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Auto-News has published again another list of money and CO2-saving cars in Germany. Now it's time for the people-carriers. They have to seat at least seven, although the two seats at the back are usually only suitable for children. The list includes a selection of compact Station Wagons, compact (and not so compact) MPVs, and three vehicles which are usually delivery vans but they have windows around and more seats.
You would think that all these vehicles are diesel, but the truth is that you can find two natural gas powered vehicles. Their consumption figures is then converted to gasoline equivalent. You will also find a couple of cases of badge engineering.
As said, the SWs and some of the MPVs only have 2 extra seats for children, but at least half of the models can decently seat 7 adults.
Some of our readers asked for US availability. None of this cars, except the last one on the list (Mitsubishi Outlander, pictured here) is available in the US, and not with the diesel engine.
A custom-built vehicle natural gas-powered vehicle, the Streamliner, is aiming to beat the current land speed record of 458 mph (731 km/h). The team, led by Roger Lessman, was trying to beat it in Bonneville Salts, but needed to postpone their attempt until next year because of bad weather conditions.
Lessman said, "I wanted to do something different; quite frankly I thought it would be cool to go really fast with alternative fuel. There is a perception out there that alternative fuels are lower performance, and I had a point to prove."
A 572 cubic inch, 1,500 horsepower engine is used to power the Streamliner.
Angstore Technologies, an Energtek subsidiary, has announced that they have completed tests for a scooter powered with natural gas. However, instead of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), the fuel is stored using ANG (Adsorbed Natural Gas). The scooter is a converted version of one of the most popular vehicles in India.
You might wonder what's ANG. Energtek has a definition which gives us a hint: "Natural gas stored in a nanoporous material (usually carbon derived) at lower pressure than compressed natural gas. The advantage of ANG is that the fuel can be stored at a higher density." Please note that it's adsortion (not what a sponge does), which is "a process that occurs when a gas or liquid solute accumulates on the surface of a solid or, more rarely, a liquid (adsorbent), forming a molecular or atomic film (the adsorbate)."
Typical CNG tanks store gas at 200 bars, whereas ANG tanks keep it between 30 and 70 bars. This allows for a reduction in the cost of tanks and in the infrastructure costs of filling stations. A second important benefit is that it allows tanks to be built with different shapes, which translates into a greater adaptability for vehicles.
Energtek hopes to sell to Asian markets, where two and three wheel vehicles are predominant.
Quick! Get that child away from this ticking-time-bomb of a coal gas-powered bus! Seriously, this particular bus was modified with a huge balloon on the roof to hold a manufactured fuel from coal gasification. Thar she blows! Not only is the gaseous fuel stored on top of the car, it's stored in fabric. Does the word Hindenburg mean anything to you? Really, we wonder why this technology never took off.
GreatPoint, a company made by three enterpreneurs from Boston (Andrew Perlman, Avi Goldberg and Aaron Mandell) has announced that they have created a cheap method to obtain natural gas from coal. Obtaining gas from coal (called syngas) is not the latest technology around: At the end of the 19th century, many cities had gas lights and Germany had syngas-powered vehicles from the '20s until the end of WWII. During the Oil crisis in the '70s, the US Government funded research, until syngas became non-competitive against oil prices.
Nevertheless, syngas is not the cleanest fuel you can burn and it's not very efficient to obtain. GreatPoint claims that their method goes even further and can transform syngas into natural gas by using catalysts (possibly potassium) which also allow to use lower temperatures for the process. Natural gas is much cleaner and it's a proven and reliable source of energy, and a lot of automakers have at least some vehicles that can burn CNG.
GreatPoint is also looking for other raw materials to obtain gas for, such as petroleum coke (a refining byproduct) and other plants, in order to gather data and test the catalyst.
For those of you who recognize the name Vinod Khosla as the Daddy Big-bucks of the ethanol scene, take note about his reasons for investing in GreatPoint: "I'm a pragmentalist, not an environmentalist. I'd love to get rid of coal, but politically it won't happen."
The Swiss Federal Material Testing and Research Institute (EMPA), in cooperation with Volkswagen and Umicore, has developed a new catalyst designed specifically for natural gas engines. The companies claim the new catalyst reduces NOx emissions by around 50 percent and it costs less because it uses fewer precious metals than existing models.
The catalyst has been tested on three vehicles. One of them, a Volkswagen Touran Ecofuel, is going to be shown at at the Zürich Car Show next month (November 1-4th). The Car Show will also feature a range of natural gas vehicles, some of which will be available for visitors to test drive on site.
A new company in New York, called LimoGreen, is starting a business that provides Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) limo rides to its customers. The CNG limos, which are Lincoln TownCars converted to natural gas operation, are converted by BAF Technologies.
Not much more to say about this, except to quote from their webpage "LimoGreen natural gas vehicles are not only environmentally friendly, they deliver the same high performance as their gasoline kin which makes LimoGreen the only full-service, high-performing, carbon-reducing, energy-efficient, executive travel service on the road." Always be skeptical of something that's the "only" thing that need to be narrowly defined, but we note the upside here, too.
While 306 out of 95,000 (or so) is not a large percentage, that's the number of new CNG of propane or compressed natural gas trucks that UPS has added to its fleet of 95,000 ground trucks. All told, UPS operates 1,629 alternative-fuel vehicles around the globe, including hydraulic hybrid and hybrid-electric brown delivery trucks.
Orders for the new CNG (167) and propane (139) trucks have been placed, UPS announced today, and the trucks are destined for use in North America. The benefits include lower emissions (20 percent) and improved fuel economy (10 percent) compared to "the cleanest diesel engines available in the market today," according to the UPS release.
