2011 Ford B-Max Concept Live Photos: 2011 Geneva Motor Show
Fiesta-based, powered by a punchy three-cylinder turbo 1.0-liter engine, and seating five (assuming they're family or very good friends) the Ford B-Max Concept is the new new thing in tiny MPVs.
It's also an exercise in design, with its magical disappearing B-pillar built into the doors. As you can tell from the photos, the B-Max is ready for prime time. We still don't know if it would come to the U.S. should it get the green light, but given Ford's seriousness with its global strategy of late, we wouldn't be surprised if it did.
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
Hyundai Takes A Strong Lead In Sales-Weighted Fuel Economy
The 2011 Toyota Prius remains the highest-mileage gasoline non-plug-in vehicle on the U.S. market, at an EPA-rated 51 mpg city, 48 highway, but when you look at sales-weighted averages, the fleet of new cars that Hyundai is selling, as a whole, beats that of Toyota.The sales and pricing data experts at TrueCar, using official U.S. EPA ratings, along with estimated and/or actual monthly sales data, crunched the numbers, and found that over the past year, Toyota's average fuel economy has gone down—to 23.8 this past month, versus 24.8 in February of 2010.
All other major automakers boosted their average sales-weighted fuel economy, with Ford gaining 1.5 mpg and Hyundai 1.3 mpg higher than last year. Nissan and General Motors, at 1.2 and 0.8 mpg, respectively, also posted gains ahead of the 0.7-mpg average improvement.
Hyundai emerged securely on top among full-line automakers, with a 26.6-mpg sales-weighted average this past month that's way ahead of the industry sales-weighted average of 22.2 mpg (considering cars and trucks combined). That's likely due mostly to two of its new sedan models, the 2011 Hyundai Elantra and 2011 Hyundai Sonata, which both get among the best numbers in their classes. The Elantra gets 29 mpg city, 40 highway in all versions, not just with a high-mileage package, and the Sonata gets up to 24/35 in non-hybrid form.
Hyundai's solid first-place performance follows a challenge that Hyundai Motor America CEO John Krafcik issued last month—for automakers to issue a monthly sales-data-weighted average mileage.
That said, it's worth mentioning that Hyundai isn't quite a full-line automaker to the extent of Toyota—or even Honda. While Toyota sells several truck-based SUVs (the Land Cruiser, 4Runner, Lexus GX 460 and Lexus LX 570) as well as Toyota Tundra and Tacoma pickups, and Honda has its Ridgeline pickup, Hyundai currently has no equivalent. Though it does have its V-8-powered Genesis and Equus luxury sedans.
Chrysler ranks at the bottom, averaging just 19.5 mpg on a sales-weighted basis. U.S. manufacturers together boosted their average fuel economy from 19.4 mpg on average last February up to an average of 20.5 mpg this February.
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
Lotus Supercharges The EV Range Extender: 2011 Geneva Motor Show
If you're familiar with the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, you probably know that it carries an onboard 1.4-liter four-cylinder engine that acts as a generator, powering the electric motors that drive the wheels (under most circumstances, anyway). Today at the Geneva Motor Show, Lotus unveiled a new take on the range extender engine, adding supercharging to improve efficiency.
The new Lotus Range Extender is a production unit for use in real cars. It uses a 1.3-liter three-cylinder engine with the added power of a supercharger to create 50 kilowatts of peak electrical power (67 horsepower) at just 3,500 rpm. The combination of small displacement plus the supercharger means it's more fuel efficient than most standard engines.
A naturally-aspirated (non-supercharged) version of the Range Extender was also unveiled, capable of producing 47 horsepower from 1,500 rpm to 3,500 rpm. The engines weigh just 112 pounds without the supercharger or 128 pounds with it.
Though the new Range Extender engine hasn't yet been placed in any production cars, it is on display in Geneva in Lotus' own Evora 414Evolution. Lotus hopes to contract the sale of the engine out to other carmakers for use in series-hybrid designs similar to those found in the Chevy Volt and Fisker Karma.
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
IIHS Petitions Feds For Better Underride Guards On Big Rigs
When cars rear-end semi tractor-trailers—on an icy road, for instance, where traffic ahead is stopped—the consequences can be quite deadly.According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), that's because the underride guards—those cheap-looking bars that hand below the load floor at the back of the trailers—often fail in crashes and allow the vehicle to keep going under the trailer.
And when those underride guards fail, death (even by decapitation) or serious injury is significantly more likely, since typically the upper part of the cabin crushes.
Just in 2009, 70 percent of the 3,163 who died in all crashes involving large trucks were the occupants of cars or other passenger vehicles, the IIHS says; and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that there are 5,000 injuries and about 423 deaths annually due to cars striking trucks from the back.
Furthermore, the Institute looked at 1,000 real-world crashes in 2001 through 2003 and found that of the 115 involving a car striking the back of a large truck or semi-trailer, 28 involved an occupant death, and 23 of those involved catastrophic underride—while only 25 didn't involve underride.
The IIHS proved—with its own recent tests—that while current Canadian standards are stronger than those in the U.S., with either standard the guards can fail in a collision. The issue? Under current certification standards, the trailer and guard system aren't ever evaluated together. There are also types of trucks that remain exempt altogether, the IIHS says, emphasizing that it's up to NHTSA to make some changes based on a petition the Institute is filing.
"Hitting the back of a large truck is a game changer," said Institute president Adrian Lund, in a release. "You might be riding in a vehicle that earns top marks in frontal crash tests, but if the truck's underride guard fails — or isn't there at all — your chances of walking away from even a relatively low-speed crash aren't good."
[IIHS]
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
