Automotive

01:09 March 20, 2009 PDT

March 20, 2009 In a world of increasing green house gases and global warming, Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles (PHV’s) appear to be one of the key technologies moving ahead, that hold genuine promise of a reduced carbon footprint. In a partnership between EDF and Toyota this promise looks even more optimistic. Today they announced a major step forward in their joint road-trials in France, involving the release of about 100 PHVs equipped with lithium-ion batteries and an innovative charging infrastructure. Read More

Caparo's T1 Race Extreme – 620 bhp pushing 550 kg

15:33 March 19, 2009 PDT

Caparo's T1 Race Extreme – 620 bhp pushing 550 kg

We've written a lot about the Caparo T1 supercar - an aluminium V8 in a carbon fibre tub designed by former McLaren employees to simulate an F1 car on the road. When the Stig ran the T1 on Top Gear's test track, it beat all previous lap times by a whopping SEVEN seconds. Just to prove that too much is never enough, the T1 is now available in a 620 bhp Race Extreme version, aimed specifically at the high end track day market. It can generate 4 G under brakes and 3.5 G during cornering - the sort of G-forces an aerobatic pilot experiences. It accelerates from 0-100 kmh in 2.8 seconds and 0-100mph in 5.8 seconds - faster than a base-jumper in free fall! With a power to weight ratio better than double that of a Bugatti Veyron, this is almost certainly the fastest accelerating production car on the planet! Read More

Porsche releases technical innovations on new 4-door Panamera luxury sportster

By Loz Blain

14:11 March 19, 2009 PDT

The Panamera's lightweight body, showing different materials used

Porsche's 4-door Panamera will be finally unveiled at the Shanghai Motor Show on April 20 - not that we haven't already had plenty of chances to take a good look at it through the company's prolific PR department. Designed to be at once more luxurious than an S-Class Benz and sportier than a Beemer M5, the Panamera is the first 4-door Porsche with an uncompromising performance focus. It looks like a belter too, considering rumors that the 500-horsepower, US$132,600 turbo model actually had to be reined back in performance terms just so it wouldn't trouser the 911, which is supposed to be Porsche's performance flagship. As a brand new, extreme high end model, you'd be expecting the Panamera to pack a few technological punches - and you'd be right. Here's a few of the key innovations. Read More

Garmin introduces long-haul navigation and delivery truck GPS system

22:13 March 18, 2009 PDT

Truckers have special requirements for on-road navigation that most of us wouldn't even consider and GPS units that cater for these needs make a good deal of sense. Garmin has now entered this niche with the announcement of the nüvi® 465T, the company's first portable navigation device designed exclusively for over the road long-haul navigation and delivery trucks. Read More

Self-healing car paint uses sunlight to repair scrapes

00:26 March 18, 2009 PDT

Self-healing car paint uses sunlight to repair scrapes

I can imagine how a lobster might scratch a car, but who would ever have thought of using one to repair a scratch in your paint? Scientists have recently developed a polyurethane coating that heals its own scratches when exposed to sunlight. Read More

Lithium Ion Battery breakthrough promises 100-fold boost in performance

05:42 March 16, 2009 PDT

It may not look like much, but this new battery material could enable EVs to charge in 5 m...

Researchers have developed a new advanced Lithium Ion battery that will allow mobile phone and laptop computers to be fully charged in seconds. Electric car batteries may be charged in as little as five minutes, removing one of the main barriers to wider uptake of EVs. Solar and wind power generation could also benefit as better batteries could be used to store surplus energy. Read More

First images of Lamborghini Murcielago LP 650-4 Roadster

12:58 March 13, 2009 PDT

First images of Lamborghini Murcielago LP 650-4 Roadster

Automobili Lamborghini has released the first photographs of a limited edition Murcielago LP 650-4 Roadster. The Roadster version of the Murcielago will offer an uprated 6.5 litre V12 engine producing 650 hp (478 kW) along with permanent four-wheel drive and attain a top speed of around 330 Km/h (205mph). With 660 Nm of torque, the LP 650-4 Roadster will accelerate from 0-100km/h (0-62mph) in 3.4 seconds Read More

Mercedes AMG builds a new Gullwing

01:22 March 13, 2009 PDT

For the first time in its 40 year history, the Mercedes-Benz performance brand AMG has developed a vehicle completely in-house: the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG. This "super sports car" takes an AMG 6.3-litre V8 front-mid engine developing 420 kW/571 hp peak output, seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and sports suspension with aluminum double wishbones, wraps it in an aluminum spaceframe and throws in a set of always-in-style gullwing doors. The combination of the company's first ever use of an aluminum chassis and body frame coupled with lightweight, high-strength components such as a carbon-fiber driveshaft delivers a kerb weight of just 1620 kilograms and a power-to-weight ratio of 2.84 kg/hp. Provisional performance figures put acceleration at 0 to 100 km/h in 3.8 seconds with a top speed of 315 kmh. Read More

