BYD E6 ELECTRIC CAR

BYD, China's biggest battery maker, isn't wasting any time carving its niche in the new world of electric cars and plug-in hybrids. It all started with the F6DM plug-in hybrid sedan, followed by the smaller and less expensive F3DM plug-in hybrid compact car.

Now BYD has introduced its E6 electric car at the Beijing International Auto Show. It takes the shape of a crossover, or MPV, and will be built on on the F6's platform (same as the F6DM, which could be sold in Europe by 2010).

BYD E6 Electric Vehicle Specifications
So far, all we know is that the E6 will be a 5 seater with an acceleration of 0 to 100 kph of around 10 seconds. Top speed should be top speed of 160 kph (100 mph), and the battery pack, which is located under the rear passenger seats, will be based on BYD's own lithium-ion iron phosphate technology. Range per charge is expected to be 300 km (186 miles).

But most impressive of all:

"BYD projected the battery had a life of 2,000 cycles, for a lifetime range of about 600,000 km (373,000 miles)"

Wow! Even if thats just half true, it's still pretty good.

Charging of the battery will take the night with 220V, but the E6 electric car can also take a fast charge that can bring the battery to 80% SOC in about 15 minutes.

BYD says that it could start producing the E6 within two years. Another one to follow.

ECO CARS: TOYOTA DEVELOPS HYBRID CAR MADE OF SEAWEED

Eco Factor: Hybrid car made from natural materials.

Green cars are not a new thing for Toyota, which earlier showcased a variety of cars which could by all means be termed green. The company is again making news with another concept that could be a common sight on the road after a couple of decades. Toyota has showcased a hybrid concept car made from seaweed that will be shown at the Melbourne International Motor Show in Australia. The 1/X is being termed as Toyota’s dream machine, which if developed could make millions of dreams come true.

The car is powered by a 500cc engine that is about a third the size of Toyota’s ingenuity, the Prius. The 1/X makes use of high-tech materials like carbon-fiber reinforced plastic, which gives its collision safety. Weighing just over 400kg, the car can also be powered by electricity, giving it better speed and range.

The Dark Side:

The car makes use of materials that are not readily available today and manufacturing them especially for the car is not a cost-effective approach. Toyota accepts that the car will not hit showrooms for another decade.

ENVIRONMENTAL SMART CARS

Traffic coupled with sky-soaring noise levels had become an inevitable part of a commuter’s life. While some churn the technology refinery to bring out flying Cars, others test the potential of the tech-design frontiers. The CityAnts is one such Conceptual Car to do away with size issues and banks on an electric hub for the daily dose of power.

It compliments the idea of rental services as in the case of bicycles. The intended user will have to take it from a car station, drive it up to the required destination and then drop it at a station in the vicinity. I believe this concept is used to avoid lining up of vehicles and thereby save space with respect to parking lots.

This CityAnt has room for 2 passengers and moderate luggage. The stations will take upon themselves the work of juicing their batteries hub when not in use. I think the design folks have had such a concept in their mills since long. The Space Efficient Car and Folding Bicycles were similar prototypes churned by some of the budding designers.

PLUG-IN CARS

Between the near-record price of crude oil and the warnings about the end of the petroleum age, it's a great time to be hawking hybrid cars.

Hybrid cars get their power from a regular gasoline engine and a battery-powered electric motor. By balancing the load on the engine and recovering energy otherwise lost in braking, hybrids can get sky-high mileage. Toyota's Prius, for example, gets 48 miles per gallon in the city, and 45 mpg on the highway, much better than the similar-sized Corolla (28/37 mpg).

From the standpoint of energy conservation or global warming, we do hope that cars with an electric boost may edge out three-ton, four-door, eight-cylinder pickups with gas mileage in the low teens....

Hybrids combine the reduced air pollution and higher efficiency of battery power with the longer range of a gasoline engine, producing a car that travels further on each unit of energy while reducing the use of fuel and the release of carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas.

More than half a million hybrids are selling annually in the United States, and manufacturers are scrambling to join the hybrid herd. Whether their motivation is a desire to brag about high mileage or to bask in the glow of "hybrid chic," hybrids offer a quick route to reducing gasoline consumption, oil imports, and greenhouse-gas pollution.

The best is yet to come
But it turns out that today's hybrids are only a start: The next generation of "plug-in hybrids" promises much greater reductions in fuel consumption and pollution. These cars use a super-size battery to achieve much greater all-electric driving range.

While today's hybrids resemble conventional cars with a battery assist, the plug-in version is more like a battery car with gasoline assist. Like the battery car, the plug-in hybrid offers radical pollution reductions, but adds the critical advantage of unlimited range.

When the battery is charged from a regular electric outlet at night, it stores enough energy to drive 20, 30, even 40 miles. Even though batteries are heavy and expensive, a 30-mile battery could liberate most American commuters from gasoline, especially if the car is charged at work before the drive home.

Plug-in hybrids could make visits to the gas station a special occasion rather than a weekly misery.

At today's prices, energy will cost about one-third as much when electricity rather than gasoline is moving the car, so plug-in hybrids could reduce the cost of driving.

