Brabus added its own touches to this Tesla Roadster.
(Credit: CNET)
As is becoming common at auto shows these days, a number of electric cars were on display at the Frankfurt auto show, with automakers showing off research into next millennium's generation of vehicles. On hand were concepts from Peugeot, Renault, Audi, Volkswagen, and Ford. Two entrants from Tesla were on hand, one a Roadster tuned up by Brabus, the only current production car available out of this lot, and the other the upcoming Model S, expected to begin production in 2011.
PARIS--Roger Penske wants to import Renault Samsung Motors vehicles built in South Korea to be sold in the United States through the Saturn dealer network.
French automaker Renault owns 80.1 percent of Renault Samsung. South Korean credit card issuer Samsung Card owns the rest.
Penske, chairman of Penske Automotive Group, met here the week of May 11 with Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn to discuss a deal, say sources familiar with the talks. Renault Samsung would supply several vehicles for distribution by Saturn.
Samsung builds four passenger vehicles, all on Nissan underpinnings.
It's not known which vehicles would be sold by Saturn or whether they would be current Samsung offerings or new ones based on Renault engineering. Also unclear: the corporate relationship between Penske and Renault-Nissan.
... Read moreYOKOHAMA, Japan--As the mock-up electric Nissan Dualis crossover halts over the service bay, two robotic shuttles immediately start scurrying below.
One latches onto the underside of the Dualis, swiftly pulling out a spent battery pack. The other then lifts a fully charged pack into place. A green light, and away the driver goes. All in under a minute.
Welcome to the future of electric vehicles, as seen by Better Place. The Palo Alto, Calif., company aims to build an international network of battery-swap stations for electric vehicles.
The battery swap system, which made its global debut in concept form here, hopes to brush aside a major barrier to electrics: their high price.
Instead of paying thousands extra for a car because of its lithium ion battery, customers would pay piecemeal to use a battery supplied by Better Place. When the battery runs low, drivers switch it for a fully juiced one.
The business plan looks more to mobile phones than to gas stations. Customers can pay for every mile they drive or buy a fixed-rate plan that allows unlimited miles and battery swaps.
Better Place plans to open battery-swap stations in Israel and Denmark sometime next year, and in California and Hawaii six to nine months later. The company will provide swap-and-go batteries for electric vehicles from Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA.
Last week, Nissan said it will start making electric vehicles in Japan at its Oppama plant in the fall of 2010. Initial capacity will be 50,000 cars.
"In 2011, what you'll see is on the magnitude of tens of thousands" of the battery packs, Better Place founder and CEO Shai Agassi told Automotive News. "At 2013, you'll be at hundreds of thousands." He reckons each station will cost $500,000.
But the battery-swap system faces its own hurdles. Unlike gas tanks, which can go almost anywhere on a car, batteries must be under the floorboard in the middle of the car for the robots to make the swap.
After the spent batteries are removed, they are recharged in 20 minutes. Refrigeration keeps the batteries cool and prevents damage during the high-voltage charging. But repeated quick charges degrade battery life.
While Nissan and Renault are Better Place's only partners so far--hardly enough to gain critical mass--Agassi said he was in talks with other automakers.
"We were in serious discussions with 10 companies," he said. "The main reason we haven't seen other car markets move is we caught them in the worst 18 months of the history of the car industry. And during that time, most car companies scaled back research and development."
(Source: Automotive News)
So you think minivans are only for mommies? Try this one...
It's the Renault Espace F1, a concept vehicle cum hot lap publicity machine created in 1994 by Renault, Matra, and the Williams Formula One team, which put the 3.5-liter Renault F1 engine featured in the Espace F1 to good use by winning the F1 World Championship in 1993, with Alain Prost driving. Prost drives the Espace F1 in the video, too.
Where the standard Espace had a small engine positioned transversely in front, driving the front wheels, the F1 was a little different. Out that went, replaced amidship by the F1-spec RS5 V10, sequential-shift gearbox, and rear suspension. Matra, who built the Espace for Renault (and at one time ran their own F1 team, mostly unsuccessful but possessing a wicked-sounding V12) added a front suspension capable of dealing with the 700-plus horsepower available from the engine.
