Hyundai ix35 Fuel Cell

After debuting at the last Paris Motor Show, Hyundai’s latest ecologic initiative had its production started at the South Korean plant. These pictures may show only a slightly redesigned version of this famous crossover, but the truth is this release earns huge importance simply by remembering of its historical context. This ix35 won’t even be offered to the public right now, but this article will show why it can be seen as part of the car industry’s next big step towards the non-pollutant vehicles.

You’ve certainly seen lots of “green” cars being showed in the past few years. Existing vehicles receiving versions with one of the new propulsions, their automakers creating whole new models, to work with electric or hybrid projects from the project’s beginning, and even whole new companies being founded, relying exclusively on the sales appeal of producing only petrol-free transportation. Unfortunately, there are so many difficulties on establishing such big changes into the public’s habits that only some of those pioneers achieved true success. The bright side of all those attempts is that people actually started to get used to these two new kinds of car a little more, while the companies began to offer better-looking and more capable vehicles at smaller prices. In other words, introducing new technologies depends very much on the public acceptance, but also on how good are the offered vehicles: both sides need to get closer, in order to meet at the halfway called good sales. This is what first happened to hybrid propulsion, what is happening to electric vehicles and now is about to start with the hydrogen systems. There aren’t so many concrete results concerning this technology, like Honda FCX Clarity, but that’s just a matter of time.

Fuel Cell’s exclusive front fascia features a bigger, single-element grille whose imponent design has huge resemblance with the bigger brother Santa Fe. Besides, there are minor external changes such as the dark-painted wheels, but the car’s design wasn’t significantly altered. But another fact is these changes do bring once again the “novelty sensation” it’s always nice to have in any car, not to mention it follows Hyundai’s interesting strategy of distinguishing its petrol-free versions with exclusive designs like this one. This crossover actually uses electric propulsion, with a lithium-ion 24-kWh battery, but the new system was given the role of providing the necessary energy by converting hydrogen into electricity and managing to provide interesting a 365-miles range without recharging, along with 12s5 acceleration time from 0 to 60 mph and 100 mph of top speed. The Korean automaker will start offering this car only for companies and government institutions, always in the European market until 2015. The expectations for that time are to have these cars’ production costs lower and the demanded infrastructure improved enough to stimulate offering hydrogen-moved vehicles to the public. Until then, Hyundai will produce 1,000 units of this special ix35.

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Bolloré BlueCar

If you live in France, you’ve certainly not only heard about this article’s news as must be already thinking of buying this car. First, the French bicycle sharing program Velib’ has been so well-accepted that motivated the car variation, Autolib’. Now, after the vehicle sharing became very successful too, BlueCar’s automaker responded to that public’s wish and started to offer it on public sales. So how about meeting the retail version of what certainly has already become one of France’s most popular cars of nowadays?

The Bolloré Group has been active since 1822, working specially in the transportation area. Developing its own vehicle is one of this company’s most recent projects, whose first public appearance was made with BlueCar EV at the 2006 Geneva Auto Show. The intention at that time was to expose the potential of its centrally-positioned lithium-ion battery, in a bubble-shaped car which was already able to hit the streets if wanted. The following step was joining Pininfarina on building another project, the B0 concept. This one brought much more attractive styling and lithium-polymer battery, increasing the system’s overall efficiency and allowing devices such as regenerative braking. Showed in 2008, this was the vehicle which led to BlueCar, the production version whose original intention was to be offered only under sharing programs. Actually, that’s the reason of this hatchback’s simplified design: besides the wheels’ plastic covers, the cost-reduction creativity fashioned one single light equipment for the front illumination and other for the rear – these images show each one was repeated respectively six and four times, only changing the lamps. Nevertheless, these solutions are exactly what is expected from a car meant to have the lowest production and maintenance costs as it’s possible.

Entering the car doesn’t exactly cease the pragmatism, but still stays far from disappointing. BlueCar’s cabin reminds once again its proposal of being a mere transportation tool, rather than an attempt to extend the owner’s home: there’s only the necessary for driving from one point to another. The equipment list features a buzzer to alert pedestrians of the car’s silent approaches, audio system, climate control, GPS navigation and driver’s airbag – although most Autolib’ users travel alone, the car seats four. The retail version adds better coatings and three driving modes: Eco, Sport and Ice, besides of changing the only external color option from silver to dark-blue. The powertrain was carried over from the Pininfarina concept, using a 67-hp electric supercapacitor, capable of providing 160-mile city range (93 miles on the highway), 6s3 for the 0-60 mph test and 130-mph top speed. In France, it’ll start at € 12.000 plus monthly € 80 for the 661-pd battery’s lease, which are estimated to last around 250,000 miles. The basic price increases with the optional domestic recharge cable (€ 700), BlueBox domestic quick charger (€ 995) or a € 15 fee to enable using Autolib’s recharge stations. If the retail sales prove themselves successful, the four-door option will be expected to arrive, since this was BlueCar prototype’s original configuration.