Biodiesel is also part of UPS' plans, with the biofuel being used at the UPS Worldport air hub in Louisville and 366 ground support vehicles scheduled to use B5 starting in early 2008. 300 here, 300 there, pretty soon you've really got something. Related:
Stockholm is making a clear step towards the widespread use of CNG (compressed natural gas) in vehicles. The City Councillor for the Environment, Ulla Hamilton, is promoting a policy that will increase the use of CNG vehicles, with biomethane as a primary source for that gas. Gas obtained from fossil sources will only be used in case demand surpasses supply.
Local gas supplier, AGA, is setting up new gas storage facilities and a distribution network because Sweden does not have an existing grid, a move that will eliminate the need for delivery trucks. The grid will be operational by the end of 2009, which will allow houses to have home refueling station and gas(oline) stations to have CNG "pumps" as well.
To support these and other intiatives (local fleets running on CNG, for instance), the city will build a biogas production facility in Käppalaverket (a nearby town). The gas will be obtained from sewage sludge to which the city is going to add restaurant and large kitchens' waste to increase production.
The video above is of an Electrathon racer on display at AltWheels Boston 2007. Electrathon racers travel 50 miles in an hour using a kilowatt/hour of electricity: That's the equivalent of 1,500 MPG at highway speeds on the power of a hair dryer. The next stop for that Electrathon racer is the Red Bull Soapbox Race, a sort of frat party on wheels.
Below the fold are two more videos I shot at AltWheels. One shows the Microfurthur, a series hybrid made from an old farm work vehicle. The other is about the eMotive, a university project that hopes to bring electric cars to the third world.
Above is another video from my trip to AltWheels Boston 2007. The video is a look at the Phill home refueling station, topping off a Honda Civic GNG (Compressed Natural Gas) car. Natural gas cars are actually the cleanest cars you can buy today, even cleaner than hybrids, but they just don't get the credit they deserve. The reason for the lack of recognition for CNG is they have major problems: natural gas is not available everywhere, for example, and CNG cars cost an extra $7,000 (that's without tax rebates) compared with a normal gas car. If the gas prices keep going up and battery technology promises never pan out though, CNG cars just might have to play a bigger role than many expect.
Last May 26th, the first known US incident where a failure of the natural gas fuel system lead to a fatality occurred when a man was refuelling a SuperShuttle. Further investigation by the California Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) has shown that the cause of the failure was corrossion crack in the fiberglass over-wrap. Acid from the battery had split on the tanks, probably because of a rear-end collision that happened three weeks before the incident.
The cylinder was an older model manufactured by Comdyne, and known for being sensitive to acids. It is recommended that after any collision or any suspect of tanks being in contact with acid, CNG tanks should be depressurized and then removed from service.
As part of it's Nissan Green Program 2010, the Japanese company is adding compressed natural gas and diesel hybrid variants to it's Japanese-market commercial delivery trucks. The CNG version is a pretty straightforward example, running on natural gas and getting low emission vehicle certification. It also gets an automatic start/stop to eliminate idle emissions. The diesel hybrid is a little more complex. It uses two separate drive mechanisms for the diesel and electric motor with a power take off. This allows the vehicle to continue running even if the electric drive has a problem.
Mercedes will soon start selling its B class B 170 NGT, their first compact to run on Natural Gas (the other model being an E 200). The vehicle, which will go on sale in June 2008, has a 112 HP engine that uses 4.9 kg of natural gas to run 100 km, which is equivalent to 7.4 liters of gasoline (about 32 mpg). On that trip, it'll produce CO2 emissions of just 135 grams per kilometer. The B 170 NGT can be equipped with any trim level except Sport. Erdgas, the largest gas company in Germany, is pushing CNG vehicles by building fuelling stations throughout the country. Another interesting initiative is one that will see CNG have a 10 percent biogas blend, made from landfills and/or manure, in the near future.
We'll relay the information in this article on Auto 123 in the ever-popular backwards-first method of news reporting. That article ends this way: "Further down the road, as oil reserves become exhausted, bigger and better solutions will be needed." While that may seem obvious, another point worth pondering is this: why wait until then?
In an effort to stave off the impending exhaustion of our oil reserves, Audi is testing and marketing a few alternatives to the gasoline engine. While still relying on some fossil fuels for power, the E85-capable A5 coupe (the red one above) uses far less crude oil than the standard 2.0 four-cylinder would. Of course, ethanol raises other environmental issues which we'll save for other posts. Audi also has A5 models powered by CNG. Then there are the obligatory hybrid models that will be made available by Audi shortly in the form of the Q7 and its 3.6-liter V6 coupled to an electric motor. Of course, Audi is rightly proud of their class and Le Mansleading diesel technology. Although dealyed, these vehicles are likely to be sold in the U.S. in addition to Europe.
Lastly, in the "one of these things is not like the other" category, Audi is showing off some alternatives to the... uh, alternatives mentioned above: monitoring driving habits. The writers at Auto 123 were not so sure that this technology would be accepted in the marketplace, and they may be right. But, we are sure that there are a certain number of drivers who would welcome a little training on how to eke the most miles from a gallon of fuel as possible. Bring it on, Audi!
Angstore Technologies, an Energtek subsidiary, has announced that they have completed tests for a scooter powered with natural gas. However, instead of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), the fuel is stored using ANG (Adsorbed Natural Gas). The scooter is a converted version of one of the most popular vehicles in India.
GreatPoint, a company made by three enterpreneurs from Boston (Andrew Perlman, Avi Goldberg and Aaron Mandell) has 
As part of it's 
