The CarGurus Blog

The new BMW ActiveHybrid 7 was recently spotted by an alert Autoweek reader in Los Angeles. Car and Driver gave it a skeptical first-drive review, suggesting (without saying so exactly) that this is a somewhat ridiculous, redundant car in the BMW lineup.

What makes the ActiveHybrid 7 strange is BMW’s boast that it is the quickest hybrid sedan on the market. If speed is the objective, we’re not sure why a hybrid is the answer. Likewise, if fuel economy is the end goal, tuning the twin-turbo V-8 gas engine for an additional 40 hp and 30 lb-ft of torque seems silly. However, if a 7-series customer believes he needs a car more powerful than the 750i but doesn’t want to step up to the 12-cylinder 760Li—which we think he should—and also wants 15 percent or so better fuel economy, BMW has just the model.

Looking at the many entrants in the rarefied-price stratum of hybrids, the question we finally ask is “Why?” Particularly since the BMW goes head to head with the Lexus LS600h L, available now for at least two years. Why would one spend all that money to get a car that offers minimal performance and fuel economy advantages? To be hybrid hip, I guess.

Fisker has a different idea. They don’t want to build $110,000 BMW or Lexus-type hybrids but “affordable” plug-ins. We wrote last week that they were in negotiation for the old GM factory in Wilmington, Delaware, where they will reportedly build in three years a “family-oriented plug-in hybrid sedan that will come in at around $40K” after federal tax credits. The Karma S sedan (right) will start at $87,000. CEO Henrik Fisker isn’t all that concerned about engines. He told Autoweek that he “envisions a future where hybrids will get their own niche powerplants, specially tuned to the need of alternative technologies. A hybrid for example, probably doesn’t need to rev to 8,000 rpm.”

Fisker got a very good deal from a Department of Energy grant to buy and refurbish this plant, and that surely will give the company a leg up on the competition. Tesla just received a $29 million tax break from the state of California, which makes that state the likely home for the company’s future production.

Another stimulus, this one for electric car production, has come to Seattle to build a network of more than 2,000 car charging stations. “By December 2010, drivers in Seattle should be able to buy mass-produced, plug-in electrics that create no emissions and run for pennies a mile.” And the state has aggressively pursued not only federal money, which will fund this effort, but also the efforts of many hi-tech businesses that are greening up.

Another reason is that lots of “Generation Y” folks live in the Northwest, and they are partial not only to hybrid powertrains, but also to considering the purchase of Chinese or Indian brands of hybrids. This according to a study by AutoPacific reported in egmCarTech. If they are really hot for hybrids, they would do well to use the Hybrid Payback Calculator, which you can download here. It helps you determine whether the cost of a hybrid is really worth it. You enter in the car’s cost, miles per gallon, price per gallon of gas, and the estimated miles you drive in a month. Clever, eh? Maybe a prospective BMW ActiveHybrid 7 purchaser could use one.

What’s your opinion on high-priced hybrids? Are they worth it—and to whom?

—jgoods

Car Industry News, Car Minded, Domestic Cars, Exotic Cars, Foreign Cars, General Chat, Green Updates, Hybrid Cars

We’re seeing some interesting renderings of what purports to be the new Porsche 928. The car is presumed to be built on a shortened Panamera platform, giving the company another way to spread development costs and expand its range of offerings. The Panamera is supposedly in line for a gas-electric hybrid version to debut next year in Europe, and the sportier 928 could potentially use that powertrain too. Pricewise, it will come between the Panamera and the 911.

Other details from Auto Express:

The engine line-up will mirror that of the Panamera, so a 4.8-litre V8, with or without a turbocharger, producing 500bhp or 400bhp, will be available. The naturally aspirated variant is set to come with four or rear-wheel drive, while the range-topping turbo model will be 4WD only.

At this stage, much of what we hear is speculative, but the car does seem likely to be built, and the renderings look good. The 928 would basically fit into the Volkswagen-Porsche development plan tgriffith outlined recently. For a rear view, click on “Pictures” here.

1995 Porsche 928 GTS

For those of you too young to remember, the original 928 broke the rear-engine mold for Porsche and became (after the horrible 924) its first front-engine, water-cooled grand touring car. Built from 1977-1995, the car had lots of interesting tech features, including a rear-mounted transaxle, and I desperately wanted but could not afford one.

