Cities were never so polluted before, planet was never so hot, our surroundings were never so unfriendly to the living beings.
Almost every city in the whole world would tell you the same story – but very few of them take practical initiative to make the things better.

Nuremberg is a bright exception – its public transport system has just taken a test drive of a diesel-electric hybrid bus developed by MAN. However the drive-system technology was provided by Siemens.

The Prototype vehicles, also known as City Hybrid low-floor bus is expected to make big contribution toward a greener public transport system in Germany.

MAN – the famous European engine and motor vehicle group has long been engaged in the researches on the technologies for storage and utilization of braking energy, testing hydraulic storage systems, mechanical flywheel storage systems and ultimately the conversion into electric energy and its efficient storage. So far these expensive researches failed to deliver any economically viable solutions – but not any more.

With the new MAN Lion´s City Hybrid low-floor bus, a new chapter has been added to the eco friendly public transport system.

The prototype features a special brake energy recovery system and is reported to use up to 25 percent less fuel than conventional buses. An electric motor initially puts the vehicle in motion. The motor also doubles up as a generator – it helps in converting the kinetic energy into electricity, which can be stored for future use to power the vehicle.

The drive system consists of series-produced components. This will enable MAN to start mass production of the bus by 2010. These diesel electric hybrid buses can be the ideal solution for urban roads, where the vehicles consume more fuels due to constant braking and accelerating.

Germans going green this time

It is great to hit the road in a grand SUV, but some of us have a hard time when it comes to investing in a vehicle that has been touted as “gas guzzlers” by environmentalists.

The good news is: soon you are going to get the best of the both worlds – a SUV based on hybrid technology. With the Porsche Cayenne hybrid to be rolled out by the end of 2009, the German auto industry, at last, has something up their sleeve to make environmentalists happy.

German car makers have always been considered one of the finest manufacturers in the industry. But in the recent years, the Japanese car makers were seen to grossly outpace them in the matter of international repute. The German automobile industry lacked in a vital area of manufacturing; they failed to cut down on the dependence on the fossil fuel engine.

The European car makers as a whole have come under the close scrutiny of the Environmental police tightening the rules on CO2 emissions amidst growing pressure from the environmental lobbyists.

In fact, the Greenpeace staged a demonstration before the Porsche plant holding the company responsible for building cars they labeled “climate pigs”. (The present Cayenne model with its conventional six-cylinder engine, consumes 12.9 liters on average. That makes Cayenne SUV one of the worst emitters of CO2.)

All these acted as catalyst for Porsche’s decision to turn green: Porsche revealed that they are on their way of developing a hybrid drivetrain for its Cayenne SUV. Cayenne in its Hybrid avatar is designed to drastically cut on fuel consumption and going to achieve average fuel consumption of 8.9 liters (2.35 gallons) per 100 kilometers (62 miles), claims Porsche.

The engineering of the Cayenne hybrid combines an electric motor and battery with a standard combustion engine in order to cut fuel consumption. The technology is being co-developed with Audi and Volkswagen AG. The hybrid powertrain is being designed to capture energy from braking and use it to drive an electric motor. The expected speed of the vehicle is going to be up to 120kmph with the gas engine first taking over at high speeds. This is no doubt an impressive figure.

Porsche says it plans to unveil the Cayenne hybrid in 2009. This new hybrid is sure to encourage the other European manufacturers get started in making a greener world.

Going green just got less expensive!
Toyota is trimming the price of the Camry Hybrid by $1,000 for the 2008 model year!

The Toyota Camry is supposedly the most loved car in the USA. So far the common consumers could not make it up beyond the gas only version of this prized Toyota model; thanks to a restrictive price tag.

But now on they will be able to afford a Toyota Camry Hybrid— Toyota has cut the price of the Camry Hybrid by $1,000 for the 2008 model year. (Source: Auto News). Now you will get your Camry hybrid for $25,860. Though still dearer by $5,400 than the gasoline only variant, the US consumers have now at least the choice of going green without needing to go far beyond their budget. So no wonder, Toyota’s decision to cut down on the price of their most popular model—Camry—was greeted with much euphoria.

This price cut can have a much greater socio-economic impact than mere individual gains by few thousand dollars. It will give a tough competition to the other hybrid manufacturers and reach out to the larger segment of consumers who can fulfill their dreams of owning hybrid cars at a lesser price.