The Espace F1 spent its life on racetracks, driven by Eric Bernard as well as Prost. Its midengine layout didn't allow it to haul much in the way of groceries or kids, but the second seat was a good place to put a passenger for a thrill ride. You really didn't think it would work on the road, did you? Idling in traffic might be a problem...and then there's the approximately 3 mpg fuel economy. Oh yeah, and some spoilsport might complain a bit about the exhaust music...
Here's another look, in English and from Jeremy Clarkson by the sound of the voice:
The Espace F1 has been retired to a museum. It wasn't the first time hooligans at Renault stuffed something allegedly slow with way too much power, as it followed in the illustrious footsteps of the R5 Turbo. Think Le Car on steroids for that, but that's another story.
Automakers in Europe plan new business models for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids before 2011.
The business models will eliminate the need for gasoline stations. Energy will be supplied by utility companies. The automakers also will need to take into account the life span of batteries, which will depreciate and wear out quicker than the cars themselves.
Toyota Motor Corp., Daimler, Renault-Nissan, Volvo, and General Motors are among the carmakers that plan to bring plug-in hybrids and full-electric cars to market in 2011.
When that happens, carmakers, utility companies, and battery suppliers will need to be ready to take over the role of energy suppliers from oil companies. This will require a restructuring of energy supply arrangements and infrastructure.
But the industry also needs to examine such areas as calculations of operating costs, vehicle depreciation and billing systems.
"We have to prepare for a new era in our industry like never before," Thomas Weber, Daimler board member for R&D, told Automotive News Europe. "Managing financial conditions is crucial for a successful electrification of cars."
... Read more
After many years struggling for recognition, electric cars suddenly are big news in Europe.
At the Paris auto show last month, Chevrolet, Nissan, Renault, Mitsubishi, Subaru and Smart displayed electric passenger cars. Other companies presented hybrids, battery-powered sports cars, light commercial vehicles and tiny electric city cars.
No model captured the change in attitude more dramatically than the B0 (pronounced "B zero"). The B0, a collaboration between French industrialist Vincent Bollore and the Italian design house Pininfarina, was unveiled on the Pininfarina stand alongside a Pininfarina-styled Ferrari California. The stylish, battery-powered B0 stole the attention from the Ferrari.
Adding zero
None of this would have seemed possible two years ago. But recent fuel price spikes and the threat of mandatory carbon dioxide emissions standards in Europe have led automakers to add zero-emission vehicles into their product plans.
In London, the city-center congestion charge has led to a number of tax-exempt, battery-powered commuter vehicles from start-up companies. Stockholm and Milan, Italy, also levy a congestion charge. With other cities likely to follow, automakers now are taking electric-car development much more seriously.
... Read more
Spurred by tough environmental rules and high fuel prices, European automakers and suppliers have launched a bevy of electric-vehicle programs.
-- Daimler said it will bring an electric version of its Smart minicar to market in 2010. The company also is considering electric versions of Mercedes-Benz A- and B-class cars.
-- PSA/Peugeot-Citroen, in partnership with Mitsubishi, said it aims to produce electric models in two years.
-- Renault plans to sell electric cars in Denmark by 2011. The French company is working with its Nissan affiliate and the Japanese battery manufacturer NEC.
-- Bosch, the world's largest auto supplier, has announced a project to build lithium ion batteries with Korea's Samsung. Bosch foresees batteries capable of powering a car almost 200 miles between charges.
But European analysts and industry executives caution that a widespread move to electric vehicles will pose challenges and cause dislocation in the industry.
For example, massive retraining programs will be needed for service workers at dealerships and repair shops. And automakers and suppliers will have to shift production to new technologies.
Said one BMW exec: "Thousands of workers in our company are employed in engine manufacturing. The question is: What are they going to do in the future?"
(Source: Automotive News)
- prev
- 1
- next
