Renault sign in with eCO2

Using the expertise gained in Brazil producing the FlexFuel adaptations of the Clio and Megane, Renault is to introduce into the UK for sale the 1.6 litre 16v Megane Hatch E85,at the end of this year.

This is Renault's first UK launch of a bioethanol car and is part of its commitment,called eCO2,to produce environmentally-friendly vehicles for whole of life, including end of life recycling.In the challenges facing manufacturers to reduce CO2 emissions, Renault believe biofuels will have a major role.For More about bioethanol (E85)

The New Peugeot Urban Move is a 107+2

Continuing the theme of sub-120 g/km performers, my post today is about a new Peugeot 107 special edition model. Why 107+2? Well, it emits a mere 109 g/km. It is another in the unsung hero class of sub-120s that are expected to be exempt from the London congestion charge if Ken Livingstone's proposals go through for next year.

Although a petrol, this C1 ,with a top speed of 100mph, has a possible combined consumption of 68.8 mpg from its 1.0 litre engine, and clearly demonstates what can be squeezed out of the 'old conventional' ( or non- hybrid) cars. Already a sales winner the 107 Urban is enhanced in the Urban Move model with many extras, including air conditioning and rev counter. This,though, is a small and light 3- and 5-door car, but at £7,995 it represents excellent value.

Peugeot continues to build on success with the 207 SW

The 207 is a best selling car in Europe. In its new estate, it will continue to be highly economical (at 60.1 mpg for the two 1.6 litre HDi diesels,which will be environmentally-friendly with a CO2 emission rating of just 125g/km.)

Although not quite in the sub-120g/km club, this new model will still appeal to customers who are looking for a little more space and lower carbon emissions. This 207 SW will provide more headroom and interior space from the same wheelbase as the 207 five door hatchback, yielding an extra length of 119mm and height of 38mm.

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

(c)Copyright.CFM(Services)Limited and M P Ryan.All rights reserved.

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

In US Diesels and Hybrids to slug it out for green and commercial supremacy

UBS/Ricardo research suggests that by 2012 diesel may have overtaken hybrid in the US as the preferred technology for cars of an acceptable price and also meeting the required standards on gas emissions.The research points to a trend leading to diesel(1.5 million units) and hybrid cars (1.2 million units) combined representing 15% of the light vehicle sector of the automotive industry, by 2012.In Europe diesel is already top-dog.

This trend will have supported the decision by Ford to invest £130 million at its Dagenham facility to produce a new line for its low carbon 1.4 and 1.6 litre Duratorq TDCi turbo diesel engines - an annual output of 1,000,000 by 2009 is the target.

Reducing total car emissions will continue to require a mix of products using many different solutions.Diesel is probably not going to meet all the criteria in the long run, and we shall continue to see in these lec posts for some time to come,reports of the many twists and turns of progress, as manufacturers strive to the find acceptable and sustainable alternative fuels and innovotive technologies.

A Ford Fiesta fitted with a new Dagenham 1.6-litre engine produces 116 grammes of CO2 per kilometre.Getting there.

The Iconic Mini Just Got Greener

As promised, here is the retro image from a brochure that I happened to have in my attic for many years (I also have a 'cutting' from the Liverpool Echo showing the Everton players Joe Royle and Alan Ball in 1989 in front of an opposition goalmouth - as now,Everton was a good side then). In the late 60s, it was more your Led Zeppelin and leaded petrol than climate change and reducing carbon emissions, but style and good design have always been attractive, and we are to be blessed with a new range of minis forty years later which are both stylish, cool and with low emissions.

Classic Morris Mini Mark II Moments from the Attic

When emptying my loft recently, I came across a brochure which must have been there since 1968/69.It is a colour folder ,11'X 8"folded,22"X16" unfolded,on The New Morris Mini Mk II,full colour illustrated.Why is this of any interest? Well ,apart from the fact that it is now a very collectible item ( two copies are currently on eBay for sale), it is also a great lead into the latest generation of minis which are soon going to wow customers. These latest minis will clean-up with a revised engine range and technological revisions, when production starts in August 2007. The mini hatch Cooper D (seen above)will have CO2 emissions of 104 g/km and return an incredible 72.4 mpg.