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Renault Kangoo 2013

Some months ago, everyone turned the spotlights to Mercedes-Benz and the latest member of its commercial vehicles’ line, the badge-engineered Citan. But this release also brought the memory that Kangoo, the French multivan whose project was used to create the German sibling, was completing four years at the current generation without having any style changes. Renault now takes the opportunity to give some updates which may not create design revolutions, but have a great importance to the car’s market position.

Do you know what does “kangoo” stand for? This word doesn’t have any meaning, actually. Renault used a computer program to create random pronounceable letter combinations until they liked this one, which they used to baptize their very first multivan, which came in 1998 to fight this category’ pioneers, PSA’s Citroën Berlingo and Peugeot Partner, and Fiat Doblò a few years later. But if the French twins tried to look like a conventional car as much as possible, the other two wanted to stand out in the crowd: like the Italian rival, the first Kangoo used very creative shapes and bright colors to compose a playful appearance, rather than discreet. But they all agreed to offer huge space for people and/or cargo (there were several body options) with resistant structures and inexpensive trim levels, which didn’t take long to result at a very successful quartet. They’ve started to receive the second generation around the tenth year, in which PSA only upgraded the original concept, while Fiat made Doblò much more elegant. Renault, in turn, decided to evolve Kangoo’s initial idea. The pictures show a more solid version of the first generation’s design, maintaining vivid colors and shapes but also receiving a new option: named Be Bop for passengers or Compact for cargo, it has smaller height and wheelbase, achieving a “cuter design” which makes it more suitable for companies with lighter demands.

And after shrinking at the beginning, this generation received the electric Z.E. version and ended with an enlargement: the second Grand Kangoo was also an extended-wheelbase option for both uses, but also like the first one there was a big surprise concerning the design: having the cost reduction as a priority resulted at very questionable design solutions, such as brutally stretched last columns at the first and rear fenders at the second. Nevertheless, worrying about award-winning designs or not is what creates the biggest difference between Kangoo and Scénic, to keep the comparisons in Renault’s showroom. These pictures show the rational van of those, and that’s why there weren’t great investments at this facelift. The entire front was restyled in order to syncronize this car with Renault’s current design language, which includes big headlights and the already famous V-shaped grille highlighting the brand’s logo – the Z.E. version adds the blue-chrome details seen at the photos and sets the charging port under the logo. Internally, there’s new dashboard and the R-Link infotainment system. Since this car focuses at the commercial use, there’s only one gasoline engine option, the 1.2 TCe – all the others use diesel, generating from 75 to 110 hp.

02/28/2012 update: Now it was time for releasing the facelifted Kangoo’s passenger version, after commercial and electric variations. The visual changes are the exact same here, but restricted to the medium-wheelbase vehicle, which has also received two new trim levels: besides Life, Zens and Intens there will be Business and Extrem. The first one is focused on companies, while the second deserved to appear in the most recent official pictures. Like PSA has done with Citroën Berlingo XTR and Peugeot Partner Tepee, now it’s Renault’s time to offer an “off-road inspiration” for this multivan, with 15” wheels, exclusive external stickers, chrome details and roof rack, while the cabin receives two-tone coating. It was also revealed that Kangoo will have hill-start assistance and stability control as standard items, with the R-Link infotainment system as an optional. The diesel engine options will actually be the same dCi 1.5L, with 75, 90 or 110 hp of power, while there will be only the 115-hp TCe with gasoline.

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Nissan Leaf 2013

If you’re still amazed with how many hybrid vehicles are seen in nowadays, it’s time to catch up: the fully electric vehicles have also became so popular that they’re already creating their very own competition, apart from the first kind of ecologically-propelled. Even though the EVs market is still composed mostly of one vehicle for each brand, many of them have similar prices and therefore aim to the same customers. This was Nissan’s precise concern when giving Leaf the updates that characterize its latest model year.