I still can’t afford one, but Porsche could be making a very smart move in bringing back the iconic 928. Until you get into the rarefied Ferrari-Aston Martin territory, the grand touring market is wide open.

Porsche’s development plans seem to make sense, at least so far. Do you foresee any roadblocks ahead as VW absorbs the company?

—jgoods

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With a population of 20 million growing at 2 percent a year, Mexico City has long been the smog capital of the hemisphere. It’s the third-largest urban area in the world and has been fighting air pollution with greater and lesser success for years. At the heart of the problem, of course, is the automobile, and specifically the proliferation of old, stinky, polluting taxis.

Now we have a far-out proposal from industrial designer Alberto Villareal for a fuel-cell-powered, drive-by-wire, solar-paneled (on the roof) taxi called MX-Libris (above), which may be just radical enough to do the job. The car won the Red Dot Design Award in 2008, and two Mexican firms have shown interest. Funding would come from the Centro de Transporte Sustentable, which promotes green transport. Go, Alberto!

Toyota FT-EV-II

Why do most electric cars look so ugly and commonplace? Do their designers deliberately turn out plug-ugly plug-ins because of some kind of group-think? These and other questions are delightfully addressed by Alice Rawsthorn in a New York Times piece. They are boring and ugly, she says, because of the problems inherent in new-car design, the reluctance of the industry to experiment and take chances, and the fears engendered by the huge investments required. As ever, however, there can be no reward without risk. Tesla has done it. Why can’t others?

New (U.S.?) Mazda 2

The Japanese want to take the lead in green car technology and production, and they are making noises as if they can and will do it. In particular, Mazda is working on the feasibility of diesels for the U.S. and, not surprisingly, they are looking at VW’s ability to market the diesel here with some success. The Mazda2 might be a diesel candidate, and there has been much speculation on what the 2008 World Car of the Year will look like, what will power it, etc., when it comes here. The car will get to the U.S. most likely in late 2010.

Honda CEO Takanobu Ito spoke out last week to a group of journalists (we mentioned it here) on Honda’s commitment to hybrids, EVs, fuel cells, and a really green, i.e., hydrogen-powered, sports car, “not like the Lexus” (the V10-powered, $375,000 Lexus LFA supercar). Plans include hybrids for the larger Honda models (Accord, etc.), but all this will take time. In any case, the CR-Z is coming soon, and that is good news.

Proof that green technology is catching on comes with the increasing competition for manufacturing facilities. Reva, the Indian carmaker, announced it was opening a plant in upstate New York; the Nissan Leaf will be made in Tennessee as well as Japan; and Fisker is redeveloping a GM plant near Wilmington, which event will naturally be announced by Delaware arch-booster Vice President Joe Biden.

Finally, we were caught up last week by a Wall Street Journal piece on “Five Technologies That Could Change Everything.” One of these is truly pie in the sky (space-based solar power panels), and another would trap and bury CO2 underground. The rest are: advanced car batteries, utility storage, and next-gen biofuels. Each clearly involves the concept of storage, which, as all car gurus know, is what finally, instrumentally, enables our vehicles to move. The costs and engineering challenges will be enormous, but in the end what choice do we really have but to move ahead? Just where to put the bets down will be the first problem.

How about letting us know what kinds of energy topics you would like to see covered in future Green Updates? Please leave us a comment.

—jgoods

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We’re going to give you short takes with headlines today, because there’s a whole lot of news on the green car front. Let’s lead off with Times Online’s Giles Smith, always good for a chortle.

All-electric MINI E is a blast to drive: Giles says the MINI E goes like “the electric clappers” and actually looks like a car (even though the back seat is full of batteries). A group of 20 cars will go out for a six-month trial in England, with 20 more to test next year. There are many unanswered questions about the future of electrics, among them their styling.

The great failure of all electric models to this point has been their weakness in encouraging desire. How much wider a take-up might there have been for the gawky G-Wiz [shown here] if it didn’t resemble something that Laurel and Hardy had just driven through a sawmill? It’s been like the old joke about Superman. If electric cars are so smart, how come they wear their underpants outside their trousers?

Focus BEV to test in London: Ford seems to be on the same page as MINI and is testing out 20 new Focus Battery Electric Vehicles with household drivers for three months. Early next year, a charging infrastructure will be installed. A somewhat different BEV appeared on “The Jay Leno Show” last month.

Michigan needs plug-ins: But it needs the infrastructure and coordinated development, too. Such is the theme of a current Motor City conference with some big-wigs.