There was a time when cars used to be the prized possession of the resourceful owners. Gradually, cars came to be synonymous with the middle class living in the developed countries. By the end of the last century, cars were able to make an inroad to the garages of the middle class people in the developing countries too.

This is an age, when we can not imagine our lives sans a private means of transportation and it is the trend that is slowly but steadily gripping the developing countries of Asia and South America.

If the developed nations have added to the largest share of world’s Green House emission in the last century, the new millennium is witnessing the developing nations as the emerging contributors to the global pollution.

But there is a silver lining in the cloud—the present generation car owners in the USA are more conscious about their surroundings than their fathers or grand fathers used to be. And this growing concern about their environment is reflected in the growing size of the hybrid car market. And the industry as a whole receives huge impetus with the decision like this by the industry majors.

But how could Toyota achieve this price trimming?
To make the price drop possible, they had to cut some previously standard equipment such as JBL audio system, leather steering wheel and shift knob, Homelink, and electrochromic mirror with compass. At $25,860 you will now get a hybrid powertrain, steel wheels, and a single CD player.

The immediate response and industry predictions
• Although this cut off on the standard equipments for slashing off the price has been criticized by many quarters, the general response to this decision is positive; you no longer have to pay for what you don’t require necessarily. It is welcome for a class of consumers for whom driving hybrid car is more important than counting on the luxury features of the vehicle.
• Although driving hybrid cars prove to be more beneficial in the long run, owning hybrid car requires you to make a considerable down payment of cash at the beginning. But, a drop in the price attracts more buyers in the entry level hybrid vehicle market.

Fuel efficient, performance driven hybrid cars are no rare phenomena in the US roads. So a drop in the price alone can not take the Camry hybrid’s sale too far. It will become real challenge for the other hybrid makers, when the engineers back in Japan achieve further hybrid efficiencies with their Camry hybrid.

Today mayor Bloomberg announced that the city’s yellow cabs plan to switch to hybrids within five years.

Bloomberg stated that “there’s an awful lot of taxicabs on the streets of New York City… these cars just sit there in traffic sometimes, belching fumes.”

Over the past 18 months the city has been testing models, including the Toyota Prius, the Toyota Highlander Hybrid, the Lexus RX 400h and the Ford Escape.

Full story: MSNBC

Yesterday the guys at Popular Mechanics tested out the Ford HySeries Edge: the world’s first working plug-in, fuel-cell, hydrogen-powered car.  This Detroit-made is being featured as a concept at the New York auto show today.

Though wafting zero-emissions exhaust in our face taught us plenty as to the realities of a hydrogen-powered automotive experience, what really made our test special was actually being able to drive a car running on advanced hydrogen fuel-cell technology that can power itself with a 336-volt battery pack.

Thumbs up for the Indian Defense Research and Development Organization research team! They have finally made the impossible possible!!

The Bangalore Based Reva electric car receives an upgradation in the hands of a group of research scientists from DRDO to turn this environment-friendly car into an astonishingly fuel-efficient vehicle!! The new avatar of Reva is going to be powered by hydrogen fuel cell in addition to its battery.  This new development is expected to add a new chapter in the production and consumption of hybrid cars in India…perhaps beyond that too.

While delivering his speech at the ongoing 94th Indian Science Congress at the Annamalai University Tamilnadu, DRDO chief M Natarajan declared “Running it could cost as little as 40 paise a km,”. He also confirmed the successful testing of this hybrid car at the Naval Material Research Laboratory at Ambarnath, 60 km from Mumbai. He also let the gathering know that the car has been performing quite well. Now 100 paise make 1 rupee, while it takes roughly $45 to make a rupee. So you can understand how cheap it is going to run a fuel-cell powered Reva!

How’s the car going to work to make this wonder any way? Well it’s no magic; let’s explain.

When the car is switched on, it draws power from its built-in battery for the initial 30 minutes. In the meantime methanol and water undergo the conversion process to produce hydrogen to power the fuel cell. Then onward, the fuel cell is prepared to supply constant charge to the batteries helping extend the range of the vehicle. This makes it possible to operate the car in the areas where electricity is significantly in short supply.

The DRDO scientists proudly describe the fuel cell as a “small silent power plant”. With this cell, the emissions will be unbelievably low. The testing models are slightly made bigger than the standard Reva models to accommodate the fuel cell rack in its boot. However plans are there to make the fuel cell more compact so that the final version of the hybrid looks just like the current Reva model. The standard Reva has a range of 80 km. The hybrid version will overtake it by additional 40 Km having an initial range of 120 km.  This range could be further extended.

