|
Browse by Tags
All Tags » Alternative Energy » 2008 geneva motor show ( RSS)
-
|
A couple of days ago, we received an email from Lumeneo's PR rep Isabel giving us the business about the all-electric, leaning Lumeneo Smera we brought you. She claimed the car was not as our American eyes could clearly see, a single seater, but in fact a two seater! 'Impossible!' we said, 'Prove it with a picture.' And so she has. Seated inline, inside that tiny little car are father Daniel and son Thierry Moulène, President and Technical Director respectively. galleryPost('lumeneosmera', 18, 'The Apparently 2 Seat Lumeneo Smera '); We promise there are no tricks of photography, no tricks, this is a real picture and two grown men are in the Smera. You can look for pixels yourself with this full size image . Guess that explains the funny shape of the lower seat cushion. We thought the press release was in error when it said two passengers. So now we have a two seat, all electric, four wheeled, leaning micro car that will get to 62 MPH in 8 seconds, top...
|
-
|
Tucked into a lightly trafficked back corner of the show is this awesome little scooter-sized concept car called the Lumeneo Smera . The Smera is a single seat, super-narrow electric car that fits into the same footprint as most of the scooters Europe's more suicidal drivers use as daily drivers. With those huge windows and Buck Rogers steering wheel, the cabin doesn't feel quite like the claustrophobe's nightmare it should, and while cargo space is tight, it's also not as bad as we'd expected. But, what did meet expectations was the fuel economy and range. The Smera... galleryPost('lumeneosmera', 9, 'Single Seat Electric Powered Lumeneo Smera'); ...is capable of 80 MPH and goes for a range of up to 93 miles. Best of all, it leans into turns just like a motorcycle so we're assuming driving it has got to be a riot. The little car is powered by two 20 BHP electric motors feeding off of lithium ion batteries capable of a rechage by way of standard domestic...
|
-
|
Rick Wagoner, GM Chairman and Just For Men model, was on hand in Geneva to announce the second generation of GM's mild hybrid two-mode system currently found in trucks such as the 2009 GMC Sierra Hybrid and, soon, in FWD vehicles like the Saturn Vue . The biggest change is the addition of a lithium-ion battery supplied by Hitachi, which is more powerful than the current 300-volt nickel-metal hydride energy storage system. Press release below the jump. galleryPost('saturnvue2modeext', 3, 'Saturn Vue Green Line Hybrid'); Next-Generation GM Hybrid System Announced in Geneva High-volume system will debut in North America in 2010, and then expand globally Hitachi to supply new lithium-ion battery Cost-effective technology to improve fuel economy by up to 20 percent GENEVA - As another key element in its overall global strategy to improve fuel economy and reduce oil consumption and CO2 emissions, General Motors Chairman Rick Wagoner announced today that GM will introduce a...
|
-
|
We've been saying for years the only efficient hybrid with current technology is one mated to a diesel engine, and now it looks like another automaker is jumping into the conceptual fray. Our little news yesterday on the BMW Vision EfficientDynamics X5 -- translated from Bruce, that appears to be an X5 outfitted with a 2.0-liter twin turbo common rail diesel mild hybrid (wow, that's a mouthful, ain't it?) -- appears to be wholly true. BMW will be revealing this little concept in environmentally friendly CUV-ing at the Geneva Motor Show next month and they've now seen fit to reveal the rest of their press shots and the full press release, which we've got below the jump. Feel free to read through it if you're suffering from a strong desire to fall back into bed. For now, here's the gist of it -- hybrid + diesel + BMW = Over 100 HP per liter (total of 204 HP), 295 lb-ft of torque between 2000 and 2500 RPM. Exciting, isn't it? galleryPost('BMWVisionX5Geneva'...
|
-
|
With everybody flipping out about environmentalism in these post- Inconvenient Truth days, companies far and wide are looking to reinvent the wheel, or more specifically, the engine. That's just what BRA GmbH and its partners, PGO Automobiles and Gasmobil will be looking to do at the upcoming Geneva Auto Salon when they introduce their Cévennes Turbo-CNG roadster. Why a German company with an underwear acronym moniker is naming their car after a French mountain range is anybodies guess, but we like the Porsche 356 ripoff body, and the 6.5s dash to 62 mph. Powered with a CNG sucking 4-cylinder, 1.6-liter turbocharged engine is attached to a 6-speed manual and the 150 hp lightweight makes max power at 5,600 rpm, with max torque of 155 lb-ft at 2,300 rpm. Those are pretty driveable numbers for a supposedly green car. Even though tractors and forklifts have been using CNG and propane for clean and OSHA approved power for a long time, the alt-fuel hasn't seen widespread consumer success...
|
|
|
|