“We talk about public utilities. We talk about cars. But we haven’t really talked about them together,” said David Cole, chairman of the Automotive Research Center in Ann Arbor. “What we’re going to be seeing is a merging of these two industries.”

Along these lines, GM’s FastLane Blog has an interesting webchat that featured Tony Posawatz, Vehicle Line Director for the Chevy Volt. We learn particular details about the Volt as well as some considerations about the future of EVs from Felix Kramer of the California Cars Initiative. Worthwhile exchanges in that chat.

There are still plenty of questions about the Volt, many of them critical, as put forward by CNN’s Alex Taylor here. Mainly these focus on cost/benefit issues, and we can’t help thinking the car comes up short.

Nissan’s V-Platform Coming to the U.S., maybe in 2011; to Thailand, India, and China in 2010. And Nissan wants to sell 1 million a year. It’s a low-cost, low-weight car that Nissan’s betting heavily on to compete with the Fiesta, among others—a world car. Nissan also made news by announcing its commitment to a “next-generation battery,” i.e., lighter and less expensive. These will be produced at the New Smyrna, Tennessee, factory and sold to “whoever is interested.” So says CEO Carlos Ghosn.

Infiniti jumps into the electric competition: The firm is reportedly working on a small car to compete with the Audi A3 and BMW 1 Series, as is Lexus. The comments came from an “insider” at the Tokyo Motor Show who also claimed that the new car would share powertrains with the Nissan Leaf (which kind of makes sense).

Honda is also considering going electric, per CEO Takanobu Ito. He still likes hydrogen-powered fuel cell cars for the future, but they will be a long way off. One factor influencing his change in strategy may be the poor showing of the Insight against the Prius, at least in terms of sales.

Toyota Sai hybrid launches in Japan: Showing for the first time in Tokyo this week, the Sai is a larger and more luxo Prius, it seems, and is sister to the Lexus HS 250h, which is now on sale in the U.S. Whether it will come here is not known, but the two very similar cars will compete against each other in Japan. What was that old line about the inscrutable Japanese?

DOE funding for three-wheelers approved: Which means, according to Autosavant, that companies like Elio Motors and Aptera can finally get development money. Three cheers, and let this be a counter to Giles Smith’s complaint about weird styling.

For those people that complain that everything on the road looks the same these days, the rebuttal to your complaint is a three-wheeler. All of the three-wheel vehicles in the pre-production pipe look like nothing else on the road today.

Three-wheeled cars certainly don’t look like anything else on the road today. But should they? Do you want cars that look like cars or like airplanes (the Aptera)?

—jgoods

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“Sources” close to Panasonic have been telling the world that it has better and much cheaper batteries on tap for Tesla’s Model S sedan, to go into production in late 2011, but it may not be able to supply them before 2013-14! Nor is it clear what firm will supply the initial batteries for the car.

The story, briefly reported on Autobloggreen, confused the hell out of me, so I looked at another source on GreenBeat, which explained things as follows. Last December, Panasonic bought out Sanyo, one of the world’s biggest lithium-ion battery producers. The news is that Panasonic has found a way to bind those kinds of batteries used in personal computers to give the car greater range and (perhaps) reliability. There is some question about the latter, as the comments on the Autobloggreen story reveal. Anyhow,

the Model S will minimally require battery packs of 5,500 lithium-ion cells, capable of carrying the car 160 miles per charge, at least. Tesla says 8,000-cell upgrades will also be available to push this range to 230 or 300 miles.

Given the state of the art, that would be a tremendous accomplishment, and the batteries reputedly would cost about half what they do now.

News has also been selectively leaking about Chrysler’s presumed-dead ENVI plan, which presently includes four EVs: the Dodge Circuit (shown here), two Jeeps, and the Town & Country. At least one of these cars will go forward, said Fiat executive and Chrysler board member Alfredo Altavilla, yesterday. Of course it has to be the Dodge Circuit: Who wants an electric Town & Country or a couple of tanky Jeeps filled with batteries to schlep the kids?

Subaru is showing pictures of its gullwing hybrid AWD Tourer concept that will be seen in the flesh at the Tokyo Motor Show. The company has been working for some time on this technology, and they could sure use a follow-on to the SVX, as their image has become stodgier and stodgier.

Powered by a 2.0-liter turbo, direct-injected boxer four, the Tourer uses two electric motors, the typical (we think) l-i battery pack, and embodies some elements that may well go into production. Good. We’re waiting.

