New posts from Gas 2.0! |
- Video: BMW i3 MegaCity Caught Mucking About the Snow
- Mercedes Says U.S. Fuel Too Dirty For Its Ultra-Efficient Engines
- Valvoline Introduces “NextGen” Recycled Motor Oil
| Video: BMW i3 MegaCity Caught Mucking About the Snow Posted: 17 Mar 2011 01:00 PM PDT
BMW is spinning off a new brand of electric, fuel efficient vehicles dubbed the "i" brand. The i3 MegaCity will be a city electric car with an optional range extender and an all-electric range of around 125 miles. It will joined by the i8, better known as Vision EfficientDynamics superclean supercar. A pair of electric motors will send 150 horsepower to the electric wheels, which is good for a top speed of 90 mph. This video follows pictures of the i8 VED testing in the snow, and BMW is obviously putting in a lot of cold weather testing as these pictures and video came from the cold reaches of Sweden. The electric i3 can really scoot, and I can't imagine those engineers weren't enjoying themselves at least a little bit. While it is hard to get a good feel for the looks of the i3 under all that camouflage, my first thought is that it stands a bit tall and a lot less sporty than the concept sketches promised. But for me, rear-wheel drive makes any car instantly more desirable, and this is just a test mule. If Toyota makes the C Concept into a sporty, rear-drive hybrid, hell they might have a new customer right here. Not likely, but just saying. The subtle shift from rear-wheel drive to front-wheel drive symbolizes how we, as Americans have shifted from being dare devils and risk takers to being, well, boring. Yes, front-wheel drive has a lot of advantages, but today's snow tire technology can make all the difference. And I think concepts like the Nissan ESFLOW and production cars like the i3, that couple electric motors with rear-wheel drive, will make converting EV doubters into believers a helluva lot easier. Give us torque to the rear tires! Source: Jalopnik | Gmotors.tv Chris DeMorro is a writer and gearhead who loves all things automotive, from hybrids to HEMIs. You can read about his slow descent into madness at Sublime Burnout or follow his non-nonsensical ramblings on Twitter @harshcougar.
|
| Mercedes Says U.S. Fuel Too Dirty For Its Ultra-Efficient Engines Posted: 17 Mar 2011 09:00 AM PDT
It should come as no surprise to learn that Europe and the U.S. has different fuel standards. I never realized how different though. Apparently the 95 parts per million sulfur content in U.S. pump gas is too much for the new Mercedes engines to handle. These new engines operate on a much leaner air/fuel ratio, which is to say that there is less gas mixed in with the air during the combustion process, resulting in a cleaner burn and improving both horsepower and fuel efficiency. The problem is that these new engines require a trap that captures oxides of nitrogen that are later burned off separately. These traps can be poisoned by any sulfur content above 50 ppm, which means Mercedes is unable to send these more-efficient motors to America. One of these engines was the new 3.5 liter V6 (pictured above) which has 302 horsepower and a combined gas mileage of 21 mpg (though up to 31 mpg on the highway), which is an improvement of 24% in fuel economy and a healthy 30 horsepower increase over the outgoing engine. It also only spews out 177 grams of CO2 per kilometer, another healthy improvement over its predecessor Alas, until America cleans up its gasoline, such high-efficiency Mercedes engines will remain out of reach of our American dollars. Source: Wards Auto Chris DeMorro is a writer and gearhead who loves all things automotive, from hybrids to HEMIs. You can read about his slow descent into madness at Sublime Burnout or follow his non-nonsensical ramblings on Twitter @harshcougar.
|
| Valvoline Introduces “NextGen” Recycled Motor Oil Posted: 17 Mar 2011 05:00 AM PDT
File this one in your “ideas I should have had, but didn’t” files, because Valvoline has introduced a new line of high-quality motor oil that is 50% recycled with no adverse impact (the company claims) on performance. Valvoline’s new oil products seem to be quit a bit more than simple green-washing of what is a rarely-discussed aspect of conserving fossil fuels – which is odd, considering that just about all of us buy it and put it in our cars and trucks in large quantities every few months. Despite it’s commonality, though, many of us probably don’t realise what we’re actually buying when we pay for a quote of oil. Sebastian Blanco, from AOL’s Autoblog, summed it up nicely: “When you buy a new bottle of motor oil, what you’re actually getting is a liquid that contains 85 percent motor oil and 15 percent additives. When that motor oil runs through your engine for a few thousand miles and gets ‘used’, all that really happens is that additives get contaminated and useless, while the 85 percent motor oil is still there, still okay. This 85 percent is called base oil, and it can be reclaimed and turned into new motor oil.“ (Blanco was invited to Ashland/Valvoline’s NextGen media unveiling last Friday, and put together a comprehensive review of everything he learned at the press event – it’s definitely worth a read) Valvoline has clearly committed to pushing this oil hard, and has put together a number of infographics and marketing materials to tell Valvoline NextGen’s story (in the gallery, at the end of this post). Most interesting to me, however, was the image below, showing (in green) the relative merits of “re-refined” oil compared to “virgin base oil”.
It’s a bit power-slidey and some solid numbers are missing, but if that graph is even close to accurate then Valvoline seems like it’s found a big hit in NextGen.       Source: Valvoline, via the Autoblog.
|
| You are subscribed to email updates from Gas 2.0 To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment