Future Car: Eco-Friendly Porsche 918 Spyder

Future Car: Eco-Friendly Porsche 918 Spyder

Most people wouldn’t expect a car that can go from 0-60 in under 3.2 seconds to be eco-friendly in the least, but the Porsche automakers beg to differ. This future car concept, the 918 Spyder, is supposed to be one of the fastest (if not the fastest) hybrid electric car on the market. This one-of-a-kind ride can teach tops speeds of 200 mph and gets a whopping 78 miles per gallon – double the amount most compact cars achieve on a good day.
This speed demon is charged by a 3.4 liter V8 engine which comes equipped with a lithium ion battery pack that can be charged from almost anywhere, not to mention whenever you hit the brakes as well.  No word yet on the pricing but you can safely assume it will be in the 6 digit field (estimates have been set near the $500,000 mark), and is not expected to be listed for sale on the market for at least another year, probably closer to 2012 or 2013. The bad news is that you probably never will own one of these babies, or anything close to it, but the good news is that future cars will benefit from these technological break-throughs and the overall quality of regular day-to-day cars will be enhanced. Way to go Porsche!

Audi’s all-electric R8 supercar is another E-tron concept

The Honda CR-Z might be showing that hybrid cars can be sporty if not sports cars, but what about the realm of supercars? What if you want to go all electric? The Tesla Roadster isn’t the only option in this field, it seems, because we’re looking at the Audi E-tron R8 on display at CES 2011.
I was drawn to the Audi booth on the trade show floor, mostly because it was large and brightly lit. Then, my eyes lit up to find the matte black Audi R8. I began to wonder why it was emblazoned with E-tron branding. In a very brief discussion with one of the product managers he told me that this took the basic chassis of the R8 and outfitted it with a fully electric powertrain.
Tearing out the petrol engine you find four electric motors in its stead. There are two for the front axles and two for the rear axles, preserving the Quattro all-wheel-drive that you’ve come to expect from Audi. All said, you get 313 hp and an awe-inspiring 3319 lbs-ft of torque. I thought that was a typo, but every source I find is saying 4500 Nm (which works out to the 3000+ lbs-ft you see). This is good for a 0-60 mph time of under five seconds.
The lithium-ion batteries powering this slick German beast are said to be good enough for 248km of range (42.4 kilowatt-hours), but I’d imagine that number drops substantially when you really drive it the way it’s meant to be driven.

Ford Focus Electric Features Smartphone Integration

For the first time, an auto manufacturer would unveil its new product on CES. After months of keeping the press in the dark, Ford is set to introduce in detail its Focus Electric car, which can manage to run for a range of 100 miles, can be charged in a shorter amount of time, have a better miles per “gallon” of electricity compared to other electric cars at this period.
The electric car will feature the MyFord Touch, a touch-based interface, as well as the MyFord Mobile, which a smartphone integration program that allows users to monitor the car’s charging status and climate settings even away from the car. It will be powered by a liquid-cooled (and liquid-heated) battery pack.
What ford did not give in detail is its release date and cost, although it hinted that the Ford Focus Electric will be available in the United States in late 2011 and 2013 in Europe.

BMW Vision EfficientDynamics to appear on the high tech horizon

  Today is a lucky day for all BMW admirers as you can look at a brand-new model of BMW. Called BMW Vision Efficient Dynamics, this transparent replica appears to be a turbo diesel / plug-in hybrid. Scheduled to be showcased at the Frankfurt show in a few weeks to come, this splendiferous car is able to catapult from 0 to 62 miles per hour in staggering 4, 8 seconds so be ready for stylish high speed driving.

This mind boggling concept car runs on 1, 5 liter turbo diesel engine while producing as much as 163 horse power. Its marvelous hybrid drive system allows simple plugging into a conventional European 220 V power point with a battery making your driving possible for 2, 5 hours while the total drive system’s output equals to 356 horse power with a torque of 590 lb-ft.

The BMW Vision Efficient Dynamics concept car is touted to be able to drive around 31 miles when driven in all-electric mode while its 6, 6 gallon fuel tank boasts a range of 400 miles. The electrical power consumption is 26, 16 kWh per 100 miles. This groundbreaking super car features all-aluminum chassis as well as suspension. LED lighting allows additional power consumption.

The power train of the concept car offers a top speed of up to 155 miles per hour however the super car is able to exceed this speed limit. When the battery is recharged, the electric mode will produce the CO2 level of up to 50 grams per kilometer. The BMW Vision Efficient Dynamics concept car seems to be light weight to show high level aerodynamic performance.

The driver of this innovative marvel will be welcomed by changing gears with no power interruption at all. Another noticeable feature includes its lambo doors while its electric engine may operate as a generator and power the battery like when the driver applies the brakes. In order to charge this aggressive monster it will take a period of 2 and half an hour at maximum while most productive 380 Volts and 32 Amps power point reduces the charge time to be as least as 44 minutes.

The high tech tires of the BMW Vision Efficient Dynamics measure 195 / 55 with nice looking 21 inches wheels offering a perfect road grip while the roof with external doors’ skin are constructed from polycarbonate. This miraculous concept car measures 181, 1 inches in length, 74, 8 inches in width and 48, 8 in height and is comfortably suitable for 4 persons while the luggage capacity of 5, 3 cu feet.

The curb weight of this daredevil replica is 3 076 lb while keeping the gravity center low. Speaking about the power to weight ratio, the BMW Vision Efficient Dynamics concept car boasts a high performance being at the same level as regular combustion engine sport cars feature.

AirCar - runs on compressed air

After apocalyptic scenarios related to the global warming began to interest scientists, there already began to appear results of exploration in the field of energy economy and some other ecological technologies. In June 2007 Popular Mechanics announced that India, specifically Tata Motors, had begun production of the first car moved by air. This year, Zero Pollution Motors (ZPM) announces that production of the similar model, destined for USA market is expecting to begin till the end of 2009, or at least 2010.

They have also tried to find some other solutions in nonpolluting propulsion domain. For example Daewoo a South-Korean company, created a Matiz concept with a hybrid engine: air – electric. Australian company EngineAir also developed a "rotative engine" moved by pressed air. K'Airmobiles presented two working concepts "VPA" (Vehicle with Pneumatic Assistance) and "VPP" (Vehicle with Pneumatic Propulsion) in the end of the last year; maximum weight of such a model being limited by 250 kg.

Propulsion technology of the AirCar's engine was developed by the former Formula 1 engineer for MDI (Motor Development International) from Luxemburg. While in the internal-combustion engines pistons are moved be the explosion of the fuel, then in an AirCar the moving is realized by air under pressure.

ZPM hope that soon the production of AirCars will be more than 10000 units annually. Models that will be launched will be OneCat, with two seats (as was produced in India) and MiniCat, with three seats. The company is also intending to launch a model called CityCat with six seats.

One refueling with 340 l of air under pressure will cost approximately 2 USD and will assure autonomy for more than 1000 km at the speed 100 km/h. The price for such a car is estimating to be 17800 USD.

It sounds too good to be true? We hope that not.