A hybrid vehicle uses multiple propulsion systems to provide motive power. This most commonly refers to gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles, which use gasoline (petrol) and electric batteries to power internal-combustion engines (ICEs) and electric motors.
We first caught site of the ActiveHybrid3 as a prototype running some laps around the Nürburgring and although there was nothing on the body of the vehicle that could distinguish it from a standard petrol model, this particular tester had the obligatory hybrid stickers on the side and rear. Hybrid stickers are a must during testing because if the car happened to get into an accident, the police and medical crew need to be aware of the dangers of electric power.
The future ActiveHybrid3 is scheduled to launch one year after the standard 3-Series, which would be sometime in the autumn of 2012.
UPDATE 10/14/2011: Next to the new generation 3-Series, BMW has unveiled the official details on the ActiveHybrid 3 that will be put on sale in the autumn of 2012. Hit the jump for more details.
The last time Toyota competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans was back in 1999 when their racing car - the GT-One - successfully established a new race lap record, but also suffered a tire puncture in the final hour of the race. Thirteen years later, Toyota is announcing that they will be returning to the famous race in 2012, along with their new LMP1 race car. Their new racer’s chassis was designed, developed, and produced by Toyota Motorsport in Germany, and comes equipped with a hybrid petrol powertrain engineered by Toyota in Japan.
Tadashi Yamashina, Toyota Motor Corporation Senior Managing Officer and Toyota Motorsport Chairman, said: "Toyota has entered Le Mans before, but by using our hybrid technology this time will be a completely new challenge. We want to write a new chapter in the history of the Le Mans 24 Hours, as in the FIA World Endurance Championship, through our use of hybrid technology."
If the design of Toyota’s new LeMans racer looks a bit familiar to you, it’s because it looks eerily similar to their all electric EV Racer that just established a new record for electric cars at Nurburgring. Electric vehicles are not a part of LeMans, but we can’t imagine that the EV Racer wasn’t a point of inspiration for the Toyota LMP1 Race Car.
The Toyota LMP1 Race Car will make its racing debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 16th and 17th, 2012.
UPDATE 01/19/12: The first photos of Toyota’s hybrid LMP1 race car has finally surfaced on the Web. It’s right in line with what the initial sketch looks like, except that it comes with all the aerodynamic bells and whistles of a true LMP1 racer.
Jaguar unveiled the C-X75 Concept car at the 2010 Paris Auto Show to show everyone that they had plenty of potential left to uncover as an automaker. And, although the concept was a huge success and served its purpose, Jaguar still needed to prove that this potential prevailed in more than just a design study. Now, under Tata’s influential arm, Jaguar is looking into building "a more accessible variation of the C-X75 concept" and will do so sometime between 2013 and 2015 with 250 units of the crazy cool production version of the C-X75. The production model will be sport-based and will be built in conjunction with the Williams F1 team.
“We were always determined that the Jaguar C-X75 would be as striking on the road as it was in concept form,” said Ian Callum, Director of Design, Jaguar Cars. “This will be the finest looking and most innovative Jaguar ever produced. Even in the world of supercars, we can still produce the most beautiful.”
The production C-X75 will still carry the four electric motors attached one to each axle, but the oh-so-cool jets mounted on the concept will be taken out and replaced with a supercharged 1.6L gasoline engine. Yes, we know the jets would have been awesome to see in a production model, but the specs for the C-X75 won’t disappoint anyone. Plus, we may still get to see the jets in a later production version since Tata owns a big stake in Bladon Jets. For now, we’ll stick to the phenomenal elements of the future C-X75.
UPDATE 10/13/2011: In an interview with TeamSpeed, Jaguar spokesperson, Kevin Goult, has offered new details about the production CX-75. It seems that the supercar will be offered in both left and right-hand-drive versions, meaning that it will be available in markets all over the world. In addition to that, the CX-75 will be highly personalized, meaning that customers will have the possibility to choose any color and interior finish.
The CX-75 will be built in cooperation with the Williams Formula 1 team, and will feature a highly powerful four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine combined with electric motors for an impressive 0 to 60 mph sprint time of 3 seconds and a top speed of 186 mph.
