You don’t need to look far to find proof that the auto industry is turning over a new leaf – no pun intended – than to look at sales figures for hybrid cars. With the world beginning to become more eco-friendly, it was only a matter of time before car manufacturers would jump at the opportunity to release their own hybrid vehicles.
The most successful car brand to take advantage of this shift in consumer preference has been Toyota, all thanks to their Prius hybrid. The car has become such a sales hit that the company even found itself running out of batteries for the car. Since Toyota is being hailed as the foremost hybrid car maker, it was only inevitable that its luxury line, Lexus, would produce its own hybrid vehicle, the Lexus HS 250h.
Now, it looks like Toyota may have rubbed some of its hybrid magic on its high-end brother after reports out of Japan have said that the HS 250h is falling short in supply due to overwhelming demand. We can’t say we’re surprised, can we? Not when you consider that the brain thrust behind the HS 250h had the best mentors at their disposal.
We still haven’t recovered from oogling over the photos of Tesla’s new Roadster Sport when the electric car makers decided to satiate our appetites even more by releasing all-new photos of its other ‘new’ car – the Tesla Model S.
Normally, we’d have to pause and catch our breaths after seeing such stunning photos like those of the Roadster Sport but in this case, it’s like getting desert one after another. And knowing us, we’ll never turn our backs on mouth-watering treats.
So here are the new photos of the Model S, which is being tested by no other than Franz Von Holzhausen, the man who designed this car in the first place.
Unfortunately for a lot us, this is the closest we’ll come to seeing a Model S out on the road until 2011, the date where the car is set to roll out of the lots. In the meantime, the two-year wait should be excruciatingly long, especially after seeing these photos that only makes us a little bit more eager to see the car out on the road.
BMW has revealed the first presentation video for the new BMW X6 Active Hybrid model. The hybrid SUV combines a 407 HP V8 gasoline engine with BMW TwinPower Turbo Technology and two electric synchronous motors delivering 91 HP and, respectively, 86 HP. Total output goes up to 485 HP and 575 lb-ft of torque. With this amount of power the new ActiveHybrid X6 sprints from 0 to 60 MPH in 5.6 seconds, while top speed is limited to 146 MPH.
The Laguna Seca hosted a number of impressive race cars over the weekend, some of them thrilling fans with their sheer speed, while others making them cringe for crashing into tire barriers. Lost in the hoopla of the vintages and exotics that drove around Seca was a car that could very well be the future of sports cars: the Fisker Karma hybrid.
The Karma – we love the name, by the way – made its driving debut at the Seca last weekend as part of the Monterey Historic Automobile Races and by any and all indication, impressed the gathered crowd by attaining speeds in excess of 100 mph without using a drop of gasoline. The hybrid sports car is unique for its twin-electric motors – which are capable of producing as much as 403 hp and 959lb/ft of torque – are connected to a 200kW lithiuim-ion battery pack that allows the car to travel by as much as 8o kmh.
The car’s performance at the Seca re-affirmed the growing belief that ‘green’ sports cars are more than just a pipe dream now. Henrik Fisker, the CEO of the company was on-hand for the demonstration and made no bones about the Karma’s impressive showing. “This demonstration represents a significant milestone for Fisker Automotive and PHEV (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle) technology,” he said.
Fresh off the announcement that the Chevrolet Volt will have EPA estimated 230 MPH, General Motors has released this video of the future plug-in electric vehicle make its way down the assembly line. From body panel attachment to a fully systems diagnostic run, the American gives us a glimpse of what is to come with these preproduction Volts.
About the whole 230 MPG thing, the EPA’s new train of thought it that a plug-in electric vehicle will be traveling many more city miles than highway ones in electricity only mode. So General Motors expects the Chevrolet Volt to consume as little as 25 kilowatt hours per 100 miles when driving around town. Considering that the average cost of electricity in the U.S. is approximately 11 cents per kWh, a typical Volt driver will pay somewhere around $2.75 to travel every 100 miles. That equates to less than 3 cents per mile.
Over the past few days there has been a lot of chatter about the upcoming BMW hybrid concept for Frankfurt. Like usual we will have to wait until the vehicle’s official debut to get the whole picture, but up until now this is what we are sure of. The concept car, supposed to be called EfficientDynamics Vision will be a mix of classic BMW design and a modern, more aggressive coupé shape.
