In a world first, Renault is to make its Renault Kangoo be bop Z.E. prototype electric vehicle available for test drives.

The Renault Kangoo be bop Z.E. prototype is powered by a 44kW (60hp) electric motor and is equipped with a 15kWh battery. With just 18 months remaining before the release of Renault’s forthcoming production electric vehicles, Kangoo be bop Z.E. provides a range of approximately 100km. By the time of their launch, Renault’s electric vehicles will have benefited from an evolution to their battery technology which will take their real-world range to 160km.

For many motorists, driving an electric vehicle will be a new experience. The absence of noise from the motor, the immediate availability of peak torque and the linear acceleration curve mean that drivers will need to develop new habits. This has led Renault to give motorists an opportunity to the sample Kangoo be bop Z.E. which previews the brand’s forthcoming technology.

The Renault-Nissan Alliance intends to mass market zero-emission vehicles.

This commitment is founded on the underlying principle that electric vehicles – unlike all other technologies (internal combustion engines, hybrids) – are zero-emission vehicles during their use on the road. Depending on how the electricity they use is produced in the different countries where they are driven, their well-to-wheel greenhouse gas emissions (equivalent carbon dioxide) can vary significantly. That said, electric vehicles generally tend to emit less greenhouse gases than equivalent internal combustion-engined vehicles.

Like the Z.E. Concept, which was unveiled at the 2008 Paris Motor Show, Kangoo be bop Z.E. is equipped with low-energy LED (light-emitting diodes) front and rear lighting with a view to optimising energy use. Again in a bid to reduce energy consumption, its aerodynamics have also been significantly reworked. Kangoo be bop Z.E. sits on full disc wheels, and its ground clearance has been lowered by 20mm compared with that of the production Kangoo be bop.

An illuminated gauge on Kangoo be bop Z.E.’s body sides displays how much charge is left in the battery by simply activating the remote central locking control. Inside, another gauge to the left of the instrument panel provides the driver with a permanent indication of how much battery charge remains.

Kangoo be bop Z.E. is derived from the production Kangoo be bop but is instantly recognisable by its Energy Blue body colour, while the Renault logos on the grille and wheels are picked out in satin-finish blue-hued chrome. Inside, satin-finish chrome and metallic fluorescent green details provide a unique ambience which is enhanced by the specific grey velour upholstery and embroidered ‘printed circuit’ motifs.

Renault Kangoo be bop Z.E. is an all-electric zero emission (in road use) vehicle. It generates no emissions of CO2, smoke or particulates.

Electrical energy is transmitted to the motor via a power electronics unit which incorporates a controller. This transforms the 400V direct current into three-phase alternating current to power the motor’s rotor and stator. It also regulates the power and torque of the electric motor.

Situated near the controller, the converter converts the 400V DC stored in the traction battery into 12V DC to feed Renault Kangoo be bop Z.E.’s conventional onboard electrics and auxiliary functions (interior and exterior lighting, audio system, electric windows, etc.).

The junction box distributes the power current to the motor functions (battery, climate control and heating systems). This junction box also includes the charger which converts the 220V AC into 400V DC for battery charging purposes.

The battery comprises 48 power modules, each of which incorporates four elementary cells. It is inside these cells that the electrochemical reactions take place, enabling electrical current to be produced or energy to be stored. Each module is of the size of a laptop computer. They are positioned in two rows, side by side. The four cells of each module store 8.4V, making a combined total of 400V for the 48 modules which make up the battery.

The battery of this prototype has a capacity of 15kWh. Kangoo be bop Z.E. ensures a range of approximately 100km. In 18 month’s time, however, production Renault electric vehicles will benefit from an evolution to their battery technology which will deliver a real-world range of 160km.

Last but not least, lithium-ion batteries are recyclable and the Renault-Nissan Alliance is actively working on establishing recycling processes and infrastructures suited to automotive batteries. It is important to remember that lithium-ion batteries – which are made up of non-toxic materials (lithium, manganese oxide or iron phosphate, and graphite) – do not present any danger for the environment, unlike former nickel-cadmium batteries. To put the demand for lithium supplies into perspective, the Alliance’s 250kg AESC batteries contain just 3kg of lithium. According to the mining companies Chemetall and SQM, lithium reserves are currently estimated to be between 14 and 17 million tonnes.

