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Showing posts with label hybrid. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hybrid. Show all posts
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Honda CR-Z by Mugen
S4 hybrid / 1.457 cc / 200 PS + 14 PS / 181 + 58 ft/lb (245 + 78 Nm) / turbo
(click images for a larger view)
(click images for a larger view)
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Are electric car grants a good use of taxpayers' money?
That's the warning today from the House of Commons Transport Committee, who said that despite Westminster offering £11m worth of grants for those who buy plug-in vehicles, only “a handful” of motorists had taken the plunge, with many of those being richer buyers who are using them as second cars for shopping trips.
Liverpool Riverside MP Louise Ellman, who chairs the committee, said: “The Government must do more to show that its plug-in vehicle strategy is a good use of public money. Carbon emissions from transport must be reduced if the UK is to meet its climate change targets, but public money must be targeted on effective policies.
"So far, Department for Transport expenditure on plug-in cars – some £11 million – has benefited just a handful of motorists. We were warned of the risk that the Government is subsidising second cars for affluent households; currently plug-in cars are mostly being purchased as second cars for town driving. It is also unclear whether the provision of public charging infrastructure encourages demand for plug-in cars. Indeed, the Government does not even have a register of all the chargepoints installed at public expense."
An increasing number of manufacturers have launched both purely electric vehicles, such as Nissan's LEAF and Citroen's C-Zero, and plug-in hybrids, like Vauxhall's Ampera and Chevrolet's Volt.
The committee added that more investigation is required into the Government grants, to ensure they are a good use of public funds.
Have you bought an electric car? Get in touch by sending an email to david.simister@hotmail.co.uk or leave a comment below.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Frazer-Nash Namir Hybrid by Italdesign (Giugiaro)
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Fire up the... Vauxhall Ampera
Not quite, Vauxhall reckon. I'll apologise for getting so blatantly and boringly technical this soon into a review but it's important you know why the Ampera, this year's European Car of the Year, does what it does. A hybrid like, say, a Toyota Prius or a Honda Insight, is powered by a petrol engine which uses electric energy to help it run more efficiently.
The Vauxhall's contender (and its sister car, the Chevrolet Volt) is one you'll appreciate if you're a train buff - it's an electric vehicle which uses a petrol engine not to power its wheels, but to recharge its batteries. It is, in trainspotter speak, a petrol-electric. Not nodded off yet, then?
The upshot of all that electric wizardry is that the Ampera can do something no other electric car can. It can run on amps alone for 35 miles - more, Vauxhall reckons, than most of us regularly commute - so you can happily pop to the shops in it during the week not burning any fuel at all, plug it into the mains when you get back and sit back, smiling smugly because you're helping to mend the holes in the ozone layer. The clever bit, though, is that once you get past that it'll call on Esso's finest to keep going, meaning the 1.4 litre engine normally sat on the sub's bench is able to get you to Aunt Mabel's house in Aberdeen just like any other car could. Try doing that in your Nissan LEAF.
Normally, it's the price that unravels it all but while at £30,000 the Ampera costs about the same as the high end versions of Vauxhall's own Insignia it's the same sort of car - a big, generously equipped saloon, even if it's got a dashboard straight out of the 1980s. It's even nice to drive in a comfy, cosseting sort of way, with plenty of room upfront and in the back.
The Ampera isn't an electric car in the truest sense of the word but instead manages to be something much better; an eco-friendly express that makes sense. It's an environmentalist statement disguised as a really good car.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Porsche Panamera S Hybrid Vario-long
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