The electric car will be made of aluminium and be powered buy a plug-in battery. Morgan is co-operating with two other British companies, Zytek and Radshape, to produce a concept car which could be seen for the first time at the Geneva motor show next year.

In fact two cars are being produced. One will be held back for further engineering research, while the other will be on public view as Morgan decides whether to develop a version which could be put on sale.

The project is being backed by a £100,000 grant from the Government which sees electric cars as part of the solution to climate change. With the project still in its infancy, the range of the car and its top speed has still be decided. It will, according to a spokesman for the project, be quick.

Jaguar Cars, is now reportedly looking to introduce hybrid versions of its XJ and XF models in 2013-’14, using hardware developed with sister brand Land Rover, as reported by Britain’s Car magazine. The magazine has also stated that the first Jaguar hybrids could be launched soon after the planned 2013 introduction of the first Land Rover hybrid.

It was reported very recently that by the end of 2010 Land Rover will be testing the first diesel hybrid prototype called the ‘range_e’ which is being developed using a Range Rover Sport platform. Tests of this vehicle will use the existing 3.0 litre TDV6 diesel engine featuring a ZF 8-speed automatic transmission. The goal is to achieve a range of 20 miles using electric power only emitting less than 100 g/km of CO2 emissions and to achieve a top speed of around 120 mph.

According to ‘Car’, Jaguar’s hybrid system, which also will employ the ZF hybrid transmission, will be applied eventually to every model in the range. The Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) engineering centre in the British Midlands is developing both diesel- and gasoline-electric hybrid powertrains for use across both model ranges,” the magazine said. The system will “quickly spread across the XJ, XF, XK Jaguars and the Discovery, Range Rover and Range Rover Sport,” according to Car, and will be upgraded with plug-in capability by 2015.

It is to be mentioned that Jaguar Land Rover is already active in four ongoing projects that are part of the Technology Strategy Board/ Department of Transport Low Carbon Vehicles Innovation Platform. These projects, which demonstrate technological innovations that could be applied to future vehicle models, are the ‘Limo-Green’ Series Hybrid; a Flywheel Hybrid System for Premium Vehicles; the REcycled ALuminium (Real) project; and a Range Extended Hybrid Electric Vehicle (REHEV).

Read more: Jaguar XJ and XF models could also turn hybrid by 2013-14 – WheelsUnplugged
Automobile Industry News – Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

He was the new owner of a 1972 MGB – a red convertible, perfect for life in the Palmetto State, where he could zip along the highways and city streets with the car’s top down practically year-round. Lightweight with easy handling, the MGB was a snazzy roadster for a young professor on the go.

But that was, shall we say, soooo last century.

Fast forward about two dozen years. Now internationally recognized for his research on power sources and systems, Dougal still loves cars and has added a passion for sailboats. The MGB was collecting dust – and a few leaves – in his garage. But the professor’s ongoing curiosity about all things auto and electrical meant one thing: He had to find out if he could build an electric car.

“I’ve always played with cars as a hobby,” said Dougal , who has a touch of gray in his hair as the years have rolled on. “I bought the car to rebuild it, but just ran out of time. I decided to do something useful.”

He took the car out of retirement and turned it over to electrical engineering students at the University of South Carolina’s College of Engineering and Computing. He gave them the opportunity to turn the British Leyland Motor Corp. vehicle into a car of the 21st century – a car not run on “petrol,” but electricity.

And they have. The “Electric MG,” as it’s called, is a reality.

“It can go really fast for short distances,” said Dougal, who estimates that about $10,000 has been spent in making the changes.

About 15 students have worked on the car since Dougal began the great experiment, which has left some MGB fans aghast. But the professor was determined to create an electric vehicle in the machine shop of the College of Engineering and Computing.

“I said, ‘We can do this before GM can,’ ” said Dougal, who estimates that he and several groups of students have worked on the project for about 18 months. “It didn’t move along quite as fast as I’d planned. When you think about how many people are working at the major auto manufacturers, we’ve probably made pretty good progress.”

But much of the student ingenuity and labor was volunteered. Some students have received course credit for their work. A few have received payment.

