Friday | April 25, 2008

New Upgrades for the Audi A3

autopartswarehouse.com

Audi has always been producing radical stuff. Their latest venture is a makeover of the A3. Audi streamlined by a host of mechanical upgrades, including the installation of new LED running lights and altered designs in the front bumper.

 

The S3 hatch is now available in a five-door sport version. The new S3 houses a two-litre engine that can reach 62 miles per hour in just 5.8 seconds. It consumes 28 miles for every gallon of gasoline. It also features Audi’s new seven-speed S-tronic transmission, which is similarly patterned after Volkswagen’s DSG system – Both have two dry clutches to improve efficiency. And, as if the car was not already a lair of technological gadgets, the A3 even has a magnetic ride as an option for higher spec models.

 

Audi keeps on bringing good stuff on the market. However, the exterior of the sport A3 and the old one are not really distinct. These will prove to be a problem for Audi. If you compare both, they look like the same car. And to some consumers they would settle for the cheaper, yet older, model. This can make the A3 sport a hard-sell.

 

Sources: TopGear

Posted by autopartswarehouse at 15:56:22 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Tuesday | April 22, 2008

Happy Earth Day in Detroit

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DETROIT – The National Highway Traffic Administration (NHTA) kicks off Earth Day with a strong policy proposal for 2015. NHTA will propose today about installing new standards for Corporate Fuel Economy at 31.6 mpg by 2015. It’s a step forward for the federal standard 35 mpg that was ratified by congress last year for the year 2020.

Because of these developments, many auto brand projects have been put on hold. Early this year General Motors (GM) cancelled a $3billion project for the Ultra V8, which should have replaced the Cadillac Northstar V8.

Speculators claim that, though the proposal is ambitious, it is still achievable. Implementing such policies would help the environment greatly by reducing emissions and reducing fuel consumption.

There are many rules and stipulations in the policy. You can check the full article at Motortrend.

I think this project is good. But with regard to feasibility, I’m not sure. Best guess? The proposals will get delayed and delayed until it’s forgotten.

Anyways, happy earth day!


Sources: Motortrend

 


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Saturday | April 05, 2008

California: Target units for Hydrogen cars lowered

As much as the government of California wants to start immediately its green car campaign, the promising eco-friendly car technology is not cooperating according to the regulators of the state. Such delay may eventually cause California to move the 2014 deadline for manufacturers of hydrogen-powered cars to produce 25,000 units.

Chevrolet VoltSince the target number of units is impossible with such delay, the California Air Resources Board arrived at a unanimous decision last week that such deadline, which was agreed upon in 2003, be downsized to just 7,500 units of zero-emission cars (ZEV) by 2014. The total number, which is 70 percent lesser than the original plan, will be produced by the six largest automobile companies in California. To date, this is the fourth revision done on the state’s clean air campaign since 1990.

With such adjustments, American automaker General Motors (GM) and Japanese car company Toyota Motors Corporation are now eased out from the burden of producing cleaner vehicles that are powered only by batteries and other environment-friendly alternatives for fuel. Environmentalists, however, are not so happy about the revision. Most of them did not expect that the number of hydrogen-powered units will be that low.

“Overall, we're disappointed,” said Spencer Quong, who is Union of Concerned Scientists’ vehicle analyst. “The board's changes resulted in a loss of about 14,000 pure ZEVs and plug-in hybrids.”

Another problem seen by the automobile manufacturers is that there are no sufficient hydrogen infrastructures that can accommodate the needs of hydrogen-powered vehicles. Battery-operated cars, on the other hand, are much feasible as the technology has vastly improved in the last half decade.

“We can build 2,500 or 25,000 hydrogen vehicles,” said GM spokesman Dave Barthmuss. “But without adequate fueling infrastructure, we're going to be extremely limited in where we can place them in California.”

Since the hydrogen cars are no longer that much of a priority, the automobile companies now focused on hybrids. At the moment, GM has its hand full with its plug-in e-car Volt. According to GM, its electric car can go for 40 miles with a fully-charged battery. The company has about two years before its slated launch. Toyota, on the other hand, is successful with its hybrid car Prius. Since the car’s debut more than a decade ago, the Prius hybrid has already sold up to 1.2 million units.
Toyota Prius Hybrid

A total of 58,000 hybrid units and 7,500 zero-emissions vehicles, which run either on batteries or hydrogen fuel cells, are slated to be produced for the zero-emissions campaign. Other companies that are part of the scheme are Chrysler, Ford, Honda, and Nissan.

