The 2008 edition of the Paris Motor Show officially ends today and to commemorate its passing we thought we'd bring back one of our favorite electric cars from the affair with a few video-captured words from a couple of its creators. Perhaps second only to the Pininfarina B0, (if our poll is any indication) the Joule from Optimal Energy stood out amongst its electric brethren and sisteren as a practical transportation option. Up until the start of the show its appearance was something of a secret but when the wraps finally came off we were happy to see that it wasn't some fanciful concept, or future super toy for the super rich. And thankfully it wasn't a bizarre looking NEV. No, the 6-seater MPV looked like something you might see on the street today and that's one of the main points made by Kobus Meiring, CEO of Optimal Energy who, along with some of the electric cars from Paris 2008, appears in this video after the jump.



[Source: YouTube]

Well, it certainly looks pretty friendly. Plus, powered only by electrons, it will be friendly to our environment too. What is it? The Heuliez Friendly, which debuted at this year's Paris Motor Show. Three seems to be a theme here, with a trio of electric motors to choose from, three different vehicle lengths to be offered and a seating capacity of yourself and two of your best friends. According to reports, the French automaker expects its Friendly to hit 70 miles per hour and its nickel metal hydride battery to last for 140 miles. After it's spent, the Friendly can be recharged via any standard wall outlet.

Heuliez plans to begin selling its Friendly in Europe in 2010. Also on the schedule are kit-assembled remakes of the G-Wiz from Reva Motors. These electric vehicles would be the first cars ever to wear the Heuliez badge, as the company has so far only created modules such as convertible tops for other automakers.

[Source: Channel 4]

Traditionally, automakers use the biggest auto shows in their home countries as a platform to display their latest and greatest ideas, both aesthetic and technological. Such was clearly the case this week at the Paris Motor Show for PSA, the parent company of Peugeot and Citroën. One of the technical highlights on the stands of both PSA brands was something called HYmotion4, a new through-the-road hybrid system. HYmotion4 was featured on four different vehicles including the Peugeot RC and Prologue and the Citroën Hypnos and C4 WRC.

The idea of a through-the-road hybrid system is not new and has been used previously by a number of manufacturers. To date however, no mainstream manufacturer has produced such a hybrid configuration. In engineering a car, there are many ways to skin a cat, and judging by the number of examples that PSA showed in Paris, it seems that Peugeot and Citroën may follow this path for production as an alternative to the hybrids being produced by the likes of Toyota, Ford, GM and others. Learn more about through-the-road hybrids after the jump.

[Source: Peugeot]

As our faithful readers are already aware, the Quicc! DiVa by DuraCar has just been introduced to the world and is currently on display at the Paris Motor Show. And while its great that the public can now see the electric city van made of plastic, it would be even better if they could buy it, so we are happy to inform you that Wilhelm Karmann GmbH has stepped into the DuraCar picture and, beginning in June 2009, will be building some of the Quicc! DiVas. The famed company, located in Osnabrück, has an agreement to supply vehicles bound for the German market though there may be other collaborative efforts between the two companies in the future. Perhaps better known today for its convertible-making operations, Karmann has a long history of building entire cars and has produced over three million of them in their 100+ year history including the Chrysler Crossfire, the Ford Merkur XR4Ti and, of course, the legendary Karmann Ghia.

As part of their overall strategy, DuraCar is seeking to have several production lines in close geographical proximity to where the cars will be sold thus keeping their carbon foot print to a minimum. The Dutch company is currently in talks with other potential constructors in different markets. Hitting the jump will give you bonus videos of the Quicc! DiVa in action as well as the official press release.



[Source: DuraCar]

We saw a lot of new green concept vehicles make their debut during the press preview at the Paris Motor Show last week. Now that we've all had time to digest the new offerings, what struck you as particularly good this year? I've set up a poll with all of the green (or green-ish) Paris vehicles after the break. If you need a refresher, click on any of these links to see our posts on these rides and the photo galleries to go along with them. There's some good-looking stuff on display over in France. Here's what we saw:

• Peugeot HYmotion3 Compressor Concept
• Wallyscar electric Jeep-copy
• Peugeot Prologue HYmotion4 diesel hybrid
• Land Rover Freelander 2 TD4_e
• smart second-gen ED
• Venturi Eclectic
• Peugeot RC HYmotion4
• Pininfarina-Bolloré B0 (B Zero)
• Renault Fluence
• Saab 9-X Air
• Venturi Volage
• Citroen C4 WRC HYmotion4
• Opel Insignia EcoFlex
• Audi A4 TDI concept e
• Citroën Hypnos
• Mazda Kiyora
• Nissan Nuvu
• Renault Z.E.
• Chevrolet Orlando MPV
• Honda Insight
• GTbyCITROEN
• Volkswagen Passat BlueMotion II
• Audi A1 Sportback concept
• Joule electric MPV
• Hyundai Santa Fe blue hybrid
• Volkswagen Passat BlueTDI sedan and wagon

My two cents: concepts are nice and all, but the Honda Insight takes the cake. Now, what about your two cents? The poll is open after the jump.

