All About Autos

In this episode, Connected Life looks at cars. We check out the advances in the electric car, we look into flex-vehicles, and we find out how India’s new ultra-low cost Nano car may cause more problems than it solves. Start your engines – this is Connected Life!

MIT City Cars
Smart Cities Group and MIT’s ambitious City Car Design Project envisions two-seater electric vehicles that weigh under 1,200 pounds and collapse and stack together like shopping carts. Drivers would be able to stack from six to eight cars into an average sized parking space. Although the interdisciplinary project is still under development, the project is designed as a system of shared cars with kiosks at locations around a city or small community.

Tata Motors
Indian consumers are cheering Tata Motors $2500 Nano, but critics are concerned that the inexpensive car will trigger millions of new sales and put additional strain on the country’s already clogged roads and mounting air pollution problems. By 2035, Indian vehicles are expected to release over 1,400 million tons of carbon dioxide, the leading greenhouse gas blamed for global warming.

Flex-fuel Cars
Just what exactly are flexible-fuel vehicles or FFVs? They are essentially dual-fuel vehicles that can use different sources of fuel, either mixed in the same tank or with separate tanks and fuel systems for each fuel. A common example is a vehicle that can accept gasoline mixed with varying levels of bio-ethanol (gasohol).

Flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs) are designed to run on gasoline or a blend of up to 85% ethanol (E85). Except for a few engine and fuel system modifications, they are identical to gasoline-only models. FFVs experience no loss in performance when operating on E85. However, since a gallon of ethanol contains less energy than a gallon of gasoline, FFVs typically get about 20-30% fewer miles per gallon when fueled with E85. North America flex fuel ethanol is almost exclusively derived from corn, but in Brazil, where FFV’s make up 80% of vehicles sold – the ethanol comes from locally grown sugar cane.

FFVs have been produced since the 1980s, and dozens of models are currently available. Since FFVs look just like gasoline-only models, you may have an FFV and not even know it. To determine if your vehicle is an FFV, check the inside of your car's fuel filler door for an identification sticker or consult your owner’s manual.

Electric Car Update
When it comes to the electric car, reports of its demise have been greatly exaggerated. With the introduction of full Electric Vehicles and plug-in hybrids from the big players, everyone is going be talking about going electric.

And we’re starting to see some impressive stats to justify the excitement. While many plug-in hybrids have an electric-only range of 30-60 miles, they have an impressive extended range of between 400-700 miles. Phoenix Motorcars already has an all electric zero-emission Sport Utility Truck that can travel freeway speeds while carrying five passengers and a full payload. Other electrics on the horizon include the Tesla Roadster and the Aptera - scheduled for production in 2008. The Chevy Volt, the Mitsubishi’s iMiEV, and the Opel Flextream are all coming in 2010.

Although prices haven’t been confirmed for the Chevy Volt, it's expected to be affordable, have good power and a huge extended range. GM’s extensive experience with EVs from their EV1 test deployment should also help.Overall things are looking really good for the future of EVs. With so many large companies backing the technologies, we’ll soon be seeing more high quality vehicles at lower prices – and that’s good for everyone.