Monday, November 27, 2006

New fuelled mobility on the road

According to this Green Car Congress report Nissan Motor plans to put lightweight, subcompact electric cars powered by lithium-ion batteries developed in-house on the market in three years:

'Nissan will also reportedly roll-out its gasoline-electric hybrids—possibly with plug-in capability—based on its own technology by 2010. The 2007 Altima Hybrid is based on technology licensed from Toyota. Nissan is projecting a driving range for the electric vehicle of about 200 km on a single charge. Mitsubishi Motors and Fuji Heavy Industries are also developing electric cars for the mass market.

Nissan developed its first electric car in 1947. It developed a two-passenger small electric car—the Hypermini—in 2000, but the model could travel only just more than 100 km on a single charge and never made it to the mass market.'

Similarly Toyota Motor plans to increase the proportion of fuel-efficient diesel and hybrid passenger vehicles that it sells in Europe from 43% of its new car sales in 2005 to 50% in 2010, according to this report

See also this post on Serial Hybrids Are Here! - 'Just six months after Tesla Motors announced the return of a 100% battery car, the Tesla Roadster, we have another great leap forward. As reported in the Los Angeles Times in a story entitled “GM To Present A Modified Electric Car“ on November 10th, General Motors has announced a serial hybrid car. Early next year they will present a prototype of the vehicle.'

It seems there is an increasing shift in the car market away from hydrocarbons...

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