Green cars

Is Tesla the car industry’s Google?

Chas Hallett — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 10:01:28 GMT

Just a thought, but what if today’s leading car-makers won’t be the leading car-makers in 20 years time?

Maybe, just maybe, electric cars are the car industry’s internet. Google was founded almost exactly a decade ago, and who’d really heard of it seven years ago?

Small, boutique car companies are starting up all over the place: Tesla, Mindset and Gordon Murray’s project. What they all have in common is that they don’t make traditional cars and they don’t make them in traditional ways. They won’t all stay small and boutique for long. And my money is that Tesla, especially, is going to be huge.

A fledgling car business will never make it big as quickly as a web start-up. But with an industry in flux, and the very real possibility that oil prices will rise further in the next few years, you never know where this might end up.

Like I said, just a thought.

Technorati Tags: Google,Tesla Roadster,Gordon Murray,Tesla,Internet

Mazda’s weight issues

Peter Nunn — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:17:54 GMT

Remember the stir Mazda caused when the Mazda 2 came on the scene?

Here was a good-to-drive supermini that was 100 kgs lighter than the car it replaced, turning the trend for cars getting ever bigger and heavier smartly on its head. For that, the 2 was a real breath of fresh air. Still is, come to that.

Now Mazda says it’s going to be extending this ‘Drive Light’ philosophy across all its coming generations of models, news that you might think would win universal acclaim.

Lighter means better economy because there’s less mass to drag around. It means lower C02 and more agile handling. Hard to argue against, you would think.

Yet some sections of the Japanese media believe there’s a price to be paid for that Lotus-style approach of ‘added lightness’. They reckon body rigidity has been compromised by Mazda’s new lightweight mindset. Put simply, the new 2 has been criticised for not being stiff enough.

This theory isn’t supported out by Mazda’s figures, with the current 2 claimed to have 13 per cent better torsional rigidity than the model it replaced. But it’s certainly true that when it comes to other consumer durables, and the camera industry springs to mind, each new generation of products tends not to pack the robustness of its predecessors as costs come under inevitable pressure.

But this is hardly what’s happening with Mazda. With all due respect to my professional colleagues here in Japan, some of whom are famously hardcore when it comes to technology, Hiroshima hasn’t suddenly gone on all flimsy on us. Indeed, the 2 feels as tough as any of its significant Japanese rivals.

But then, as Mazda acts on its commitment to systematically trim the pounds from future models, it is something to watch out for.

Technorati Tags: Mazda2,Lotus,Japan,Drive Light,Mazda

The motorist's real enemy

Julian Rendell — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:56:28 GMT

There’s a growing view that ill-judged taxes and charges introduced under a green banner are turning motorists against that basic idea.

Even Greenpeace joined this chorus a while back, criticising proposed new VED taxes.

So what is the Environmental Transport Association up to?

A missive today from a business that makes money out of providing motorists with an ‘environmentally-friendly’ breakdown service has jumped on a bandwagon started up by a local government minister demanding higher parking charges in city centres.

Apparently the ETA is outraged that motorists in London pay an extortionate £6 an hour to park in parts of London. Don’t suppose the ETA has driven in London recently, but it’s not uncommon for motorists to pay closer to £20 an hour in some central London car parks.

Anyway that’s not the ETA’s bugbear. What they’re outraged about is that away from London charges are as low as 40p an hour.

There’s a good reason for that. People in other parts of the country aren’t multi-squillionaires parking in underground car parks in Sloane Square. They are ordinary working people trying to do a bit of shopping or visit attractions in cities and towns all over Britain.

They choose to drive because the planning and economic system has encouraged centralised shopping areas where many people can’t or don't want to live, but have to visit.

Motorists don’t need enemies in local or central government or the anti-car lobby when the ETA is doing the job for them.

