VW XL1 - 313mpg on sale this year?

	Volkswagen set out to create the ultimate eco-hybrid with their XL1. Low, long & lightweight with faired-in rear wheels and super skinny eco-tyres, this car is set to be made available on a lease-only basis and although full details aren't yet available Volkswagen expect to build between 50 & 5 thousand cars.
The XL1’s hybrid system comprises a 47-hp, 800-cc twin-cylinder TDI turbo-diesel engine, coupled with a 27-hp (20-kW) electric motor, and VW’s seven-speed DSG dual-clutch gearbox. (DSG is programmed to only operate in automatic mode.) The diesel engine and the electric motor combine to deliver maximum torque of 103 lb-ft.
	This astonishingly compact combination is mounted transversely behind the passenger compartment and drives the rear wheels. A 5-kWh lithium-ion battery pack and a 2.6-gallon fuel tank are nestled between the power-train and passenger cell. Speaking of the passenger cell, the XL1 will be created using carbon-fibre reinforced plastic, giving it a super strong survival cell for this two-seater's occupants. Gull-wing doors give entry to the cabin, which is finished with the standard VW corporate 'look'............ i.e. black! Besides it's ultra-streamlined look, the little VW's awesome consumption figures boil down to light weight - just 795KG of - well - 'stuff' go into making a Volkswagen XL1 and lower weight means less energy needed to move it along - so less is more or something like that. No price as yet, but almost certainly the same analogy (less is more!) will apply! (suggestions centre around the $50,000 mark )

Porsche GT3R Hybrid - Flywheel Hybrid Racer

	The very first hybrid was a Porsche design. In 1898 Ferdinand Porsche developed - in conjunction with the Lohner carriage company - a series hybrid with 'in-wheel hub' electric motors, capable of being configured as front, rear or 4-wheel drive, this behemoth carried 1.8 tonnes of batteries and weighed a colossal 4 tonnes overall, a petrol engine was also carried on-board to recharge the batteries - nothing new under the sun then!.....
Ferdinand Porsche also took this massive vehicle racing...nothing new....yeah you get the picture! So to this delightful piece of modern day Porsche engineering, a 465BHP 4-litre flat 6 'boxer' engine, coupled with two electric motors driving the front
	wheels only and producing an extra 75KW (80BHP) each, this surge of electric power is available for 6-8 seconds after the flywheel system is charged. The Flywheel/generator developed by Williams Hybrid Power - a sister company to Frank Williams F1 team - stores kinetic energy produced under braking, cornering and acceleration by spinning at up to 36,000 RPM and is deployed at the exit of corners to aid acceleration. It obviously works fantastically well, as the Porsche was leading it's first 24 hour race comfortably until the 23rd hour when cruel luck denied the team a finish. Watch the video and feel this Porsche pull!

Lit Motors C1 - Gyro-Stabilised Premium Electric Commuter

 

	Being based in California, you'd think the roof would be an afterthought – but Lit Motors have designed their C1 super commuter to have the practicality and convenience of a car combined with the performance, lane manoeuverability and ease of parking associated with a motorcycle. The designers even claim it will stay upright in the event of a collision!
Performance is expected to be brisk when it goes on sale around 2014 with a sub 6 sec 0-60MPH time and top speed of over 100MPH. In-hub electric motors provide the propulsion and regenerative braking is a standard feature. Safety has been given a lot of thought, with the incredible twin gyroscope's ability to keep the C1 upright (see video) alongside cabin air bags, reinforced doors and seat belts.
	Connectivity & comfort have been given a lot of thought also, Lit describing their baby as a 'rolling smart phone' - the C1 will be offered with "full cloud/smart phone integration" , climate control (heat & A/C) a premiere sound system. A passenger can be carried for short distances, sitting in tandem with the driver. The Lit C1 should do around 200 miles on a charge and is expected to cost around $24,000 on it's launch, ($19,000 after incentives) with prices falling as production techniques improve.