This means that it will feature the latest evolution of the German automaker’s fuel saving, emissions reducing technologies. Under the hood, there is a strong probability that BMW will use a three cylinder engine along with some form of hybrid drive train, possibly the same as the new BMW ActiveHybrid 7.
With the new concept, BMW will bring back the legendary forward leaning "shark nose" styling up front. This kind of theme will also be carried over into the next 1-Series and 3-Series models. But we will just have to wait until Frankfurt to get all the details.
On paper, this is far from being a fair fight. Pitting a Porsche 911 against a Toyota Prius? Really?
But that’s what the guys from 4Car did, although there is a catch to the so-called ‘race’. The race isn’t so much as to determine which is faster – that’s not even up for debate – but to figure out which car can come closer to its official fuel consumption figures. For the record, the Prius does 74mpg while the 911 can run up to 28 mpg. So, the bet between 4C Editor Tim Bowdler and road test editor John Mahoney is to find out which car can come closer its advertised fuel consumption.
Bowdler takes the wheel of the Prius, claiming that – unlike the previous Prius model, which failed to live up to the fuel consumption hype it generated – the new Prius puts a stamp on that claim and beats it by a wide margin. On the other hand, Mahoney takes the wheel of the 911, which, as we all know, is in a class of its own as far as fuel efficiency is concerned.
To find out who won this unusual duel, click on the link to watch the video.
The second hybrid model, next to the ActiveHybrid 7, coming today from the luxury automaker BMW is the ActiveHybrid X6. Based on the latest BMW SUV, the new ActiveHybrid X6 is the world’s first Sports Activity Coupe with full hybrid drive. Sales will begin later in the year.
The hybrid SUV combines a 407 HP V8 gasoline engine with BMW TwinPower Turbo Technology and two electric synchronous motors delivering 91 HP and, respectively, 86 HP. Total output goes up to 485 HP and 575 lb-ft of torque. With this amount of power the new ActiveHybrid X6 sprints from 0 to 60 MPH in 5.6 seconds, while top speed is limited to 146 MPH.
While running exclusively on electric power, the model can hit a top speed of 37 MPH for up to 1.6 miles, with the combustion engine being activated automatically whenever required. The new ActiveHybrid X6 also comes with: an electronic power steering system, an Auto Start/Stop system, a modified suspension, a lightweight braking system, a "powerdome" hood, and 20-inch light-alloy Aero wheels.
The German automaker BMW has officially unveiled the new ActiveHybrid 7, the first car in the world to combine a V8 gasoline engine, eight-speed automatic transmission and an electric motor as a mild hybrid concept.
The V8 engine delivers 449 HP between 5,500 and 6,000 rpm and a peak torque of 479 lb-ft consistently all the way from 2,000 to 4,500 rpm. The ActiveHybrid 7 accelerates from 0 to 60 MPH in just 4.9 seconds, and can hit a top speed of 155 MPH.
The V8 engine is combined to a three-phase synchronous electric motor positioned between the combustion engine and the automatic transmission converter. The electric motor generates additional drive power of 20 HP, with maximum power increasing to an even more substantial 27 HP in the generator mode charging the lithium-ion battery. In the driving mode BMW ActiveHybrid 7 benefits from maximum output of 465 HP and peak torque of 516 lb-ft.
Other green technologies included in the new ActiveHybrid 7: Brake Energy Regeneration, two interconnected on-board power networks, and a 400 watt-hour 35 cell lithium-ion battery which weighs 59.5 lb and measures 14.6 x 8.7 x 9.1 inches.
We all know that the world’s oil resources isn’t going to last forever and that gas-guzzling vehicles would eventually fall by the wayside and be replaced by plug-in hybrids and electric cars.
So when car makers are slowly pushing for the development of these types of cars, you know that they’re fully aware of the future of the industry as well.
The latest car brand that’s being linked to producing an electric car is Volvo. The Swedish-based automaker has already gone on record as saying that they are in the middle of producing a plug-in hybrid. Now, it’s beginning to look like plug-ins aren’t the only thing that’s taking up Volvo’s time.
Rumors have come out that Volvo is in the infancy stage of producing an electric version of the Volvo C30 with a source, who knows his way around the industry, even saying that he is ‘reasonably confident’ that Volvo is doing more than just the standard research with regards to the future of an electric car in its line-up.
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