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Leave it to the French to come up with the zaniest automobile technologies. India's largest automaker, Tata, has just licensed from MDI in France a technology for the world's first air car. The engine runs on compressed air and electricity--and the combustible liquid fuel of your choice. This system forgoes the priciest bits of a typical gas/electric hybrid vehicle--the battery and power controller. Instead, it uses a composite compressed-air tank and some valves. The air is metered into an ingenious piston engine using matched pairs of small and large pistons. Tata hopes to use the engine in a small city car, probably weighing 1,100 pounds. Two 100-liter air tanks would provide 60 to 90 miles of city driving range. Refilling would take about two minutes at a compressed-air station. Plugging into a 220-volt electrical outlet at home or work, the tank fills in about four hours.
Spy Photo of VW Scirocco Spotted in U.S., It was first revealed as the IROC concept car (pictured here) in 2006. The new Scirocco will debut in Europe in 2009. What's interesting is that a mule has been snapped for hot-weather testing in the United States. Most insiders believed that with the GTI and the R32, Volkswagen already has an overfull stable of performance models in the U.S. and that it was highly unlikely that the company would bring the hatch-back Scirocco Stateside. But spy photos suggest that an American version is at least under consideration. Source: Winding Road
Believe it or not, but the fastest growing demographic for RV owners is 35 to 54 year olds, not the geriatric set. Ford's concept Airstream is aimed squarely at a younger army of road-trip warriors. But the high concept of the vehicle doesn't translate into a true camper. Its asymmetrical windows provide stunning views. But the driver needs to be an acrobat to enter the vehicle. Worse, there are no bunks, though you might be able to cat-nap on the L-shaped couch. At the center of the rear lounge a tall cylindrical tower projects colorful images in all directions--a virtual fireplace. The Airstream is designed for the coming HySeries fuel-cell hybrid powertrain under Ford development. It's certainly a futuristic looking vehicle, regardless of whether or not it actually gets produced. But don't sell your VW camper just yet.
Volvo AB, a commercial vehicle and boat engine maker not to be confused with Ford's Volvo luxury car unit, said today the Swedish government is subsidizing its hybrid research for buses. The firm did not disclose the subsidy's value, but claimed it was on the verge of reducing bus fuel consumption by up to 35%.
But doesn't virtually every major car and truck maker in the U.S. get subsidies of some kind not only for alternative fuel engine work, but for many other research areas as well? How are subsidies defined anyway? Are tax break included?
Nexo: The Argentinean Sustainable-Car Prototype
Yesterday, we presented one of the winners of the national Argentinean Innovar inventions-competition, the BCKSolar. Today we bring you the other prototype that caught our eye: the Nexo Project, a system to build vehicles for different uses from a common platform based on a number of similar pieces which makes it easy to produce and adapt, according to the user's needs. The engine works with compressed natural gas (CNG), with the option of evolving into electricity in the future. The car is also very small (2.10 metres long, 1.45 metres wide and 1.78 metres tall/6'8" long, 4'7" wide and 5'8" tall), which can probably help some of the problems related to urban transit in the future. It is estimated that each unit would cost around 4,500 dollars. Read about how it works and check more pictures in the extended.
The Nexo project was developed by industrial designers Ernesto Frias and Nicolás Alem, both 26 years old. “The short distance among the axes is compensated by an adequate suspension, which makes this an agile vehicle, very easy to drive and park”, explains Frias. “The modular structure is conformed by curved tubular steel pipes, and various pieces are repeated completely or partially; as there is only a minimum quantity of curvature patterns," he says. "The car’s body is composed 90% by plate panels which are cut according to the desired finish and the rests are recycled, and completed with thermo-formed pieces”.
The front and back trains, the engine and the stick present a complexity similar to the one of a three wheels charge vehicle. The Nexo car can be equipped with an engine which could get to 20 hp, enough to reach 80 kilometres an hour to go around the city. It can work with a 9 square metres CNG tank that can fuel up to 250 kilometres. As an alternative, there’s also the option of an electric engine, but with less power.
Cars Of The Future: Designers Battle It Out
The Fourth Peugeot Design Competition has just kicked off and people are being invited to choose what they think should make it to the final.
The variety of concept cars on offer is quite stunning and there are 30 to choose from, out of 4,000 submissions. I’m quite partial to the ground hugging E-Motion above although I still can’t see me getting more than 30 metres out of my driveway before crappy local roads ripped that undercarriage right off.
In 2005, the cute and cuddly Moovie (see it after the jump) clinched the title so it will be interesting to see if eco-friendly two-seaters, sports cars or family-oriented Transformer-type cars will steal the show.
Practicality is not really a limiting factor for many of these designs and despite the originality, we’ll be lucky to see any of these of in production before we start queuing for our pensions. Still, it’s good to dream. Jump now to see some shots of last year’s winner. -Martin Lynch
Future Design of Cars
The fuel cell, batteries and electric motors can be placed in many different arrangements in the vehicles including underneath the floorboard opening up a world of future car design possibilities.
In addition, the future design of cars will also be dependent upon just what does propel the car? For instance what if the car we are referring to is a future flying car rather than an earthbound one. Engines and rotors will lend themselves to different future car design than will other types of engines for automobiles that run on the ground.
And, then there are design and technological advancements that have nothing to do with the propulsion method. For instance, the Audi RSQ was designed from the movie "I, Robot" starring Will Smith. One of the most unique design features of the Audi RSQ is that the wheels are spherical in shape as it does not use traditional wheels or tires.
Toyota Future Car
Toyota Fine X concept
Toyota calls the Fine-X a "revolutionary, new concept and a glimpse of the automobile's future." (Don't all automakers say that about their concept cars?) The Fine-X seats four, and is about the size of the Toyota ist, with cabin space about the same size as the Camry. The Fine-X uses what Toyota calls "Welcome Seats," which swing in and out of the car as the gull-wing doors open to assist getting in and out of the vehicle. With its electric in-wheel motors housed in each of the four wheels and four-wheel independent drive, the Fine-X can do on-the-spot, 360 degree rotations for U-turns