Guigiaro Brivido - Exotic Hybrid prototype

	Legendary Italian designer Giorgetto Giugiaro has produced this drool-worthy concept from his Italdesign's Turin HQ. Called 'Brivido' - Italian for Thrill - This luxury 4-seater has been developed in conjunction with Italdesign parent company VW, who have supplied support for the electronics amongst other bits and pieces.
Crafted in a combination of aluminum and carbon, Brivido has been designed as a mile-eating GT car with sexy lines and a whole host of entertainment options for lucky passengers, including 3D cinema for rear passengers and an i-pad docking station which links up with the vehicles sat-nav or for use on the move by the front seat passenger! A 3 liter V6 provides the main thrust giving out 360HP with the electric motor - or motors (details are sketchy!) taking total output to 408BHP. Giugiaro claims a 5.8sec 0-60MPH dash, and 154g/km carbon emissions.  At the rear a small rising spoiler which activates at high speeds helps increase stability.
	Glass area has been given significant prominence in the  Brivido, extending to the large gull-wing doors, which offer both front and rear seat access. Door mirrors have been replaced by a pair of cameras that are deployed from the side of the bodywork when activated and transmit their images to monitors on either side of the steering column. A neat - though not entirely exclusive solution. Although this is a fully working prototype, production details are vague at the moment - but maybe - just maybe.......!

WAVE - Wireless electric vehicle charging

Pads placed in the road could provide a solution to the 'elephant-in-the-room' problem currently afflicting electric vehicles. Induction pads which allow the transfer of electrical energy are being tested on buses by engineers in the Netherlands and the US and by spring 2013, Milton Keynes in the UK. Besides the obvious benefits, lighter vehicle weight from needing fewer heavy and cumbersome batteries, is a real boost to performance.

Here's how Proov of the Netherlands describe their system............... " The solution of Proov with induction charging locations ensures that the buses never come to be without power all day and used for scheduling. The recharge can also be saved on the purchase of expensive batteries in the bus and the batteries last longer. We call it "unplugged e-mobility ' Other advantages of unplugged e-mobility are: · Ease (no cables)  · Security (no cables on the road, no contact with electricity) · high energy efficiency · Possibility of opportunity charging (when an opportunity arises) How does induction charging work? The bus arrives at the electrical box. There is situated a steel plate (the induction loop) in the ground. The communication on the bus indicates the electrical box through the bus above the steel plate. At that time, the current to the electrical box steel plate in the ground.The bus is also a steel plate (induction adapter). This would drain at the time when the bus is stopped to the ground. The plate in the bush and the plate in the ground up to each other.Because of the flow of the electrical box to the plate in the ground, it creates a magnetic field. This is passed on to the plate in the bus. And in the bus, the magnetic field is converted into current for the battery."

Responsible Racing - 700BHP Electric GT car

The 700BHP 6 speed Electric Quimera GT

Responsible & Racing – it still sounds weird 15 minutes after I've first heard it! These are two words which have seldom been paired, but Quimera are deadly serious about putting together the first all electric World Championship. Six different classes, including bikes & drift cars will compete in cities across the globe with the hope of pushing the pace of technological change and promoting sustainable products and lifestyles.