Having few and very different competitors may paint the picture that the North-American EVs are an easy market to succeed, but the fact is the exact opposite. Nissan decided to enter using the most generic body for a city car, thinking it would be easy for a hatchback to attract many kinds of buyers. Chevrolet, in turn, placed their bets on a very stylish sedan with Volt. Mitsubishi created the i subcompact probably to compensate the electric systems’ higher prices with a smaller car, while Ford prefers electric versions, probably to make use of the conventional vehicles’ charisma rather than submitting new names and images to public acceptance. And Fiat combines the two last strategies with 500e. All of that came to explain that it’s very easy to lose sales at these markets: someone who wants bigger space will never take a Mitsubishi i, while the tight-budget ones won’t look to a Ford C-Max Energi. While Leaf’s sales still don’t push Nissan into creating new body versions, they’ve made some efforts at pleasing the North-Americans a little more. This car is now produced at their Tennessee plant and received some visual enhancements, such as new wheels design and color options, and a rear air diffuser, to improve the aerodynamics. Not to mention the new entry version: now there’s the upmarket SL, the mid-level SV and the cheaper S.

The price reduction came from taking away the cruise control, navigation and the remote-access systems, along with smaller steel wheels with plastic covers, only one internal coating option and the 4.3” LCD screen, instead of SV and SL’s 7” one. While S’s interior only comes in black, SV receives better-quality materials in gray or black and SL uses black leather, but heated seats are now a standard item. Leaf S brings a 3.6-kW charger while the others use a 6.6-kW, this one now enabling full charge in four hours with a 220V outlet – there’s also a quick-charge port to recharge at public stations. The engine wasn’t touched, but both the heater system and the regenerative braking were improved, and the navigation system now finds the “eco routes” to the driver, which are more energy-efficient courses to a given destination. The official consumption rates haven’t been released yet, but Nissan has improved Leaf’s warranty: eight years or 100,000 miles for the battery system as always, but with a new item: the dashboard brings a capacity gauge. If this 12-bar display falls below nine bars, it means the batteries now have around 70% of the original capacity. If this is achieved within five years or 60,000 miles, Nissan will replace the battery pack. More information about this car is expected at the upcoming Detroit Auto Show.

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Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Electric Drive

From every angle you look this car there’s something taking your attention. The stylish coupe design is already widely known, and so are the gullwing doors, but when you get used to the exclusive chrome blue painting, take a look at the front air intake. Its different design reveals this car is not an usual SLS, but this low-profile sign isn’t followed at all by this car’s performance. This new version has everything to add some new values to the current idea of electric vehicles, and at this article you’ll read why.

What are your oldest memories about electric cars? Maybe Saturn EV1, Honda Insight or even the hybrid Toyota Prius, aren’t them? All these cars came in the late 1990s as the very first alternatives to the massive use of petrol, but at first it was very hard to convince people to buy one. And why can’t we blame them? Because in spite of all the green appeal, their problems at that time didn’t affect too much their quality as products, but their image. The autonomy was very limited and the batteries were a headache: too expensive to get rid of the old ones properly and too expensive to obtain new ones. As little doom is silly, their prices were also much higher than their petrol similars. Besides that, those engines could barely take their weight to street speeds, so you had to forget luxury and specially performance – the lack of the typical engine noise was a permanent reminder of that. And if you thought their design could help you pretend to everyone outside you’d bought the perfect car… They were well-designed, there’s no denial of that. But their conception of that was the literal one: if their primitive batteries were as heavy as necessary, the only way of optimizing the limited power was to facilitate the air flow, rather than focus at stylish lines.

This combination couldn’t help giving the EVs the terrible impression of taking a lot of your money in exchange of not so palpable benefits. However, it took some more years but this scenario winded up starting to change. Their big leap begun when some movie stars bought themselves some of them, and when Arnold Schwarzenegger estabilished more severe environmental politics when governing the North-American state of California. These facts helped to give the EVs the direction they needed: they dived into the popular culture. Day after day their fame got better, also because there were more companies producing them and improving their technologies. Therefore, from the rejection of Saturn EV1 whose explanation even motivated conspiracy theories, the late 2000s saw the following generations of Toyota Prius consolidating it as a huge commercial success, which helped to build the vision of hybrids and EVs as a symbol of the next times. But there was still one smaller problem, but still important: these cars got more efficient, much more beautiful and even a little cheaper, but the personality matter wasn’t solved yet. The common cars’ “green versions” managed to conciliate both sides a little better, but if you wanted to be totally ecological it still took giving up some of those subjective factors which have built the modern cars’ fame.

