Giant’s hybrid bikes

Since the age of five, when Greenbang walked downstairs to discover Santa had left a Raleigh Striker, she has loved her bikes.  Within the last week she has bought a brand new road bike and is already in the process of naming her.  Sadly, the new bike is a replacement from her stolen Giant road bike which she was very attached to.

Greenbang has been talking to another self confessed bike nut, Craig Brophy who runs the Sweat n Gears blog.  Apparently, the self proclaimed ‘world’s biggest quality bike company’, Giant, will be launching a range of electric cycles this Autumn.

Whilst this in itself is nothing new, Greenbang and Sweat n Gears both think the technology might be unique.  According to the press release:

Giant’s engineers have designed a machine which integrates a state-of-the-art power system harmoniously with your pedaling power to provide a seamless output of energy.

What this, very marketing, phrase is trying to say is, when you pedal the batteries recharge and lithium ion technology has been used for the batteries.

This should hopefully solve two problems generally associated with electric bikes.  They’re very heavy and they have very little range.  Giant claim the batteries will give 70 miles in economy mode and it only takes four hours to recharge.

Sadly, it won’t sort the other problem, price.  Whilst people with a love of road bikes will happily spend thousands to gain a one second per mile advantage, people that buy electric bikes probably won’t.  No price is listed on the press release but Sweat n Gears has given a US price of $2,000 and expects UK prices to be higher still.

Motor Show preview

Greenbang doesn’t get excited very much anymore. He stayed up once too often on Christmas Eve waiting for Santa Clause but never saw him.  The experience has slightly jaded his view on life in fact.  As such, he has always been a bit dubious of events in the calendar.

That said, there is still one that has him bouncing around the room like the Easter Bunny (another being he stayed up for but never witnessed) The British International Motor Show.

The show rolls into London’s ExCeL centre this week and Greenbang’s reporter Rowan Horncastle has been lucky enough to gain access a day before the show opens, bringing you all the latest green orientated car news first.

This years show has got a “Greener Driving Pavilion and EV Village” showcasing all the latest alternative fuel technology. This includes the UK’s first electric taxi as well as other alternative fuel cars such as the Nissan X-TRAIL FCV, reviewed by Greenbang last week.

Greenbang will also be wandering around the other manufacture stands, green wash detector in hand, to try and see what the car firms are implementing to make themselves that little bit greener. First stop will have to be at Morgan, to see the deliciously designed Morgan LIFEcar.

The LIFEcar is fuel cell-powered electric vehicle with an exterior which has already caused a bigger argument in the Greenbang office than God vs. evolution ever managed elsewhere.  In a similar approach to the Tesla, Morgan has tried to produce an environmentally responsible sports car with impressive performance.

To see what it is really like you will have to wait until later this week.

Hydrogen hits the London streets

It may not exactly be the prettiest of cars available but it is Greenbang’s first hydrogen-powered drive.  Greenbang’s newest reporter Rowan Horncastle travels to South Kensington in London to sit behind the wheel of Nissan’s new X-TRAIL FCV.

A Greenbang exclusive video of the FCV will also be available from next week.

Greenbang has finally been offered the chance to get behind the wheel of a hydrogen powered car and he’s impressed.  He had expected it to just crawl along and when you put your foot down a 30 second lag would occur.  He can now safely say he was wrong.

The test ride was part of the launch for Nissan’s fourth generation X-Trail FCV at Imperial College, London.

The new hydrogen-powered X-TRAIL FCV has many developments from previous generations.  Most notably its cruising range and performance are now similar to the average petrol car.  Donning his driving gloves Greenbang got behind the wheel and started it up.

The biggest change was the lack of noise.  When starting the car, there is a slight whirr from the motors but that is all. The car is completely silent when at idle and when driving normally.  Even with the foot to the floor there is only a small whine.

Greenbang has read reports that people were walking in front of hybrid and electric cars because of their lack of exterior noise.  He can confirm the danger is valid; two people carelessly strolled in front of the car on the South Kensington test route.

The lack of noise also added danger in an unexpected way.  Greenbang found he had no sense of speed.  Indeed he was not the only one.  According to one of the Nissan reps a journalist had tested the car’s limits at the French launch; and got a 150Km/h speeding ticket to prove it. Greenbang is still wondering how the journalist managed 95mph in Paris.

If hydrogen is to take off then it needs to be similar in range and performance to a petrol car, and Greenbang can confirm that Nissan has achieved this.  One fill of the hydrogen tank allows the car to travel up to 500km (300 ish miles). 0-100kph is a little under 15s which isn’t bad for a 4×4.

The car is still a way off becoming commercially available. The prototypes cost a prohibitive $1.6m. That said, Nissan believes that this price can be greatly reduced if the car was to make it into production.