Tesla Roadster...driven finally

Ed Keohane — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:25:33 GMT

Well, it's finally happened. After all the hype, all the fantasies and all the no-it-can't-really-work, back-of-an-envelope number crunching, I've driven the Tesla Roadster and, boy, does it work!

I've always preferred the instant response of a well-tuned naturally aspirated engine to the slightly delayed kick in the back grunt of big turbocharged units, but no you can get the best of both worlds.

Slam your right foot on the accelerator and the response is literally instantaneous. You get a shove in the kidneys that just keeps on giving.

In fact, it's the strange, shiftless nature of the shove that it is more disconcerting than anything else. The steady torque of the motor just carries on delivering.

Equally strangely, the lack of engine noise didn't register at all. I guess I was just having too much fun. Far too much fun. In fact, in a few words that sums this car up: far too much fun... on wheels.

Technorati Tags: Tesla Roadster,electric,zero emissions,lithium-ion

When Japanese design turns bad

Peter Nunn — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 12:07:42 GMT

A decade ago, Japan was in the grip of this strange and rather alarming retro boom. Chrome grilles and wood-effect panels started to appear on all manner of cars, as automotive Japan raced to turn the clock back.

Yes, this was the time when we had Nissan, Subaru and Toyota, hastily grafting Olde Worlde flute grilles and chrome bumpers onto Micras, Starlets et al. Many of these looked decidedly naff. But the makers didn’t care. It was only for Japan and if it made money, why not?

The Japanese could argue, with some justification, that they were only doing what BMC did in the ‘60s: creating Riley Elfs and Wolseley Hornets out of Minis via the application of a new, shiny grille.

Anyway, I was reminded of all this the other day when I saw a Mitsubishi Flying Pug in the street in Tokyo. This was an imaginatively converted 1100cc Pajero Junior with ornate, comedy like front end and gruesome name. To be honest, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Mitsubishi has since redeemed itself with the i, proving that when it’s good, Japanese design is as cutting edge as it gets. But when it’s bad, it’s horrid.

Technorati Tags: Mitsubishi Nissan Toyota Subaru Micra

England vs. Japan

Peter Nunn — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:00:09 GMT

I was driving in the countryside the other day when – blow me – a rusty old Datsun 100A coupe appeared on the other side of the carriageway: the first time I’d seen one of these chromed ‘70s relics for about a decade.

Moments later I saw a Kanagawa-registered Nissan Figaro and then a well-preserved first-generation Mitsubishi FTO. So where was I? Downtown Tokyo? Highway 19 to Nagano?

No, of course not – I was in deepest Norfolk. Which is, I have to report, a far better place to see vintage Japanese machinery than Japan itself.

Despite living and working in Tokyo, a holiday in the UK gave me a chance to catch up with the strange way the grey import market operates over here.

Cars that are practically forgotten in Japan still seem to be all over the place in the UK. Figaros are cult cars here, but are almost extinct back in their native land. Similarly the Suzuki Cappuccino has a far bigger fan base on this side of the world. Then there are old FTOs, Supras and the Estima and Delica people-carriers that have long since faded from the streets of Japan.

The trip home has also given be a chance to reacquaint myself with the challenges of driving in the UK. You might automatically think that the British motorist has things better than over in traffic-clogged Japan, but it’s nothing like as clean cut as that.

In Japan, you can forget all about speed cameras on A-roads, traffic calming and SUV hate – and fuel over there is also far cheaper at the pumps.

On the other hand, Japan’s motorways are all tolled (and expensive) and the country can’t compete with England’s fabulous countryside at its most majestic. What else? Japan doesn’t have a vociferous anti-car lobby like the UK. No congestion charge or much public awareness, it seems, about C02 as applied to cars and driving.

So Japan is OK. But when it’s really good (as on some of those deserted back roads in Norfolk) driving in England is in another league.

Save the planet - buy a V8

James Ruppert — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:32:31 GMT

You’ve probably found yourself being patronised recently by some rent-a-hack’s five-point guide to saving fuel.

