FRANKFURT (dpa) – Amid the glamour, horsepower and polished chrome at the Frankfurt car show manufacturers are aware that unless they show some effort towards conserving the environment, their carefully- honed images will suffer.
The aim is not to reduce the record number of cars on roads in Europe and the United States but to show that personal transport need not waste valuable earth resources provided new fuel and engine technology is utilized to the full.
Makers are anxious this year to show that larger, more luxurious cars can be made to operate frugally too thus easing the consciences of their owners.
BMW is at the forefront of research into alternative propulsion methods and gracing its huge stand at this year’s 59th show, which opened to the general public Saturday, is a fleet of hydrogen-powered limousines.
These were recently put through their paces in far-off Dubai. The firm says the first hydrogen-drive 7s have covered some 140,000 kilometres on normal roads and motorways worldwide with no problems.
Hydrogen, or “rocket fuel” for cars as BMW star designer Chris Bangle prefers to call it, is not new but the Bavarians say that after more than a decade the firm’s boffins have refined the technology to the point where they can offer a new 7 series variant as a hydrogen-power car.
The “Clean Energy” 745h can cover 1,000 kilometres between fillups and will run on both the new fuel and conventional petrol. A new Mini concept developed for hydrogen drive is also on display.
Over at Europe’s biggest carmaker Volkswagen the emphasis is on sophisticated injector technology which can make petrol engines cleaner. A demonstration model of a Golf fitted with the innovative direct-injection petrol FSI (Fuel Stratified Injection) on a rolling road attracted a lot of interest on the stand. The tiny Lupo hatch already has this option, making it one of the most fuel-miserly cars in the world. It can eke out an average 48 miles per gallon of fuel.
FSI reduces fuel consumption overall by up to 15 per cent since petrol is admitted into a specially-designed engine combustion chamber divided into two sections. At low speeds more air and less petrol is inducted but as the car picks up the mixture is progressively richened with more fuel input, enabling the engine to turn out more power.
A Golf with natural gas power is also on offer from Wolfsburg. In the Golf Variant Bi-Fuel the driver flips a switch on the dash to convert from petrol to natural gas. The power at the wheels is only 10 per cent less with gas (102 horepower) than on lead-free petrol. Italy is the country in Europe with the largest number of natural gas vehicles in use with around 280,000 registered. Germany can boast only 10,000 to date.
VW has also been pushing the use of so-called Biodiesel, the product name in Germany for Rapeseed Oil Methyl Ester (RME for short). The use is restricted to diesel cars only and the fuel can be bought at 1,000 filling stations in the federal republic. Unlike conventional diesel fuel which produces harmful soot particles suspected of causing lung cancer, biodiesel boasts low emissions and is biodegradable. To make it viable though the arable rapseed has to be widely grown.
Japanese firms like Toyota and MCC, which makes the Smart minicar, and is owned by German-US conglomerate DaimlerChrysler, put their faith in hybrid solutions. Petrol engines always produce more power than can be used immediately and this energy is turned into electricity using a generator and stored in on-board batteries. Once there is enough juice in these, town trips can be accomplished entirely under electric power. In the Smart the hybrid effect is achieved using a diesel engine, making the package even more ecologically-sound.
By far the most radical concept comes from the Ford Motor Company albeit it through the back door. Close inspection of a stand with two cute, little electric runabouts decked out in bright red and silver reveals Ford’s thoughts about future propulsion. The Think city car has a plastic, polyurethane body that is virtually indestructible, an electric motor with 36 horsepower and a range of up to 85 kilometres in city use.
Ford has bought the firm and plans to introduce the cars in Europe and eventually in the U.S. state of California, where imminent zero- emission laws have created a market for electric cars. In Germany the Think will be available at regular Ford dealers from 2002.
“It’s a niche car, a green car and I think like every car firm these days Ford has to be involved in this sector,” said Think spokesperson Izabela Szczypka. The car has been conceived as a town runabout or a vehicle for commuting. It is already going down fine in Scandinavia, particularly Norway, where drivers are used to regularly plugging their cars into mains electricity overnight to activate the engine pre-heaters on bitterly cold winter mornings.
