle by 35 per cent.

More info here.

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Electric cars tested in the UK

The CABLED (Coventry and Birmingham Low Emission Vehicle Demonstrators) consortium is currently testing a total of 340 electric cars across the UK. This includes the  Mitsubishi i-MiEV, Jaguar Land Rover's _e electric/diesel hybrid, LTI’s TX4E taxis, Mercedes Benz/Smart FourTwo electric drive, Tata Indica Vista EV and the hydrogen-powered Microcab.

The Microcab

The test  seeks to find out how how practical these electric cars under real life conditions would be - this include how they are used and charging information. Recharging points will be provided by Birmingham and Coventry City Councils and Eon. Birmingham University’s hydrogen refuelling station will also be available.

Researchers from Aston University will be analysing the data generated.

Interestingly out of the total cars that will be tested for a year, 110 will be based in Birmingham and Coventry. 25 Mitsubishi i-MiEV cars were passed to test drivers in the West Midlands with the rest will be given to lucky drivers, specially selected by Coventry University researchers. Hope I am one of them.

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The funny G-wiz

When I saw the G-Wiz for the very first time, it brought a smile to my lips. This is apparently quite different from my friend's reactions when they first laid eyes on this unusually shaped car.  UGLY was the term they used to describe it.

The first time I saw this car was in London and the reason I found the car amusing was not the shape which does look funny but because there were two of these cars parked in a single parking space. I only learnt later that these cars are pure electric cars and built by an Indian company based in Bangalore called the Reva Electric Car Company. It is sold under the G-Wiz brand name in the UK by GoinGreen and costs about £7500 which makes it one of the cheapest green cars.

Their latest model, the G-Wiz L-ion is the world's first commercially produced lithium-ion powered electric vehicle.

The car is meant for urban driving and seats two adults and two kids. It is said to have a range of around 80 Kms per charge using lead acid batteries or 120 Kms on lithium ion batteries.

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Nissan Leaf unveiled

Nissan unveiled their much awaited electric car called the Leaf yesterday. In their words, it is the "World's THE WORLD'S first electric car designed for affordability and real-world requirements".

The hatchback will be launched in late 2010. It comfortably seats five adults and has a range of more than 160km (100 miles).


In case you are wondering about the name,

The "LEAF" name is a significant statement about the car itself. Just as leaves purify the air in nature, so Nissan LEAF purifies mobility by taking emissions out of the driving experience.

The car is powered by laminated compact lithium-ion batteries, which generate power output of over 90kW, while its electric motor delivers 80kW/280Nm.

or more information about the car, check out their press release.

However, they failed to actually say how much the car will actually cost.

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Can Tesla survive?

Tesla motors, the US based makers of electric cars, recently received $465 million as part of the Department of Energy's $25 billion advanced technology loan fund. This fund seeks to create green jobs and reduce the US dependency on foreign fuel.

However, I am not quite sure whether Tesla can survive the current crisis that has hit the US automakers quite hard. One reason is that they only have two models in the stable, viz., the Model S and the Roadster. Unlike the Toyota Prius or the Honda Hybrid cars, Tesla's models are pure electric cars.

They are also targeted at a niche market - people who like sporty cars. So they are going up against some big names like Porsche, Ferrari, Lotus, etc.

Having said that, maybe being small and nimble may actually serve the company well. Plus, a number of people who can afford the fast, flashy cars are turning their backs on the gas guzzlers as being seen as "Green" becomes fashionable. They have already "delivered slightly more than 500 Roadsters". The Model S sedan is also due to come out in 2011.

Model S

This interesting BusinessWeek article asks "Can Tesla Become a Real Automaker?"

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The Riversimple Urban car launced in London

The Riversimple Urban car was launched in London yesterday.

The two-seater car is powered by hydrogen fuel cells and was developed with Oxford University and Cranfield University. It features gull wing doors as well.

The car is expected to go into production by 2013.

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Citroen C1 Ev'ie - UK's first 4-seater electric car

UK's first 4 seater family car was launched last weekend. The Citroen C1 Ev'ie was developed and built by the Electric Car Corporation.

It is available in 3 or 5 doors versions. According to their site, the car has a top speed of 60 mph with a range of 60- 75 miles on a full charge. Charging from domestic 13 amp socket overnight takes 6 hours.

The cars cost £16,850.

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GM and Segway's Project PUMA

Recently unveiled at the 2009 New York auto show, PUMA stands for Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility and is the result of the collaboration between GM and Segway.

The PUMA has a maximum speed of 35 mph and can go up to 35 miles on a full charge.