Tyler Price, a senior from Lexington, S.C., is one of the students working on the car, which has had the convertible top removed and a roll bar added.

The original engine is in Dougal’s garage and has been replaced by an AC motor with a custom driveshaft. In its place is a bank of more than 100 supercapacitors, resembling soft drink cans that have been encased in a
plastic box and loaded into the trunk for the power source. A lithium battery will be added later and coupled with the supercapacitor bank to improve range and efficiency.

“The changes take the car from one century to another,” said Price. “Like all projects, it’s been an evolution.”

The experience has shown Price that electric vehicles can be a reality.

“I believe we’re doing something that will be used. We’re ahead of the curve. Only a few universities are doing what we’ve done,” he said.

The car is waiting on some modifications, including a paint job, LED lamps to replace the headlights, a sports windshield and new carpet. Because it’s electric, the car sounds much like a golf cart. The students want to add acoustics to give the MGB-EV, as they call it, a sound more closely resembling a car.

Nevertheless, the car can be driven – just not on a highway yet, Price said.

Dougal and the student team, which includes undergraduate Robbie Motte of Bonneau and graduate student Steven Kowski of St. Petersburg, Fla., are looking forward to testing it for speed, acceleration and economy.

“This was a famous British sports car back in its day,” said Price, who wasn’t born when Dougal acquired the car. “Now, it will have some fame in another century.”

SOURCE: University of South Carolina
Media: Karen Petit or Margaret Lamb, +1-803-777-5400, kpetit@mailbox.sc.edu

Honda, which has a plant in Swindon, Wilts, is first in the list of smooth-runners. Third is Derby-based Toyota and Nissan, with a factory in Sunderland, is sixth, says new research.

Honda-buyers can drive smugly knowing there is only a 10% chance of a breakdown when the car is between three and six years old. Other Far Eastern companies Mazda, Subaru and Mitsubishi are also high in the Manufacturer Reliability Index top ten.

At the wrong end of the table is Land Rover, with a 47% chance of a breakdown, with Renault and Saab queuing up just behind on the hard shoulder. The index, compiled by insurers Warranty Direct, gauges the most dependable used cars among 250 popular models.

It also works out average annual repair costs, putting Czech-made Skoda as the cheapest with a bill of just over £200 and a German Porsche is most expensive at £800.

But at least you shouldn’t have to take your Porsche to the garage often as it is the tenth most reliable car on the road.

Honda spokesman Steve Kirk said: “We’re delighted to be top of the tree. It’s testament to our great workers at places like Swindon.

Aa President Edmund King said: “It shows that workforces here are very important elements in the successes of these companies.”

But Duncan McClure Fisher of Warranty Direct, warned: “Owning a car can be a painful experience.”It shows workforces in Britain are very important in the success of these companies EDMUND KING AA PRESIDENT10 most reliable models Manufacturer Breakdown incidence rate 1. Honda 10.59% 2. Mazda 13.03% 3. Toyota 13.08% 4. Subaru 13.92% 5. Smart 16.67% 6. Nissan 16.79% 7. Mitsubishi 17.18% 8. Lexus 19.01% 9. MINI 23.16% 10. Porsche 24.34% 10 least reliable Manufacturer Breakdown incidence rate 1. Land Rover 46.74% 2. Renault 38.54% 3. Saab 38.03% 4. Jeep 36.39% 5. Audi 32.74% 6. SEAT 32.04% 7. MG 31.47% 8. Chrysler 30.14 9. Volvo 28.65% 10. Mercedes 28.6%10 lowest repair costs Manufacturer Average repair cost 1. Skoda £215.94 2. Citroen £228.32 3. Renault £249.51 4. Peugeot £251.34 5. Ford £256.03 6. SEAT £266.15 7. Vauxhall £269.10 8. Volkswagen £285.41 9. Honda £295.42 10. Fiat £296.20 10 highest repair costs Manufacturer Average repair cost 1. Porsche £793.05 2. Jeep £541 3. Jaguar £484.46 4. Subaru £479.67 5. Mitsubishi £454.22 6. Chrysler £450.23 7. Mercedes £447.73 8. Land Rover £438.38 9. Audi £414.74 10. MG £400.98

Trials for electric cars in two or three cities could be up and running as soon as next year, he said. As part of the plan, the Government will also open talks with power companies to ensure vehicles can have their batteries recharged at power points at the roadside.

Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, is also planning to create 400,000 jobs in the green sector over the next five years. Other measures will include the Government relaxing planning rules to allow the building of more wind farms to ensure Britain hits its target to generate 15 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.

In a newspaper interview, Mr Brown kept open the option of a limited further fiscal stimulus in the Budget, but he hinted that the Chancellor might have to announce more tax rises to balance the books as public borrowing looks likely to rise from £118bn to around £150bn.

He said: “It is not just what we do to give real help now, but about setting a path for the future as well. We always take into account what we need and what is best future for the fiscal position.”

He added that the country could increase its output of environmental goods and services by 50 per cent to £1.5bn in the next five years.

Mr Brown said that a “scrappage” scheme where motorists would get up to £2,000 for trading in an older car for a cleaner new vehicle, was possible. He also said that he would consider buying electric cars for ministers as a means of setting an example.

Speaking of the environmental plans, he added: “This is a job creator, a quality of life improver and an environment-enhancing measure.

“We want to harness a desire among people to be part of this. A better Britain means building a greener Britain.”

He continued: “This is going to be a progressive decade. I think people do understand that some of the problems we had can only be solved, first of all, by governments working together with other governments, nations co-operating with nations. There is a new internationalism, a new strategic role for countries working together to solve common problems.

“There is a recognition that if we don’t invest in the future – in areas such as education and the environment – we will not have the future people want to see. Those countries that invest in the future will be the successful countries of the future. Those who simply want to cut public spending, rein back on investment, be isolated in Europe, will not meet the progressive challenges of our times.”

Mr Brown’s comments on the environment come as car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover was granted a £340 million loan from the European Investment Bank to develop “green” vehicles, with a further £373m to be split between Nissan’s plants in Sunderland and Spain.

Despite the environmental optimism, it is thought Mr Darling’s Budget will offer little in terms of economic recovery.

Last November, at his Pre-Budget Report, he had hoped progress could be underway by this summer but the economy has performed worse than the Treasury had expected. Mr Darling is expected to speak of rising unemployment and a record national debt.

Source: The Telegraph

Pushed by 30-mph winds over two miles, Richard Jenkins reached 126.1 mph yesterday in his Ecotricity Greenbird car on the dry lakebed of Ivanpah Lake, south of Las Vegas. That’s 10 mph faster than the previous record, set in 1999 by American Bob Schumacher.

As the Daily Mail put it, that makes Jenkins the fastest naturally powered human on the planet.

“It’s great. It’s one of those things that you spend so long trying to do and when it actually happens, it’s almost too easy,” Jenkins told the BBC.

The Greenbird is made of carbon fiber composite and powered only by the wind. The only metal is in the wing bearings and the wheel units. For photos, video and audio of the car, go here.

Team Steam hopes to achieve 170 mph when it challenges the land speed record for a steam-powered vehicle and says everything is on track. The car fired up like a Russell Hobbs teasmade and proved the water-filtration issue that stymied last week’s test have been solved. The car hit 60 mph on Wednesday, before test driver Don Wales pulled the chute to end the first run. The second test went even better: Wales achieved 80 mph.

“The car is just so powerful, you can get to feel the immense force and power of it,” Wales said in a press release. “It was just itching to get away at the top,” he said.

Team director Lynne Angel said, “It was fantastic to see. She just roared up the runway and deployed her parachute with a great big whoosh. It proves that it works, and we are going to break the world land speed record in steam.”

The team has a lot of work to do before it makes a run at the record Fred Marriott set in 1906 when he achieved 127.659 mph in a Stanley Steamer Rocket.

“Today marked the first time the car has started in superheated steam and gave both the start team and the turnaround team the chance to get some valuable practice, so it has been a great day,” project manager Matt Candy said.