You know the sort of thing: the imminent arrival of the £6 gallon has brought us a rash of unwanted advice as to how to keep petrol costs in check. This usually involves supergluing windows shut, driving largely naked to save weight and – with wince-inducing obviousness – not accelerating quite so hard.

Where’s the fun in that? Which is why, inspired by the seminal 1970s advertisement that told us to save water by sharing a bath with a friend, I’ve come up with my own guide to getting more miles from your tank.

Disconnect the fuel gauge

No, really. Pull out the wiring, paint over it or prise it out with a screwdriver. Now you’ll drive like you’re leading a funeral procession to maximise the range left in your tank, and to avoid the humiliation of having to complete the journey on foot.

Buy a V8

The best way to break the drive-everywhere habit is to have a vehicle capable of gargling unleaded quicker than the late, great Oliver Reed could work his way down a set of bar optics. So while diesel-engined superminis buzz everywhere flat out, you’ll instinctively learn the joys of tickling the throttle, coasting down hills in neutral and slipstreaming trucks on the motorway.

Make friends with your chip shop owner

If you’ve been contemplating leaving your wife/ hubby/ significant other for the proprietor of the local takeaway emporium, this is the time to do it. Why? Because the fast food outlets create vast quantities of used cooking oil which – after a bit of filtering – can be used to power less fussy diesels.

Okay, you’re not going to be the first person to have thought of the idea – it feels like every national newspaper has suggested the chippy route in the last couple of weeks – but the advantage is zero-cost motoring. Even better, in a rare outbreak of joined-up thinking, the Government allows you to use up to 2500 litres of chip oil a year in your car without paying the Revenue anything for the privilege.

Pick up hikers

Actually touting yourself as a minicab without the necessary documentation has certain legal ramifications (although that doesn’t seem to stop many of those who cluster around nightclubs at chucking-out time in ‘H’-reg Primeras) – but there’s nothing to stop you from sharing the costs of your journey with any passengers.

And can you imagine the better way to wipe the grin off the face of student thumb-jockeying his way back from Glastonbury than by presenting him with half the bill for filling your ancient Range Rover or BMW 535i?

Subaru's electric avenue

Peter Nunn — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:27:18 GMT

Over in Japan, Subaru is really a bit of a whizz when it comes to small cars, and small electric cars at that. For years, Subaru has been working on a range of battery-powered minis, over and above its own unique 660cc microcar range.

So it comes as no surprise that a more practical, plug-in Stella Concept, is to debut at the coming G8 Summit up in Hokkaido.

But the truth is that Subaru’s electric future is likely to be shaped by Toyota’s ever-growing interests in the brand. For instance, next year Subaru will give up on its own 660cc minicar business and will sell OEM Daihatsus instead; a product of the Toyota empire.

But this isn’t all bad. As a small company, without the cash and resources to go head to head with the big guns, Subaru has had to pick and choose where to spend its eco money. Look how long it took to bring its excellent new Boxer diesel to market.

Pulling out of 660cc minis will free up a lot of cash and time to develop tweaky new eco minis just like the new plug-in Stella Concept, which almost certainly won’t go into production as it stands but will serve as a test bed for the future.

And there’s plenty of incentive to go all out on the eco-car front. Subaru will be feeling the pressure from Mitsubishi, whose impressive electric-powered iMiEV minis have been extensively tested and written about in Japan, and the shadow cast by Toyota's cutting edge iQ ultramini is another inducement for Subaru to pull something dramatic out of the hat.

Electric isn’t the only avenue available to Subaru, though. The distant future will see the company expand the use of its own Boxer Diesel and adapt Prius-type hybrid technology for the Legacy.

It might be late, but Subaru is finally moving into the green zone.

The return of the 200SX?

Peter Nunn — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 08:10:31 GMT

Barely a week goes by here in Japan without some high octane speculation that a new Nissan 200SX is around the corner.