The DRDO-Reva uses a phosphoric acid fuel cell. This implies the car is fine with “dirty hydrogen” — hydrogen with a strong content of gases like carbon dioxide. So the hybrid Reva can be the ideal vehicle to run in some of the polluted cities of India.

The present Reva models will cost you anywhere between Rs.300, 000 ($6,800) and Rs.400, 000 ($9,000). However the DRDO- Reva is expected to cost you around Rs.150, 000 more for each.

Hats off to the Indian scientists for their path breaking efforts; the rest depends on the market response to the hydrogen-powered car to deal with the problem of fuel costs and pollution. …Let’s wait and watch till then.

“We have enough energy resources and green technology in the United States to enable us to stop relying on foreign dictators to supply us with fuel,”—- The USA finds her new advocate for alternative fuel generation in Brian Schweitzer, Democratic governor of Montana. His disagreement with President Bush on the point of war of Iraq is not under the scope of this site, but what interests us is his emphasis on building up of a more powerful USA on the basis of green technology.

The oil rich Middle East had much to do with the international power equation; but the scenario should change now and the USA has to do many things to initiate the process….feels Montana’s Democratic governor Schweitzer. “Along with a smart strategy in Iraq, our energy independence can make us stronger and safer.” affirms Schweitzer.

Presently the nation consumes up 6.5 billion barrels of oil annually. Only 2.5 billion barrels are produced at home; the rest comes from “some of the world’s worst dictators.”

The governor puts forward a simple three-prong strategy for achieving this energy-independence:

• Save 1 billion barrels through conservation
• Produce another 1 billion barrels of biofuels
• Get 2 more billion barrels by turning coal into liquid fuel

He stresses on various alternative fuel sources. He turned out to be great supporter of biodiesel, also pointed to the importance of producing more ethanol. Another option is wind power and it’s a fact that since the governorship of Schweitzer wind power electric generation has significantly increased in Montana.

The Governor seems to sincerely believe that all these efforts of generating green fuel can only take the USA to a greener and safer future. He believes, the green technology will throw open the doors for thousands of new jobs in the country. If pursued with sincerity, the alternative fuel sources will help the nation earn her much needed energy independence within ten years. Most importantly, with a reliance on greener and cleaner fuels, country will never require to send her children to the battle fields thousands of miles away from home. With an end to the war, there will be cut on defense budget too.

Even if you do not subscribe to political views of Schweitzer, you can’t possibly ignore its humane side! After all we all should try our bits to leave a greener, cleaner and most importantly safer world for the generations to come.

 

Since its first appearance in the North American International Auto show last year, the Ford Edge has invoked a great deal of interest among the hybrid enthusiasts! Since then more than 930,000 consumers have visited the Edge web site at www.fordvehicles.com/edge. The launching of Edge had been touted by the company as the single most important event for the year, 2006. Even before it hit the showrooms across the country, this new hybrid car has become a sort of celebrity! So moods are generally upbeat when “Ford joins US ‘green’ car trend”(BBC NEWS).

In its century-old history, the Ford remained the undisputed leader of the auto industry. But the rise of Asian rival brands with the emphasis on use of lesser fuel and cleaner fuel prompted the Ford to take the green isle. The company’s business acumen was duly rewarded as the new Ford Edge won the title of “Urban Truck of the Year” in this year’s Detroit auto show. It symbolized the emergence of a new leader in the crossover segment of automobile industry. And now that Ford finally unveils a test vehicle it becomes the latest to join the league of cars running on the green alternative fuels…reports BBC.

At the backdrop of Bush’s 2007 State of the Union address, where the President is expected to appeal to the nation to cut back its energy expenditure, the unveiling could not have a better timing. For the Ford, this launch is a part of their image repairing procedure—switching from the mould of the manufacturers of gas-guzzling cars to the advocate of greener fuel, safer environment.

The Ford Edge has been designed on the hybrid models that draw its power from the combination of compressed hydrogen and a battery pack that can be plugged into an electric socket. However full commercialization of the model is still a matter of distant future, as the production of hydrogen fuel cells still cost millions of dollars and there are still a few technical hurdles to be overcome.

The volume of traffic the Edge website generated in the months since its appearances in various Auto shows across the nation, sparks hope among the auto experts about the bright future of this new green car in the league. With the launch of Ford Edge, the number of the competitors in the crossover car segment increased by one; now is the time to watch how fierce the competition is going to be.

