Latest Updates: hybrid vehicles RSS

  • Renault Bets Big on Electric Vehicles
    06:15:21 pm on October 12, 2008 | 0 | # |
    Tags: , , , , ,

    French car maker Renault is skeptical of a hybrid vehicle’s environmental friendly performance.Renault says hybrids cannot deliver the level of gasoline use and emissions reductions that governments and customers are demanding of automakers.Its vision of environmental friendly is a small electric car principally designed for simple no frills  daily commuting. At the Paris show, Renault unveiled a concept car showing the design of a compact EV commuter car: an EV version of its “   Kangoo   ” utility van, with startling acid-green windows to minimize air conditioning and a lithium-ion battery that carries the van 160 to 200 kilometers on an average charge.

    While designing a hybrid car is challenging ( putting 2 different engines than one is expected to be ! ) , a pure electric car isn’t really feasible.For starters , such a vehicle would have very limited range .Further more additional battery power than gas power would mean an increase increased manufacturing of batteries adding to their share of industrial pollution

     
  • Decreased Demand for Hybrids
    05:37:07 am on October 3, 2008 | 0 | # |
    Tags: , , , ,

    There is a crisis on hand.Now I am not talking about the wall street , I am talking about the rippling down effect of the wall street on the US economy , into varied sectors such as the automobile sector.The hybrid vehicle segment for instance is seeing a decline in sales as compared to last year.The demand for hybrids is strong although not quite  as much as when crude was soaring to new heights,but the demand for automobiles as such is decreasing.However , as I had highlighted before the liquidity crunch has made it harder for consumers to access credit.Also , number of hybrid shoppers have decreased, and many who had earlier purchased hybrids are finding it tough to make payments.So not many are buying ,those want to buy don’t have funds and those who have bought cant pay !!!! (hybrid prime in hand ??? )

     
  • Volvo to Begin Testing Hybrid Trucks
    04:19:52 pm on May 16, 2008 | 0 | # |
    Tags: , , ,

    Volvo has recently announced the testing of its hybrid trucks prior to their commercial launch in 2009.The company has announced partnership with Swedish refuse collection firms Renova and Ragn -Sells for prototype testing  of these vehicles.Staffan Jufors, President and CEO Volvo Truck Corporation said that there has been a remarkable progress ,since 2006 when this concept technology was first introduced.When quizzed about advantages of Volvo’s technology ,Jufors highlighted that the new technology provides very high power and comparatively lower costs than current alternatives.He seems highly optimistic of rectifying any glitches through prototype testing and envisages production of hybrid trucks by year 2009.