Green Options

The Audi E-Tron electric sports car is a go, according to Audi of America President Johan de Nysschen. The super-futuristic electric car that debuted at the Frankfurt Auto Show was such a hit that de Nysschen thinks there will be working examples on the road within two years.

VW premiered its spanking new EV concept, the E-Up!, at the Frankfurt Auto Show yesterday, and gave the strongest hint yet that the car will be very close to the production model available from 2013.

The E-Up! boasts acceleration to 62 mph in a fairly zippy 11.3 seconds and tops out at 84 mph, whilst its 18 kWh integrated lithium-ion batteries will enable a range of over 80 miles (see picture gallery after the jump).

Exciting new pictures of a hotly anticipated Audi electric car concept have been leaked, a week before the ‘official’ unveiling at the Frankfurt Motorshow.

The car will apparently be called the ‘e-Tron,’ and as you can see from the pictures, will take a lot of its design cues from the R8, but with a different front grille, LED headlights, wheels and rear end. Inside, the cabin is also quite different, featuring a driver-biased center console with two screens; one for the rear view camera and one showing a navigation map (see picture gallery after the jump).

I’ve always been of the mindset that fuel efficiency and performance do not have to be mutually exclusive. A new concept car from BMW pursues that ideology, blending almost 600 ft-lbs of torque with a 62.6 mile-per-gallon fuel efficiency.

Called (take a deep breath) the Vision EfficiencyDynamics turbodiesel plug-in hybrid concept, it combines a lot of future technology into a polarizing design that is sure force people to draw lines in the sand.

Japanese luxury car-maker Lexus has announced plans to launch a five-door compact hybrid hatchback. The new model looks set to be a major competitor to the BMW 1-Series and Audi A3 in the hot-hatch segment.

The new model will be showcased in September at this year’s Frankfurt Motor Show and is due to go on sale in the UK by autumn 2010.

Renault has announced plans to showcase a trio of electric cars at this September’s Frankfurt motor show, including all-electric versions of the Megane saloon and the Kangoo (on sale 2011), as well as an all-new concept EV.

At this stage, Renault is keeping tight-lipped about the details of its concept car, revealing only that it will be a four-metre, five-door hatchback that will go on sale in 2012.

According to Renault C-Segment Development Chief Christian Steyer, all of the company’s new EV offerings will feature noticeable styling, but nothing too radical. He told reporters, “We want a real signature for our electric range, so when people see one in the street they will know it is a Renault electric car. The key is to do this without frightening customers away. Customers must be tempted, and not rushed too fast.”

Sometimes when looking forward, you have to look back to really get inspired.

110 years ago electric cars were at their peak, representing over a quarter of all cars on the road in America, but Henry Ford and the mass-production gas motor changed all that. And while most of us have gotten used to the idea of an engine under the hood, a transmission, and sometimes a driveshaft as integral to our cars, Volvo is taking a nod from the first electric carriages and putting their motors where they are most needed: the wheels. The Volvo ReCharge is a plug-in hybrid concept that relys on four indepedant electric motors, one in each wheel, to move and power the C30-based concept.