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Very fast yet green Bentley

Just found out about the new Bentley which runs on biofuel. You would not normally associate "green" credentials with powerful cars but this will be their fastest, most powerful production car ever. It will be unveiled on March 3rd at the 2009 International Geneva Motor Show.

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Ford Fiesta ECOnetic

Ford Fiesta ECOnetic, the latest fuel efficient car from Ford is set to hit European roads soon. Recently unveiled at the British International Motor Show, the car does 65 miles to the gallon (some say 63.5 miles to the gallon). It has been hailed as UK's greenest car.

However, it won't be sold in the US. The reason: it has a diesel engine and apparently the fuel is still not popular with Americans due to a negative image plus the fact that it costlier than gasoline.

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Proton GEN-2 ecoLogic

Proton Cars UK has announced the launch of the GEN-2 ecoLogic range (Yes! That's how they write the name). Available in a hatchback or saloon version, the ecoLogic models are priced 10,995 and £10,795 respectively.The dual fuel models are able to run on either petrol or LPG (liquefied petroleum gas).

This is not something new for Proton in the UK as the Humberside Police have been running LPG-converted Proton vehicles for over 10 years.



The Proton ecoLogic GEN-2 has a 1.6 litre engine and is available in a sporty hatchback or saloon version, priced at £10,995(OTR) and £10,795 (OTR) respectively.

Both cars come with reverse sensors, air conditioning with pollen filter, electric front and rear windows, automatic central locking and alloy wheels. All customers can get a black leather interior on the GEN-2 ecoLogic hatchback absolutely free for a limited time only. This will be optional in the future and customers would have to pay £100 extra for it.

Since I didn't hear anything about this in the news, thought I should spread the news around. Read their press release here: Half price motoring with the new dual fuel ecoLogic.

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Electric cars in La Rochelle

This is my second "Auto Story in Pictures Wednesday" post.

Saw a few cars near the Les Minimes post on our vacation in La Rochelle. They were hooked up to some sort of recharging post. I don't understand French but I immediately realised that they were electric cars. Later on found out that they are part of La Rochelle's active environmental pollution reduction policy. The electric cars are for hire and pay by usage time and mileage totalled during the month.







The pictures here are of the Citroën AX. You can recharge them for free.

Malaysians may recognise the shape. The Proton Tiara produced in the country from from 1996 to 2000 was based on the Citroën AX.

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If you wish to join "Auto Story in Pictures Wednesday, just send me an email (ahoklah@gmail.com) with a link to your post and I will email you the code for the blogroll. Will add you to the blogroll as soon as you have it up on your own blog.

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Most efficient cars

Yahoo! Cars UK has come up with a list of Five of the most efficient cars. This was based on fuel uses and emissions. They are listed under 5 different classes :

City slickers
Fiat 500



Compact superminis
SEAT Ibiza Ecomotive & VW Polo Bluemotion

Family hatchbacks
Ford Focus Econetic

D-segment saloon cars
BMW 318d

Compact SUVs and crossovers
Ford Kuga



Read "Five of the most efficient cars in their class"

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Th!nk cars in the UK soon

With the petrol prices way up, it's becoming quite a burden to drive the car. I really do wish I had a hybrid or electric car> Anyway, was just reading about the Th!nk cars from the Norwegian company Think. They recently launched the TH!NK city and concept TH!NK Ox at the 78th annual international Motor Show in Geneva.



The TH!NK city is totally emission free and looks like a fun car. Moreover, the body is 95% recyclable. Talk about environment friendly.





On a full charge it can go up to 200 kilometres (124 miles) in city driving, with a top speed of 100km/h.



However, I have to say, the 'Ox' definitely looks way better than the 'City'.

UPDATE:

According to various reports the Th!nk cars will go on sale during the last quarter of this year at a retail price of around £14,000.


Read more on Autobloggreen.com and on the Channel 4 websites.

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LifeCar - a green sportscar

From the Morgan Motors website

The Morgan LifeCar is an environmentally friendly sports car concept that will be launched at the Geneva Show in March 2008.

With zero emissions, this hydrogen fuel cell powered car is based on the design of the Morgan Aero-8 roadster. A full tank gives it 250 miles (400km).


From the Morgan Motors website

The car was developed by the Morgan Motor Company in collaboration with Oscar Automotive, Cranfield University, QinetiQ, Oxford University and Linde AG. The project cost £1.9m (partly funded by the British Govt.) and took nearly nearly three years to complete.

To make the car lightweight, it has an aluminium chassis and interior fittings including the seats are made of wood. The car also doesn't have other estras including air bags, stereo or air conditioning. Can't be that comfortable.

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