And now from China comes Green Tech, opening a $6.5 billion plant in Tunica County, Mississippi, to employ 4,500 people and produce up to 250,000 cars—three hybrids and one EV. Well, at least that’s what they are telling the press.

Owned by Chinese businessman Xiaolin “Charles” Wang, GreenTech pulled the cover off of a four-door midsize hybrid built to get 50 mpg, an all-electric car, a high-efficiency gas-powered subcompact designed to get 65 mpg, and a hybrid sports coupe that the company says will get 45 mpg and go 0-60 in less than 5.9 seconds.

We say good luck, Charles, even though you chose Harrah’s Casino for the unveiling. The Chinese grin on the sedan doesn’t look as good as the Mustang-ish sports car, but you couldn’t find a better location than Tunica County.

Battery fans: Does the Panasonic announcement really mean anything at this stage? Drop a comment on us.

—jgoods

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Unless we’re all dead in two years—more likely for some of us than others—we can expect to see the Audi e-tron on the road, another entry into the silly EV supercar sweepstakes. Roomier, bigger, heavier, and very likely much more expensive than the Tesla Roadster (one of its presumed competitors), the e-tron is another excuse for Audi to get press on a car that few will buy and whose technology will filter down to the real world in perhaps six years, if it filters at all. The e-tron is a two-seater carrying lots of batteries and four electric motors. The press machine says it gets up to 62 mph in 4.8 seconds with a range of about 150 miles.

Back in the real world of developing hybrids, there is other, more relevant news. Ford has got a bunch of hybrid Escape and Fusion taxis on the streets of San Francisco, and they seem to be doing well, plus gaining customer approval. Take a look.

If you’re not sure and need reasons to consider buying a hybrid, here are five reasons to buy and five reasons not to buy. Basically, the financial benefits aren’t really here yet, even with hefty government tax rebates. But the environmental benefits will outweigh that factor for some, perhaps many. We hope so.

Mazda is late to the green ballgame and hopes to play catch-up by raising up to $1.1 billion in capital for new, presumably hybrid, technology. The company is way behind the curve, since Ford has sold its controlling interest, and Mazda, despite work to make its IC engines more efficient, can’t compete on those alone. If the company wants to zoom-zoom in future Japanese and U.S. markets, it needs this investment badly.

BMW must be awash in money, since it creates more crazy experimental vehicles (look at the Vision EfficientDynamics concept it showed in Frankfurt) than most any other automaker. This one, called the Lovos, has 260 photovoltaic cells in scaly flaps that are positioned down to absorb solar power, up to air-brake the car. Designed by a 24-year-old grad student in Germany, it looks like something that could have come from Hasbro’s R&D lab. Or from a mutant alligator.

On a somewhat more practical note, we have the Coda, an all-electric sedan that seats five, has an 85-mph top speed, and will sell for under $30,000. This one won’t win any beauty contests, but its selling point is a “revolutionary” battery system, developed with a Chinese firm. The full story is here. Look for delivery in late 2010. These guys sound serious.

Finally, here’s a city car called the Option 1, just shown by Toronto Electric, that looks not only functional but stylish. And the specs sound good. It’s more than your typical plug-in neighborhood cruiser,

with a top speed of about 60 mph and a roll cage under the fiberglass skin in case the worst should happen. Equipped with 27 kWh of batteries from Valence, range is calculated to be 130 miles. Its Azure Dynamics 49kW AC motor can bring it from a standstill to 37 mph (60 kph) in four seconds, quick enough for the environment its [sic] meant to be driven in. As with many of its recent electric friends, the Option 1 has an LED touch-screen to offer GPS services and Google maps while a separate LED is used to serve as the instrument panel.

As with so many other entrants in this segment, the route to full financing, development, and distribution (not to mention marketing), will be fraught with stumbling blocks, hazards, and potholes. But this little EV, we think, is one to watch.

Have you seen or heard about any other EVs that look promising? Put in a comment and tell us about it.

—jgoods

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We last talked about this one in July. But today bloggers are babbling like babies about the Honda CR-Z concept, which reportedly is finally to be released for production, first in Japan (February 2010), then in Europe and the U.S. They are right to be excited: This is (I think) the world’s first hybrid sports car slated for production in any quantity. It looks good, and what specs have been revealed sound good.