Honda this week launched its first blog in conjunction with the debut of the new Insight concept in Paris. If Honda's usual practice and the spy photos we've seen are any indication, the concept Insight that is on the show stand right now will be almost identical to the production model coming next spring. While the Insight's profile undoubtedly shares a lot with the Toyota Prius, it also differs in many design details. The Insight has more surface development than the Prius including the belt-line and rocker panel creases that help catch the light and make the look more interesting. The Insight also has a less distinct peak in the roof than the Toyota giving a sleaker look to the green house. The primary elements that are likely to change in going to production are the lights with the concepts fancy clusters giving way to something a little more conventional. You can check video of the Paris reveal and running footage of the Insight after the jump.



[Source: Honda]

It's pretty easy to see more than just a passing resemblance between the new Izis from Wallyscar, which is now being shown at the Paris Motor Show, and another famous vehicle. Like the original off-roading Willys, the Izis features body-on-frame architecture and a very small gasoline engine. In the case of the Izis, that engine comes from Peugeot and displaces 1.4-liters, good enough for 75-horsepower, just a bit more than the 60 horses of the classic Willys Go Devil engine.

The Izis is street-legal in Europe, as its Peugeot engine is fully Euro 4-compliant, though the vehicle has a Euro NCAP rating of only two stars. It also has a very short wheelbase and sits well above the ground. Early Jeeps with similar dimensions were more than a bit 'tippy' on the street, as were some early Jeep-like cars from Suzuki and Daihatsu. Having never piloted in Izis, we can't really comment on how it handles, but we bet it'd do rather well off the beaten path.

An electric version is also said to be available. No information on specifications are provided other than a suggested electric-only range of 90 kilometers, or about 56 miles. That's plenty for some fun-in-the-sun off-roading or for daily transportation for city-dwellers.


[Sources: AutoMotoPortal, Wallyscar]

Peugeot's Prologue HYmotion4 concept is in many ways the opposite of the same company's RC HYmotion4 concept. The upright crossover style Prologue is a different animal from the sleek four-door coupe. Both vehicles use the same through the road hybrid architecture but flipped front/rear. The Prologue puts the internal combustion engine up front and runs on diesel instead of gasoline with the electric motor going at the back. The diesel puts out 163 hp while the motor is limited to 27 kW. With both the engine and motor running, 221 lb-ft of torque are available to the front wheels while the rears get 148 lb-ft. As with the other HYmotion4 concepts, the vehicle can be propelled by either the engine, motor or both. In rear wheel drive electric only mode, speeds are limited to about 30 mph by the 36 hp output and the use of a nickel metal hydride battery. Nonetheless, the Prologue generates some pretty impressive numbers. The French automaker claims a combined mileage of 52.3 mpg (U.S.) and CO₂ emissions of just 109 g/km. One interesting performance enhancement that Peugeot mentions is the interaction between the transmission and motor. The 6-speed manual gearbox features automated shifting. The electronic controls automatically activates the electric motor during shifts to fill the gap in power flow smoothing out the process.


[Source: Peugeot]

While some sites are busy making fun of its name (yeah, we thought of that too... and you? Does it matter? Comments are welcome), others were busy conducting interviews with Dr. Z. in an attempt to find out when we may see the smart ED in America. The answer is that it's coming, if not next year then shortly thereafter. Daimler hopes to have 1,000 electric smarts running rather silently around the world by the end of next year, and it's distinctly possible that a portion of them will be in the U.S. This is the second-generation of the smart ED, and it is now powered by a lithium ion battery pack that may or may not be supplied by Tesla Motors. The last-gen model used a sodium battery. With the new pack, the smart ED can achieve a range of up to 150 miles -- plenty of distance for the urban use the little car is likely to be subjected to.

