Ferrari has set itself an aggressive goal of reducing the carbon dioxide emissions of its cars by 40 percent over the next four years. The company will have to make some pretty drastic changes to its powertrains to achieve that reduction from 400 g/km to about 280 g/km. One change it has no intention of making is adopting diesel engines. Instead it will go to smaller, more efficient engines using technologies like direct injection and turbocharging. The company just announced its first direct injected engine in the new California GT. Another option the company is looking at is hybrid drive. The Formula 1 team is currently developing a hybrid system for use starting in the 2009 season and that technology could be adapted to production. One direction not mentioned is biofuels. The company showed a biofueled version of its F430 Spider at last January's Detroit Auto Show.

[Source: The Telegraph]

At some point everyone has probably heard the phrase "Tell me which side of the argument you are on and I will give you the statistics to prove you are right!" That is certainly true when applied to comments made by Ferrari CEO Amedeo Felisa at the Paris Motor Show this week. While speaking to reporters, Felisa claimed that Ferraris as a group produce fewer total emissions than Toyota Priuses. Now anyone who has ever seen a Ferrari fly by would surely have to question this claim, there is certainly some validity to it. But as usual Felisa comes by the statement by cherry picking certain useful facts and leaving everything else behind. The argument is based on the total number of vehicles times the miles driven times the emissions per mile. The keys are the first two data points. Toyota has at least two to three times as many Priuses in the past decade than the total number of cars to come from Maranello in the Italian company's 61 year history. A large proportion of those Toyota hybrids are still on the road while many of the Ferraris are in Museums and other collections. Also Ferrari drivers who put more than just a few thousand miles on their cars annually are comparatively rare. So fewer cars and fewer miles means greener right? Well technically yes, but as usual the devil is in the details. In the grand scheme of things, the high cost of a Ferrari means the brand's overall environmental impact is fairly negligible compared to mainstream cars. It's probably all right to exempt low volume makers like Ferrari from some fuel efficiency standards. Still, making such an argument in general does come off looking rather silly.


[Source: Drive.com.au]

There has been quite a lot of speculation about a low-consumption Ferrari, or well, just one that uses less fuel (maybe not that little) but some prayers might have been answered by this: Because Fiat and Ferrari are linked, owners of Ferraris will have a special Fiat 500 as replacement vehicle when they take their cavallini rampanti to the dealers for maintenance. The Fiat 500 is the sportiest version available, the 1.4 liter with 100 HP, and before you comment let me be the one to say that they will surely find a difference in acceleration. The 500 will have Ferrari spirit in the sense that it will be painted in rosso corsa, the "Ferrari red." However, don't take out your checkbook yet, the 200 planned vehicles won't be on sale. At least for now.

[Source: Le Blog Auto]

Click above for photo gallery

Well, what did you expect, an F430 Scuderia? In fairness, you'll get around the city or your college campus a lot easier with this. It's the Ferrari skateboard, available from the Ferrari Store, where you can buy everything short of hemorrhoid medicine emblazoned with the iconic prancing horse. The grip tape on the topside is broken up by the Ferrari logo, while a peek at the deck's underside reveals a red primary theme with Italian national colors and the horse badge accenting things. Want one? Shell out around $170 bucks, and you can have your very own Ferrari -- perhaps the greenest one ever -- four wheels and all. Only this one wont bankrupt you at the gas pump. Thanks to Alex T. for the tip!


[Source: Ferrari Store]

In the past year, Italian high performance icon Ferrari has increasingly showed signs of succumbing to the pressures of the modern world of transportation. At the Detroit Auto Show in January, the Ferrari displayed what was labeled as an E85-fueled F430 Spyder and last year showed a mock up of a lightweight concept dubbed MilleChile. Speaking to German newspaper Welt am Sonntag Ferrari president Luca Cordero di Montezemolo once again proclaimed the company's commitment to reducing carbon dioxide emissions and fuel consumption.

Montezemolo declared that a road-going hybrid Ferrari would be on the market by 2015 and the company intended to reduce CO₂ emissions by 40 percent by 2012. Bringing technology from race programs to the road is nothing new for Ferrari. This is a company that truly lives the motto "Racing improves the breed." From advanced variable intake systems to automated manual transmissions, Ferrari road cars feed the Formula One program with cash and feed off the advancements. The latest is the kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) being developed for the F1 cars. KERS is a regenerative braking system and it's not known is if Ferrari is planning to use a flywheel-based system or electrical energy storage. Either, way Montezemolo has committed to maintaining the character of Ferrari while making the cars cleaner at the same time.