The incorporation of a 250kg battery in the vehicle has naturally not been without effect and has called for specific bracing of the body structure in order to protect against impact. Given that the battery is as sensitive a component as a conventional fuel tank, it, too, has undergone bespoke strengthening with a view to ensuring that its modules are effectively protected. The layout of the electrical wiring has also been optimised with a view to preventing chafing, while the power supply is immediately switched off in the case of a big impact.

The title of WhatGreenCar Car of the Year 2009 has been awarded to the ‘next generation’ Toyota Prius, due to be launched in the UK on 1^st August 2009.

The new Prius was chosen from a short-list of 10 green car finalists which were test-driven at Imperial College, London, by six of the UK’s leading green transport and environmental experts. The judging was completely independent and showcased the most innovative green cars available to drive in the UK during 2009.

The 10 cars up for contention for the 2009 Award included: the Citroen C1 ev’ie electric, Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric, Toyota iQ, Ford Fiesta ECOnetic, third-generation Toyota Prius hybrid, Volvo S40/V50 DRIVe start-stop, new Honda Insight hybrid, VW Passat BlueMotion 2, BMW 318d saloon, and the Citroen C3 Picasso compact-MPV.

Dr Ben Lane, Managing Editor of WhatGreenCar said: “While this year’s judges were rightly impressed by the range of green car technologies employed by the 10 car short-list, they were unanimous in their acclaim for the new Prius. In addition to the new model’s best-in-class cradle-to-crave environmental credentials, the panel particularly commented on the way the car seamlessly integrates green features as part of its design. If Apple made a car, it would probably be the third generation Prius”.

With a lighter and more and compact power-train, the latest Prius is greener than ever with a best-in-class WhatGreenCar environmental rating of 33, official combined fuel economy of 72.4 mpg and CO2 emissions of only 89 g/km – a 14% improvement over the highly successful current model, itself the winner of many awards since its UK launch in 2004.

Counter-intuitively, the new Prius uses a new four-cylinder, 1.8-litre petrol engine in place of the 1.5-litre unit in the current model to improve overall fuel economy, and offers additional driver control via three driving modes – in EV mode, the car can be driven as a pure electric vehicle for as long as the battery charge allows. For the first time, the new model incorporates plant based bio-plastics for its interior components and a solar roof that keeps the temperature inside the car at comfortable levels.

Miguel Fonseca, Managing Director of Toyota GB PLC said “It is a great honour to receive this award for the next Prius.  Particularly as the judges recognise the car’s low, whole life environmental impact. From materials procurement through production, to in use fuel saving and even end of life recyclability, Prius sets the benchmark for all other cars to match.“

The pressure is on car manufacturers to take new emission targets seriously – and it appears that the message is getting across with reports suggesting a hybrid version of the Land Rover LRX concept has been confirmed for production.

The vehicle, a two-door, off-road luxury SUV has been derived from the Land Rover LR2 except for the fact that it includes new hybrid powertrains. Though a petrol engine version of the vehicle will also be produced, the hybrid version has won the approval of the British Government which announced it would offer incentives for Land Rover to produce a new, green vehicle.

The Land-e concept form allows its drivers to run in petrol only, electric only, or hybrid modes. The technology is expected to cost around $650million to develop.

According to Auto Express, the new hybrid version won’t be in production for another two years but the petrol-only version will arrive in early 2010. It is expected to carry the Range Rover name though it will be built alongside the LR2 in Land Rover’s Halewood plant.

Information about a tyre’s impact on fuel economy and global warming could soon be included under a US Transportation Department proposal.