And now is the moment to invite Mercedes-Benz’s release. The enormous technological advances of the latest times have allowed also big improvements to the EVs, but now finally dedicated to their personality. Now buying a hybrid or electric version (such as Ford Fusion Hybrid) or entire model (like Renault Zoe) doesn’t have to mean taking worse performance and lack of luxury inside the same external body, and Mercedes’ latest release is an excellent example of that. When would you expect an electric version to be 177 hp more powerful than the gasoline one? Well, SLS has not only done it as also maintaining its own interior sophistication level. This comes from nothing less than four electric engines (one at each wheel) to, combined, generate 740 hp (!) and 1000 Nm of torque. This allows it to make 0 to 60 mph in 3s9, but the top speed was limited at 155 mph probably due to safety reasons. Only the batteries weigh 1208 pounds (the autonomy wasn’t revealed), but this car received the same high performance preparation as the gasoline versions. There are huge carbon brake calipers, and the AMG Torque Dynamics system can provide traction to each wheel the needed amount and even work in three modes: Comfort, Sport and Sport Plus. SLS Electric Drive will start its sales in a few months.

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Renault Zoe

Lançado no último Salão de Genebra, é outro salão que marcará o passo seguinte do Zoe: suas vendas começarão em outubro, após o Salão de Paris. A Renault cada vez mais associa sua imagem à ecologia com o crescimento de sua linha de carros elétricos, cuja sigla ZE vem de Zero Emission. Mas este compacto tem um mérito particular porque é o primeiro carro dos franceses a ser projetado totalmente com foco na propulsão elétrica. Aqui você conhecerá um pouco mais sobre esse interessante hatchback.

Por mais que os ZE agora sejam quatro, tal primazia do Zoe se deve ao fato de que Fluence e Kangoo nasceram com motores a combustão e ganharam apenas uma versão elétrica, ao passo que o Twizy sempre a usou mas não chega à concepção tradicional de carro. Pelas fotos abaixo é possível relembrar que ele foi um dos primeiros a usar a atual tendência de estilo da Renault, em que a frente une farois bem esguios com os lados da grade em duas grandes faixas que convergem ao centro do espaço para sustentar o escudo da marca em posição de destaque. Seu parentesco com o novo Clio é grande mas não passa pelo desenho: o irmão elétrico aposta em linhas bem mais limpas, que lhe conferem uma agradável fuga da profusão de vincos, recortes e relevos que tem se estabelecido como tendência entre os carros mais atuais. As luzes diurnas, por exemplo, ficam recolhidas em pequenas fendas no parachoque, que por sua vez realça a pequena tomada de ar dianteira. Um detalhe interessante é que os Renault elétricos exaltam a cor azul nas lanternas, interior e até no logotipo da marca.

Essa diferenciação entre Clio e Zoe foi uma estratégia muito acertada. Porque os carros elétricos precisam focar na eficiência o máximo possível, implicando em que características como a aerodinâmica apurada adquirem importância enorme. Para atender a essas premissas são necessárias concessões, não só no desenho como na verdade em tudo que tenha potencial de consumir muita energia. Ou seja, estão de fora os motores muito fortes, que ajudaram o Clio a fazer fama com as incontáveis versões esportivas da geração anterior, e os itens de luxo e tecnologia, que por sua vez são o foco maior da atual geração do hatch. Então, a coexistência de Clio e Zoe permite que o primeiro mantenha as tradições que vem firmando desde 1990 enquanto o outro atrai a clientela que foca mais na ecologia, chegando assim a cumprir os dois objetivos plenamente. Porém, como bom irmão que é, o Zoe não esconde os genes que carrega: ele também traz as maçanetas traseiras escondidas atrás das janelas, e entrando na cabine logo se percebe o painel cuja touchscreen da central de entretenimento apresenta formato de tablet.

Ele será vendido em três versões: a Life parte de 15.700 euros, e a Zen e a Intens de 17.500 euros cada. O motor é sempre o mesmo e gera potência e torque de 88 cv e 22,4 kgfm, números que lhe levam à velocidade máxima de 135 km/h e à autonomia de 150 km. Aliás, dependendo da tomada a recarga dura entre trinta minutos e nove horas. Ele procura economizar energia com o sistema Range Optimizer, que comanda os responsáveis por melhorar a autonomia real: bomba de aquecimento para regular a temperatura da cabine gastando menos energia e sistema de recuperação de energia das frenagens, além dos pneus de alto desempenho energético. Medido 4,09 metros de comprimento por 1,73 metro de largura, o Zoe adota a engenhosa solução de seu plugue de recarga ficar por trás do logotipo da marca na dianteira: além de seu tamanho avantajado servir de tampa de fácil operação, é sempre valorável a ideia de fazer o cliente lembrar que dirige um carro deles sempre que recarregá-lo. Quanto a nós, brasileiros, resta esperar que pelo menos os veículos híbridos ganhem boa aceitação no país, para depois começar a esperar a vinda massiva de elétricos como este.

