3/26/11

Lotus Exige 270E TriFuel Concept 2008

Cars Mania Blog

Auto Car | Lotus Exige 270E TriFuel Concept 2008 | Lotus Engineering, the world renowned automotive consultancy division of Lotus, unveils its latest development towards carbon neutral road transport at the 78th Geneva International Motor Show. The Lotus Exige 270E Tri-fuel is the most powerful road version yet of the Exige (0-60 mph / 96 kph in 3.88 seconds, a top speed of 158 mph (255 km/h), 270 hp (201 kW / 273 PS at 8000 rpm) and it runs on any mixture of gasoline, bioethanol and methanol. Emerging technologies will allow alcohol fuels such as methanol, already a proven internal combustion fuel, to be made synthetically from CO2 extracted from the atmosphere.



An alcohol-based fuel derived renewably from atmospheric CO2 would allow society to transfer relatively easily to sustainable, carbon-neutral internal combustion. Lotus Engineering is researching the use of sustainable synthetic alcohols as potential future fuels, with technology available from Lotus for introduction in four to five years. However, the supply infrastructure investment from governments and fuel companies could take 15 to 20 years.
The Exige 270E Tri-fuel is part of Lotus' research to understand the complex combustion process involved in running on mixtures of alcohol fuels and gasoline, which will be important for a successful transition from today's fuels to the sustainable, synthetic fuels of the future.



This research is just one aspect of Lotus Engineering's ground-breaking work on environmentally-friendly vehicles. It is involved with a number of electric vehicle projects, has successfully integrated hybrid technologies into vehicles such as its EVE demonstrator, and recently announced results on a collaboration with Continental Division Powertrain on the Low CO2 downsized three-cylinder engine.



The research into sustainable alcohols is progressing at Lotus' Hethel headquarters in Norfolk, ÚK and involves input from the Royal Society of Chemistry's Alternative Fuel Symposium Series, the Low Carbon Vehicles Innovation Platform, developed by the Technology Strategy Board and direct discussions with the Úniversity of Sheffield.

Source : www.conceptcarz.com

Share and leave comment

No comments:

Post a Comment