It suggests that tyre manufacturers should affix labels to replacement tyres sold throughout the USA. The idea is that with about 135billion gallons of fuel consumed annually, finding ways to reduce energy consumption has taken on paramount importance – not to mention the advantages of improving air quality and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Under the proposal, consumers would receive information about the tyre’s performance characteristics and its environmental qualities. Tyre manufacturers would label their tyres based on fuel efficiency (via rolling resistance tests), safety (based on traction tests) and durability (using tread-wear life tests).

Comparing the labels across potential replacement tyres will allow consumers to see how different types of tyres can affect the fuel economy they get from a vehicle.

The label would also be used to allow consumers to see the trade-off between fuel efficiency and durability and how the balance varies from tyre to tyre.

According to research from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, tyre construction need not sacrifice traction or tread-wear in order to achieve fuel economy. However, maintaining traction and tread-wear as well as increasing fuel economy usually relies on higher costs.

The Rubber Manufacturers Association however, has hit out at the plans – it says the new testing needed to rate the tyres will cost the industry more than $20million.

It may want to develop green cars, but Toyota’s manufacturing plans could mean the destruction of some of Japan’s famous rice paddies.

The company is said to be planning its future amid 1,631 acres of the paddies which date back to the 17^th Century. It wants to build a research centre there to fine-tune its vehicles.

Toyota is under pressure to get more hybrid and fuel efficient cars on the road, particularly after Honda introduced its Insight hybrid in February and will sell a hybrid version of the Fit compact beginning in April 2010.

According to Akihiko Otsuka, the chief engineer of Toyota’s newest Prius, the market keeps changing and shortening the development period for hybrids is important.

Test tracks close to Toyota’s technical centre would help to achieve that goal, particularly with suppliers near by.

So far, the company has spent 32billion yen to buy land out of the project’s estimated cost of at least 100billion yen. However, its centre will inflict environmental damage according to local activists.

They have hit out at the fact that the habitat of the gray faced buzzard and the oriental honey buzzard, which are both endangered, will be destroyed. Even though the project has been scaled down by 32 per cent, there is anger that around 691 acres will be deforested.

According to Shigema Oda, chairman of the Society to Consider the Large Scale Development Project of the 21^st Century, “most people think of Toyota as an environmentally friendly company – but crushing mountains is environmentally destructive.”

Urban residents in Baltimore, Maryland, have a chance to go green at the city’s Inner Harbour, as manufacturer Electrovaya launched the country’s first electric car sharing programme.

The company is offering its Maya 300 for rent at the Maryland Science Centre as a showcase of new technology. The vehicle can travel up to 120miles on one charge of its lithium-ion battery system and is powered by a regular 100V outlet.

Electrovaya has labelled the fleet of emission-free cars a “game changer” in urban transportation. It believes that the vehicle has both the look and feel of a four-door petrol powered saloon car and should appeal to customers looking to reduce their oil dependence.

According to research from the Maryland Energy Administration, Baltimore residents typically travel about 30 miles to work, which is well within the Maya’s range. If more charge is needed however, the vehicle can be charged at the driver’s destination for a small fee – driving 50 miles is expected to cost about $1 in energy.

The company’s battery technology has been made possible by ExxonMobil Corp’s battery separator film which allows for the units to operate at high temperatures with a reduced risk of meltdown. It is also designed to shut down the flow of electricity if the engine is overheating.

Ten vehicles were made available on Wednesday through the new car sharing website Altcar.org. A two hour trip costs around $29 with concessions for science centre members. Businesses and local governments will also have the option to buy the Maya 300 – the company will make the cars available to the public in 2011 with prices starting at $25,000 for a 60mile range vehicles and $35,000 for a 120mile range vehicle.

Reports have once again emerged that Japanese car manufacturer Toyota is to develop a car that will be charged solely by solar power.

According to the Associated Press, the futuristic car is years away from reaching the market but is expected to get some of its power from solar cells placed on the vehicle and the rest from solar panels on the rooftop of the home where the car is parked.

At its factory in Japan, Toyota has already been using rooftop solar panels to produce enough electricity to power 500 homes. The system cuts 740 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions off Toyota’s carbon footprint annually.

