New cars join the sub-120 g/km CO2 Club
Here are three new cars available to buy now, which each produce less than 120g/km of CO2.At this level of carbon emissions all three cars beat the 130 g/km 2012 target set by the European Commission.

• Skoda 1.4litre TDIPD (80bhp) 120 g/km
• Vauxhall Corsa 1.3 CDTI 75 P5 119 g/km
• Mini Cooper D (64.2 m.p.g) 118 g/km

Benefits for this level of carbon emissions, briefly:

• tax disc reduced cost to £35 (£115)
• in 2008 proposal to eliminate London Congestion Charge
• 40% taxpayer to save £237 p.a. in 2008/09

Further details on these cars can be found on Green-Car-Guide.com

New Saab 9-3 range flexes an engine

The new Saab 9-3 range introduces more powerful (and economical) diesel and petrol engines.Importantly, a BioPower flex-fuel engine will continue to be available with this range.
The BioPower option will be capable of delivering 200 hp running on bioethanol E85 fuel.

With styling , said by Saab to have been inspired by their award-winning AeroX concept car (good to see great ideas eventually being turned into reality), the new range has a sporty feel. And, at the heart of the new cars sits the new state-of-the-art all-wheel drive system, the Saab XWD ,or 'cross-wheel drive'. Fully automatic, the system is designed to optimise handling and stability in all driving conditions.

Although I enjoy seeing the eco- friendly concept cars coming through to be 'aired', and ,also the progress of the now several cars in production running on green energy, it is to the improvements in the 'old' engines and technologies we can still turn ,where further and significant gains can still be achieved in reducing carbon emissions in the short term over the next few years, before the commercial introduction of electric, fuel cell, hydrogen driven cars and their like. As an example, the Saab 9-3 Sport Saloon with a 1.9-litre four cylinder diesel is projected as having a fuel consumption of 47.9 mpg.

So,it is the many diesel,petrol and hybrid models currently being produced, that are already achieving or closing-in on the carbon emission targets of 120 g/km, which I shall be looking more closely at over the next few weeks. We're still looking for efficiency and performance in reducing emissions.

You can find more technical and performance detail of the new Saab 9-3 range of cars at Green-Car-Guide.com

New biofuel with the power of petrol?

As well as energy efficient and well designed cars, I am always interested in what is going to power them in the future.So,from Amyris Biotechnologies, we possibly have an emerging alternative to petrol, which it is said will provide more energy than ethanol, although its basic production material is the same as for ethanol production in Brazil :sugar cane.

Assuming the world can produce enough sugar cane without exploiting the poorer countries and 'starving'global food production of essential arable land, can Amyris deliver, or is this just another good idea that will not work, or make any difference to the challenges facing us? John Melo, Amyris's chief executive clearly thinks his nearly petrol product will do the job.He expects his product to be in full production in 2010.

According to The Sunday Times (May 27, 2007),Amyris is a small biotechnology company based on the edge of Silicon Valley,and has many influential financial backers,including the Bill& Melinda Gates Foundation.The biofuel product however was discovered during work to find a cost effective treatment globally for malaria ( the purpose for which the investment had initially been made i.e. to bring "innovations in health and learning to the global community").

So what is this process all about? The clue is the use of microbes. Amyris claims to be "developing a large-scale fermentation process to renewably produce biofuels."

Time will tell if Amyris's work adds to the sum benefit from the many solutions that will eventually be required to meet our fuel requirements and help produce less harmful green house gases.One to watch.

timesonline
Amyris Biotechnologies

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Aston Martin Bio-fuels its way into British Motorsport History

A bio-fuelled Aston martin DBRS9 became the first of its kind to win a major motorsport event in Britain.Driven By Lord Drayson and Jonny Cocker,the DBRS9 based on the DB9 roadcar won the British GT Championship leg at Snetterton, earlier this month.The car now leads the Championship.Lord Drayson said this showed that with a bio-fuel there need be no compromise in performance.The car which has, like the DB9, a six cylinder V12 engine, was built for Lord Drayson by the Prodrive-run Aston Martin Racing Team. Much more detail can obtained from Green-Car-Guide

The problem of how to bring more green cars quickly to the market was highlighted at the Eco-Friendly Vehicle Exhibition 2007. One of those presenting at the Exhibition was David Roberts,Chairman of Prodrive,and new owner of Aston Martin. He believed motorsport to be a solution,providing a showcase for new green technologies.His recent win in the bio-fuelled Aston Martin strongly supported this contention.

H2O OR NOT CO2, THAT IS THE ANSWER(TO CLIMATE CHANGE)?

With apologies to the Bard for a rather poor parody of one his most famous quotations.
On the serious message ,we can now realistically start to look to using hydrogen rather than carbon,for zero emissions motoring.I say start because BMW has developed a series 7 Hydrogen car that drives like an ordinary petrol series 7.Indeed the Hydrogen 7 can operate with either a conventional engine or its hydrogen drive,changing from one to the other at the press of a button. We are some time away from this being a regular production car: although it clearly works okay, there are still technical hurdles (reducing the weight of the fuel tank holding liquid nitrogen for instance), avilability of supplies (one hydrogen 'pump' in UK at present ,for example! More coming on stream soon). It is still one of viable mid-term viable alternatives to the petrol engine.Its energy input sourced by water,and producing only water as an output, has got to be like finding the Holy Grailor, similar.

Tonight at 8 pm ,there is a screening of Tonight With Trevor McDonald on ITV with some coverage and insight into this extraordinary car and its development;also, a look to the future of other green fuels ,and a 'race' across London with green cars ,are expected be featured.

Another One Million Target - This Time Its the Hybrids

Having posted last the one million annual target set by Ford for its highly efficient new range of diesels, Toyota have announced that the Prius will be profitable by 2010 when the number produced of its groundbreaking green cars will reach one million annually.Toyota expect to bring out a new Prius in late 2008 or early 2009.A first will be the introduction of a lithium-ion battery. Though not confirmed ,it is believed in the industry that the battery is ready for production.Toyota is determined with its powertrain to satisfy customer demand for cost savings and to meet green issues.

Further details at Green Car Guide