Hit the jump for the full details on the Jaguar C-X75.
Porsche has announced that they will be entering an improved version of the Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid into the upcoming Nürburgring 24 hour race on June 25, 2011. The hybrid system will combine the same 480 HP 4.0 Liter flat six engine delivering the same 480 hp with two electric motors that each produce 100 HP, as opposed to the original 75 HP each. The weight has also been lowered from 1,350 to 1,300 kilograms, or 2976 lbs to 2866 lbs.
"We’ve collected a great deal of information from our races on the Nürburgring, at the ALMS race at Road Atlanta in the USA, as well as from the ILMC race on China’s Zhuhai circuit, which was an invaluable help for the further development of our racing laboratory," says Hartmut Kristen, head of Porsche motorsport. "The emphasis of our work was on improving efficiency. That means we want to keep the lap times consis-tent with 2010 but use less energy, hence less fuel. In this way, we support future developments of road-going, sporting hybrid vehicles."
UPDATE 10/06/2011: The new GT3 R Hybrid made its debut at this year’s Laguna Seca, racing its way to a victory! Check out Porsche’s new video showing off the GT3R in action during the race by clicking on the image above. Enjoy!
Hit the jump to read more about the 2011 Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid Version 2.0.
Shortly after releasing details on the 2012 Lexus CT 200h F-Sport Package, Lexus has unveiled the CT 200h F-Sport Special Edition exclusively for the US market. Only 900 units of this model will be built, and they are scheduled to arrive in dealerships in November 2011 with a price tag of $37,995.
The new Lexus CT200h F-Sport Special Edition will be offered in the new Nebula Gray Pearl color, as well as Starfire Pearl and Tungsten Pearl. Each model will come with a new set of F-Sport 17" alloy wheels in a Liquid Silver finish. The exterior will be further distinguished by a unique front mesh grille, a larger rear spoiler, and an F-Sport exterior badge.
The interior of the F-Sport Special Edition also gets a number of additions including Ocean Blue NuLuxe trimmed seats, black F-Sport floor mats with blue contrast stitching, metal front scuff plates, and aluminum sport pedals. Metallic trim was then added to the dash panel, highlighting the black headliner. The interior is completed with a perforated leather-trimmed steering wheel with F-Sport logo and a leather-trimmed shift knob.
The Lexus CT 200h F Sport Special Edition will still be offered with the F-Sport suspension with anti-sway bar and springs, but Lexus is also throwing in a Navigation Package and a Premium Audio Package as standard (these are optional in the standard F-Sport Package).
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few months, everyone knows that Charlie Sheen has been falling into a downward spiral filled with drugs, prostitutes, and questionable cases of "winning." Fed up and insulted, CBS officials cast off the tainted star and replaced him by actor and comedian, Ashton Kutcher. Not a bad replacement if you can get it, but in watching Kutcher’s first episode, we noticed another star that was not so heavily marketed. Kutcher’s ride in the series is the hybrid Fisker Karma.
The sleek extended-range electric sedan made its debut in the show when Walden Schmidt (played by Kutcher) drove up to the house. CBS undoubtedly provided the character with an up and coming hybrid car to play up Kutcher’s good boy character and leave behind the bad boy essence of Sheen.
When discussing the choice to allow CBS to use the vehicle, Fisker spokesman, Roger Ormisher, said: "We are delighted to be have been pro-actively chosen as Ashton’s car on Two and a Half Men – it will give Fisker amazing visibility not only in the US but internationally too. The on-going partnership with Two and a Half Men is one that is both exciting and motivational for everybody here at Fisker Automotive."
With everyone seeing green these days, inquiring on whether or not Porsche’s new 911/991 will see hybrid technology is not completely out of the question. Just a few months ago, Panamera Hybrid Development Chief, Michael Steiner, had to hack away at rumors that the new 911 would receive KERS technology, but left the door open to hybrid power by stating, "...The new 911 will not be offered with hybrid drive for the foreseeable future. If and when it is, then it will most likely happen as a plug-in." Now, during a recent interview with Motor Trend, new Porsche boss Matthias Muller, has revealed that a hybrid version is still under consideration: "If this [technology] will be available at 911 level is under discussion."