But the ultimate payoff of plug-in hybrids is this: By placing a big battery in millions of garages, they may open the door to a vast expansion in solar and wind electricity.

Plug in, turn on, drive off
No manufacturer yet makes a plug-in hybrid, although several firms do sell kits with a big battery and control unit that will convert an existing hybrid into a plug-in. A number of auto-bigs, including Toyota and GM, say they intend to release plug-in hybrids within a few years.

That announcement marks a fascinating about-face for Toyota, which has long emphasized that its Prius was not a battery car. "They worked a long time to explain that you don't have to plug these in," says Don Hillebrand, director of the Center for Transportation Research at Argonne National Laboratory. "I think that one thing that spooked Toyota [about introducing a plug-in hybrid], is that they had just got done with explaining that the Prius does not have a cord coming out of the tail."

The Why Files could not afford a plug-in hybrid, so we phoned Tom Paque, a vice-president of Wisconsin Public Power Inc., which converted two Priuses as corporate cars. "We get a lot of thumbs up," Paque told us. "I think in general people don't know much about plug-in hybrids, but I do believe they understand [the idea of] using electricity in cars, and are excited about it."

Aside from all the technical hurdles involved in producing long-lasting, powerful but affordable batteries, Paque says, "It's going to be a challenge, from the consumer perspective, to explain these. People have the assumption that battery-powered cars are slow, and have limited mileage.... This approach, adding an 'electric gas tank' to a hybrid, is a really cool incremental step."

TOP ELECTRIC CARS

TOP 8 GREEN CARS

TESLA ROADSTER

Top speed: 130 mph 0-60 mph in 3.9 seconds Range: 244 miles Available in Europe next year Cost: $100,000 Probably the sportiest-looking electric car on sale today. This sports car accelerates from 0-60mph in four seconds and has a top speed of 125mph. Already on sale in the US, people in Europe will be able to buy them next year for €100,000. A new "affordable" $49,000 family car called the Model S is also in the pipeline

MITSUBISHI I-MIEV EV

This is one of my favorite new cars, and is especially dazzling as the Sport, a concept two-door fastback coupe (the one they won't actually build, of course). The four-door i-MIEV, with a 47-kilowatt motor and a 16 kilowatt-hour battery pack, can reach 81 mpg and has a 75-mile range on a charge. Three driving modes include Standard, Eco (which limits battery output to a third of peak power and makes it as poky as a slug) and "B," with more aggressive regenerative braking for faster recharges.

The i-MIEV is on sale in Japan, but the only examples in the U.S. are in utility fleets. The car was to be imported for a special pilot program in Iceland, but that was before the meltdown. A North American release is seriously contemplated, however.

GEM PEAPOD FOR CHRYSLER

I was all set to take a ride in the Peapod early in April, but the offer was abruptly rescinded. It "wasn't ready," although it supposedly went on sale for Earth Day, April 22. They didn't even show it off at the New York Auto Show (though the older GEM golf cart vehicle was on display). The Peapod is a tiny electric car, also known as a neighborhood electric vehicle, or NEV, and is limited to 35 mph roads. Recharging for 30-mile range is said to take less than eight hours.

There's some resemblance to designs General Motors has for its Project PUMA -- kind of like a computer mouse set on end. More than this I cannot say, because the Peapod still seems to be in stealth mode.

FORD FIESTA

This is a really handsome comeback car for Ford, with global aim. Europe already has both three- and five-door versions of the Fiesta (a nameplate that only U.S. old-timers will remember) and a sedan with a trunk is coming here in early 2010. The European Fiesta, based on the same chassis as the non-U.S. Mazda2, has a 1.6-liter four with variable cam timing under the hood.

There's a version called the ECOnetic that gets a whopping 65 mpg, but because it's a diesel we're unlikely to see it in the U.S. Cars for North America will be made in Mexico. Fuel economy for the U.S.-spec car is not yet available, but it should be very good.

WOLKSWAGEN UP

Don't visit your VW dealer for this one just yet, though the new minicar is looking good for U.S. distribution (starting around 2012). The engine (anything from a tiny 600-cc turbo to a 1.3-cylinder three-cylinder and, of course, diesels) is up front in the Up! With the right set-up, it could yield 80 mpg.

The really small Up! is complemented with a micro-van called the Space Up! (and we are likely to get that version). Production in India is possible, says Autobloggreen.

FIAT 500

Right now you have to go to Europe to see the excellent 500 on the road, though I saw Chrysler's Jim Press roll out in one at the New York Auto Show. If Chrysler merges with Fiat, they'll likely be sold here. The 500 is an update of a tiny Italian classic that never saw U.S. release for obvious reasons -- it makes the MINI look like a Cadillac. The new 500 is in the tradition of the second-gen Volkswagen Beetle as a tasteful and retro heritage car, and it has similar mass-market possibilities.

"Irresistible, like an iPod on four wheels," says one critic. The 500 is shorter, narrower and taller than the MINI, and is mechanically similar to the downmarket Fiat Panda. It's very light and aerodynamic, so the 1.2-liter, 68-horsepower four-cylinder engine gives decent performance and 36 mpg overall in the European cycle.