After five years of road trials in the US, the Daimler A-Class F-CELL hydrogen vehicle will bow out as part of the California to Canada Hydrogen Road Tour 09.

Following the tour, the vehicle will be displaced by the B-Class F-CELL, Daimler’s first fuel cell vehicle produced in a small volume series but under full development processes. The B-Class F-CELL is a compact sports tourer that will be introduced to customers by the end of the year and will more powerful and efficient than its predecessor.

The newly designed stack module will be around 40 per cent smaller but will develop 30 per cent more power and cut fuel consumption by 16 per cent. It features innovations electric turbocharger for air supply as well as a new humidification/dehumidification system. It uses a lithium-ion battery pack with an operating range of around 250 miles.

The electric motor is able to develop a peak output of 136hp and has a maximum torque of 320Nm. The B-Class will also meet requirements regarding driving dynamics that are above the two litre petrol vehicle. It has a diesel equivalent consumption rating of 97mpg.

Daimler believes that fuel cell technology is the key to emission free driving as it is the only emission free technology that is equally well suited for both short and long distance mobility. It expects to release a serially produced fuel cell to customers as early as 2010 and expects marketability by 2015.

Though it has faced a barrage of criticism since its inception earlier this month, it would appear that the Government’s scrappage scheme has proved popular with consumers.

Manufacturers have reported brisk sales with more than 35,000 orders since the announcement of the £2,000 subsidy. This means that roughly one in every five new cars ordered in this period makes the most of the scrappage scheme.

To mark the success, Gordon Brown welcomed three new car buyers to Downing Street that have benefitted from the scheme.

“I am determined to do everything I can to see Britain through the downturn quickly and build a stronger Britain for the future,” he said.

“That is why I am delighted that over 35,000 people have already taken up the Government’s offer of help to buy a new car when they scrap their old one. This scheme not only helps hard-pressed consumers, it also helps protect British jobs by stimulating demand for new cars.”

The scheme, which is intended to provide immediate support on a short-term basis to boost the car industry, also earned praise from business secretary Lord Mandelson who said that even after two weeks the “sales figures are impressive”.

What do you make of the scrappage scheme? Leave a comment with your thoughts.

Most green car enthusiasts would claim that it was General Motors’ and Chrysler’s lack of foresight in embracing green cars and alternative fuel technologies that led to their downfall. However, a very different point of view has been put forward at TheSunNews.com where a writer has actually blamed green technology for the companies’ problems.

Part of the blame he believes lies with the Bush administration’s mandate for Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards to take cars from 27.5mpg to 35mpg by 2020.

The author points out the shortcomings of downsizing vehicles stating that small cars depreciate faster and are of less value as trade-ins. It is also believed that for every 100lb reduction in car weight, the annual traffic fatalities increase by 2,000 a year.

He states that the auto CEOs were “in bed” with the green jobs movement and that between 1994 and 2003, General Motors gave Nature Conservancy more than $19million.

He points out that California tried fuel cell buses in 2005 and they cost $3million each compared to $328,000 each for diesel buses. On top of that Fed Ex has had to lay off drivers because of the expense associated with their eco trucks.

The author believes that Congress failed to consult the public about green jobs or the Smart Grid, not to mention the cap and trade that will “tax the air you breathe”.

To read the article in full, click here. And leave us a comment with your opinions on this viewpoint below.

The new Lancia Delta from Fiat will boast a 1.8 litre four-cylinder turbocharged direct-injection engine. It will be coupled with a six speed automatic transmission and deliver an impressive 200hp at 5,000rpm.

Thanks to a new scavenging strategy the drive torque is comparable to one of an aspirated V6 engine which is almost twice its displacement. However, there are also significant efficiency gains through the downsizing.

The direct injection reduces temperatures in combustion chambers through the evaporation of fuel and this in turn lowers the knock sensitivity. The engine is then able to achieve great performances even for a moderately high compression ratio.

The engine uses a new generation turbocharger connected to a pulse converter type exhaust which optimises the use of exhaust pressure waves to increment the driving torque at low speeds.

The Lancia Delta can achieve speeds of 143mph and accelerate from 0-62mph in 7.4 seconds. Its fuel consumption is 30mpg and its emissions are 185g/km of carbon dioxide (CO2).

With the green car world focusing on a renewed push for electric cars and new hybrid car concepts such as the latest Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight, fuel cells are in danger of becoming the forgotten figures of the environmental world.

Yet all that changed this week as a dozen fuel cells made their way from San Diego to British Columbia on a road show tour sponsored by the California Fuel Cell Partnership.

At a demonstration in a downtown Livermore parking lot, members of the public stood in line to get a chance to drive a Honda FCX Clarity or Toyota fuel cell SUV for a few blocks. The vehicles received rave reviews.

Other cars at the demonstration included vehicles from Daimler, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Nissan, Toyota and Volkswagen. Honda is currently leasing seven of its Clarity fuel cell cars to customers in the Los Angeles area but otherwise few are in customers’ hands.

The cost of the vehicles remains largely confidential and with fears over the viability of infrastructure, the Obama administration has knocked $132million out of a projected $200million allocation for hydrogen related projects.

As for the carmakers themselves, they hope to have more than 4,000 fuel cells cars in the hands of customers by 2014 and 50,000 on the road by 2017.

There is great news for the expansion of green cars in Britain with a GfK NOP survey for the RAC Foundation revealing that 34million motorists are planning to buy an electric car in the next five years.