Blame it on the surge in the fuel prices or the increased consciousness among the consumers about environmental pollution caused by auto emissions…the last year saw an unprecedented fall in the performance of the three US automobile giants, Ford, General Motors (GM) and Chrysler.

Consider these stats:

Total sales of Ford fell by 8%, GM’s  8.7% and Chrysler’s 5%. On a contrasting note the Japanese duo the Toyota and Honda turned out to be the winners with 12.9% and 3.5% annual rise in their sales respectively.

In order to maintain the rate of profitability, both Ford and GM resorted to huge restructuring: in an unprecedented move, GM sold off a majority stake in its GMAC finance unit to counter  its financial losses. In addition to that GM plans to cut 30,000 jobs and close several factories by 2008, while Ford plans to cut around 38,000 jobs.

In an contrasting move, Toyota however announced plans to establish six more factories around the world by the end of the 2010.

In the world auto market, Ford has recently been defeated by Toyota. The 2007 is also expected to belong to Toyota as the crown of leading automaker of the world is expected to go down to Toyota from GM. Toyota and other Asian car companies are also expected to grab increased  share of the pie in US domestic market… industry experts predict.

Although GM has emphasized on the improvements of battery technology, industry experts are not actually convinced that GM could do much to give a close competition to the hybrid giants like Honda and Toyota.

Toyota is already making profits by selling its hybrid cars; the profits on its Prius hybrid are believed to fall between 3 percent and 5 percent. For the models like the Lexus RX 400h, margins are expected to be even higher.

But Toyota is not content with its success so far; Toyota undergoes a constant upgradation…in late 2008 or early 2009, it is expected to unveil the third-generation hybrid system using the Li-ion batteries instead of the current nickel metal hydride cells. The new hybrids will be smaller and also cheaper by half the current price. Fuel efficiency is also expected to improve by 20 percent to 30 percent.

Honda is not much far behind…in gas-electric hybrids segment, a new subcompact model is on the way to make appearance as early as 2009. The plug-in hybrids of its own are also on the anvil.

The key factor for the coming years is going to be the breakthrough in the Li-ion battery technology. However, the American auto giants are also lobbying for getting governmental subsidies for battery researches. Even then it is the Japanese hybrid leaders that are predicted to start the first commercialized production of li-ion batteries for their hybrid cars.

So it can be safely predicted that it is the Japanese auto leaders that are going to dominate the hybrid market in the coming years.

The hole in the ozone layer!!

The global warming!!

The dramatic changes in the climate!!

Diminishing energy storage!!

But that does not mean  you should  start to look for lands on the moon right away; this is the time for getting started on the path of damage repair and prevention of further damages of environment.

And among many eco-friendly measures, the increased use of public transport is likely to play a major role in future. Just look at the public transport system of the countries like UK and Japan….despite being two of the most wealthy societies of the world they hugely depend on the various forms of public transport system with the main focus on underground transport.

In contrast, USA has so far taken little efforts at curbing the fuel consumption by the individual automobile owners. The absence of a properly developed public transport system and heavy reliance on personal vehicle have accounted for  USA’s excessive reliance on the imported oils and  the consequences are known to all today.

Canada, the other rich North American country apparently seems to learn from USA’s experience and they seem to rather follow the European models rather than their American cousin. The country is on her way to introduce a green public transportation system based on hydrogen powered buses.

An important pilot program has started in Ottawa, Canada from 7th December of the last year that involves the test running of three shuttle buses in the Parliament Hill. The buses are powered by Ford’s advanced hydrogen internal combustion engine (HICE). The program is aimed at judging the real life viability of the buses.These shuttle buses are  being used to carry the parliamentarian fleet to and from several  buildings in the precinct. By replacing the traditional gasoline powered buses, these hydrogen powered shuttle buses are expected to cut off greenhouse emissions to near-zero levels.

The whole program involves a pre-commercial evaluation of Ford’s HICE technology and involves a fleet of total twenty buses to be tested on the roads of the USA as well. The outcome is very crucial as it will help the Ford company to assess the commercial viability of such hydrogen powered buses.

The hydrogen fuel injectors used in the these Ford HICE E450s have been provided by Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide, Inc. who along with Ford is quite optimistic about the future important role of hydrogen technology  as an alternative to petroleum usage and harmful auto emissions.