A new take on carving: the Dynamically Augmenting Wheel System

00:12 March 13, 2009 PDT

The notion of “carving” to improve a vehicle's handling whilst negotiating a corner is not new but this concept design from Charles Pyott known as the Dynamically Augmenting Wheel System, or simply DAWS, takes the idea in a new direction by changing the shape of the actual wheel to achieve its objectives. Read More

Sentience intelligent cruise control demonstrated: you steer, it works the pedals

By Loz Blain

00:39 March 12, 2009 PDT

The driverless car of the future is getting closer every day, as more and more technologies come along that take critical jobs away from the driver and put them in the hands of lightning-fast, all-seeing computers. One of the latest and most ambitious of these systems has just been successfully demonstrated in the UK; the Sentience system is a kind of hyper-intelligent cruise control system designed specifically to minimize fuel consumption and emissions. It calculates the best route for you based on traffic, topography, curves, speed limits and a host of other information, and then actually takes over the throttle and brakes for you for the entire journey. It keeps you strictly within speed limits, slows down for corners, speed bumps and roundabouts, and it even knows when the lights ahead are about to turn red, so you don't waste petrol accelerating towards a stop point. Fuel savings in testing have been between 5% and 24% - a very significant figure - and Sentience is expected to be available on production cars, for a minimal cost, as soon as 2012. Incredible stuff. Read More

TH!NK FROST: AWD, all-wheel-steer electric sports car concept

18:54 March 11, 2009 PDT

While World Rally Championship cars travel at incredible speed on ice covered roads using studded tires, something with a little more surface area is needed for an Arctic Off-Road vehicle. Taking cues off four track snowmobiles Norwegian designer Anders Gloslie designed the FROST as a concept proposal for TH!NK, an electric car company based in Norway. The layout of the FROST is a 2-seat sports car platform based on a tubular space frame chassis with double wishbone suspension front and rear teamed with push-rod actuated in-board coil over shock and spring units. The suspension features hydraulic wheel extenders to increase the track when required and the proposed electric drivetrain features All Wheel Drive (AWD), all-wheel-steering and radical tracks instead of conventional wheels that should offer superior traction when driving on snow, ice and slush. Read More

SEAT's green vision: Leon Ecomotive and Twin Drive concepts

16:50 March 11, 2009 PDT

SEAT displayed its first electric vehicle prototype in January of this year to Spain’s Minister of Industry who recently promised one million EVs on Spanish roads by 2012. SEAT has now announced the 74.3mpg TDI powered Leon Ecomotive at the Geneva Auto Show 2009. Read More

Tata Nano heads to Europe

20:38 March 10, 2009 PDT

The European version of the world’s cheapest car, the Nano was introduced at the Geneva Auto Show this week. The Nano Europa is an upgraded version of the $2,500 "People's Car" soon to go into production in India. The Europa model sticks to the same narrow, upright, four-door format, but has a longer wheelbase, more safety features and is better finished than the Indian-market version so will be considerably more expensive than the Indian model due to go on sale in April 2009. Read More

Magna MILA EV, the future BMW Electric Car?

16:27 March 10, 2009 PDT

As part of the BMW Project i electric car program, Magna, the company that will be building the Ford Focus EV in 2011, has presented the MILA EV at the Geneva Motor Show 2009. Where most mass production electric vehicles announced to date are retrofitted or converted versions of existing vehicles, the five-door Mila has been designed without compromise as a fully integrated electric vehicle platform. Driven by a 50 Kw (67 hp) electric motor powered by a lithium-ion battery pack, the MILA EV is expected to have a charge time of 2.5 hours a range of up to 150 km (94 miles) with charging supplemented by solar cells integrated in the glass roof. Read More

600 hp Infiniti Essence: the World's most powerful hybrid car

17:15 March 9, 2009 PDT

To celebrate 20 years as a brand Infiniti has produced a stunning concept car for the 2009 International Motor Show in Geneva. The Infiniti Essence is the world’s most powerful Hybrid car with a total of 600 horsepower combined output from its V6 twin turbo and electric motor. The luxury sports car hybrid offers enormous power on the open road and zero emission driving in urban settings. Read More

Bugatti's Veyron “Bleu Centenaire” - NOT with 1375 bhp

06:05 March 9, 2009 PDT

Bugatti's Veyron “Bleu Centenaire” - NOT with 1375 bhp

The automotive world held its breath when Bugatti's turn came during the Geneva Auto Show press conference merry-go-round last week. Here was the world's most over-the-top brand name addressing the assembled global automobile industry in its centenary year. Highly credible sources such as respected German magazine Auto Motor und Sport were suggesting during the lead up to the conference that Bugatti was to gazump all the contenders for the world's fastest production car with a 1007 kw (1375 bhp) Veyron derivative with a top speed of 273 mph. The rumors even got the name right - the Centenaire. Read More

Fiat releases MultiAir engine technology – is this a fundamental breakthrough in internal combustion engine design?