However, while the poll offers good news for the Department of Transport which announced an incentive scheme with grants up to £5,000 for the first purchasers of electric cars from 2011, the RAC Foundation believes the plans could backfire.

The director of the RAC Foundation, Professor Stephen Glaister, said that Government is in danger of ‘putting the cart before the horse’. He states they are actively promoting electric cars before there is any chance of manufacturers making them widely available.

“Even by the Government’s own analysis, this form of environmentally-friendly transport will not be on the mass market for another eight years – and even that assumes a major breakthrough in battery technology in the meantime,” he said.

“Ministers’ thinking on green technology is all over the place. They talk of incentives of up to £5,000 for prospective buyers of electric cars from 2011. Yet at that stage there will be almost nothing in the showroom for people to purchase.

“What’s more, the same announcement talked of a mere £20 million being spent on a national charging infrastructure, but only last week the Mayor of London acknowledged that at least £60 million would be needed to provide such a network in the capital alone.”

Despite this criticism, the RAC Foundation does offer its full support to green cars – but states that electric cars are not a short term solution.

Is the new Toyota Prius the most eagerly anticipated vehicle of 2009? Having already stacked up pre-orders in Japan, the pricing of the third generation model has now been revealed for UK motorists.

Toyota claims that you get more for your money with the all-new model with pricing carried over unchanged from the previous generation for both the T3 and T Spirit versions and only the T4 model showing a minor increase – up by £835. The Prius T3 will set its buyers back £18,370; the T4 costs £19,990; and the T Spirit can be bought for £21,210.

The entry level T3 will boast far more features than the previous model including a new head-up display, driver’s knee airbag, smart entry and start, and heated door mirrors. The T4 meanwhile adds features such as 17inch alloy wheels, Bluetooth, an eight-speaker audio system and rain-sensing wipers. If you have the cash to splash on the top of the range model then T Spirit owners will enjoy a hard disk drive navigation system and improved intelligent park assist with rear parking camera.

The new Prius boasts of improved performance and total economy. The Hybrid Synergy Drive delivers 24 per cent more power and yet is more compact and lighter than before. Its CO2 emissions have been slashed to a market-best 89g/km and its fuel consumption has been improved to 72.4mpg.

There are more savings to be made through its environmental performance, as it has a zero VED road fund licence charge, 100 per cent first-year corporation tax write-down, it has the lowest rate 10 per cent benefit-in-kind company car tax, and it is exempt from the central London congestion charge.

One of the arguments that critics of green and fuel efficient cars like to make is that small cars simply aren’t as safe as their larger alternatives. However, a new car safety study released this week shows that four of the top scoring new models are super-minis.

The Honda Jazz, Hyundai i20, Kia Soul and Peugeot 2008 earned top marks in the study conducted by Euro NCAP and backed by European governments and motoring and consumer organisations. It stated that the results show that consumers wishing to downsize their cars can “still place safety at the top of their wish list”.

The study is based on all-around safety performance including pedestrian protection which minimises the injuries suffered by a pedestrian who is struck by a car. The Honda Jazz and Hyundai i20 performed particularly well in this category while the Kia Soul was highlighted for its performance in the programme’s whiplash testing.

The fifth car that earned top safety marks was the Audi Q5, a compact crossover that is nearly the size of an SUV.

As part of the 24^th International Battery, Hybrid and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle Symposium & Exhibition a number of lectures took place focusing on the development of electric vehicles in China and India.

China is planning to allot half the total transportation energy consumption to electric vehicles and fuel cell vehicles that primarily use energy other than petrol by 2020 while India has placed a clear focus on diffusing electric vehicles due to its own environmental issues.

With automotive sales growing rapidly in China – currently at 40million and expected to grow to 150million in 2020 – the country is looking to reduce the number of petrol and hybrid cars and allot half the total energy consumption to electrics and fuel cells. With half of the existing cars remaining China will maintain the infrastructure for petrol and other liquid fuels, and it will make its mileage regulation for petrol cars to meet international standards. It will also give priority to high efficiency direct injection engine cars and hybrids until 2020.

There are currently around 863 projects concerning electric and fuel cell development under way to meet this goal. The Chinese government hopes to increase the number of hybrids running in 13 cities to around 1,000 units within three years.  

Meanwhile in India, the automotive market has been growing at an annual rate of more than 15 per cent and nearly 200,000 units of the Tata Nano have been ordered.

With the urban population expected to expand by 50 per cent in the next 20 years there is no quick solution to emission problems. However, electric vehicles have already started to penetrate the country with sales of electric motorcycles expected to hit 110,000 units in the year 2008-2009.

We’ve featured a number of news stories here at TheGreenCarWebsite.co.uk about police forces across the USA adopting various green cars. So another day, another story – except this time, the police force in question isn’t simply replacing its fleet with hybrid or natural gas cars. No, it’s going solar.

The Ohio Highway Patrol Cars are to be fitted with five-watt solar panels in an effort to conserve fuel and battery life. The fleet, which consists of 1,200 Ford Crown Victorias, will have the solar panels, which cost $37 each, mounted on to the rear decks of the cruisers within brackets that have been fashioned from misprinted licence plates that have been recycled.

Speaking at a meeting earlier this week, the patrol claimed that the panels will allow the vehicles to be turned off while the troopers sit monitoring traffic. The solar energy will power the police’s radio systems so that the officers don’t have to keep their engines idling just to keep the radios on.