Once again, Tata chairman Ratan Tata has confirmed via the South Korean Maeil Business Newspaper that his company intends to launch a hybrid version of the Nano. While it's impossible to know for sure, we'd imagine that starting off with the World's Least Expensive Automobile may very well equal the World's Least Expensive Hybrid.

We're also unsure what kind of hybrid system Tata is developing – we wouldn't expect to see a full hybrid system with an electric motor and battery pack large enough to power the vehicle for long periods of time, but we'd still hope for something more substantial than a simple stop/start micro system.

Previous reports indicate that a diesel engine is also in the works for the Nano, and we have high hopes that the inexpensive machine will make its way in somewhat modified form to the United States. Even with its current drivetrain, the gas-powered Nano delivers well over 50 U.S. miles per gallon, which would surely make for a welcome option here in America.



[Source: Automotive News - Sub. Req'd]

Did our friends in the great, frostbitten north just jump the gun by half a week and reveal the 2011 North American Ford Fiesta ahead of its upcoming LA Auto Show debut? Boy we kinda hope not. Well, specifically, we hope the the little five-door fire cracker we've come to know and love (largely thanks to the well-executed Fiesta Movement) doesn't get this new grille. It's by no means a deal breaker, but it's just not as uncluttered and sharp looking as the Euro-Fiesta's simple face. Meanwhile, the Fiesta sedan gets FoMoCo's three-bar grille up front, and resembles a Yaris sedan everywhere else.

There are also some enormous chrome scoops/intakes fore of the front wheels where the fog lamps on the Euro cars used to reside. Purpose? No idea, but we have to imagine that fog lamps would have served a more purposeful purpose. We have to say that we hope the loss of the fog lamps isn't an indication that the Fiesta is getting decontented for our market.

One of the reasons (admittedly of many) that we fell so head over heals for the Fiesta is that it provided big car sophistication in a little car package. American car companies have for decades been of the mind set that if you opt to buy a small car, you should suffer (quite literally) the consequences. The Fiesta looked to be a break from that mentality. Hopefully it still is.

There is a weird sliver of history that provides a silver lining. There is a longstanding tradition of releasing slightly different models in Canada than we get here in the U.S. This always struck us as weird since half of Quebec runs across the border to buy cigarettes in Vermont every week. Anyhow, remember the Pontiac Parisienne – a Chevy badged as a Pontiac with fancy seats that helped make Pontiac the number three selling brand in Canada for decades. Here's hoping we get the full Euro-Fiesta south of the 49th Parallel.



[Source: Autoblog Espanol via Google Translate]

Three years ago this December we first walked into a Manhattan conference room for a background briefing on a new concept being developed by General Motors for the upcoming Detroit Auto Show. Earlier that year, the release of a documentary called Who Killed the Electric Car made the then largest automaker in the world the subject of some well deserved criticism for its handling of the end of the EV1 program. The movie and announcement of the all-electric Tesla Roadster lit a fire under GM to get back into the plug-in electric vehicle game.

What we saw that day in NYC was a description of a new powertrain architecture then dubbed E-Flex. GM folk on hand that day included vehicle line executive Tony Posawatz and former VP for environmental affairs Beth Lowery. They explained that among the biggest lessons learned from the EV1 program were that range anxiety and lack of practicality would make a car like EV1 nearly impossible to sell in the mass market. The engineers went back to the drawing board to address those issues and came up with the extended range electric vehicle, or ER-EV. The Volt concept was approved for production mere months after it was revealed at the 2007 Detroit Auto Show. At this week's LA Auto Show, GM is publicly showing the production intent version of the Volt. Before that, however, we were among the first to drive a Volt with its range extender running. Read all about it after the jump.



Photos Copyright ©2009 Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc.

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If the ranges offered by the upcoming Nissan and Renault electric cars aren't as long as you'd like, you'll be pleased to learn they should double by 2015. Nissan is just about done developing an energy storage cell that has twice the capacity of their current batteries. Focusing their research efforts on the positive electrode, they have added cobalt and nickel to the manganese they already use which yields them a (breathe) lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide cathode battery or, if you like, NMC for short. This would only be marginally good news if the cost of the new power pack also doubled but we're assured that this is not the case. The manufacturing process is quite similar and the expensive cobalt is used quite sparingly so the outlay should be close to that of their current chemistry. This all fits in with Nissan's electric vehicle introduction strategy.

Nissan isn't the only company developing NMC either. Other battery-makers working with the same materials are said to include Panasonic, Sanyo, Hitachi, GS Yuasa, Samsung, EnerDel, Kokam, Evonik/Litarion, Enax, and Imara. With such a dramatic increase only a few short years away, we can't help but wonder how this may effect attitudes towards battery leasing models in the near term. Relieve our curiosity with your comments after the break.