There are some “cooling issues to address,” Candy said, but nothing problematic.
“We are good to go and hope to come back with the record,” he said.

Team Steam has spent more than 10 years preparing to break the longest-standing land speed record in motor sports, and they’ve shown the kind of devotion that comes only when mechanics get to tinker with truly bizarre machinery. Oh sure, the car is fueled by something as harmless and plentiful as water, but that’s where the simplicity ends.

The car uses liquid petroleum gas and a dozen microboilers to generate 3 megawatts of heat, which in turn creates a steam temperature of 750 degrees Fahrenheit. The steam flows through 1.86 miles of tubing and several valves and into a two-stage turbine at twice the speed of sound. The system can turn 10.5 gallons of water a minute into steam at 40 times atmospheric pressure. The turbine sends 360 horsepower to the rear wheels. The car features a steel space-frame chassis; the body is carbon fiber and aluminum.

Wales comes from a long line of speed freaks. He is the nephew of Donald Campbell, who broke eight land and sea speed records in the 1950s and ’60s. He’s also the grandson of Sir Malcolm Campbell, who set several records in the 1920s and ’30s. All told, the Campbell family holds more than 20 land and sea speed records. Wales is confident he’ll add to the tally.

“The car really did handle beautifully,” he said. “After that run I feel more confident about breaking the record. The team has worked really hard over the winter and the last 10 years, and this test puts even more faith into the team.”

The car heads to North America next month and will make its run for the record later this summer. The goal is to achieve 170 mph, which would easily surpass the official record of 127.659 mph. Although the Steamin’ Demon achieved 145.607 during a run in 1985, it isn’t recognized by the Federation International de l’Automobile, the worldwide sanctioning body of motor sports.

The car — can we call it that? — takes eight minutes to get going, but has only enough fuel, air and water for a three-minute run. The water boils at 482°F due to the fact that there’s 40 bar water pressure inside the boilers. It’s then super-heated to 750°F, or "dry" steam, which passes through heavily lagged pipes and two industrial steam valves before ending up in a two-stage turbine. Outsize Goodyear tires and brake pads slow the vehicle down, and there’s a parachute system that opens up behind in case the braking system fails.

There are 12 boilers inside the car, which from the front resembles the love child of a Fifties UFO and a Roomba. These boilers heat up the 37 gallons of distilled water needed to push the vehicle to its top speed. Onboard tanks containing Liquid Petroleum Gas fire up the burners that heat the boilers, producing three megawatts of heat. That’s enough power to make 9,000 cups of tea!

Land Rover says the new two-door (which they call a “cross coupe”) will be the “smallest, lightest, and most efficient” the company has ever produced. With the exception of the County Classic, we think it might be the most attractive as well. Whatever superlatives it claims, it could very well show up as a 2011 model after it gets an official go-ahead from management. “We welcome the Government’s support for this project, which would form a key part of our future product plans and which we very much want to put into production,” Land Rover Managing Director Phil Popham said in a statement.

That news really stings for those of us across the pond. After all, Chrysler got $4 billion and they’re still churning out Sebrings. At least the Brits got to spend their tax dollars on a car that’s desirable.

While the concept featured a biodiesel-electric hybrid drivetrain with Lithium-ion batteries that would get up to 50 mpg, the first production LRXs will probably head to dealerships with the LR2′s 3.2 liter I6 under the bonnet. The LRX is smaller and lighter than any of its stablemates, which means it’ll significantly improve on the LR2′s 15 city/22 highway even without a hybrid. Motor Trend says the LRX will probably be badged as a Range Rover and sold in both three- and five-door iterations. It will probably make it to the U.S.

Much to the chagrin of “real” Land Rover enthusiasts, in addition to its sporty appearance and small stature the LRX also features Hill Descent Control in lieu of low-range gears and Terrain Response System with an “eco” setting. Cool concept features such as the integrated iPhone dock and the removable carbon-fiber roof probably won’t be carried over into the production version, though we hope the gorgeous modern rework of the traditional Range Rover “wood and leather” interior remains.