The quick, funky, oversteer-happy four-cylinder coupe was a reasonable sales hit back in the ‘nineties, and has since won notoriety as the weapon of choice for the world’s professional drift stars.

The on-off story was reignited the other day when we reported on Renault’s plans to build an Alpine sportscar – a car that would have to be spun off the next Nissan 200SX/ Silvia platform.

Makes a lot of sense, you would think. Take Nissan’s new 370Z platform (coming this autumn), shorten and lighten it and mount what spies say is a new 2.0-litre turbo engine under the bonnet, and voila, you have the basics of a cracking new lightweight sportster.

Trouble is, it might not be quite that simple. A Nissan insider murmurs that that the Z platform is designed for V6 and V8 engines. Nissan could tweak it to take a smaller four-cylinder engine – the question is whether the car (or cars) spun off it would then stand up as a profitable business case. It’s a question that’s causing some furrowed brows at Nissan right now.

Something is definitely going on. Nissan has always wanted to produce a ‘compact sports’ model beneath the GT-R and the 350Z, but our impeccable source tells us the project keeps stopping and staring because the financial numbers just don’t add up.

But which direction will Nissan’s sportscar future take? The minimalist Urge concept was a hit at the 2006 Detroit show – and would be a far more radical departure for Nissan. Or will the company play it safe with a modern remake of the classic 200SX?

Answers on a postcard, please. To Mr. Carlos Ghosn, Nissan Motor Co, Ginza, Japan.

Missing the CO2 point

Ed Keohane — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:20:50 GMT

Whether it is Iain Carson’s comment piece in today’s Guardian – Only stiff rules will drive car makers to see past the petrol – or GM’s likely sale of Hummer, there’s a point being missed across the board.

What car makers and car drivers need is a stable fuel price that does not distort the market with artificially cheap domestic electricity and gas… or artificially expensive petrol and diesel.

Most people are too busy complaining about turning timber waste into biofuel to see the wood for the trees.

If CO2 is the issue, and it’s certainly the political one, then it’s ridiculous that plug-in hybrids are suddenly viable simply because the oil price is high - it has dropped by nearly 10% over the last fortnight, incidentally.

If we all start recharging our electric vehicles at home, then the tax on and cost of electricity will rise enormously and we’ll end up buying incredibly cheap, second-hand V8 saloons.

A stable oil price would allow companies to make the correct long-term engineering investments without the suspicion that the market would change drastically and they’d have yet another expensive white elephant on their hands.

Lower drag coefficients reduce fuel consumption at cruising speeds and lower kerb weights reduce the fuel consumption in town. The Audi A2 was superbly on message, but too far ahead of the car-buying public.

Fortunately, both these design criteria improve the driving experience. They are, as it were, the writing on the wall. It’s a shame that – until now – only Mazda has been able to read it… and then sell the cars.

Toyota takes the Crown…

Peter Nunn — Wed, 28 May 2008 14:51:51 GMT

At a time when the Prius is still the world's number one hybrid and darling of the environmentalists everywhere, some might wonder what Toyota's playing at with this new Crown hybrid that's just going through the media mill here in Japan as we speak.

Prius and Lexus hybrids, OK, you can understand. But converting the Crown, Japan's long serving, conservative and rather stodgy executive saloon to earth-friendly hybrid power, is that really a plan?

The answer is, it is. Toyota has a lot of pride and history wrapped up in the Crown, which has evolved through 13 generations straight since its 1955 launch and still going strong. This latest 2008 Crown is actually not bad and light years ahead of the soft, chinzy, gadget-laden Crowns last sold in the UK back in the 1980s, which have now ironically become rather collectable.

This is not the first Crown hybrid. Toyota has done others before but this 2008 version, which gets its 3.5-litre V6 hybrid THS II system from the Lexus GS450h, is easily the best yet.

So why not just buy the Lexus instead? Because the Crown is cheaper, a known quantity and has form. Lexus is still struggling to get established here.

