Gas 2.0

When BMW unveiled its awkwardly-named Vision EfficientDynamics concept car, audiences were enthralled. The plug-in hybrid combined sleek, futuristic styling with a lithium-ion battery stack and two electric motors to produce 356 horsepower and 590 ft-lbs of torque. That is a lot of power for a hybrid. But as cool as the concept was, few of us expected it would ever come to production.

But apparently enough positive press and remarkable response from the public has convinced BMW to actually build the Vision EfficientDynamics. It just needs a shorter, better name (BMW VED?).

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Diesel engines hold a lot of promise, especially the ones in use over in Europe. They make more torque than their petrol cousins, usually come equipped with turbochargers, and tend to emit fewer emissions in low-sulfur form.

Researchers at a lab in Munich, Germany, have built a turbocharged diesel engine that they hope will emit less than 5 milligrams of soot and 80 milligrams of nitrogen per kilometer without resorting to a catalytic converter. Lofty goals, but they are making good headway.

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Not everyone wants to save the planet. This is a sad, but true fact. Yet everyone who lives and works within a capitalist economy loves saving money. So it’s good for the planet that, in many cases, saving money and green initiatives go hand in hand by providing an increased economic benefit while lessening environmental impact. Many of these benefits come directly from the government, such as tax exemption status or tax credits for using alternative fuels in vehicles.

And as the German biofuel industry is showing us, taking away those economic benefits can lead to the utter collapse of what looked like a maturing faucet of biofuel.
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Germany has launched an exciting new plan to establish a national hydrogen fuel network, which could be fully operational as early as 2015.

On behalf of the German government, the transport minister Wolfgang Tiefensee has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with eight industrial partners to set up the H2 mobility scheme. High profile participants include Daimler, EnBW, Linde, OMV, Shell, Total, Vattenfall and the NOW GmbH National Organisation Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology.

Speaking about the groundbreaking plan, the first of its kind anywhere in the world, Tiefensee said, “Our aim is to continue consistent and systematic promotion of electromobility based on batteries and fuel cells. Today we can see that Germany is setting the pace when it comes to hydrogen and fuel cell technology. We are aiming at establishing the nationwide supply with hydrogen in Germany at around 2015 in order to support the serial-production of fuel cell vehicles.”
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