[Source: Green Car Congress]

Last year, the first time WhatGreenCar gave out its Green Car of the Year award for UK vehicles, the Ford Focus EcoNetic won the title. That car managed to get a 33 on a WGC's hundred-point scale (lower is better) for, well, greenness. This year's winner for the U.S. market Car of the Year was the 1.8 liter, 4-cylinder continuously variable transmission 2010 Toyota Prius. The Prius scored a 30 to beat out nine other finalists:

• Honda Insight hybrid (WhatGreenCar Rating 34)
• Smart fortwo gasoline (39)
• Ford Fusion Hybrid (40)
• Honda Civic CNG (41)
• Lexus 250h hybrid (42)
• MINI Cooper gasoline (43)
• Nissan Altima hybrid (44)
• Ford Escape (45)
• Mazda Tribute hybrid (45)

Two other cars near the top of the list, the Ford Fusion hybrid and the Honda Insight, were also "highly commended," so we have to assume the list is based more on specs than driving pleasure. While this award only looked at U.S. vehicles, a quick glance at WhatGreenCar's UK site shows a range of vehicles that scored under 30 points. Does that make the Prius award a sort of consolation prize?

[Source: WhatGreenCar]

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The last time a Messerschmitt KR200 was mentioned in our pages, it was in conjunction with a new minicar book published in 2007. It's not surprising that we don't write about the car that often – it hasn't been produced since the 1960s. But the minicar design, beautiful lines and three wheels show that Smart ForTwos, NMGs and Apteras are just the latest in a long line of vehicles trying to subvert the standard "car" paradigm. If the vehicle pictured above, an olive drab 1956 model, appeals to you as much as it does to us, then check out the current eBay auction, where the bids have climbed to $10,000. According to the seller, this KR200 was restored in Germany in 1984 and has been kept high and dry in a Florida barn for many years. While the car does come with the original Sachs 10hp engine, we imagine an electric motor wouldn't be a bad thing for this car, if there's enough room for the batteries. Thanks to Bip-D-Bo for the tip!

[Source: eBay]

The Principality of Monaco is best known for Formula One cars screaming through the streets every spring and a harbor full of mega-dollar yachts filled with the beautiful people. When those people head ashore, there's a good chance they will be motoring in something very fast and very expensive. This week, however, instead of high-powered race cars, the area around the Prince's palace was silent as four new cars were delivered by Mitsubishi. Prince Albert II was on hand as officials from the automaker turned over the battery-powered i-MiEVs for a test program. The i-MiEVs will be used by the local post office, electric utility, parking services and the Prince Albert II foundation. The goal is to promote low emissions transportation on the sunny Riviera.

[Source: Mitsubishi]

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More than a year after first showing us a styling buck and nearly as long since launching it overseas, GM is finally showing off the production version of Chevy Cruze for North America. Set to be shown publicly this week at the LA Auto Show, the Cruze is still a good 8-9 months away from going on sale at U.S. showrooms.

When it does finally arrive, the Cruze should be a huge step forward from the Cobalt and GM hopes it will be an able competitor to the next-generation Honda Civic and Ford Focus which arrives not long afterward. The Cruze is slightly larger than the Cobalt, but will be powered by downsized engines including a new 1.4-liter turbocharged four cylinder with 138 hp and 148 pound-feet or an 1.8-liter normally aspirated unit with similar power but less torque. All Cruzes will get 6-speed gearboxes of either the manual or automatic variety. The turbo version is expected to get a 40 mpg highway rating from the EPA.

Based on our brief experience driving a Volt powertrain mule earlier this year (which was based on the Cruze), the new model should be vastly more refined than the outgoing Cobalt with more interior room and much better executed interior. We'll see, eventually.



[Source: Chevrolet]

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Let's see an i-MiEV do this.

Michael Inwood, a farmer in New South Wales, Australia, has converted a Mitsubishi truck to plant crops using nothing but electric power. It gets better. The car is charged using renewable energy (wind and sun) and the farming method he uses, called Pasture Cropping and No Kill Cropping, doesn't use fertilizers or chemicals. It also returns biomass to the earth, sequestering the carbon trapped within, and is therefore better than carbon neutral. The truck uses 45 lead acid batteries (we think) to generate 200 hp, 150 kW, and 100 nm of torque. Plenty to pull the farm equipment. The truck cost $40,000 AUS to convert, but Inwood thinks that it makes sense for his family wool and grain farm. After all, he says that, "You could arguably say this is the most environmentally friendly vehicle in the world."
Watch a video on the project here and another one after the jump. Thanks to Michael I. for the tip!

[Source: YouTube, AgrowPlow]

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Indianapolis-based battery maker EnerDel is tied closely to the Th!nk electric car company – which has yet to bring the car to the U.S. market – but they're also looking beyond the next generation of plug-in electric vehicles. EnerDel has announced a new partnership with Smart Grid Leader and the U.S. Department of Energy to use EnerDel batteries in five separate one-megawatt power system out in Portland, Oregon that can supply energy to up to 400 homes for an hour during peak load times. The batteries in the system will use the same core chemistry that is used the EnerDel's batteries "designed for the emerging new generation of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles." This is the second time we're hearing about this PHEV system (first mentioned here), but we still don't know details about which company EnerDel is working with. We like that EnerDel is testing the same chemistry in cars and home power storage, since it's almost a given that the big packs from plug-in cars will be used to stabilize the grid once they've served their vehicular purpose.


[Source: EnerDel]

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