[Source: AFP via Sydney Morning Herald]

Click above to view the Ferrari Millechili in our hi-res gallery

While some could rightly wonder what in the world a Ferrari supercar could do to be green, the fact that the Italian manufacturer of super high performance prancing horses cars is interested in cleaning up its act at all probably deserves a measure of commendation. After all, historic rivals Porsche and Lamborghini have proven to be rather stubborn when it comes to changing their ways.

Remember the Ferrari MilleChile concept we showed you last year? Current rumors predict that a vehicle using many of the ideas originally introduced on that cardboard cut-out will make it to production. Green aspects such as direct injection for the rumored V10 engine and lightweight carbon-fiber construction seem likely. Of course, those two aspects would have a desirable effect on performance as well, so we're sure there is more than just green ambitions at play with these rumors.

[Source: Car and Driver via Autoblog]

With the new series of Top Gear having started recently over in England, the team decided that it was again time to look at fuel economy. A few years back, the show made the round trip from London to Edinburgh and back in an Audi A8 TDI on a single tankful of diesel fuel. Now, with fuel prices above $9 a gallon, they have decided to see which cars provide solid fuel economy numbers. This time around they are working on the premise that even those with lots of money to spend on a car might still want to get better mileage. Sure the premise is thin but we're talking about Jeremy Clarkson here. Rather than the usual Prius vs, everybody else routine, Clarkson and Crew decided it would be better to test some of the fastest cars in the world to see which could go the furthest on a gallon of gasoline. Literally a single gallon of gas. They took a Ferrari 599, Audi R8, Lamborghini Murcielago, Mercedes Benz SLR and an Aston Martin DBS and put in a gallon of fuel each. Then they raced them around the Top Gear track until they were empty. You can watch the video after the jump to see which was the thriftiest with its gas allotment. Be forewarned however, that none made it into double digits.

[Source: YouTube]

City Car Club, a carshare operator established in 2000 and based in the U.K. operates a fleet of vehicles including many Honda Civic Hybrids. The carshare group recently polled celebrities to find out what kind of vehicles they drive. Afterwards, the average CO₂ emissions of their fleets were summed up and the celebs were ranked. The worst of the worst turns out to be Simon Cowell, the judge you know and love from American Idol. Apparently, the Bugatti Veyron, Ferrari F430 and Rolls Royce Phantom in his garage average 457 g/km of CO₂, with the Veyron emitting the most at a whopping 574 g/km.

Jay Kay, "that bloke what wears daft stuff on his head" and frontman for the funk band Jamiroquai comes in at second place, followed by soccer star David Bekham. We're not really sure just how exhaustive the City Car Club's list is, but check out the top bottom ten after the break. American celebs appearing on the list include rapper fiddy 50 Cent and singer Justin Timberlake.

The Detroit Auto Show is open to the public this week. If you're the type of person who really wants to be there, but can't find the time or money to arrive, allow me to present you with a viable alternative. Sure, we already brought you news about the green cars that were revealed or are on display at the show, but sometimes you'd like to just aimlessly wander the aisles and see what you can find, right? If that sounds good to you, here's a way to do just that at your computer. Click on the gallery thumbnails below to begin a journey through 111 images shot by Newspress at the NAIAS. As I was posting these images, I felt like I was back in Cobo Hall. You can feel like you're there, too. Enter any time.

Click the F430 for a high-res gallery

Ferrari is not a brand known for environmental responsibility or fuel efficiency. However, they will be making some kind of announcement tomorrow here at Cobo Hall and it will involve the curvy beauty you see pictured here. Hey, I was talking about the car! Ferrari does not typically adorn their road-going vehicles with big stickers, leaving those for the sponsors on the race cars. This F430 Spyder, however, features some prominently placed BioFuel tags indicating that the car will be fueled by ethanol. We'll know all the details tomorrow but in the meantime just enjoy the view.

As you can see in the video above, aluminum is the latest thing in sport car body frames. Ferrari is working with Alcoa on the aluminum "space frame" which weighs just 440 pounds, one third the weight of a steel frame. The way the frame is put together is also very important. Tesla worked with Lotus on a "bonded" aluminum frame that can easily be picked up with one hand. Don't miss the end of the video because I included an odd clip of Tesla showing their battery. Seems Tesla won't let you see inside of their battery because it's "proprietary technology."