This astonishing performance will be achieved without recourse to alternative fuels or hybrid technology- a low emission car is a low emission car,after all.

If you would like even more details of the revised mini models,these can be found at the Green Car Guide where there is a test drive report.

If you would like to see more about the grand daddy of this iconic family of motor cars, I am posting a picture from the brochure next.

Act Now On CO2 You Can Save Money By Greener Driving


low emission cars is supporting the government initiative Act on CO2 details here

Over at the Green-Car-Guide you can benefit from Free Driving Tips


You can also take a look at the most environmentally friendly cars currently available to the UK motorist to buy. The Guide will help you to understand what is on offer. It's fun,too!

Biofuels V Food : The Great Global Challenge?

There is talk of the inflationary effect of rising food prices in some developed countries notably the US,UK and New Zealand , driven by the diversion of corn products into alternative fuels for our cars. In the US, for example ,food costs have risen by 7% ,in the first quarter of this year.However,the bottom-line is we need low emission cars.

For corn you can read: soya bean,rapeseed,flaxseed , sugar cane and other renewable crops that can be used for producing the alternative fuels to oil products, like petrol and diesel. All these crops need to grow somewhere. Sometimes, but not always, crops for renewable energy can be grown in areas ,or on land ,not previously used extensively for agricultural purposes. However, when the underutilised capacity has gone ,this is when the serious decisions have to be made. Biofuels or food? Corn for food consumption or for the manufacture of alternative fuels.This is economics on the front line. Supply and demand will rule the day.


Deforestation (in Brazil), or the switch from cereals to ethanol production in the US , will probably continue apace as vast areas are cultivated to meet the demands for ethanol production. I shall be looking in more detail into the Biofuels v Food Challenge in future as part of the whole complex debate about the future of propulsion for cars. In the meantime I have found some relevant useful information at WIMS (see its blog post for 21st May)

If we need low emission cars, we must continue to look at all the options for powering them.
This may help to encourage the commercial development of (say) electric or hydrogen cars.
We must also not overlook the major immediate improvements that can (and are being) made to the performance and emission reduction of petrol and diesel driven cars.

In my next post we pick-up on a government initiative to encourage us to drive 'cleaner'.

Some BMWs just got even greener


BMW's launch of the revised models of both the 1 series and the 5 series, reminds me that reducing the level of total emissions from cars significantly rests not on any one solution but a balanced use of many solutions.For example, the conversion of all cars to biofuels is not the total answer to removing the car's contributory threat to climate change. I am interested in the current 'biofuels versus food' debate ,but this is for another day,soon. What BMW demonstrate is that a great deal can still be done to improve the performance of petrol and diesel cars of quality,significantly reducing emissions and increasing fuel consumption.

The 1 series is:

• now available in a 3 door version;and
• the 118d (the lower powered 2 litre diesel engine) can yield over 60mpg
• and CO2 emissions of just 123g/km
• this means emissions cut by upto 21% and fuel consumption by upto 24%

So, BMW believe that more environmental benefits can be teased out adopting its 'Efficient Dynamics ' system to describe the improved energy efficient innovations and rear-drive approach.

If you would like more information on the 1 series (and also the 5 series), for different engine sizes, petrol or diesel etc., you should go to the Green Car Guide site.

Toyota Prius: The car of the Future that delivers Today





Who says so? Well, UK customers in their thousands do. The Prius, the hybrid ,has scooped the 2007 JD Power Award, along with its stablemate the Lexus IS , based on feedback from a customer satisfaction survey report. This survey asked for a response in four principle areas : quality and reliability, service satisfaction, vehicle appeal and value for money.

