Geneva Highlights – a Green Ferrari and an Angry Croatian
-
- Forget about Red
-
- Fisker Karma
-
- XD Concept
The Experimental Ferrari HY-KERS Hybrid vehicle
The HY-KERS experimental vehicle is an example of how Ferrari would approach the development of green motoring technology without losing sight of the performance. A slow Ferrari would be just plain stupid! Don’t worry, it won’t be slow.
This hybrid project is aimed at ensuring that Ferrari will be in a position to comply with future emissions standards. City driving is traditionally where sports cars are most notorious as their engines are designed for maximum efficiency and performance at high revs.
Ferrari has used its racing experience to adapt an advanced, lightweight hybrid drivetrain to the 599 GTB Fiorano with the aim of ensuring that vehicle dynamics are unaffected. Well, the result looks stunning.
XD Concept
This angry-looking little runner is Croatia’s first electric vehicle featuring innovative design and impressive characteristics. The XD combines the most attractive features of a city car with an attractive performance package. The car is quite short (2.8 metres), but the interior is comfortable (width 1.7 metres, height 1.6 metres). Performance-wise it is as good as any compact vehicle (0-100 km/hr in 7.7 seconds). The official website claims it is a zero emission vehicle… Another one 
Although it is not a zero emission vehicle (it will consume electricity generated in a coal plant), XD is a good contender and I am glad to see that Eastern Europe is showing its talent!
The comfortable concept car seats three adults and is built on a firm chassis with independent suspension. It is powered by 2 or 4 small 40 kW engines.
Fisker Karma
Another one of those soon-to-be-produced/backorder-now vehicles. But man, isn’t she a beauty! The Fisker Karma is a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle and it makes yet another debut here in Geneva (the first one was at the 2008 North American International). Fisker’s initial intention was to sell the Karma car in late 2009, but, due to funding delays, the US launch date was pushed back to late 2010. We’ll see. The base price was set at €78,780 in Europe, and $87,900 (before tax credits) in the US. It is significantly cheaper than Tesla – it’s archrival!
The car is a direct competitor to the Chevy Volt. It’s estimated range is 50 miles on pure electricity and the total range of 300 miles counting the petrol engine in.
The plan is to assemble 15,000 cars per annum and the actual assembly line will be in Finland, run by Valmet Automotive.
You might be interested in:
Leave your response!