With only one hydrogen filling station in the UK the infrastructure also needs to be built up before we gain access to technologies such as this.

SF cuts fumes by highlighting parking spaces

There are several things in the world I’d quite like.  World peace for one.  An email application that looks out for the word attachment and then warns you when you’ve forgotten to actually attach it would also go down well.

But, in the absence of these I’d more than happily settle for a parking space close to my door.  Here in Bristol it’s a nightmare and it has, albeit only once, taken over an hour to find a space.  We’ve even started praying to the local parking fairy - it’s sadly true.

Indeed a recent study by the New York Transportation Authority discovered that between 28 and 45 per cent of traffic on many of the city’s streets is people looking for a spot - that’s a lot of CO2.
Apparently, San Fran is fed up with this too and plans to test a network, called SFpark, that will alert drivers of empty parking spaces using their mobile or display the information on street signs. 6,000 of the city’s 24,000 metered parking spaces (they’re not saying where the free ones are I see) will be used for the trial.

According to Green Daily:

SF Mayor Gavin Newsom claims the program is a way to manage congestion and calm traffic patterns, instead of using restrictive tolls, like in London and Singapore (New York has proposed a similar plan).

Overall, the program has several benefits: parking time limits and fees can be adjusted based on the time and day, and the city can monitor the percentage of spots occupied at any given time (for instance, SF might set a goal that only 85% of spots should be occupied).

Realistically, it’s not going to make a huge dent and I’d be surprised if the survey was correct - how can you monitor that accurately.  That said, any measure that gets people out of their cars earlier is a good thing.  My only query is will it encourage others to drive in?  Tie this to a park and ride scheme or a ‘bike to work as parking’s a nightmare’ announcement and you may just have something.

VW’s 235mpg eco car - sneak peak

About a month ago Greenbang went up to Liverpool where she was told by several exhibitors that ‘car designers would aim for 99g CO2 /km (about 74mpg) to give its drivers free road tax instead of going any lower.’  As the government targets shift so will the designer’s aims.

Well, it appears they were wrong.   There are several rumours around that VW will launch a car capable of 235mpg within two years.  It’s based on a 2002 concept car and uses the two basics that all cars should have - leightweight and aerodynamic - combined with a 1 litre diesel electric hybrid engine.

If the pictures are true then it will be a 2 man car, one behind the other.  It is also believed that the 11.4′ x 4.1′ x 3.3′ shell will be made from magnesium and plastic. It’s all a bit bat mobile really.

According to CAR:

“At the time the chairman of VW’s supervisory board predicted that the super-economical two-seater would go into production as soon as the cost of the carbonfibre monocoque dropped from €35,000 (£28,000) to €5000 (£4000), which he estimated would happen in 2012. The asking price? That’s a game of political posturing. Volumes will be restricted to keep costs under control and, according to one well placed insider CAR spoke to, anything from €20,000 (£16,000) to €30,000 (£24,000) is possible.”

VW hasgone to quite extreme levels to look at aerodynamics it seems.  The more astute will see it has no wing mirrors, these have been replaced by cameras.

Lotus goes beyond just CO2 emissions for new Elise

I picked up Lotus’ latest release for the London Motor show hoping to be able to dismiss it quickly.  I had expected the release, entitled ‘Lotus Eco Elise, trackday warrior turns eco warrior’, to say it could run on biofuel and therefore it’s green.  An easy greenwash dismiss if ever I did see one.

Sports cars simply are not built to be as green as possible.  Even the completely electric Tesla is built for speed so is not as efficient as possible.

However I have been very impressed with the efforts Lotus has made.  Admittedly, the inside does look like it’s eaten one too many bean burgers, but that aside, local materials, solar panels set into the roof and environmentally friendly paints have all been used to minimise its footprint.  According to the release:

The Eco Elise project promotes a different perspective on “green”, one which does not revolve solely around tailpipe CO2. This holistic approach is in keeping with the progressive Lotus culture, driving Lotus to become the world’s green automotive consultancy.

Sustainable materials, hemp, eco wool and sisal have been developed for body panels and trim and, combined with hi-tech water based paint solutions, showcase new affordable green technologies. The green credentials of the technology on show in the Eco Elise have been analysed throughout the lifecycle of the car.  Solar panels have been set into the hemp hard top to help power the electrical systems and give a means of renewable energy generation.

The sportscar firm actually appears to have thought through many aspects of the car’s design to minimise its impact.   Including the driving style of the owners.

A green gear change display has been integrated into the dashboard to promote greener driving as well as a weight reduction programme, illustrating the holistic approach taken. The energy expended to manufacture the car has been evaluated, working to the 3R’s - Reduce, Re-use and Recycle.

