Special Reports
Accel Times had the opportunity to visit the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany. Upon arriving at 100 Mercedesstraße, you will see a beautiful nine story metal and glass building that houses the history of the automobile through the development of Mercedes-Benz. Spanning over 1,500 exhibits and nine levels, there’s no denying that the museum here in Stuttgart is significant; after all, it houses the invention of the automobile itself. Follow the link and we’ll take you through the museum and the history of the automobile. (Video, Pictures)
The battle of future automotive technologies has taken center stage, with the Chevy Volt and Nissan LEAF vying for the number one position for cars that go beyond hybrid. Intensifying the fight are the recent EPA mileage claims that both manufacturers have released. Chevrolet recently announced that the range-extended Volt will be rated at 230 MPG, and a day later Nissan rebutted with their announcement that the LEAF will be rated at 367 MPG. The problem with these numbers is twofold: First of all, the EPA has yet to confirm the figures.
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While most of the hype and press about electric vehicles has been focused on Chevy’s Volt, Nissan has been quietly readying its all-electric LEAF vehicle. Unlike the Volt, the LEAF is 100% electric and won’t include a range extending gasoline engine for when the batteries run out of juice. The zero-emissions LEAF is set to launch in late 2010 in Japan, the U.S. and Europe. It is powered solely by an electric motor, so yes, this means no exhaust pipe; there will be no rolling down your windows in a tunnel to listen to that engine roar.
GM’s car czar product specialist Bob Lutz was quick to clear this up at a recent GM Media Event: the Chevy Volt is not a hybrid, it’s a range extended vehicle. So what exactly does he mean by this? The 2011 Volt will use what GM calls the E-Flex powertrain architecture. The way it differs from typical parallel hybrids like Toyota’s Prius is that the Volt never uses the gasoline engine to directly power the vehicle. The Volt is solely propelled by the electric motor, and when the batteries run low, the gasoline engine kicks in as a generator to run the electric motor. Therefore, the Volt is actually a purely electric vehicle that also runs as a serial hybrid.
