US car club, Zipcar has won an exclusive contract with Westminster Council in London.

According to the Financial Times, the company beat off competition from rivals, Streetcar and Connect by Hertz to operate an on-street car hire service which will be marketed under the Westminster Car Club brand.

Westminster is setting aside 100 bays for Zipcar across the borough this year, rising to 400 within four years. Kieran Fitsall, Westminster parking manager, said that the car bays would be converted from metered and “pay-and-display” spaces.

Concerns have been raised that the exclusive contract with the council could work against consumer interest by granting a monopoly on the area, although the council have defended their position, arguing that it gives them greater control over car sharing schemes.

It seems that the growing popularity of car clubs is attracting a host of newcomers into the field, including Zipcar who progressed into the London market, after successfully established itself across several US cities.

James Finlayson, chief executive of City Car Club, another successful car club operating in the UK, told the Financial Times that the booming demand from consumers was drawing in new entrants such as Hertz and Zipcar to the UK market who, along with existing competitors, were seeking to expand rapidly and partake in a “land grab” to secure the most lucrative bays. 

The contract therefore, a triumph for Zipcar, is not the first of its kind, neighbouring Islington has a deal with Streetcar. The new Zipcar scheme will officially launch next month.

It is certainly the smallest and arguably the most beautifully formed Audi ever, as the manufacturer attempts to introduce a car to rival the top-end versions of the Ford Ka and Fiat 500.

The German firm’s new baby is based on Volkswagen’s ultra-economical micro-machine the Up! (pictured here) and shares nearly all of its underpinnings with the VW although the badge has been maintained in the Audi name to appeal to that executive clientele.

The model has a distinctive body with a gaping grille, beefy wheel-arches and neat headlamps. Engineers at the VW Group are working on two 600cc two-cylinder turbo-charged units – one diesel and one petrol – with fuel economy predicted to be around 95mpg. This will leave carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions below 100g/km and the Audi won’t cost a penny under existing road tax rules.

Also under development is an electric powertrain and Audi has hinted that an eco-minded replacement for the A2 may also be on the way, also with electric drive.

The Volkswagen Up! goes on sale in 2010 with the Audi model likely to follow in 2012.

Let’s be honest, when you picture a green car it’s unlikely to be a Ferrari. However, it seems that the Italian sports car manufacturer may be about to embrace some green car technology.

The company, which already uses a hybrid system in its Formula One race cars, has, according to reports, applied for a patent on a new petrol-electric drive system for its road cars.

Motor Authority claims that an application was filed earlier this year with the European Patent Office for an all-wheel drive system that incorporates electric propulsion.

Currently the Toyota Highlander Hybrid boasts a similar system that puts petrol power down at the front wheels and electric power at the rear wheels. With Ferrari’s system, the equation is reversed with a traditional set-up of front or mid-engine and rear-wheel drive, but with an electric motor to power the front wheels. The system is meant to heighten performance by improving traction and, according to the patent filings, it appears Ferrari’s system will allow for electric-only propulsion at slow speeds.

The manufacturer uses a kinetic-energy recovery system (KERS) in its Formula One car that converts braking energy into electricity and charges a battery that powers an electric motor that can engage for up to 6.6 seconds per lap delivering an 82hp boost for passing other cars.

The world’s most popular hybrid car shows no signs of slowing down with demand for the new Toyota Prius surpassing expectations and leaving the Japanese carmaker considering an increase in production.

Toyota, which declined to comment on whether overtime had restarted at its factories, was among the first Japanese carmakers to halt production at its assembly plants earlier this year, reducing production and lowering inventories after being hit hard by the affects of the global financial crisis.

Now however, production is back on track and the Prius, along with its rival from Honda, the Insight, are seen as the bright spots of the Japanese auto market due to increased consumer interest in mileage and the environment.

Thanks to tax breaks that were introduced in April, the Prius and other green cars are seen as an increasingly smart choice by Japanese customers, with further incentives likely to win legislative approval soon.