Javier de Rocafort's Quimera company, based in Barcelona, have delevoped a 700 Brake horsepower GT car fitted with a six speed sequential Hewland gearbox which, on the face of it, would seem to be a rather sticky dollop of excess as its electric motor produces a massive 1100nm of torque! (almost double the Dodge Viper's lusty V10) However it appears that the addition of a gearbox brings another dimension to the electric car experience, the familiarity and control of a well-timed downshift, using the braking effect of the motor perhaps? Or just the ability to pull off some pretty effortless donuts??! Mr de Rocafort isn't expanding on this just yet... The Quimera isn't the only car being readied for 'production' however, Ross Brawn has designed an F3 style car – called Formula EC – which has spent two and half years in development with the Segula Automotive team, better known for their involvement with the electric Andros Trophy cars. The Formula EC's aim has been to give Formula 3 equivalent performance with electric propulsion and the series was already scheduled to kick-off in 2014 before Responsible Racing came along. In addition, the spectacle will be enhanced further by the TTXGP bikes which have been around since their inaugural race at the Isle of Man TT in 2009, and which, earlier this year, lapped the TT course at an average of just over 104 MPH in the hands of TT winner Michael Rutter - to give some perspective the lap record for the 37.75mile mountain course stands at 131.578 MPH. The series line-up being proposed by Quimera will include classes for: GT Cars – approx 700BHP Touring Cars - approx 400BHP F1 Style cars - approx 500BHP F3 Style cars - approx 285BHP Le-mans style - approx 520BHP Drift Cars - approx 220BHP Motorcycles It's anticipated that the series will be toured around the worlds city centres, Rio and Monaco, just two of the big names being speculated upon, all racing will take place on one day, and it's hoped a start date sometime in 2014 - which just happens to coincide with the biggest shake up in Formula-one's rules, arguably since the last turbo era of the late 70's/early 80's. And although one particular rule change has been delayed – the regs initially required F1 cars run 'electric-only' in the pitlane at GP's – it marks a step-change in the direction the higher echelons of the sport are taking. It's a clever idea, putting all these fledgling series together to showcase them on a single day in their natural habitat – city streets – it will show off their strengths, and as anybody involved in Motorsport will tell you, racing DOES improve the breed, pushing technology faster than it's natural pace, which bodes well for the future of Motor-racing in particular and autonomous transportation in general. So it's come to the point where it has to be said – There's an elephant in the room! Electricity currently needs to be stored in either capacitors or batteries, and neither of these is capable of holding a charge for very long! The proposal for these series is that they will race for 20 minutes then take a pit-stop to change cars, whilst the other car is re-charged. And they are HEAVY. Is this a serious threat to the mainly petrol-engined Motorsport formula's we all know and love? Maybe it is – I know I'm not on my own when I declare my undying love for the petrol engine – it's various eclectic sounds, smells and complexities are evocative of race-meetings past and present, where the sun shone and a V8 bark made the ground shake beneath one's feet or a throaty four let out it's blood-curdling howl! They sound alive, a beast waiting to be unleashed! Somehow the high-pitched whine of an electric motor (even when coupled with a straight-cut Hewland sequential gearbox) and a smell of overheating hair-dryer just doesn't do it for me........ My feeling is that it will be sometime before the Nissan Leaf is mixing it with the SaxMAX crew, what do you think? see the full article at Petrol Heaven

Ford Fiesta 1.0 ecoboost - economical & refined!

Fiesta ST 1.6 ecoboost

The advanced 1 litre 3 cylinder engine first seen in Ford's Focus has now found a home in the latest incarnation of Fiesta and will come in three different specifications - two ecoboost (or turbocharged to you sir!)98 or 123 bhp and one normally aspirated version of 79 bhp. Economy will be around the 65 mpg mark for the more powerful version and should be higher for the less powerful models.

The advanced design of the 1.0 ecoboost engine means extremely light weight and near Motorcycle levels of horsepower and a perfectly reasonable 148 lb ft of torque, remarkable figures from such a relatively small lightweight engine. Lower weight means that the already class leading Fiesta, introduced in 2008, improves it's handling and poise still further -  this car is quiet, refined, good-looking, fun to drive and economical !! It can't make a cup of tea though - yet! Although the Fiesta does have some trick features up it's sleeve, like the MyKey system, which allows parents to limit the car's top speed to 80 MPH and also the radio volume. Another feature of note is Sync - one of the most advanced systems around for integrating mobile phones, audio and voice control, although this has proved unpopular with Americans, who have had the system for a few years. All 3 models come in under the 99g/km emission threshold meaning cheap road tax. If you like your Fiesta to come with a bit more oomph, the ST version 1.6 litre ecoboost (pictured above) is also due out very soon, and should be a little firecracker with 180ps available through the front wheels.