German Hybrids: Coming Thick And Fast
Just five years ago, only Toyota and Honda offered hybrid gas-electric vehicles—the Prius and Insight, respectively. Now, there are more than a dozen carmakers—including Audi, BMW, Mercedes, and Volkswagen—that offer, or have plans for, hybrids. Here’s a roundup of news just over the last few days about hybrids coming from the homeland of Rudolph Diesel. Audi Q5 Hybrid (2010) Audi Q5 Hybrid At last month’s Detroit Auto Show , Audi announced that it would offer a Q5 Hybrid. Hybrid versions of the Q5 and Q7 have been on and off the table several times in the past year. Now, it’s back on. The new small sport utility goes on sale in the US next month with a gasoline engine; the hybrid will follow for 2011. Audi still strongly prefers diesels to cut consumption and emissions, since they cost less to develop and build than hybrids. Its lukewarm attitude surfaces in a quote from Wolfgang Hatz, head of powertrain development for the VW group. “We have to do hybrids to show people that we are able to do them,” he said, noting the Q5 would compete with the Lexus RX450h . We’ll see if Audi takes its hybrids seriously. BMW 7-Series ActiveHybrid BMW 7-Series ActiveHybrid The maker of “ultimate driving machines” will offer a mild hybrid sedan, the 7-Series ActiveHybrid, to face off against the Mercedes-Benz S400 BlueHybrid. Like the Benz, it will use a lithium ion battery pack to add stop-start capability to its V8 engine, for about a 15 percent bump in fuel economy. BMW is now just finishing up with prototype testing . read more
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German Hybrids: Coming Thick And Fast
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Leave a commentBMW X6 ActiveHybrid to arrive by year’s end
Auto Blog: Hybrid , BMW , Detroit Auto Show Click above for gallery of photos of the 2010 BMW X6 ActiveHybrid One of the vehicles we expected to see in Detroit somehow missed our radar. The not-so-green BMW X6 ActiveHybrid was previewed in COBO and we somehow missed it. Sure we’ve seen pics of this sports car/utility vehicle crossover hybrid before and we’ve also heard BMW promise that it will be available by the end of 2009, but this time they really seem to mean it. After giving a walkaround of the BMW Concept 7 Series ActiveHybrid, BMW’s Dr. Klaus Draeger gave some additional details about this upcoming hybrid hybrid. As we’ve told you before, the BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid is a two-mode hybrid, and uses BMW’s 4.4L V8 gasoline engine along with its electric assistant. Going hybrid increases fuel economy on this most oddly shaped BMW by a decent 20 percent, but that still puts the X6′s mileage at just about 15 mpg/city. BMW promises that both the 7-series and X6 hybrids will be on sale by the end of 2009. Well, it’s better than nothing we guess. Gallery: 2010 BMW X6 ActiveHybrid [Source: AutoReview ] BMW X6 ActiveHybrid to arrive by year’s end originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Thu, 29 Jan 2009 13:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Car Blog Green|Car Blog Green|Car Blog Green|Car Blog Green
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BMW X6 ActiveHybrid to arrive by year’s end
Video of Plug In America’s Inaugural Parade West – with 70 electric cars
Auto Blog: EV/Plug-in , Green Culture , Green Daily Click above and scroll down to watch the video We’ve already learned a lot about the sweet electric car parade that cruised through Santa Monica two weekends ago , but if all those pictures were not enough for you, we’ve got a solid 38-minute video for you to check out. The video includes scenes from inside the parade cars, shots of EVs cruising down the streets and lots of plug-in advocates talking about where plug-in cars are today. Thanks to Viddler’s tag ability, you can easily skip to the speaker of your choice. Names you might know include Chris Paine, the director of “Who Killed the Electric Car?”; Ed Kjaer, the director of electric transportation for SoCal Edison; and California State Senator Fran Pavley. There are others, and this would be a fine way to spend your lunch hour if you haven’t already spent that today (hint, hint). You can watch what went down after the jump. Gallery: Plug In America’s Inauguration Parade West [Source: Stefano Paris ] Continue reading Video of Plug In America’s Inaugural Parade West – with 70 electric cars Video of Plug In America’s Inaugural Parade West – with 70 electric cars originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Car Blog Green|Car Blog Green|Car Blog Green|Car Blog Green
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Video of Plug In America’s Inaugural Parade West – with 70 electric cars
Posted in Auto Green | a-selling-point, california, entry, lnauguralparade, senator, series-active, speaker, tesla, video | Leave a commentGet Approved!
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