According to Toyota it has received 80,000 orders for the third-generation Prius which rolled out earlier this month but it has not commented on reports that its orders had leapt to 110,000 and production has increased from 42,000 vehicles to 50,000 vehicles a month.

Bike lanes and trees are taking over Toronto in Ontario, Canada, and drivers aren’t happy about it – some are even declaring the battles with bikes all over town a ‘war on cars’.

Proposals have been put forward to reduce the car lanes in some key areas in order to introduce cycle lanes but the moves have been met with a disgruntled response from those who use the city’s streets on a daily basis.

However, Shawn Micallef, writing in Spacing Toronto, hit back at these outbursts suggesting that cars are at war with themselves. He points out that cars are in a ‘dirty and nasty civil war’ and anyone who has ever driven a car knows that they are battling each other for space and there is not enough roads in urban centres to declare a truce in that war.

Instead, he believes that the introduction of cycle lanes is not a war – its progress.

What do you think of placing cycle lanes in busy cities and taking space away from cars? Leave a comment with your thoughts.

Forget green cars and alternative fuels – the way to make areas truly green it seems, is to kick the vehicles out altogether.

That’s the case in the Broadway area as the city placed a ban on five blocks of Broadway as well as two blocks in Herald Square as vehicles attempted to navigate around the newly created pedestrian plazas with pedestrians lounging on lawn chairs and dancing to street musicians.

The move is part of a $1.5million pilot programme that is scheduled to last for six months and is meant to create new open space while cutting pollution and easing traffic. According to the Department of Transportation, closing pockets of Broadway and increasing green light timing will cut waits by 17 per cent on Seventh Avenue in Times Square and by 37 per cent at Sixth Avenue in Herald Square.

Nevertheless, the concept has received some criticism with complaints that drivers face higher bills by having to make detours around Broadway, as well as the problems it creates for delivery companies.

With UK order books now open for the new Lexus luxury hybrid ahead of deliveries in July, we got our hands on some video footage of the Lexus RX 450h on the road.

With CO2 emissions of 148g/km the luxury SUV sets the bar surprisingly high when it comes to this premium sector of the automotive industry – as a comparison the Porsche Cayenne starts at 244g/km of CO2, the BMW X5 at 214g/km, and the Audi Q5 175g/km – impressive stuff.

The hybrid technology used in the new SUV is Lexus’ second generation hybrid drive with the car capable of running solely from the electric motors present, also deployed on the car is a start/stop system when at rest to further conserve fuel. Under braking, the engine switches off and both electric motors act as generators, driven by all four wheels. This regenerative braking system optimises energy management in the Lexus Hybrid Drive system by recovering kinetic energy (that would normally be lost as heat) as electrical energy for storage in the high performance battery.

Prices start at £41,600 on the road.

Let us know your thoughts about the new Lexus RX 450h below

Hybrid hydrogen technology could be the next big thing in the world of green cars, if entrepreneur, Malcolm Bricklin has anything to do with it; the Boston Herald reports.

According to the newspaper, the founder of Visionary Vehicles, Mr Bricklin is working on something that ‘everyone said was a scam’.  He hopes to buy and upgrade up to 300,000 GM and Chrysler cars a year to install add-on hydrogen technology and improve their interiors.

“I know I have a product that I can put on cars that will make them get 100 percent better mileage,” he said in a recent interview.

In a three page proposal, he states that he intends to market the cars as Visionary Vehicles/Chrysler or Visionary Vehicles/GM and expects that his plans could provide a much-needed cash injection into the manufacturers’ struggling dealership network by buying up existing stock.

A well-known figure in the automotive industry, Bricklin, 70, made a name for himself by being the first to introduce Fiat, Yugo and Subura to the US market and by developing his own car, the Bricklin SV. Through Visionary Vehicles, he has already developed a performance plug-in hybrid prototype expected to retail for around $35,000. 