Related:

• Land Rover going aluminum for next generation Range Rover
• Using aluminum to create lighter, more fuel-efficient automobiles
• Increase in aluminum use saves 1 billion liters of fuel per year in Europe

[Source: YouTube]

How can young women fight global warming? According to a chief scientist for the British government, Professor Sir David King, they can help out by no longer thinking guys that drive Ferraris are sexy. I will let Sir King speak for himself:

I was asked at a lecture by a young woman about what she could do and I told her to stop admiring young men in Ferraris. ... What I was saying is that you have got to admire people who are conserving energy and not those willfully using it. ... As soon as you come to the individual, however, they will buy a Ferrari, not because it is cheap to run or has low carbon dioxide emissions, but because young women think it is sexy to see men driving Ferraris. That is the area where a culture change is needed.

So, what do you think of Sir King's comments?

Editor's UPDATE: We've been doing some thinking (and reading your comments) and agree that there are plenty of cars that are both sexy and green. How about the Tesla Roadster as the premiere example? I mean, take a look at this beauty.

Then, take these amazing electric conversions, an all-electric Mustang and Shelby Cobra 427. Tell me they're not zero-emission babe magnets.


Or, how about the BMW Hydrogen 7? There are certainly going to be some people who strenuously disagree either with the idea that this car is sexy or that it's in any way green, but I'm sure it can't hurt and look and decide for yourself, right?

Lastly, what about the Aptera as a vision of the way green cars will bring a new kind of sexy back?

Also, these two posts certainly bear on this conversation:

• It's the first date. Do you want him to show up in a Prius or a Hummer?
• And now it's the men's turn: what does her car say about her?

[Source: Telegraph]

Turns out the Ferrari importer we quoted recently was wrong; Ferrari will make a hybrid. Here is Ferrari's Director General Amedeo Felisa in an interview with Auto Motor and Sport (pardon the rough Google translation of the article from German to English):

The CO2-Diskussion achieved even more sports car manufacturers. How important is the issue of hybrid you?
Felisa: A hybrid solution will come. We see the hybrid but also dynamic aspects. Besides which: From now on, every new model is more economical than its predecessor.

I think Amedeo is asked next if the Enzo will be a hybrid and he replies "no. The main focus of Enzo - successor will be on his performance." Amedeo also had a few words to say about diesel too (again, pardon the Google translation from German to English):

If the diesel an alternative?
Felisa: diesel models achieve extraordinary performance. But their power-to-weight is bad. We achieve our consumption targets without diesel.

Amedeo also says "we reduce the weight through a clever chassis architecture. Less weight equal to less consumption. " On behalf of all the green car lovers out there, YIPPIE!

Update: Patrik posted a very good translation of the interview in comments.

[Source: Auto Motor and Sport via tipster Patrik]

Ferrari probably won't make a hybrid or a full electric car but they just might make a flex-flex car that can run on E85. That possibility comes directly from Maurizio Parlato, President and CEO of Ferrari North America, at the end of an interview at the LA Auto Show with the Wall Street Journal, which you can watch above. At first, the WSJ notices the Ferrari's beautiful, candy red looks but notes this show is all about green and then asks what have they got that's green, to which Maurizio replies; thank you for asking me that, we are very sensitive to this point and we have to be and then this;

We are thinking and moving in the direction of ethanol to make ethanol a part of our, basically possibility, we are considering seriously about that.

...ah, his English is not great but I think the message is clear. Ethanol makes a lot of sense for a sports car because you can get more power from ethanol and things like lower mileage or higher fuel cost are probably not of great concern to a sports car driver. It's really too bad Ferrari cannot look at hybrids as a being a source of power but this is great news none the less.

[Source: Wall Street Journal]

Here is the general manager of the Ferrari importer European Automotive Imports Kevin Wall's response to the question would Ferrari ever make a hybrid or electric car:

I believe there is no possibility of that whatsoever. ... It just so happens that the way that the vehicles are being produced by the factory also makes them technically green, because they are so highly efficient. ... I don't think that's a prime motivator for people to purchase a Ferrari, though.

Ferrari has shown green concepts and Ferrari is aware of the "ethical" concerns of their buyers but I would not hold my breath for a hybrid Ferrari or Lamborghini, another Italian luxury car maker, because they are not coming anytime soon. While you wait, you could get a Tesla.

Related:

• Ferrari looking to cut CO2 emissions, reduce fuel use by 40 percent
• What's next for the Ferrari Millechili eco-friendly concept?

[Source: The Red Book, Reuters]