According to BusinessWeek, Renault-Nissan’s CEO Carlos Ghosn declared recently that his company allready has some 56,000 orders placed for the Leaf in the United States. The Leaf is an all-electric small car that is going on sale towards the end of this year, however real mass production only starts in 2012.
Frankly, I mean so far there is no competition. Let’s be serious. It’s not because someone is coming with a prototype and one car that this is competition. The question is how much capacity are you building.
said Ghosn.
By 2012 Nissan-Renault management plans to have some 500,000 electronic vehicles up and running in Japan, Europe and the United States. Reservations have been quite good for the little Leaf from the get-go, however this number still sounds a bit too good to be true-ish. Still, let’s not get pessimistic here: if numbers posted by Nissan are true than we
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Eco
Mercedes-Benz presented at the Geneva Auto Show the F800 Style concept, a true technological statement announcing the launch of the new CLS – the sedan with four doors and coupe look of the German car maker. Besides the F800, Mercedes-Benz has unveiled, in Eropean premiere, the convertible body version of the E-Class sedan, a car that will be launched this summer.
Like other premium brands, Mercedes-Benz brought at his stand eco versions of its models, including a Mercedes-Benz E-Class, which burns only one gallon of diesel at every 48 miles.
F800 is a concept that comes to complete the F700 prototype, presented by Mercedes in September 2009, at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
Both headlights and taillights of F800 adopt LED technology.
The new Mercedes-Benz study may have two types of propulsion: either hybrid, with plug-in rechargeable battery, or with fuel cell (hydrogen).
The Plug-In hybrid version (rechargeable from outlets) can run for about 20 miles with the help of the
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In reality, the new Hyundai i-Flow concept is more spectacular than the first teasers would let to understand. It announces an ambitious plan of the Koreans in the near future.
The fact that Hyundai Sonata sedan that hadn’t much success in a segment dominated by Volkswagen Passat, Ford Mondeo and more recently by the Opel Insignia is nothing new. But Koreans do not want to let the things like this, by the Hyundai i-Flow concept, announced a new offensive in medium sedans.
With generous dimensions (188.1 inch long, 72.8 inch wide and 55.9 inch high), I-Flow receives a very aggressive and modern design for a Korean car, Hyundai accustomed us so far with curves and a familiar, friendly style. The front trying to link the concept with the new Hyundai ix35 SUV, but if the machine fails to bring the car a fairly consistent brand image – some might see some similarities to the
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Until now, the Audi cars made famous logos such as “TDI” or “Quattro”. For now, with the little Audi A1 concept e-tron, the Ingolstadt brand will bring in landscape a new term, the “e-tron”, which will designate the Audi cars with hybrid power train.
The concept with plug-in hybrid power, proposed train by the Germans on the little Audi A1 e-tron, comes with a novelty: an internal combustion engine that is not a TSI, nor a TDI, but a Wankel one, the engine that only Mazda RX-8 proposed in the modern age – however, NSU, the company from which Audi derived, has used a Wankel engine since 1964, so we are also talking about an historical link too.
Besides the advantage that is very compact, occupying less space in the back of the car, the Wankel engine is used strictly as a generator for the lithium-ion batteries, and have no role in
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After working with Tesla, Lotus plans to produce its own electrical hybrid that will be displayed at Geneva 2010 and is called Lotus Evora 414E Hybrid concept.
Lotus was not happy just to provide Tesla with a platform, but they even take into account a future entry on the market of electric models. The intention is announced by Lotus Evora 414E Hybrid concept. Like the Tesla Roadster, the 414E Evora Hybrid is also propelled by electricity, thanks to the two electric motors located centrally, but they are generating energy through the 3-cylinder 1.2-liter engine developing 47 HP, which was named by Lotus “Lotus Range Extender” and is weighing only 187 pounds.
The electric aggregate develops quite a lot of power 414 HP (this is where the name comes from), so the Evora hybrid can rival with the genuine supercars. The Brits say that this model can reach 60 mph in less than 4 seconds. And
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