His latest vision is to install high-performance, on-board hydrogen “electrolyser” to that he says would split distilled water into hydrogen and oxygen, then injects those gases directly into the air intake of the engine. This system would be a supplement the traditional combustion engine, to enhance the driving range.

Although the funding for the project has yet to be established, along with a number of details yet to be ironed out, Bricklin expects to have a working prototype of a hydrogen hybrid car within the four months.

“I really believe this is why I was put on this Earth,” he told the Boston Herald. “All those mistakes, and all those lessons, and all those experiences have led me to know exactly how to take advantage of this technology.”

Read the full article here: Boston Herald

Japanese carmaker Nissan and leading car rental firm, Europcar are forming a partnership to market electric vehicles by 2010.

This partnership between Europcar Groupe and Nissan is unique in the vehicle rental market and displays substance to Europcar’s commitment to raise the awareness of its customers concerning environmental issues.

Electric vehicles will be rolled out in France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand and will be subsequently extended to other countries, as part of the alliance.

Europcar Groupe has already implemented numerous environmental initiatives within the scope of a Green charter certified by Bureau Veritas in June 2008, including a recent announcement to display CO2 data for all its vehicle rentals.
As Rafael Girona, Europcar Groupe’s Chief Operating Officer, explains, “This signature fits perfectly with the principles of our Green charter and our action policy intended to offer our customers a fleet with as limited an impact as possible on the environment.

“We will thus give our customers the option of exploring a new means of mobility by giving them the unique experience of using an electric vehicle in order to encourage them to become better eco-citizens.”

“Nissan through the Renault-Nissan Alliance has committed to being a global leader in zero-emission vehicles,” said Eric Nicolas, senior vice president, administration and finance Nissan International SA. “Nissan and Europcar share the same belief that the introduction and expansion of electric vehicles is one of the best solutions to sustain the growing need for mobility across the globe.”

The Renault-Nissan Alliance will introduce zero-emission vehicles in the United States and Japan starting from 2010. The Alliance aims to take the leadership of zero-emission mobility in the automotive industry and will start mass-marketing electric vehicles globally in 2012. To date the Alliance has signed two final agreements in Europe with Portugal and the Principality of Monaco. The two agreements formulate concrete proposals – ranging from incentives and infrastructures to education programmes – creating the right conditions for mass availability and acceptance of electric vehicles.

The Alliance Renault-Nissan has begun Zero Emission Vehicles initiatives in Kanagawa Prefecture and Yokohama in Japan, as well as in Israel, Denmark, Portugal, Monaco, UK, France, Switzerland, Ireland, Hong Kong, Singapore, and China.

In the United States, the Alliance is exploring ways to promote zero-emission mobility and the development of an Electric Vehicles infrastructure in the State of Tennessee, the State of Oregon, Sonoma County and San Diego in California, Tucson and Phoenix in Arizona, Seattle in Washington, and Raleigh, North Carolina.

If you thought the environmental achievements of the new Toyota Prius were limited to its fuel economy and low emissions then Toyota is determined to prove you wrong.

The Japanese manufacturer has developed the world’s first injection moulded material to be derived from plant matter.

This ecological plastic has been used throughout the new Prius and will be featured widely in Toyota’s models going forward. In the short term, Toyota hopes that the ecological plastic will be used for up to 60 per cent of a car’s interior components.

The company states that there are two types of ecological plastic – one that is produced entirely from plant stuffs and another that is manufactured by a combination of plant and petrol based materials. CO2 emissions linked to ecological plastic are around 20 per cent less than for conventional plastics because much of the CO2 produced when the material is ultimately disposed of is offset by the amount of gas absorbed through photosynthesis when the plants grew.

The ecological plastic has been used for foam and injection moulded parts in the new Prius such as seat cushions and deck trim. It meets the heat and shock resistance requirements for use in vehicle interiors.