Kia's green dream

WITH fuel prices reaching record levels never before has such attention been focused on eco motoring.

Getting the most out of each precious gallon is now top priority and keeping cars lean and green is the name of the game for every car manufacturer.

So called alternative fuels are now big business with auto companies across the globe investing millions.

But Korean car maker Kia has gone one step further by spending £29million on the world’s first research centre specifically designed to develop the cars of the future.

In conjunction with its sister company Hyundai, the Mabuk environment centre near the Korean capital Seoul is mapping out the shape of the automotive industry for generations to come.



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On Mileage, Car makers Offer a Hybrid Message

By MIKE SPECTOR
November 14, 2007; Page B1

Los Angeles

Touting a hydrogen-powered Chevrolet, a Lincoln with a super-efficient gasoline engine and a hybrid Dodge, car makers plan to use the Los Angeles auto show this week to demonstrate that they're on a fast track to delivering vehicles that offer dramatically improved fuel economy.

But in Washington, where the rules on reducing gasoline consumption are made, car makers are fighting to block the toughest proposal under consideration for raising federal mileage standards.

"They're definitely saying one thing to Congress and one thing to consumers," says Phyllis Cuttino, director of the Pew Campaign for Fuel Efficiency, an environmental group lobbying for tougher fuel-efficiency rules. Just last week, an alliance of environmental groups took on Toyota Motor Corp., which often is praised for its gas-electric hybrid technology, in a full-page ad in USA Today for opposing the mileage proposal.

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US energy lab testing plug-in hybrid cars in Seattle

The Associated PressPublished: November 6, 2007

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho: A U.S. energy lab is testing 13 hybrid cars retrofitted with mileage-boosting batteries that can be plugged into a regular household electrical outlet.

The U.S. Department of Energy demonstration project is aimed at judging the performance of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in an urban area. Over the next 12 months, 13 converted Toyota Prius cars owned by the city of Seattle, King County, Port of Seattle and the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency will drive the streets of western Washington state in the study by the Idaho National Laboratory.

So far, the cars' mileage per gallon has about doubled after being outfitted with lithium plug-in batteries, to 125 miles per gallon in city driving conditions.

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