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Nissan Leaf Táxi

Pode-se dizer que a história automotiva do Brasil está esboçando o começo de um novo capítulo. Hoje se fez a entrega das duas primeiras unidades do Leaf que começam a efetivar o acordo entre a Prefeitura de São Paulo e sua associação Adetax, a aliança Renault-Nissan e a AES Eletropaulo para analisar o potencial do uso de veículos elétricos como táxis na cidade de São Paulo. Esta medida ganha muita importância por se tratarem de carros com emissão de CO₂ nula.

Os veículos começarão a circular no próximo dia 11, ficando no ponto entre a Avenida Paulista e a Rua da Consolação, e num primeiro momento circularão num circuito predefinido dentro do mini Anel Viário, e isso se faz porque já foram criados quinze pontos de recarga pela cidade, em que dez têm uso recomendado pelo período noturno porque levam oito horas para a carga completa, mas os outros cincos possibilitam a recarga completa em meia hora. No segundo semestre serão entregues outras oito unidades do carro para a cidade, para circular também por áreas de grande movimentação. Mas também vale a pena falar do carro em si, e do que ele representa.

Até agora já recebemos de forma oficial e regular alguns híbridos, mas além de serem poucos modelos, são opções muito caras – quem vai ver com frequência tais versões do sedã grande Ford Fusion e dos sedãs de alto luxo BMW Série 7 e Mercedes-Benz Classe S? A chegada do famoso Prius em breve já é confirmada pela Toyota, mas ainda assim se fazia necessária uma medida para massificar principalmente a imagem do carro ecológico frente à população. Com isso, ter carros totalmente elétricos circulando com a frequência de um táxi não só vai começar a cumprir esse objetivo de mostrar que são uma realidade mais próxima do brasileiro, como também já divulgam uma opção ainda mais limpa que os híbridos.

Isso acontece porque enquanto os híbridos usam o motor elétrico em parceria com a propulsão a combustão, carros como o Leaf dependem apenas da eletricidade. Como era de se esperar, assim como se acarretam vantagens, também temos alguns problemas. É o caso da autonomia, que nele é limitada a 160 km. O lado bom é que os esforços das engenharias das marcas estão obtendo resultados cada vez melhores quanto a minimizar tais pontos fracos. O carro possui sistemas para recuperar a energia das frenagens, e só com isso já consegue rodar até 10% extras. Além disso, o quadro de instrumentos em LCD tem econômetro e um sistema lúdico de incentivar o motorista a dirigir de forma econômica, com a proliferação de imagens de árvores.

Outro ponto forte é que sua aerodinâmica foi muito bem trabalhada. As formas do Leaf podem não ganhar um concurso de desenho, mas isso se justifica com o fato de que sua preocupação realmente não é essa. Por exemplo, os farois são saltados assim para desviar o ar dos retrovisores, que colaboram de forma negativa para isso. A antena tem a ponta mais “gorda” também para uma melhor coordenação do ar, e além disso temos as soluções mais convencionais, caso da traseira volumosa e das laterais sem vincos fortes. Como os carros elétricos não têm barulho de motor, ele emite um reduzido aviso sonoro no exterior para avisar da proximidade a pedestres e especialmente a deficientes visuais.

Seu gerador ganha pontos por evitar a distribuição instantânea de força, como nos carrinhos de brinquedo, e com isso se aproximar de um motor a combustão. Mas como estes primeiros Leaf são táxis, vale comentar que seu porte é parecido ao do irmão Tiida, com farto espaço mas tendo cabine extra-silenciosa. Essa iniciativa tem incontáveis méritos para o país, e não é a única boa nova. O Governo já estuda incentivar a produção de veículos elétricos produzidos no país, e a Nissan tem vontade de importar o Leaf de forma regular. Portanto, se ele ganha boa aceitação no país as outras marcas com certeza também vão começar a trazer os seus modelos. Tudo isso vai depender da colaboração da população.

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