With fuel efficiency and emissions being at the top of many automakers’ lists these days, it would be rather surprising if Porsche didn’t take full advantage of their hybrid technology for the new 911. They’ve been ahead of the game in many aspects of the automotive industry - the Cayenne and Panamera, to name just a couple - so it doesn’t seem to be a matter of if hybrid technology will be adopted for the 911, but more so of when it will happen.
The current hybrid system used in the Panamera Hybrid is a 3.0 liter V6 compressor engine combined with an electric motor. The technology is there, all Porsche has to do is modify and transfer it to the 3.4L direct-injected flat-six engine in the 911.
Infinitis and world records aren’t usually associated with one another, but all that has changed with one swooping quarter-mile run from the Infiniti M35h.
Recently, the Japanese luxury sedan took a blistering lap time at the Santa Pod drag strip, setting a world record time of 13.9031 seconds in a quarter-mile with a passing speed in excess of 100 mph. The 373-horsepower luxury sedan was driven by CAR Magazine journalist, Tim Pollard, etching his name in Guinness lore as the driver of the world’s fastest accelerating full hybrid vehicle.
The M35h may not belong in the conversation of being one of the fastest machines on the planet, but as far as full hybrids are concerned, it can now stake a serious claim as being on top of that list. The M35h is powered by a 3.5-liter V6 engine that produces 305 horsepower with an electric motor that adds 68 horsepower, hitting a total output of 373 horsepower with an 0-62 mph acceleration time of 5.5 seconds.
“The Infiniti M35h proves that hybrids can be fast as well as frugal,” said Pollard.
“At Santa Pod you could feel the instant torque of the electric motor away from the standstill – the car just leapt of the line."
Congratulations to Infiniti for their record-breaking attempt. Here’s to more records being broken by the Japanese automaker in the future.
Hit the jump to watch the record lap video courtesy of Car Magazine.
For Audi, the Frankfurt Motor Show was not only about performance cars, but also about fuel efficiency and CO2 emissions. Next to the three S models released, the company’s stand also included the luxury A8 hybrid sedan. The new hybrid sedan will go on sale in 2012 and combines a 2.0 TFSI and an electric motor for a total output of 245 HP and an impressive fuel economy of 36.75 US mpg.
The new Audi A8 Hybrid is one of the few large hybrids on the market, but unlike its biggest competitor - the BMW ActiveHybrid 7 - the A8 features a much more elegant design. And thanks to its ASF (Audi Space Frame) body made entirely of aluminum, the A8 will also be lighter.
The Audi A8 Hybrid will go on sale later in 2012. Prices will be announced at a later date.
Updated 03/27/2012: Audi has unveiled a series of new images and new video for their A8 hybrid luxury sedan. Also, the car is now officially on sale in Europe, with prices starting from €77,700 for standard version and €85,400 for the L version.
Hit the jump to read more about the Audi A8 Hybrid.
In the past few years everyone’s focus has been on improving fuel efficiency and reducing CO2 emissions. In fact, new regulations are popping up all over the world pushing every auto maker to think of new environmental solutions and BMW is among the first to announce an impressive solution for the future. Their new "i" brand " is about the development of visionary vehicles and mobility services, inspiring design, and a new understanding of premium that is strongly defined by sustainability."
The first concept announced in the new i line-up is the i8 - a preview version of the production model set to follow in 2013. The BMW i8 Concept is a sports car that features intelligent and innovative technology. It is based on the BMW Vision EfficientDynamics concept car and features a unique plug-in hybrid solution that combines a combustion engine and an electric drive system to create an extraordinary driving experience complemented by extremely low fuel consumption and emissions.
UPDATE 09/16/2011: During its official debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show BMW officials have confirmed that a production version of the i8 will arrive in 2014. That was the good news. The bad news is that despite the fact that the production version will keep most of the concept’s powertrain features, the exterior and interior will be heavily modified. (AutoGuide)
UPDATE 12/23/2011: The new BMW i8 Concept has been the star in the latest Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol movie. Today we have added new images from the red carpet of the film’s U.S. premiere at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York City. Enjoy!
Hit the jump to read more about the BMW i8 Concept.
