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March 2008

 
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<< Febuary 08

News for 6th March 2008


Manufacturers at Geneva call for common EU rules on carbon-linked charges

As other cities in the UK and around Europe follow London’s lead in levying green charges, car makers at the Geneva Motor Show called for clearer and common policies, reported the British Headline Auto agency yesterday. Charges are being applied in different ways, on CO2 emissions, and on older cars on engine size, as in London, while the French government provides purchase tax incentives on smaller, lower emitting cars and levies penalties on vehicles with larger engines.

Paul Jarvis, the new chief executive of the UK’s Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, said: “The auto industry has been producing lower emitting vehicles for the past decade but there is a lack of appreciation of this.

“Vehicles are now more efficient and safer but this does not seem to be fully understood and what we are getting is a mish-mash of legislation which does not help manufacturers in terms of how they need to develop technology and it doesn’t help consumers in terms of what vehicle they buy.”

Bentley, which announced plans yesterday to have all its cars able to run on bio-fuels within the next four years, is concerned that it will still be penalised on exhaust emissions. Sales and marketing chief Stuart McCullough, said at Geneva: “Politicians need to be better informed on these issues. The CO2 scenario is a very short term solution to a long term problem. We have considered all the options open to us and we are choosing to go for bio fuels because we want to strike a chord and push the debate forward.”

Paul Willis, head of Kia Europe, said: “There is a massive challenge on the environment faced by all manufacturers and there is a need for some clear direction. “What I think you will start to see is more parallel models ‘eco’ versions with lower emissions but the industry will have to come up with a number of different solutions. I don’t see any silver bullet.”

Thierry Dombreval, Senior Vice President Sales Marketing Toyota Motor Europe, which is now a member of the European carmakers association ACEA, said that the industry was quite active in its consultations with the EU Commission but there was little sign of any standardisation.

Gerry Keaney, marketing chief at Volvo Car Corporation said: ”There does seem to be different legislation in different markets and while we, as car makers, do have a responsibility, we also need some stability from the legislators. Fuel companies also have their part to play and we all really need to be sitting down and talking about this.

London's new congestion charges based on CO2 emissions come into effect on 27th October.


Appro wins contract for Renault F1’s UK Computational Fluid Dynamics Research Centre supercomputer

Appro, an American supplier of enterprise computing systems, has been awarded a contract for a 38TF Appro Xtreme-X Supercomputer for the ING Renault F1 Team Computation Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Centre, a new research facility in the UK. The computer will be shipped and installed by the end of June.

It will provide the Centre with a five-fold increase in CFD computing capacity with the ability to run full-car simulations in addition to the aerodynamic testing of components such as the front and rear wings, turning vanes, brake ducts, and fuel tanks. At current conservative development rates, says Appro, the expanded facility will provide 50% of the gains of a fully-efficient wind-tunnel for less than 50% of the investment.

(www.appro.com)


Volvo Group invests in emissions-reducing engine testing equipment

The Swedish truck and engine maker Volvo Group is investing slightly more than SEK 330m (£ 27m) in a new system for reducing NOx emissions by about 85% when testing new engines.

The concept has been tested for about a year at the Volvo Group’s engine-production plant in Brazil and enables safer and more efficient quality assurance of new engines. While it previously took about 30 minutes to check all functions during testing, the new method generates the same results significantly faster and with greater precision.

During 2008, the new technology will be introduced at the engine plants in Skövde (Sweden) and Hagerstown (Maryland, US) and by 2009 the equipment will be installed at all of the Volvo Group’s engine plants worldwide.

- In conjunction with the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC) arranged by the US State Department in Washington, DC the Volvo Group presented seven different trucks, all of which can be driven without any net CO2 emissions, yesterday.

The trucks - four Volvo FM’s, two Volvo VN’s and a Mack Pinnacle hybrid truck - are equipped with engines modified to operate with seven different renewable fuels or fuel combinations.

An environmental programme developed by the American and Swedish governments was launched last autumn, in which the Volvo Group participated, was launched, aimed at reducing the use of fossil fuels in energy and automotive development. For Volvo, this involves co-financeing projects developing alternative fuel powertrainsfor heavy vehicles with the two governments.


Golf TDI Hybrid concept: 83 mpg, 89 g/km of CO2

VW’s solution to the challenge of creating a family car capable of emitting less than 90 g/km of CO2 combines a 75 hp 1.2 litre 3-cylinder diesel engine with an electric motor and a seven-speed DSG dual- dry clutch gearbox. The Golf TDI Hybrid concept vehicle is capable of achieving 83 mpg on the combined cycle and emitting 89 g/km of CO2 – while around town the vehicle reverts to purely electric mode. That’s only one gram more than the lowest emitting car now available – in LHD form only - Daimler’s smart Fourtwo diesel, at 88 g/km.

The car’s electric motor develops 27 hp and 103 lbs ft of torque, and replaces the conventional starter motor and alternator to save weight and improve packaging. It can also operate as a generator, recovering kinetic energy from the car during braking to charge the 220 volt, 45 kg nickel metal hydride battery which has a capacity of 1.4 kW hours.

The Golf TDI Hybrid has a new grille design and smaller front air intakes to reduce aerodynamic drag and also sits lower than the standard Golf on revised suspension and adopts the front splitter from the Golf GTI Edition 30 to help further reduce aerodynamic drag. The Golf TDI Hybrid is currently a concept vehicle, but VW says a version of it is likely to go into production “in the future”.

The nearest available equivalent model is the new Golf BlueMotion. Adopting an optimised 1.9-litre, four-cylinder diesel engine linked to a revised gearbox and more efficient aerodynamics this car can achieve a combined 62.8 mpg while emitting 119 g/km of CO2 – earning exemption from the forthcoming CO2 -linked London congestion charge.


 
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