Even though we’ll never be able to afford one, we hope that the project is a success for Land Rover and the British government which, as British business secretary Lord Mandelson told The Guardian, “is fully committed to supporting the U.K. automotive industry as it moves to a lower-carbon future.”

Jaguar Land Rover was granted a special deal after Britain joined ranks with other car-producing EU states to water down fuel efficiency targets proposed last year.

The highest levels of fines for failing to comply with the targets will not come into force until 2019, not in 2015 as previously proposed.

The deal means manufacturers will be able to delay investing in expensive carbon-reduction technology for several more years.

MEPs and the 27 EU member states have agreed to abandon plans to force the industry to reduce average CO emissions from around 158g/km last year to 130g/km by 2012.

Instead, the 130g/km target will be phased in over three years from 2012. A third of each company’s output will be exempted from the target in 2012.

Under the special deal for smaller manufacturers, Jaguar Land Rover will be able to choose to comply with a much less onerous target of a 25 per cent reduction by 2015 from its 2007 CO2 average.

Without the deal, the Indian-owned maker of high-emission executive cars and 4X4s would have had to reduce emissions by 38 per cent.

Jaguar-Land Rover last week responded to a sharp fall in sales by laying off 850 agency workers at plants in Castle Bromwich, Solihull, Whitley, and Gaydon, all in the West Midlands.

Britain had pressed for a special deal for Jaguar Land Rover because it argued that the rules favoured much larger companies which owned a range of marques of varying sizes and had more flexibility in how they met the target.

Other British manufacturers which produce fewer than 10,000 cars a year, including Aston Martin, Lotus and McLaren, have also won the right to have special targets which will be easier for them to achieve than the industry-wide one.

LTI, which makes London’s black cabs, was granted exemption from the rules. Environmental groups said the overall agreement reached between MEPs and the 27 EU member states was a victory for car manufacturers at the expense of the environment.

In 1998, car manufacturers agreed a voluntary target of 140g/km for this year. Despite making very slow progress towards it, they claimed until late last year that it was still possible they might reach it.

Under the deal, the fines for failing to comply with the new compulsory target have been reduced to a fraction of the level proposed by the European Commission last December. They will start at 5 Euros for the first 1g/km over the target and the full fine of 95 Euros per gram will not be imposed until 2019.

Many manufacturers are likely to choose to pay the lower fines rather than meet the targets because the total paid in penalties will be cheaper than investing in new carbon-reducing technology or phasing out their least efficient models. Car companies tend to make most of their profits on their bigger, more expensive models.

Tony Bosworth, Friends of the Earth’s transport campaigner said: “This is a depressing outcome on a vital piece of climate legislation. it’s riddled with delays, loopholes and concessions.

“This was an opportunity to force the car industry to put its foot down and speed up progress in making smarter cars that use less fuel – but EU politicians have caved in to industry lobbying and allowed it to coast along at its own pace for a few more years.

“Along with other nations, the UK Government’s key priority was to get a good deal for its own car industry – the interests of the planet and its people have clearly come a poor second.”

Europe’s commitment to dramatic cuts in car emissions was seen as a cornerstone of its attempt to argue for a post-Kyoto climate change deal at next week’s global summit in Poland.

The deal includes a new long-term target of 95g/km for 2020 but the EU has yet to agree with the industry how this will be achieved.

Geoff Hoon, the Transport Secretary, said: “This has potential to be the biggest CO2 saving measure in transport.

“At the same time it also takes account of the needs of UK manufacturers. It makes sure that smaller or niche manufacturers, who provide employment to thousands of people around the UK, play their part in reducing CO2 emissions but are not put out of business by targets they will just not be able to meet.”

But Chris Davies, the Liberal Democrat MEP Environment Spokesman, said: “This takes us backwards from last year’s ambitious agenda of reducing carbon emissions. The legislation now agreed will see European car manufacturers overtaken by Japanese and American rivals in terms of environmental innovation.

“By failing to ensure a dissuasive penalty structure, we have effectively handed the car industry an extra decade to adjust their technology. The full penalty structure will now not enter into force until 2019.”