Fuel economy and environment are the main points
The main line the automakers are leading now is making their cars “greener” and more fuel economical. And the Frankfurt auto show has proved this once more. If look deeper, the tendency will bring you to the conclusion that the most possible vehicles for the future will be hydrogen-powered ones.
1. The electric car from General Motors. The guy whose opinion is not the last in the company? The vice chairman Robert Lutz, strongly believes that the plug-in hybrid is the just the question of time, and is coming in the nearest future. A new version was shown at Frankfurt show. This is the car with diesel engine which creates electricity when the batteries are not on. To my mind, the concept has the future, but a lot of time should pass until everyone has the batteries.
2. Small cars. These are not Minis, they are smaller. Volkswagen represented such a car. It is shorter in comparison with Mini. These are tiny cars with a rear engine probably. The Volkswagen automakers promise to put such cars into production soon. This reminds me the Japanese the smallest cars, which they keep for the domestic sale. The tendency hints, that in the nearest future this model will be the example for the whole Europe.
3. Diesel-like gas engines. Minis will never be popular among the Americans. The U.S. citizens prefer something bigger. What is the first car you think about? Yes, this is DiesOtto from Mercedes-Benz as a bright representative. For the more detailed info look at the previous post, for the 11th of September. But in short, this car has a special engine which uses gasoline, but works as if it is a diesel one. This is a new wave. This four-cylinder model creates so much power enough for pushing a S-Class sedan with a fuel economy.
4. Cylinder cut-offs. 2008 Accord contains such cylinder cut-offs. The car is supposed to run on 3 or four cylinders as far as it can. The stop-start systems are also available. These systems turn off the engine for short stops.
The point is that all these innovations involve the engines. But they do not make any change in distribution system. So, we will have a very expensive vehicle, but still this will be the same car. Still there are a lot of questions about the ethanol, the hydrogen, the fuel containers and so on.