To further the rumours, Toyota’s partner in developing and producing hybrid batteries – Panasonic Corp – is scheduled to complete a takeover of Japanese rival Sanyo Electric Co, a leader in solar energy, next year. That is expected to heighten Toyota’s strength in producing solar cars.

Furthermore, the green car manufacturer of the year, according to voters at TheGreenCarWebsite.co.uk, has begun experimenting with solar panels on top of a ship carrier for auto exports.

If a compromise between the House Agriculture Committee Chairman and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman is passed on the Waxman-Markey energy and cap trade bill, then the Environmental Protection Agency could be prohibited from imposing indirect land use change metrics on biofuels in the new Renewable Fuels Standard for five years.

The ban would apply while research is conducted by the National Academies of Science on the issue, after which, the Secretaries of Agriculture and Energy will, along with the EPA administrator, jointly decide to accept or reject the findings.

According to the Renewable Fuel Standard, biofuels must meet the specified lifecycle greenhouse gas emission reduction targets to qualify. The law states that lifecycle emissions are to include direct emissions and significant indirect emissions such as those from land use changes – the provision for indirect land use metrics only applies to biofuels.

The ability to calculate future indirect land use changes is limited by the lack of land use models and sufficient information regarding input data.

The amendment will require the National Academies to evaluate whether there are economic and environmental models that can project indirect land use changes related to the production of renewable fuels; and the indirect effects related to production and importation of non-renewable transportation fuels.

The report must be completed within three years of enactment of the legislation. The compromise goes to a vote in the House this week.

Who said no good has come from the global financial crisis? With oil prices surging in the summer of 2008, the annual increase in global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) from oil, coal, gas and cement production appear to have halved according to preliminary estimates by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency.

Using recently published data from BP, it found that emissions increased by 1.7 per cent in 2008, compared to 3.3 per cent in 2007. Since 2002, the annual increase has been closer to four per cent and so this represents a significant slowdown. In addition to the recession, the increased use of renewable energy sources, such as biofuels in road transportation, is also seen as a key reason behind the reduction.

For the first time, the share of global CO2 emissions from developing countries is slightly higher than industrialised countries and international transport combined – 50.3 per cent compared to 46.6 per cent from industrialised countries and 3.2 per cent from international transport.

The lower CO2 emissions are primarily due to a decrease in global fossil oil consumption of around 0.6 per cent. In particular, in the USA, where petrol prices almost doubled in the summer of 2008, oil consumption dropped by seven per cent. In China, by contrast, oil consumption increased by three per cent in 2008 though this was down from a five per cent increase in 2007 and an eight per cent rise on average since 2001.

Indeed had 2008 not been a leap year, fuel consumption and emissions would have been around 0.3-0.4 percentage points lower.

How can somewhere so hot be so cool? Well if you’re driving along in California it’s probably because of windows that reflect or absorb heat-producing rays from the sun.

The California Air Resources Board has now adopted regulation that will require new cars sold in California from 2012 onwards to be fitted with these windows. The aim of the scheme is three-fold – to keep cars cooler, to increase fuel efficiency and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Cooler cars will mean less use of air conditioning, which in turn increases fuel consumption and prevents around 700,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere. This is the equivalent of taking around 140,000 cars off the road for a year.

However, the state will not be adopting a plan proposed for a cool cars measure based on reflective paints. The Air Resources Board chose to drop the consideration of a cool paint regulation after determining that the paint technology was not ready. Its concerns included that greenhouse gas emissions from reflective paint were considerably below the levels expected; that black reflective paint was not commercially acceptable; and that the paint would have durability concerns in terms of potentially suffering chips and scratches.

So instead the Air Resources Board chose glass technology as a way of reducing the vehicle cabin temperature and air conditioning use. Broadly, there are two forms of this technology: infrared reflective glass, which requires the window to be laminated; and solar absorbing glass, which is laminated or tempered with a solar absorbing material.  

Compared to existing cars already in showrooms, the solar control glass technology should block 33 per cent more heat producing rays from the sun.