Gas 2.0

The UK’s Daily Mail recently posted this great John Lawson-penned cutaway drawing of the upcoming Cadillac One, the heavily armored limousine that President Barack Obama will be cruising home in immediately after his inauguration.

Explore Cadillac One inside and out (to varying degrees of precision) after the jump.

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BMW has launched its greenest car yet! The 116d is 2.0-liter, four-cylinder diesel engine delivering 115hp and has a fuel consumption of 54 mpg. It is BMW’s most fuel-efficient and least polluting car yet, and only available in Europe. Read the rest of this entry »

Considering the fact that diesel cars have been nearly non-existent in the US for the last decade, the Green Car Journal’s choice of the 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI as the Green Car of the Year comes as a bit of a surprise — especially because its competition included two hybrids, and a Smart fortwo.

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Much of the attention surrounding the upcoming 2008 LA Auto Show (Nov. 21-30) has been directed at cars like the 2010 Ford Mustang and the 2009 Nissan 370Z. Yet, while glitzy, fast, and heart-poundingly desirable, these types of cars already seem like relics of a different era — a weird and surreal window on the past. To celebrate them feels mostly cheap and material, and does a disservice to the reality of our current world.

Given announcements last Friday that the American auto industry is on the brink of extinction, it seems to me that the more important cars at the show are the ones that, if they’re smart, the American auto industry will quickly turn to as the future of transportation. In honor of these sentiments, it’s only fitting for Gas 2.0 to do a preview of the cars and technologies you care about, and leave the relics to the pros.

I’ll be covering the LA Auto Show during press days on November 19-20, so stay tuned to Gas 2.0 for live coverage. Until then, check out the small taste of what’s to come below.

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Just yesterday I wrote about what I dubbed as “perhaps the ultimate city car,” the 59 MPG Toyota iQ 4-seater. I also bemoaned Toyota for releasing it in Europe but not in the US.

>>> more on the Toyota/Scion iQ

Well, turns out Toyota is bringing the iQ to the US under the Scion badge. Motor Trend, without citing sources, is claiming that the Scion-branded iQ will be shown to the public at the upcoming LA Auto Show next month.

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Perhaps the ultimate city car for the childless, the Toyota iQ includes all of the safety, comfort, and convenience you’d expect from a larger car, but packaged in the world’s smallest 59 mpg 4-seater.

Before the details fanatics among us get all hot and bothered, the 59 mpg (4.0 liters/100 km) rating refers to the diesel iQ’s combined city/highway fuel economy expressed in U.S. miles but as measured by European standards (base directive 80/1268/EEC, latest amendment 2004/3/EC).

With lower carbon dioxide emissions than the Prius — around 159 grams of CO2 emitted per mile by the 1.0 liter gas engine and 166 g/mile for the diesel version — not only does the iQ deliver on fuel economy, but its straight-up conventional engine is a pollution winner too. Read the rest of this entry »

High-performance diesel engines, BluePerformance, and a hybrid oh my!  BMW is set to roll out the green at the Paris Auto show this year.  As the European Union tightens its emissions restrictions, everyone is expected to do their share to help clean up.

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Earlier this week, Volkswagen unveiled its Golf Mark VI BlueMotion concept car, which looks set to raise the bar on the fuel efficiency and emissions performance of ‘mainstream’ cars. At just 99g/km, the new hatchback emits exactly the same amount of CO2 as the much smaller Polo BlueMotion. It also undercuts current main rival, the Ford Focus ECOnetic by 16g/km.

A new hyper-efficient 1.6 TDI diesel engine also means that the latest offering boasts fuel economy of 74.3mpg (combined), an improvement of around 20% on the Mark V, while still enabling acceleration from 0-60 mph in 11.2 seconds, apparently due to improved aerodynamics and a new ’sporty’ gearbox.

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Unique, clever and straight-forward engineering has resulted in three Volvo models ready for the road.

These fuel-sipping marvels feature a 1.6 litre diesel engine along with aerodynamicly reduced air resistance, new Michelin tires that lower rolling resistance, and the new European cyclGearbox with altered ratios for third, fourth and fifth gears.  Volvo says the new gearbox configuration alone results in a 1.5% reduction in fuel consumption without affecting the driveability of the car. Read the rest of this entry »

Back in July, Ford released the details of a new Fiesta it plans to begin selling this November. The new car is based on Ford’s ECOnetic platform and can get 63 mpg in the city and 73 mpg on the highway. So why is it only available in Europe? It’s a diesel, and Ford doesn’t think Americans will ever adopt diesel cars.

According to Businessweek, Ford lists a littany of excuses why they could never market this car in the US. Chief among these excuses is that they don’t think they could ever sell enough of them to make a profit. Ford says that in order to produce them for the US market they’d have to build a new plant and then make at least 350,000 of them a year.

If there’s no way to make a profit on these cars and Americans won’t buy them, why are so many European and Asian car makers bringing these new “clean diesels” to the U.S. starting next year? When I see news that Mercedes, Nissan, Volkswagen and even Honda are all building clean diesel cars with excellent fuel economy for the US market, Ford’s excuses start to seem pretty hollow.

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After the last diesel car was taken off the Japanese market in 2007, Nissan Motor Company has become the first domestic automaker to release a diesel car in Japan in six years. And in the current day climate of everyone looking for ways to save on fuel – to cut costs and to help the environment – Nissan’s X-Trail 20GT sport utility vehicle is also the world’s first “clean” diesel.

Being powered by an engine lead-developed by partner Renault SA, the “clean” diesel refers to the fact that the X-Trail meets Japan’s new emissions standards that are set to kick into effect October 2009. These standards are said to be the strictest in the world.

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Ok, so it isn’t flashy, just nice clean lines and a monster under the hood.  It’s the new Trident Iceni, a two-seat sports car boasting a 6.61 litre V8 turbo diesel from GM that will launch you from 0 to 60 in 3.7 seconds.  The company, Trident Performance Vehicles based in the UK, says computer calculations suggest a top speed of 230 mph, and a range of approximately 1000 miles.

The car’s chassis is stainless steel throughout, forming what the company says is a complete safety cell around the occupants against front and side impact.  Rollover protection is supplied by a central spine configuration that is said to have the highest torsional rigidity of any car tested.  Trident guarantees the car for life against corrosion. Read the rest of this entry »

Japan will look to introduce incentives for the fiscal year starting July 2009, for consumers looking to buy clean diesel cars, in an attempt to reduce the countries carbon dioxide emissions. Such an incentive will hopefully not only push consumers into buying cleaner cars, but hopefully push manufacturers into building them as well.

According to an official from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), further details will be clarified and confirmed over the rest of 2008, for a hopeful introduction in April of 09.

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It looks like the new line of clean diesels from VW, including the new Jetta TDI and SportWagen, will be eligible for a $1,300 Federal Income Tax Credit.

VW made the announcement earlier in the week after receiving notification from the IRS that clean diesels would meet the “Advanced Lean Burn” motor vehicle income tax credit. Read the rest of this entry »

Enova Systems and IC Corporation have delivered a plug-in hybrid diesel electric bus to Denali National Park for use in carting visitors around the pristine wilderness.

The bus (similar to the one pictured above) has a GVWR of 27,500 pounds, carries up to 38 passengers and uses up to 70% less fuel than a similarly equipped conventional bus — so if the bus got 10 mpg with a conventional engine, it could get 30 mpg using Enova’s hybrid system.

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