The Integrated Motor Assist system, upgraded from the Insight, couples with a 1.5 liter 4 and a 6-speed transmission, with CVT optional, so performance should be decent. Hushed acceleration, typical Honda handling, plus an expected 32-35 mpg should make this the sports-performance winner for next year. (I should be writing copy for these guys.) The low-end torque will be there.

It’s about time that Honda has decided to rise from the dead. We don’t need an NSX, and we certainly don’t need a Crosstour, but a serious, small hybrid sports car? Yeah, we could handle that. Says Cartech:

I know what you’re thinking, oh CRX enthusiasts. When we last saw the Honda CRX Si in 1991, it was packing a 150-horsepower 1.6-liter four and a lightweight, tossable chassis. It’s not likely the CR-Z’s hybrid powertrain will output much more than that; so with the additional weight and complexity, will the CR-Z be able to recapture the small car joy? Only time will tell.

We hope so. Do you think the CR-Z will sell well in the U.S., and what will it cost?

—jgoods

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Aptera 2E

Imagine heading to Best Buy and picking up a Blu-Ray DVD player, a 52″ LCD TV and a new electric vehicle.

At first it might seem crazy, but think about it for 30 seconds and you’ll realize that a large electronics box store selling the ultimate electronic appliance just makes sense. I mean, Best Buy sells washers and dryers so why not electric cars?

According to this, rumors persist that Best Buy will indeed make the jump into electric vehicles, which already sells electric bikes and scooters in Los Angeles.

Here’s what’s even cooler: the futuristic-looking Aptera 2E is featured in a Best Buy promo video here, raising the possibility that the Aptera folks and the Best Buy folks are busy creating an alliance. It’s certainly not a done deal, but the possibility of going somewhere other than a traditional car dealer to buy a new car could revolutionize how cars are sold.

I’d expect that if the rumor ever becomes true, Best Buy would need to invest in an entire maintenance system to keep new cars in good running order. Or even better, outfit the Geek Squad with the tools and knowledge to come to customers and make repairs without ever requiring a trip to the maintenance shop.

What do you think: is it a good idea for Best Buy to sell electric vehicles?

-tgriffith

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So much is happening with green vehicles that, as we have said before, this report can only give you a partial view. Still, the big talk today is that the Feds (through DOE; press release here) gave Fisker $528 million in a low-interest loan to develop a next-generation plug-in hybrid (around $40K after tax credits, says Autoweek) and to continue development of the twice-as-expensive Karma (right). You won’t see the “family-oriented” plug-in, to be called Niña, until 2012. We wonder if Fisker—like Columbus’ ship, namesake of this new project—will still be in existence then.

Looking even further down the road, Volkswagen announced that its L1 Concept 1-liter hybrid TDI vehicle (in the works since 2002) would become available in 2013. This is really futuristic stuff: Called “the most fuel-efficient automobile in the world,” the super-light carbon-fiber and aluminum L1 is predicted to “achieve 189 mpg [some stories say 240 mpg] on the combined cycle while emitting just 39 g/km of CO2.” Driver and passenger sit in tandem, and the car uses a 7-speed transmission to reach 100 mph, fairly slowly. This from the company that brought us the Bugatti Veyron.

Frankfurt showed Kia’s new 2010 Sorento 1.7-liter turbodiesel hybrid, which impressed Evelyn Kanter, who noted that, once again, we won’t get this car in North America and it won’t get to Europe till 2013:

Like so many of the great new green cars I saw in Frankfurt, these are for Europe. Like the Lexus FL-Ch hybrid hatchback, sibling Toyota’s newest hybrid, the Auris, and all those good looking and efficient little Pugeot [Peugeot], Renault and Citroen cars.

That exclusion didn’t keep Ford from talking green at Frankfurt. It makes hybrids of course, like the Fusion and Escape and others for the world market, but the company stressed that present-day improvement in traditional technologies has also been its goal. So it touted its EcoBoost engines, which can provide 20 percent better fuel economy, and its C-Max car, coming in late 2011 after the new Focus debuts. C-Max a small 7-passenger minivan that tgriffith discussed here.

BMW, we learn, has 450 Mini E electric cars doing a year’s trial in metro New York, New Jersey and Los Angeles. To get its 240-volt rapid recharger certified in N.J. has been a nightmare of approval and compliance problems. Imagine what happens when and if the car, or any 240-volt car, goes national. The two-seater Mini E has a huge battery and is basically a test-bed for new technology and BMW’s commitment to electric car development.