Then there are the numbers: £30K, 345bhp system power, 44.6mpg economy topped off the 147g/km for C02. Maybe it's time for the Crown to come back.

Green, yes. Sexy? Um...

Will Powell — Fri, 23 May 2008 14:27:21 GMT

I'm just leaving the Sexy Green Car Show, the left-field eco motoring event that's just been held for the second year at the Eden Project in Cornwall.

Yes, there's a detectable beardy-hippy vibe going on, but nobody here is banging on about banning cars. In fact, there are some positive messages here about the future of personal transport. Most striking is the number of bright ideas aimed at reducing the car's dependency on fossil fuels.

Ford's launching its tax-beating Focus ECOnetic, and the company reckons that reducing the CO2 emissions of ever new Focus sold by just 2 per cent will do more to reduce CO2 emissions than every hybrid car on the market combined.

The company's even stuck a lovely old Ford Prefect on its stand, alongside the new Kuga. The Prefect's 30bhp engine apparently pumped out 180g/km of CO2 when it was built in 1953: excellent by the standards of the time. I'm not sure if that counts as a long-term commitment to eco-friendly motoring, but it’s here anyway.

Fiat’s 1.3-litre Multijet 500 and its 110g/km CO2 emissions has been pulling crowds – particularly when punters realise that it should be exempt from the London congestion charge. It’s hard to think of a more alluring city car on sale right now.

New stuff? There's not a huge amount of metal here, just ideas. The Liberty Range Rover we expected to have a good look at wasn't actually here, although the company assures us that there will be a prototype for us to drive soon.

And Lotus was the only brand that did justice to the "sexy" part of the show's title, with the stunning Bioethanol Elise. The company's now talking about lightweight electric sportscars, too - similar to the Tesla in America.

To get into the spirit of all this greenery I drove here from London in the Focus ECOnetic, which managed 52mpg on a normal, brisk, motorway journey. Not bad, but not brilliant: I'll see if I do better on my way home.

Methanol: round two

Richard Bremner — Thu, 08 May 2008 16:21:20 GMT

Last time I posted a story about the Trifuel Lotus Exige I found myself being accused of acting like some kind of motor industry propagandist for bio-fuels.

But, after talking through some of the comments I fielded with Lotus, I’ve come back to have another go at setting the record straight.

Methanol certainly isn’t a perfect fuel – but it is a viable CO2-neutral, non-fossil source of power. Short of shifting the entire motoring population to battery power, or waiting for the hydrogen economy to get started, it’s as good an alternative as any at present.

Lotus does accept there is a drawback with methanol’s more limited capacity to store energy. Even adjusting for its higher density than petrol, which is not the same, methanol can only store approximately 50% of the energy in a given tank volume than petrol. Therefore, if the use of a fossil fuel is not possible, Lotus reckons that society may need to accept the more frequent refuelling of vehicles.

Lotus also reckons that criticism of the safety of methanol can easily be countered, saying that the Environmental Protection Agency in the US has analysed methanol in some detail. Their modelling shows that if the US moved from gasoline to methanol as the primary fuel, then deaths, injuries and property damage would fall by 90-95 per cent This is because the flammability index of methanol is about the same as diesel, and if lit, a methanol fire will only radiate heat at the rate of 11 per cent that of gasoline.

So if methanol can be made safe, how efficient is it as a fuel? Here are some facts – rather than conjecture – from Lotus: methanol (and ethanol) both give better performance than gasoline – their octane ratings are considerably higher (so more boost and compression can be used), their latent heat of vaporization is higher (meaning they cool the air and so allow more charge mass to flow through the engine), a given mass of fuel and air contains more energy, they reject less heat to the engine structure during combustion and their flame speed is higher.

All of which leads Lotus to conclude that synthetic methanol is the closest easily-renewable fuel to what we have now and as such demands the smallest change to a fully renewable future.