For more about this achievement ,and the record breaking seventh consecutive gold award won by the Lexus IS please go to ...

A car to look out for this summer is the Lexus LS 600h featuring the latest development of the Lexus Hybrid Drive.
I will bring information to you on this when it is available.

Tackling Climate Change Will Not Cost The Earth

This is the headline message according to BBC reports from the UN climate change conference (a session of the IPCC)currently being held in Bangkok.

So, having been assured by an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report in February, that human activity is largely responsible for climate change, we are now being re-assured that the human race has choices in its future activities which can tackle the worst effects of this change.

Holding the concentration of CO2 emissions at an acceptable level can be achieved at a reasonable cost to the world economy. More information...

We have no excuse. Appropriate action now can save our global environment. There are the changes to be made by consumers,generators of energy,the procurers of nuclear weapons, and other identified sector influencers named in the IPCC reports. Technology though is not seen as the full answer.There must also be more incentives for people to restrict their activities to those that produce the least greenhouse gas emissions.

low emission cars have a role to play in the brighter and more certain future.
We all must encourage the motor manufacturers and designers to produce the cars that we can all enjoy to drive and know they will not be hastening climate change.The fuel and engine technologists are also working to significantly reduce harmful gas emissions.The future is looking better.

No Carbon cars

Last week was a particularly busy week for green issues.So,I cannot let time go by without some comment on taking the car out of carbon.Some geezer bid at a charity do £1.1m for a Bugatti Veyron (not very green).He could have bought two Koenigsegg CCXR which run on bioethanol (much better - but £531,000 each- ouch!)This is a green super car in production and on the market.

Going back to cor blimey,the German manufacturer Loremo will be producing in a couple of years a car more in my price bracket- the Loremo LS , powered by biodiesel, is expected to cost just short of £8,000. With an amazing consumption of 165 mpg claimed, the down side for some maybe the acceleration at 60 mph in 20 seconds.A GT model,a little dearer at around £10,000 may do 60mph in 9 seconds. This ultra lightweight car with low-drag design (that is part of the secret to its consumption credentials),looks very good (above)and the wait could be worth it.Green motoring does not look likely to be too boring in the not to distant future. The Toyota FT-HS,Chevy Volt,and the Tesla Roadster, all featured at some time on low emission cars are eagerly awaited- in the next few years,although currently they are looking rather expensive, and the most successful engine and fuel technologies are still being worked on to achieve the winning products in terms of performance,style and affordability.

Bio production powers ahead in Europe

Total European production of bioethanol in Europe was 71% higher in 2006 than 2005,having risen to 1,525 million litres, according to figures released recently by the European Bioethanol Fuel Association (eBio). This makes a total increase of 143% in production of this fuel since the beginning of 2004.

Eleven European countries currently produce ethanol, and more are expected to join them as demand for the fuel increases with the European Commission's 2010 looming target: 5.75% of fuel used for transport is to come from renewable sources.

Today, I decided to remind myself how the ethanol production process worked and found on the ebiosite this informative link

Do you have ideas to communicate greener motoring messages? Want to get them off your chest?


On 7th March, I posted details and link for the LowCVP marketing challenge. This is by way of reminder that marketers,students and industry stakeholders have until closing date of 16th May to submit their completed entry forms for this competition.

This competition was given great impetus from the then recently announced European Commission's important new proposals to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from new cars and vans sold in the EU. A panel of 12 senior advertising and communications industry executives will judge the entries and the winning work will be viewed at the LowCVPs annual conference to be held on 28th June.

Effective communication is, of course, vital in the movement towards significant reduction in carbon emissions. Participants can enter any of the following six categories:

• Low carbon Fuels
• Responsible vehicle use
• Smarter driving
• Responsible low carbon business transport
• Low carbon passenger cars
• Low carbon vans

Further information can be found on the CARS NOT CARBON competition here
and here