[Source: Popular Mechanics / Photo: Inside Line]

The RC HYmotion4 concept unveiled by Peugeot at the Paris Motor Show is just one of several hybrid drive concepts being shown by that brand and Citroen. All of these feature an interesting new through the road hybrid system that I'll write more about later. The RC is a four-door GT coupe that has a 1.6L gas engine in the back driving the rear wheels with 218 hp and 206 lb-ft of torque. Up front, a 70 kW electric motor provides up to another 132 lb-ft of twisting force for those wheels. The combined output is limited to 313 hp and acceleration to 62 mph comes up in 4.4 seconds. In the combined drive mode, the carbon dioxide emissions are rated at only 109 g/km. The system allows the car to operate in either internal combustion, electric only or blended modes. Peugeot claims it achieves 52.3 mpg (U.S.) in combined driving. Having the electric motor at the front wheels allows the car to maximize its regenerative braking capability and the energy is stored in a lithium ion battery pack. Even with the RC's 4.7 m length, the overall weight comes in at only 3,141 lbs.


[Source: Peugeot]

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]

Renault on Thursday revealed the third generation C-segment Megane at the Paris Motor Show. The sedan version of the old Megane will be replaced by a new sedan in 2009 called Fluence. The Fluence will start off using conventional drivertrains, but two years after introduction, it will go electric. Renault EVP Patrick Pelata told a summit in Paris that when the electric Fluence launches in 2011 the company expects to start with 20-40,000 units. A year after the battery-powered Fluence arrives, a smaller compact electric car will also arrive. That second car will be built at a plant in Flins, northwest of Paris. Both cars will use lithium ion that may well be manufactured in France as well. Just as Tesla learned when it shifted battery production from Thailand to California, it makes sense to build battery packs closer to the car assembly plants in order to reduce shipping costs of the heavy packs.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

In the United States, sales of hybrid cars greatly outpaces the sales of diesel cars; super-size trucks don't count. The leader of the hybrid race globally and in the States is undoubtedly Toyota, but other manufacturers, including Honda, are doing their best to catch up. Despite the fact that the original Honda Insight helped usher in the hybrid age, the automaker has taken a major back seat to its main rival from Japan in recent years. To help combat this issue, Honda is set to revive the Insight nameplate with a Prius-fighting five door hatchback of its own, and it will undercut its competitor by thousands of dollars.

So, what about Europe? Across the pond, hybrid cars and trucks are not nearly as popular as they are in the U.S. There, diesel fuel is priced more attractively than gasoline, and sales of oil-burners are therefore very strong. A recent survey conducted by Honda in the U.K. indicates that 40-percent of those who would not buy a hybrid are put off by their high price. Since the Insight will be the cheapest hybrid available in Europe, Honda hopes to buck the slow-selling trend. We'll see how it works out sometime next year.


[Source: Just-Auto - sub. req'd]

You can check out a video of the Saab 9-X Air in action along with some discussion with GM Europe Design VP Mark Adams after the jump. Like the 9-X BioHybrid we saw at Geneva last spring, the Air is based on GM's compact Delta platform and it uses a variant of the same 1.4L Family 0 four cylinder that is going into the Chevy Cruze when it arrives stateside in 2010. As usual with Saabs recently, it is tuned to run on ethanol or gasoline. The Air also has the second-generation GM mild hybrid system using a lithium ion battery pack. In the video, Adams indicates that Saab will be making a number of product announcements during 2009 and the 9-X is likely to be one of them.


[Source: Saab]

As previously promised the wraps have come off the Venturi Volage at the Paris Motor Show. While Michelin may have been a collaborator on the revealed electric GT, one glance leaves no doubt it belongs to the Venturi family. It not only shares the carbon fiber body of its sibling, the Fétish, but it will also be lovingly hand-assembled in limited quantities at the same Monaco atelier. Styled by Sacha Lakic, the smooth-bottomed Volage is said to be "designed by subtraction" with its carbon fiber skin fitting tightly around its innovative technology.

And speaking of technology, each wheel on this car holds 2 electric motors! That's right, the "Michelin Active Wheel" system uses one motor for to drive a reduction gear that is also inside the wheel while the other handles the active suspension. All controlled by "spearhead electronics," the Volage can readily adapt to different road surfaces and driving style. Batteries for this electric car are 45 kWh worth of liquid-cooled polymer lithium and are said to provide for 320 Km (199 miles) of driving pleasure at a "stabilized" 90 Kph (56 Mph). The car is capable of getting you to 60 mph in less than 5 seconds and tops out at 150 Km (93 Mph). The car will begin its limited production run in 2012 and the price goes unmentioned. If you have to ask...

Check out the gallery below for a shot of the inside of those cool wheels and hit the jump for the full press release.



[Source: Venturi]