And I wouldn’t disagree. Equally, I wouldn’t underestimate the scale of the conversion task either. But it’s a smaller task than converting the global car fleet to fuel cell vehicles.

California breezin'

Hilton Holloway — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:57:45 GMT

It’s hard not to feel better about life, wandering around a neat and tidy southern Californian city with the sun shining. But I can guarantee that you’ll also breath much more easily in this state.

Since the late 1960s, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) has been at the forefront of driving down engine pollution.

It was California that demanded 1975-model year cars achieve massive reductions in pollution. Car makers said they couldn’t meet the targets, but eventually did by detuning engines and embracing the catalytic converter.

Honda, however, met the regulations with its landmark Civic CVCC engine, which was so clean it didn’t even need a cat.

Moreover, CARB effectively banned diesel cars in 2000 when they decided that ‘toxic’ particulates were a serious threat to human health.

Only Mercedes BlueTec engines have recently managed to meet the super-tight Californian diesel emissions regulations.

No surprise then, that California uses buses powered by super-clean Compressed Natural Gas.

UK politicians, particularly Ken Livingstone, make a huge song and dance about micro reductions in CO2, while happily gassing people with belching diesel buses and cabs.

Like many areas in UK life, we get hype, while the rest of the world gets action.

Technorati Tags: california,carb,air resources board,civic,mercedes bluetec

Fighting the greenwash

Matt Saunders — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 10:27:26 GMT

I’m confused, not to mention being more than a bit frustrated. Why is it that as soon as the world’s automotive industry does as every card-holding greenie in the world wants, and begins to commit to strategies to reduce the carbon emissions associated with the 40 million new vehicles it produces every year, those same so-called climate champions simply find something else to whinge about?

I’ve just been reading a pathetic article about the Chevrolet Volt – the car that will become General Motors’ first ‘plug-in hybrid’. This dross suggested that the car simply didn’t matter; that its contribution to climate change would be minuscule while coal fuel power stations still existed. Rubbish.

Earlier this morning, I read that GM chief Rick Wagoner recently had to defend his strategy to make the use of biofuel more widespread throughout the company’s models. People have been blaming the car industry’s adoption of ethanol for the global hike in food prices. So the car is not only responsible for choking our grandchildren; it’s now starving displaced millions in the third world. It’s a wonder we don’t all sell up and become hermits.

What is it about the mindset of these car-haters that prevents them from playing an active, reasonable and constructive part of the process of making the car acceptable in the 21^st century?

Here are a few more grounded realities, as far as I understand them. When it becomes available in Britain sometime around 2011, the Chevrolet Volt will be able to do 40 miles without burning a single drop of petrol. If I get one, that means I’ll be able to drive it to work and back without producing any emissions of any kind, provided I charge it every night. I will need to fuel it only for longer-run weekend trips. In a typical month, I reckon that’ll save me three out of five trips to the pump. How can anyone argue that won’t reduce carbon emissions?

Charging your car from the mains rather than filling it from the pump puts greater overnight load on the country’s idling power stations, granted, but coal-fired power stations can be adapted for a lower carbon footprint. Better still, electricity can be generated without the production of any CO2 at all. And if your power comes from a renewable source, then it’s not just your car that’s emissions-free; it’s your microwave, your TV, and your iPod too.

The same argument stands up in the debate about biofuel, as far as I’m concerned. If the ethanol’s made the ‘cellulosic’ way, using biomass that would otherwise rot away or go to waste, then it’s not forcing up food prices as it’s not being produced at the expense of anything else. If we use switchgrass, a perennial of many of the world’s prairies and savannahs, we can make twice as much ethanol per kilo as we would from corn anyway.

No: both plug-in hybrid technology and biofuel combustion stand to markedly reduce the quantity of carbon dioxide emitted by cars – there’s just no arguing with it. Both are important. Both matter. And we should get behind any car-maker who adopts either of them. Rant over.