World’s Smallest Car : Toyota iQ
Toyota unveiled Toyota iQ at the Frankfurt Motor show. Toyota is promoting the iQ as the ultimate refined mode of transportation. Despite its small size Toyota iQ received a 5-star safety rating in Euro NCAP testing. According to Toyota the 1.0-liter gasoline iQ should record 54.1 mpg on the European driving cycle (99g/km of CO2). iQ will go on sale in Japan in October and few months later in Europe. The price is expected to be in the range of $13,000 - $15,000.
Hybrid Combined With Solar Power
Prius is the high-end models of Toyota hybrid cars, and it is planned to add solar-powered air conditioning to make it more fuel efficient. This new feature is part of the third-generation Prius, and it will be launched next year. The solar panels will be used to provide the air conditioning system. There has been some doubts about the amount of electricity that can be obtained by solar panels. According to Kentaro Endo, a specialist on renewable energy from Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, laying solar panels out on the roof only gives energy that can only be used to power 2 hairdryers.
Toyota Yaris : Green Car of the year
Environmental Transport Association (ETA), which is currently running the 2008 Green Transport Week in the UK, has named the Yaris the 2008 Green Car of the Year. Power, emissions, fuel efficiency and the amount of noise are looked at to choose the Green car from 1,300 vehicles. Dodge SRT-10 sports car came in dead last. Yaris is getting 34 mpg in the city and 40 mpg on the highway. On another story, sales of another Toyota hybrid model Prius recently topped 1 million.
Internet in the car
Called as “Connected Drive” BMW is going to offer fully, unrestricted, built-in access to the Internet in their vehicles. The new technology would use EDGE to connect to the Internet. A safety feature that BMW installed would only enable Internet connection when the car is parked. The BMW cars installed with this technology is only available in Europe at this time.
