The Electric Cars Prestige Begin to fade?

A number of world automotive manufacturers are now starting to think about other technologies, especially in producing fuel-efficient vehicles and environmentally friendly. The phenomenon that happens, along with the electric cars prestige began to overcast.

As reported by Reuters, several the automobile manufacturers began to worry if conventional hybrid technology and electric vehicles to date sales numbers are still sluggish, will not be able to meet EU's emission regulations.

New ideas at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show held on this week shows that the automotive manufacturers began to offer new technologies, such as Volkswagen XLi serving engine diesel-electric, two-seat vehicle with fuel consumption of less than one liter of diesel for 100 kilometers. VW XLi carries a 0.8-liter twin-cylinder, is much more efficient than the most efficient of VW product today, the VW Up! that using 1,000 cc three-cylinder engine.

VW XLi. (Picture from: http://www.9carthai.com/)

Similarly with other European manufacturers, PSA Peugeot Citroen, which launched an air compressed hybrid. The vehicle makers are now keeps pace to meet the CO2 emissions of 130 grams per kilometer by 2015, and 95 grams per kilometer for 2020.

The cross section of Compressed-Air Hybrid Peugeot-Citroen's concept vehicle. (Picture from: http://www.designboom.com/)

"We could not have pinned their hopes on more traditional technologies," said Innovation Chief of Peugeot, Jean-Marc Finot. The Peugeot-Citroen's compressed-air hybrid concept vehicle was developed by Robert Bosch. The hydraulic motors driven by compressed nitrogen with the energy taken from the braking system.

Toyota Prius C Compact Hybrid. (Picture from: http://autos.yahoo.com/)

The same thing is said by Arthur Wheaton, automotive expert at Cornell University. He acknowledged the battery technology has not been able to solve the classic problem that is too heavy with coverage is still limited.

Audi R8 e-tron. (Picture from: http://www.goauto.com.au/)

Renault-Nissan, for example, after billions of euros are spent on the development of electric cars, optimism about the future of technology is actually "much reduced" in a survey in January 2013.

Audi A2 EV. (Picture from: http://www.driftjom.com/)

So even Toyota, which began launched Prius Hybrid in 1997, has canceled a planned expansion of EQ battery sales, by reason of misread market demand. Opel also canceled plans to make electric vehicles subcompact, Adam, because the production cost is too big.

Nissan Leaf. (Picture from: http://wot.motortrend.com/)

In fact, Audi restore the R8 e-tron and A2 EV development plans. While Nissan is started giving discount prices for Leaf due to unsatisfactory sales. "Demand for electric cars is not as we imagined," said Francois Bancon, Nissan's head of upstream development. He admits his side are in a very uncertain phase. "All the wrong estimate," he said.

Opel Adam. (Picture from: http://www.autoblog.com/)

Meanwhile, the European economies are experiencing hard times prolonged cause a problem about a big investment. Some brands work together to find new technologies, some of them chose a conventional hybrid technology and an electric engine. Another way is to reduce the capacity of the machine, reducing the cylinder and adding a turbocharger to maintain power vehicles. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | AUTOBLOG | MOTOR TREND | IVAN W | PIKIRAN RAKYAT 15032013]

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