GM ran an interesting webchat last week with its departing R&D head Larry Burns, a big proponent of hydrogen fuel cell technology. Among the provocative things Burns said:

The beauty of hydrogen is that it can come from a wide variety of sources. Natural gas is an excellent source to get started (As I mentioned earlier, large amounts of hydrogen from natural gas are already used in the production of gasoline.) Very importantly, any source of renewable energy—biomass, wind, solar, geothermal—can be used to make hydrogen cost competitively with gasoline at $2.50 to $3.50 per gallon equivalence.

and

I’ve seen a tendency for people to promote one solution over another. They seem to think the question is batteries vs. fuel cells. Or fuel cells vs. biofuels. I have become convinced we need all three. Like I said earlier, it’s “and” not “or.” Unfortunately, many of the players have a vested interest in a single solution. Therefore, they over-promote one and criticize the others.

The big question, I think, is when: When will these solutions (take your pick) start to become viable in numbers/applications that can support a real market? What are your thoughts?

—jgoods

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Carmakers, having had a pretty miserable year, are trying to put the face of the future on the Frankfurt Auto Show, which begins this week. It’s notable that almost every exhibitor has something green to show, and they are showing more green cars than we know or can tell you about. But here are the highlights, as we see them before the show opens tomorrow.

The Germans

Mercedes-Benz presents its fuel-cell-powered B-class compact called the F-Cell (above). Deriving from the plug-in E-Cell, this ugly brute is supposed to get 250 miles on a tank of hydrogen. Where the hydrogen will come from is another matter.

More exciting and immediately practical is the Benz plug-in electric version of its S-class, working off the F700 Vision Concept the company showed two years ago, which was then viewed, at least in Europe, as a breakthrough in hybrid design. The new S500 Concept (right) is sure to be a show-stopper: 18.5 miles on pure electric power, a V6-electric-motor combo producing, says the company, very low CO2 emissions and 73.5 mpg (yes, as reported), 0-62 in 5.5 seconds.

We’ve already told you about the BMW Vision EfficientDynamics concept—M-car performance through a complex marriage of three diesels, electric motors, and a plug-in powertrain. It would be worth the price of admission just to ogle this super-complex yet sexy machine. Good photos are here. The concept reflects the tremendous competition emerging among German companies as to who can produce the most sophisticated green machine.

Audi has its electric e-Tron Concept, too (right)—an R8 with very different innards. Not much info has emerged, but the car will turn heads (as it was designed to do). Volkswagen is showing its E-Up! Concept, about which we know a little more. The car has zero-emissions and is due by 2013:

The electric drivetrain in the E-Up! is composed of an 18-kWh lithium-ion battery and an electric motor capable of outputting 60 kW (80 hp). A full charge should deliver a range of approximately 80 miles and top speed is about 84 mph. Charging time on a household 220-volt line is expected to take less than five hours.

The E-Up! Uses solar panels on the roof and on interior sun visors for supplemental generation, manual windows, and accommodates a host of mobile phones, personal electronic devices, and so forth to monitor the car’s condition.

The Rest

Hyundai and Kia are showing off “hybrid city cars, a hybrid crossover SUV concept, an all-electric city car, a plug-in hybrid, diesel vehicles with micro-hybrid stop-start technology, and midsize lithium-battery-powered sedans running on liquid petroleum gas.” The futuristic Hyundai HND-4 “Blue Will” (oh where, oh where do they get these dopey names?) is sort of an answer to the Volt, but uses carbon fiber, a solar roof, and parts made from biodegradable stuff, all with a promised 40-mile all-electric range. Kia is showing the 2010 Sorento, an all-new twin-turbo 1.6-liter diesel hybrid, and a new mild-hybrid version of its best-selling model in Europe, the Cee’d (as in “cee’d off”?).

The French have the Renault Revolte, a “battery-electric mini car with the styling inspired by the old 2CV, or ‘deux chevaux.’” Now that’s a concept! Peugeot has an all-electric small car called the iOn, which is supposed to be ready for Europe late next year. Renault “says it will unveil four electric vehicle concepts—cars that are expected to share the technology developed for the Nissan Leaf EV recently unveiled in Yokohama.”

Well, fans, this is but the tip of the iceberg, as they said on board the Titanic, but we will try to follow up with more cars and more details on these cars as they emerge.

Frankfurt is still the most interesting car show in the world. Do you agree?

—jgoods

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