Magazine - 15/11/05

Cut fuel consumption and reduce pollution! Have car manufacturers gone green? No one disputes that cars (but also two-wheelers) have become much cleaner than they were 10 or even 5 years ago. Not so long ago, however, the protection of the environment was still considered something of an advertising theme. With today's oil crisis, the need to cut fuel consumption and diversify energy sources has become a real challenge, which is as much ecological as technological and economical!

Feted as the greatest invention of recent years, the hybrid car invented by Toyota is a vehicle that offers improved energy management, thanks to the addition of one or more electric motors to the traditional engine. It therefore constitutes a remarkable solution in a context where energy is going to become increasingly rare and expensive.
 
However, in terms of combating pollution, the particulate emission filter (PEF) proves more effective since it considerably reduces the toxic elements. Integrated into a car's exhaust, the PEF is comparable to the filter of a cigarette. For a long time it was reserved for utility vehicles, because only a professional driver could take care of the maintenance of the filter. Peugeot was the first manufacturer to develop an integrated self-cleaning system, making it possible to clean the filter.
 
Two strategies are therefore currently taking shape: on one hand, the manufacturers who are banking on the production of hybrid engines and who, to this end, are entering into alliances in order to share R&D budgets; on the other hand, those who believe, like Jean-Martin Folz, chairman of PSA Peugeot-Citroën, that diesel engines with particulate filters are as effective as hybrid engines in reducing fuel consumption.

In the first camp, Volkswagen is preparing to develop a hybrid engine with Porsche, despite the obstacle of cost.
General Motors has declared that its spectacular co-operation with DaimlerChrysler and BMW was also open to other partners! The stated aim of the association of these three manufacturers in Troy, Michigan, is to develop a common technology (same transmission, same electric motors, same battery packs), although they will each integrate the hybrid engine in their own way, according to the personality of the marque. This triple partnership will represent considerable economies of scale.
For their part, Japanese manufacturers, with Toyota at the top of the list, are showing themselves to be the undisputed leaders in hybrid engines. "The hybrid engine is here to stay in its present form, combining a petrol engine and an electric motor," said Katsuaki Watanabe, president of Toyota. After building 180,000 Prius saloons and 62,000 Lexus RX400h SUVs, Toyota plans to double its production of hybrid cars in 2006, bringing it to 500,000 units. According to the Japanese press, it has moreover started to buy electric motors from Hitachi for the hybrid versions of its Harrier and Kluger SUVs, which went on sale this year.
As for Nissan, it will have recourse to Toyota technology in order to launch the hybrid Altima in the United States in 2006. Likewise Subaru, known for making original all-wheel-drive cars with boxer engines, is looking to develop hybrid versions of its models in partnership with Toyota (which now owns 8.7% of its capital). Honda, the other Japanese giant, is preparing to equip the future Civic Hybrid, to be launched in 2006, with a new Honda Hybrid system. This i-VTEC engine has 3-stage variable valve timing and an electric motor with 1.5 times more output. Battery output has been increased by 30%. This new system should, according to Honda, achieve a 20% increase in output over the current system.

PSA Peugeot-Citroën, on the other hand, appears to be much more sceptical and, while recognising the technological interest of these engines, brings up the matter of cost: a hybrid engine costs 3,000 euros (approximately £2,000), i.e. twice as much as a diesel!
For Jean-Martin Folz, "Hybrid petrol engine cars make it possible to cut fuel consumption by 20% compared to petrol engine cars. Clean diesel produces the same result. The hybrid car's fuel savings are therefore meaningless compared to diesel prices."
 
Let's not forget that PSA Peugeot-Citroën, with its partner, Ford Motor Company, has been the world's leading manufacturer of diesel engines since 1998 (4 million engines sold). Technically, it is possible to produce a hybrid diesel engine, but the costs are again very high. So will PSA co-operate with another manufacturer? We will know more in coming months.
In any case, for Jean-Marc Nicolle, PSA head of group strategy and products, it is all very clear: "By combining hybrid technologies with diesel engines, we will obtain the best performance in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and also the greatest fuel economy."
 
Another champion of diesel, Daimler Chrysler has confidently declared that it hopes soon to design a car targeting "zero pollution". "In order to satisfy emissions standards," explains the manufacturer, "we have to innovate, but that will impact on sales prices. Our initial answer is Blue Tec diesel technology (an exhaust gas recycling system), which is already standard on the Actros range and the Atego." This system should enable compliance with Euro 4 and Euro 5 standards, which will come into force in 2006 and 2009, and cut fuel consumption by 2 to 6%.

In the aftermath of the 1970s oil crises, biofuels were perceived as a substitute for mineral hydrocarbons. Today, they are again attracting a lot of attention in Europe, where production has increased twentyfold since 1992. In 2003, the European Council and Parliament authorised Member States to exempt biofuels from tax. Germany, which has put in place favourable legislation, produces 450,000 tonnes of cheap vegetable oils. France, the leading agricultural producer in the European Union, comes second with 365,000 tonnes of biofuels: rapeseed biodiesel and ethanol from cereals and beet. President of the Republic, Jacques Chirac, has symbolically converted the petrol pumps at the Élysée Palace: so his new Citroën C6 saloon now runs on rapeseed biodiesel, like half the cars at the Élysée!
 
Standing at the crossroads between hybrid cars and the use of biofuels, Ford (the only American manufacturer to produce hybrid models and the first to commercialise an SUV of this kind) has stated its intention of playing both fields. On one hand, it has undertaken to increase its production of hybrid models tenfold to reach 250,000 units per year by 2010 (as opposed to only 24,000 today). On the other, it is also proposing a new flexible system which would make it possible to use biofuels on the Ford F-150 in addition to petrol. Bioethanol versions of the Ford Crown Victoria, Mercury Grand Marquis and Lincoln Town Car are also due to be marketed in 2006.

Very widespread in nature (in water, for example), hydrogen can be used either as fuel, or as an energy vector in a fuel cell (see our article on the Michelin Hylight)
World number one General Motors believes that it can produce a fuel cell car by 2010! This fuel cell is to produce electricity from hydrogen by chemical reaction, emitting only minute quantities of carbon dioxide. After 2010, it will take another two or three years to put such a car onto the market: so don't hold your breath!