Auto News: Car Reviews, Car News, Car Shows

One of the things that are most remarkable around Europe is the presence of “Panel vehicles.” Image your regular small hatchback but without glasses from the B-pillar backwards and no backseat. You can put quite a lot of stuff in one of these, although your payload won’t never reach a regular van. So here’s when the “van” models of your regular hatchback comes in, sometimes at 50+ mpg.

Such is the case of the Fiesta Van. (Read the full post about ‘So you want a van but you don’t need too much space … what can you choose?’…)

Why put a fuel cell into a car’s powertrain when you can instead put it into a little device to see if the driver is drunk? That’s what Volvo has done with their new Alcoguard technology. The fuel cell breathalyzer will go on sale early next year for the Volvo S80, V70 and XC70 models, coming to smaller cars later in the summer. Why use a fuel cell to power the Alcoguard? (Read the full post about ‘Volvo’s fuel cell Alcoguard breathalyzer says “Blow 5 seconds”‘…)

If you enter “Michigan” into the search box on the top right side of any AutoblogGreen page, you’ll be rewarded with a long list of Mitten State stories, and many of them are focused on biofuels (If you’re interested, I’ve saved you a few seconds by giving three results as related links below). (Read the full post about ‘Michigan’s role in the biofuel industry’…)

Now that concerns about a possible cartel have been discarded, the EU has authorised an ethanol plant that BP and AGF (Associated British Food) planned to build in the north of England.

Since BP is an oil company and AGF is dedicated to food, some voices raised against possible concerns in manipulating the market, affecting prices and free market concurrence. (Read the full post about ‘BP and AGF get green light from EU to build ethanol plant in the UK’…)

Reports are circulating that Porsche is trying to buy Volkswagen. Porsche took 30 percent ownership of VW in March. A takeover offer was made then but less than 1 percent of VW shareholders accepted the offer. I mean, come on! Talk about a clash of cultures.

Porsche makes sports cars. VW does carbon offsets. (Read the full post about ‘Reports say Porsche buying majority stake in VW’…)

Lotec Sirius is a supercar back in the ’90s. It is powered by a V12 engine that generates 1000 hp. The top speed is arround 400 km/h.

(Read the full post about ‘Lotec Sirius video’…)

As we reported about a month ago, Tesla Motors will be opening a sales and service center in Menlo Park, California later this year. A local TV news station, KPIX, has been seeing what this store will be about, and let’s just say that everyone is excited about Tesla Motors coming to town. (Read the full post about ‘Welcome mat is out for Tesla in Menlo Park’…)

Brazil’s Companhia Nacional do Abastecimiento is forecasting record levels for the 2007-2008 sugarcane production fuelled (pun intended) by the expansion of ethanol. According to this official organisation, this year’s production of sugarcane will reach 547.2 million tons, 15.2 percent more than last year’s 474.8 million.

The uses for this huge amounts of sugarcane are divided this way: 40.5 percent for sugar manufacturing (30 million tons of sugar) and a whopping 46 percent to produce 21.3 billion liters of ethanol, 22 percent more than last year’s production. (Read the full post about ‘Brazil forecasts record sugarcane and ethanol production’…)

On August 27, the German Ministry of Environment, Sigmar Gabriel, gave away 10 prizes to award the development of green technologies in the car industry. The winners were (in no particular order):

• Best bioethanol vehicle: Ford Flexifuel range of vehicles
• Best hybrid: Toyota Prius
• Best hydrogen/fuel-cell development: BMW Hydrogen 7 Series
• Best CNG: Opel CNG range of models
• Best electronics: Mercedes for its Smart
• Best improvements in CO2 emissions reduction: BMW’s EfficientDynamics Policy
• Best waste management.

(Read the full post about ‘The German Industry’s Green awards go to…’…)

Yes, it is not only the rich who can be arrogant. It is also those who cater to the very rich.
 
Ferrari has sued a Danish funeral home that designed a special funeral urn featuring the Ferrari prancing horse and was designed in the shape of the car. The funeral home designed the urn to fulfill the request of a young boy, a Ferrari fan, who died of cancer. According to the funeral director, the boy “was interested in fast cars." He said he was provided the Ferrari logo by a Danish Ferrari dealer. Subsequently, a depiction of the urn was included in an exhibit of custom urns designed by the funeral home featuring brand and sports logos.
 
Ferrari seeks, of course, to protect its trademark, as do many companies. Still, the impression given by the company is far from favorable. Words like heartless, uncaring and mean-spirited spring immediately to mind. Moreover, Ferrari has scored a small fortune’s worth of negative publicity. That’s not good business, either.
 
Perhaps Ferrari is too ingrown to understand a young boy’s worship of their team and heritage. One doubts that the founder of the company would have been so foolish.