My battery is better than yours – Daimler and Renault-Nissan quarrel over superiority
Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Nissan, SMART, Renault, Green Daily, Daimler
Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn and Daimler AG chairman Dieter Zetsche sign the agreement
Not much more than a week ago, Daimler and Renault-Nissan announced an alliance that was reported to possibly lead to more small cars from the two brands. We have visions of Twingos and Smarts sitting side-by-side with a Nissan sibling not far behind. As alliances go, there could be no greater pairing, right?
Everything was going as planned with paperwork signed and reports pouring in about the bright future for the companies until one question was discussed which probably went down something like this: What batteries should we put in the Smart ED and the Twingo ZE? Should we go with Renault-Nissan ones or the Daimler-developed units? Maybe different batteries can go in each vehicle. Nah, our batteries are better so let’s go with that. What do you mean yours are better?
Stuttgart, we’ve got a problem! As it turns out, both Daimler and Renault-Nissan have independently vowed to become world leaders in battery technology. When you take two companies that believe they are the best in the biz and ask them to select one battery, you are really asking for one company to admit to failure, right? The battery disagreement began at the signing, with Nissan chief executive officer Carlos Ghosn and Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche each talking a bit of smack.
Ghosn opened with, “We are obviously going to do everything in order for our battery to be considered as the best,” adding that Daimler is “not obliged” to use Nissan batteries but “doubts” that they could find anything better out there. Zetsche responded that Ghosn may be right and a better battery may not exist outside of Daimler, but one could likely be found “inside” the company. He added, “We have the production know how and the financial muscle to secure a long-term competitive position.”
Mullin’s French car Nirvana opens in Oxnard
The Mullin Automotive Museum, a facility that will pay homage to the art deco and machine age design eras (1918-1941) that produced exquisite art and magnificent automobiles, will officially open its doors for the first time in Oxnard, Calif., Spring 2010.
The dramatic facility will be a three-dimensional celebration of the pre-World War II Belgian/French decorative arts movement, long described as Art Deco. Sharing the more than 50-thousand square-feet of exhibit space will be one of the finest collections of coach-built automobiles, furniture and art from the Deco era; including considerable work created by the Bugatti family.
Nissan presents a GT-R sports car to Narain Karthikeyan
Nissan Motor India Private Ltd CEO and Managing Director, Mr. Kiminobu Tokuyama handed over a Nissan GT-R sports car to Padmashri Narain Karthikeyan at a ceremony at the Madras Motors Sports Club at Irrungattukottai, near Chennai.
Narain is termed at the ‘fasted Indian on wheels’ and is a proclaimed fan of performance cars, especially Nissan GT-R. He then did few hot laps of the track in his new GT-R.
First Russian hybrid concept car – official photos
GC “Onex” disseminated official images of the hybrid concept car economy class, which intends to produce a billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, with support from the St. Petersburg automaker “Yarovit Motors”.
Conceived with the working title “Eco” is a smaller, more car: its value, according to preliminary data, should be around 8,9 thousand euros. The presented image looks interesting, but unlikely it will reach the assembly line in its original form. This is explained by the low price, which would eventually oblige to apply the less bold, but cheaper stylistic decisions.
“Eco” refers to a car class “A” (a compact city car), the model will be equipped with a 68-strong hybrid engine, its mass will not exceed 700 kg. The car will accelerate to a maximum of 120 km per hour and travel up to 400 kilometers without refueling. That is, the fuel consumption will be at the level of 3.5 liters per 100 kilometers.
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Honda Civic Specifications
Price: Rs. 12,29,129/- to Rs. 14,80,964/- (ex-showroom Bangalore, As of April 2010)
Variants: 1.8 S MT, 1.8 V MT, 1.8 V AT
Dimensions
Length: 4545 mm
Width: 1750 mm
Height: 1450 mm
Wheel Base: 2700 mm
Ground Clearance: 170 mm
Front Track: 1495 mm
Rear Track: 1520 mm
Kerb Weight: 1210kg (1.8 S MT, 1.8 V MT) / 1240kg (1.8 V AT)
Gross Weight: NA
No. of Doors: 4
Seating Capacity: 5 persons
Fuel Tank Capacity: 50 liters
Engine
HK Motors to develop natural gas hybrids
An HK concept
I’m still not sure that I believe Hybrid Kinetics Motor Company will be around in 5 years, however, if everything goes as expected, HK will begin producing a family of natural gas hybrid vehicles in 2013 at it’s Alabama manufacturing facility.
In partnership with the American Public Gas Association (APGA) and NGVAmerica, HK hopes to develop a new natural gas infrastructure, while lobbying the government to pass the The NAT GAS Act of 2009.
Via Hybrid Cars
2010 Lucra LC470
After the successful launch of the LC470 a few years back, the Lucra team has decided to go back to the drawing board in order to re examine every nook and cranny in order to further improve its design. With over 50 years of experience building race cars under their belts and aided with the [...]
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- Lucra LC470 supercar
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