13:45 March 7, 2009 PST

Fiat releases MultiAir engine technology – is this a fundamental breakthrough in int...

Fiat Group used the Geneva Auto Show to launch a new engine technology which could ultimately be as important as the common rail diesel technology it invented 15 years ago. Dubbed MultiAir, the hydraulically-actuated variable valve timing (VVT) technology was first announced as a concept two years ago, and offers a more controllable flow of air during the combustion cycle in comparison with mechanical VVT systems. Vastly reduced fuel consumption and emmissions plus significantly more power are claimed, and the technology is even more effective when used with a supercharger or a diesel engine. Read More

Dacia Duster Concept with innovative interior

01:38 March 7, 2009 PST

Dacia Duster Concept with innovative interior

Dacia, Renault’s Romanian brand, launched its first-ever concept car at Geneva, an innovative leisure vehicle that revives the Duster nameplate. Designed largely in Romania by the Renault Design Central Europe studio in Bucharest, it’s a coupe Multi Purpose Vehicle crossover with three doors – a single door on the driver’s side and two doors, including a rear-hinged ‘suicide’ door, on the passenger side. The innovative interior is extremely functional – the passenger seat slides below the driver’s seat, allowing a large, 2-metre long load bay capable of accommodating a bicycle or even a small motorbike. A tailgated box structure also slides out of the rear of the car, creating an extra pick-up load bed. Read More

New Holland's NH2 Hydrogen Fuel cell tractor

By Darren Quick

23:32 March 5, 2009 PST

New Holland's prototype NH2 hydrogen powered tractor

Tractors may not be the sexiest of vehicles, and they probably aren’t the first ones that come to mind when thinking about environmental friendliness, but agricultural equipment manufacturer New Holland is looking to change that with the production of a prototype tractor that is powered by a hydrogen fuel-cell. Read More

Koenigsegg Quant: 512 bhp 275 km/h, solar-electric 4-seater

20:25 March 5, 2009 PST

Koenigsegg Quant: 512 bhp 275 km/h, solar-electric 4-seater

Swedish supercar manufacturer Koenigsegg, in conjunction with NLV Solar of Switzerland, is showing its full scale four-seater NLV Quant at the 2009 Geneva Salon. Producing 512hp with maximum torque of 715Nm, the Quant runs 0–100 km/h in 5.2 seconds and hits a top speed of 275 km/h. The all-electric car is powered through a combination of what it has dubbed a Flow Accumulator Energy Storage (FAES), which charges to full capacity in 20 minutes, and solar energy supplied via a thin layer photovoltaic coating over the car. The combined solar/FAES offer a claimed range in excess of 500km. Read More

Giugiaro hybrid supercar revives classic British nameplate

21:11 March 4, 2009 PST

Giugiaro hybrid supercar revives classic British nameplate

It seems almost every brand from the automotive industry’s past is ripe for revival – no matter how long ago cars bearing the name last rolled off the production line. The latest candidate is Frazer-Nash, a British sports and racing car maker whose roots date back to the 1920s – but which last made a car in the late 1950s. The company doing the reviving is none other than Italdesign-Giugiaro, and the new Frazer-Nash is a radical hybrid electric car, the fastest of its type in the world. Read More

Smart fortwo BRABUS electric drive

17:48 March 4, 2009 PST

Following on from the cosmetically customized version of the Tesla Roadster which debuted at the Essen Motor Show 2008, German tuning house BRABUS has seen the writing on the wall and launched a second electric car, this time based on a Smart fortwo. Drowned in matt green throughout the exterior and interior, the car comes with the same style monoblock light-alloy wheels and the (somewhat gimmicky) LED Daytime running lights as used on the Tesla, as well as some real technical innovation in the drive train. Read More

Nissan releases GT-R Spec V: no more horsepower, but an additional US$65K on the price tag

01:02 March 4, 2009 PST

Nissan releases GT-R Spec V: no more horsepower, but an additional US$65K on the price tag

Nissan has announced a new limited-production Nissan GT-R Spec V model which we’re still having trouble wrapping our collective brain cells around. The GT-R was unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show in 2007, and it has taken all before it since then - it is a technological masterpiece that looks like a relatively normal car, but outperforms cars worth double, triple and more. In Japan it sells for 8.6 million yen, translating into the cheapest production supercar the world has yet seen. Now, the Spec V is being shown at Geneva and has already gone on sale in Japan for 15,750,000 yen (JPY) – an increase of 83% in price – and the engine produces NO more horsepower. So what do you get for an extra US$72,000? Read More

Ford Iosis MAX Multi Activity Vehicle (MAV) Concept