In keeping with the “performance through light weight” philosophy, the Eco Elise weighs 32 kg (70.5 lbs) less than the standard Elise S, which means that the efficient Elise S engine in the Eco Elise will give higher fuel economy figures and even better performance.

More from the release:

Dramatic improvements to the culture and operations at Lotus has rewarded the company with staggering reductions in energy (Electricity 14%, Gas 30%) and water (11%) consumed across the Hethel headquarters in 2007, compared to 2006. These advances have coincided with improvements in recycling, with 57% of waste product now being recycled.

The new green materials sourced for this car have been carefully studied to ensure that each technology used reduces the environmental impact of the vehicle. The life of the components has been analysed; during the production stage, in-use and at the end of the vehicle’s life. The technology used aims to offer lower emissions of both solvents and CO2 in the lifecycle of the vehicle, with reductions in energy consumed during manufacture.

F1 designer goes eco

How many people from the world of Formula 1 can you name? Greenbang is guessing Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and possibly Max Moseley (now) feature in the list. Aside from these it will probably be rare that you’ll know many engineers.

Gordon Murray designed the 1988 McLaren MP4/4 which won 15 of the 16 races and the McLaren F1 roadcar. He is one of very few engineers to make a name for himself outside of the paddocks and, as of this month, will be applying his expertise to the eco car market.

The T.25, his first project, will be a city car priced around the £5k mark.  According to Greentech the first versions of the car will run on either gas or diesel and get about 60 mpg.  The key to the car’s green credentials is its lightweight design.

According to the release:

This vehicle concept will be the first of its type which concentrates on Full Lifecycle damage rather than just running damage. It also addresses congestion and parking issues alongside manufacturing, running and recycling damage.

A practical business mind is also being used for the design:

For a small car to be commercially successful it must achieve four things:

• It must be less costly to buy and run than other cars
• It must be “cool”, something to be seen in such as the original Mini, the Fiat Cinquecento and the Smart
• The Car must be proven to be as safe as a small hatchback
• It should not be daunting to drive in traffic

Boeing to showcase ’sustainable’ technology at Farnborough

Growing up with a parent that worked on an old RAF airfield, Greenbang always loved air shows when young.

The Red Arrows always brought a smile to her face. Sadly, she’s no longer eight and has grown an ounce of cynicism towards them and declined the tickets to Cranfield and Farnborough for the past decade.

That said, Boeing will be demonstrating technology that the company claims “will help develop a sustainable future for the global aerospace industry.”

Now, Greenbang isn’t sure if how much of it’s true and how much is hype but it has certainly grabbed her attention.

A phone call to Charlie Miller in Boeing’s UK press office gleaned a little more information on the exhibit.  Apparently, there will be a section on second generation biofuels, the world’s first fuel cell powered plane and the company’s new flagship plane, the 787, which promises to deliver a 20 per cent improvement on fuel efficiency through engine technologies, aerodynamics and composite materials.

Volvo bags $18m for fuel r&d

Greenbang remembers as a child his father drove a poo-brown Volvo estate that was very old.

So old in fact that the boot door used to fall off and remain in the back of the car until his father had the money to get it fixed. This was very embarrassing when being dropped off for rugby practice, where all his team mates laughed at him.

And another thing about Volvos - they always have their side lights on. Quite often, as most Volvo owners will know, a twat will approach you to tell you your side lights are on, failing to understand that those clever Swedes build ‘em that way.

Actually, seeing as the company has just received a grant of $18m from the Swedish Energy Agency to develop hybrid technologies and alternative fuels, perhaps that’s the first thing they need to sort out. Why have the lights on when it’s not dark, Volvo?

This comes from Fleetowner:

“The climate issue and increasing fuel prices make energy use and energy efficiency some of the most important societal issues of our time,” said Leif Johansson, CEO of the Volvo Group. “The transportation industry has a special responsibility and this research and development co-operation with the U.S. government is crucial in our efforts to develop the drivetrains and technology required by both our customers and society as a whole.”

Mazda: Hydrogen cars unrealistic until 2020

Greenbang always knew it would take a while for the industry to deliver a commercially available hydrogen car. Infrastructure and an affordable cost simply aren’t there yet but 12 years seems a particularly long time - but that is what Mazda’s Tsutomu Matsuoka has allegedly stated.

The news agency AFP has reported that:

“The earliest that customers will use these environmentally-friendly vehicles in a normal way will be 2020,” the general manager of [Mazda's] technical research centre, Tsutomu Matsuoka, said at the World Petroleum Congress in Madrid, one of the oil industry’s biggest events.

Greenbang tracks the explosion of the environmental industry, reporting on news of green innovation and thought leadership.

We blog on this rather than the environmental problems of the world because we are interested in the answers to climate change.