Some people have been asking why is taking so long to Chinese manufacturers start selling in Europe. Part of the answer is in a crash-test that ADAC did on a big saloon from Chinese manufacturer Brilliance, the BS6. Yes we Europeans have though safety standards and the Chinese seem to have very soft steel in their cars. At least now we know what BS means in Brilliance's BS6!
Mitsubishi continues testing the iMiEV this time delivering cars to Chugoku Electric Power Co. thus joining a fleet of cars already in test at Tokyo Electric Co. Well, do we have to establish an electric company to buy or lease one of these cars? Hopefully by 2010 Mitsubishi will have the car ready for series production but for now they are engaged in a race with Subaru for the launch of the first real-life-EV.
The road to EV future: Siemens VDO eCorner Project
Monday, 18 June 2007
One of the key changes with electric cars will be on vehicle architecture, mainly if in-wheel electric motors are used. A major auto supplier is developing just that in an integrated system that also includes active suspension and steering. And a big name like Siemens-VDO does not engage in such project if they don't predict series production in a (hopefully) near future.
German magazine Autozeitung has been dreaming about a BMW supercar. Something mid-engined or front engined with lots of power and relatively light to fight the likes of the SLR and/or Audi R8. Many people dream of such car, however, Autozeitung not only dreams about it but also makes CGIs and magazine articles on the car. Unfortunately, such thing will not exist. What a pity and what a waste of magazine paper and resources! We will have (that is, the lucky folks with enough cash) high powered 4-door coupe and coupe-roadster BMW models but nothing specifically addressed at a supercar war. More like GTs to fight several Mercedes-AMG equivalents. Still, here is one pic of Autozeitung so let's share their dreams for a while and then go back to the real life! ...
The previous post on the Bravo SW reported on a bland design but the SUV version should be much more interesting. Actually we are not even sure if this generation Bravo will get the break version, in a couple of years many customers in this class of cars will prefer the SUV or a compact minivan. This Bravo-SUV proposal looks great and will be a major contribute to lower CO2 emissions and... wait, oh dear!
The CGI shows a possible interpretation of the next break version of the Fiat Bravo range. At this point can't really say if the Bravo will be a great success like the Grande Punto... certainly the design is very good but Fiat always had a difficult time in this segment. The break version could help sales although this design seems too bland for the latest practice in fiat design.
A really nice CGI of next year's Mégane III has surfaced. It looks very good in this image, but as usual, it's not likely that Renault makes the car with such small windows. Wich is a pity really, Renault should look at the citroen C5 and check how wonderfull that coupe-ish design looks while just reducing window size a bit... a much more elegant profile than the new Laguna!
Technically the Mégane III will present a new entry-level diesel engine: a reworked version of the current 1.5DCI enlarged to 1.6. This will be the norm in this class of cars, considering the future small diesels from VW, Fiat and of course the ubiquitous 1.6HDI. Another interesting technical feature is related to suspension: the new Mégane will actually have a more sophisticated rear suspension than the new Laguna, because it will use the same multilink setup has the Nissan Qashqai. However, no rear-wheel steering is available with such system.
G4e actually means "Good for earth"! But what's with the video, no sound? And about that green colour... oh wait, now we got it! Green colour besides this concept actually looks very good. And we particularly like those sharp creases in the front, it reminds us of the... Toyota IQ concept.
More interesting and relevant news on our EV future: Denmark has plans to promote the use of electric cars, suppported by a network of about half a million charging stations around the country that would work as gas stations in a way that users wouldn't notice significant differences. The Government of Denmark is also looking for a formula via tax exemptions to make the plan attractive both to the public and to investors. We know how Nordic countries favour the environment so we have great hopes that these plans go ahead.
What all of this lithium batteries news bring to fuel cells? It means that what was once the next big thing and the biggest promise for future clean transportation could be totally scrapped, at least for some years.
This week Ballard sold their fuel cell business to a consortium of Daimler and Ford (!). This news bit is relevant because for many years Ballard was THE (that's right, capital and bold) fuel cell company. In the last years almost every fuel cell concept-car presented by manufacturers used a cell from Ballard. Now it seems the company lost breath regarding this technology.
Also recently a VW senior engineer said that "fuel-cell cars are not going to live up to the hype that is surrounding them" and that these "are not the future of alternative power and are only getting so much attention because of the...