The number of hydrogen-powered vehicles and other ZEVs may have been reduced but the regulators of California still believe that such will still result to a much cleaner air in the state.

Source: Forbes.
Posted by autopartswarehouse at 12:05:07 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Friday | April 04, 2008

Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric concepts ready for N. American tests

After Mitsubishi Motors’ i-MiEV concept successfully graced the 2008 New York International Auto Show, which concluded last March 31 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, the Japanese car maker announced that it its full-time electric car i-MiEV Concept vehicles are all set to undergo series of tests in North America this September.

Two years ago, the first batch of i-MiEV cars were tested around October in Japan. Mitsubishi had some help from its homeland’s biggest and powerful corporations. And a couple of years later, the Japanese automaker thought that the upgraded and latest models of the i-MiEV line are already up for the North American tests.
Mitsubishi iMiEV concept

The full-time electric car i-MiEV range, which stands for Mitsubishi innovative Electric Vehicle, now has two models, which debuted in the New York motor show along with the green plastic interior trim. It started with just the compact car i-MiEv that debuted at the North American International Auto Show last 2006. A year later, Mitsubishi came out with an enhanced version at the Tokyo Motor Show. This year, the i-MiEV Sport concept and cX compact sport utility vehicle joined the mini electric car.

All the i-MiEV models run solely on electricity. Each model has the high-powered density lithium ion battery and wheel-installed motor power source. On the roof, the vehicles are geared with solar panels that further increase the production of electricity. In addition to those high-end auto parts, every i-MiEV model has a small turbine inside the engine bay. This turbine functions with the help of the air that enters the car’s front grille and in turn doubles the power of the vehicle.

Source: Motor Trend.

Posted by autopartswarehouse at 17:47:43 | Permanent Link | Comments (1) |

Wednesday | April 02, 2008

Safe and Sound with Volvo



In the World Traffic Symposium held at the 2008 New York International Auto Show, Volvo announces its low-speed safety technology called the "City Safety" as a standard equipment for their vehicles. It will be available this year in the car Volvo XC60.

Studies conducted by Volvo showed that approximately 75% of all vehicle collisions are at speeds less than 18 mpgh. In 50% of these collisions, drivers do not brake before the collision because of insufficient concentration.

City Safety works when the vehicle in front suddenly stops and the City Safety assesses that a collision is imminent, the car brakes automaticallu.

Volvo is currently negotiating several European insurance companies to discount the insurance premium up to 30% for car equipped with City safety. Now, this would mean better cars for my Autopartswarehouse friends.

Source: Weekly Driver
Posted by autopartswarehouse at 13:56:42 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Tuesday | April 01, 2008

Toyota’s Research Institute for North America

Toyota Motor Corporation is so keen about producing vehicles that promote its sustainable mobility ideals that the Japanese automaker pushed to establish its Toyota Research Institute of North America (TRI-NA) in Michigan this month.

According to an official statement of the Toyota Technical Center (TTC), the company will shell out as much as $100 million for the next four years to fund the advanced research, studies, and experiments of the new facility, which will be housed at the company’s technical center in Ann Arbor.

“Creating the Toyota Research Institute is the next step to strengthen Toyota's advanced research function throughout North America and to discover cutting-edge technologies for sustainable mobility,” said Dr. Noboru Kikuchi, who is a professor and a director at the University of Michigan’s Mechanical Engineering Department and Japan-based Toyota Central Research and Development, respectively.

For years, the leading Japanese carmaker has constantly pursued incorporating sustainable mobility qualities in its cars, vans, and trucks. Sustainable mobility focuses on areas about advanced automobile technologies that do not aggravate the environment. Aside from vehicles being eco-friendly and efficient, these wheeled machines have to offer utmost safety and convenience to its users.

Japanese engineers and specialists will make the upper board of the TRI-NA. Dr. Kikuchi. As a start, TRI-NA will house 35 researchers and admin staff. Midway this year, 10 more researchers will be employed and another 20 in two years.

For the past years, Michigan has been the home of numerous automobile plants and facilities, wherein the Toyota Research is its latest ‘recruit’.

“Toyota's decision to establish the Toyota Research Institute in Ann Arbor to direct advanced research activities for North America is another piece of good news for Michigan,” said Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm. “Toyota's decision demonstrates that Michigan is a leading state for research and offers an attractive business climate for companies to grow.”

To date, Toyota is the second-largest automaker worldwide, behind American automaker General Motors, in terms of volume sales.

Source: Toyota via Autoblog.
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