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G lobal
14-20 June 2013
Who Says Cars Can’t Grow On Trees? { Heiko Lossie / Hanover, Germany / DPA }
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ack in 1885, when Gottlieb Daimler was working on his “horseless carriage”, and the automobile era was about to dawn, wood was the material of choice for building most road vehicles. Today the dominant resource in the car world is steel. But the wooden creations of yore may be about to experience a renaissance - at least as far as the use of the material in automotive construction is concerned. Germany’s car sector is probing the use of wood in modern integral cars. A leading world trade fair revolving around wood, the Ligna, was held recently in
the German city of Hannover. It yielded some fascinating insights into the direction being taken by researchers working in the car industry. “We are currently demonstrating what can be done,” said Volker Thole, departmental head at the WKI, a branch of the Fraunhofer Institutes. The WKI in Braunschweig does scientific research on new uses for wood. Thole believes wood could even play a role as a structural automobile component, replacing steel. The best thing about wood is its sustainability, said the expert. Another plus for woods its lightness. The original version of Germany’s bestselling car, the Volkswagen Golf, weighed just 800 kilograms. The current Golf
Hydrogen Aston Martin { Nuerburgring, Germany / DPA }
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n Aston Martin Rapide S, powered by pure hydrogen, has become the first car of its kind to compete in inter national racing, and to complete an emission-free lap of a racing circuit, Germany’s Autozeitung motoring journal reports. “We achieved the very ambitious goal that we had set ourselves, namely to complete a lap of the 20.8-kilometre Nuerburgring circuit running on hydrogen fuel only, said Bez, Aston Martin Head.” The Aston Martin carried the competition number 100, and was the sole entry in its own special class. The car reached a top speed of 255 kilometres per
hour during the race, with regular Aston Martins. The 6-litre, V-12 engine fitted to the Rapide S can burn either petrol or hydrogen; in the case of the latter, the only emission is water vapour. For most of the race, petrol was used. A switch was flipped to feed in hydrogen for the historic lap. Refuelling during the event took only 30 seconds, from hydrogen fuel stored at 350 bars of pressure. “This feat profoundly demonstrated a workable technology, which can meet the challenge of reducing emissions quickly,” said Jose Ignacio Galindo, CEO and Founder of Aston’s technical partner Alset Global, based in Austria. The hydrogen used for the test runs came from German industrial gas giant Linde. u
BMW boss laments German “fear” of electric cars { Munich / DPA }
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MW Chief Norbert Reithofer has criticized Germans for being too sceptical about all-electric cars. Speaking in Munich, Reithofer, who has a degree in engineering, said BMW intended to earn money with its upcoming first electric car, the i3, and regarded the technology as very promising. “Whenever fundamental changes are in the offing in this country, people get fearful and start discussing things the whole time,” said Reithofer at the Company’s recent Annual General Meeting. “Angst” is a phenomenon that outsiders associate with the Germans, said the executive. “We Germans tend to perceive the problems rather than the opportunities. It is the same when it comes to electro-mobility.” The first examples of the i3 are currently rolling off the assembly lines at the Company’s Leipzig plant. “Just in case anyone is in any doubt, this represents a clear signal. The i3 will go into production. And it will be a money-spinner,” said Reithofer. BMW has not revealed exactly when the production car will go on sale to the public. Industry experts expect the i3 to sell from about 40,000 euros (51,400 dollars). u
VII weighs 50 per cent more. Enhanced technology, more safety gadgets, luxury fittings and more generous dimensions all contribute towards making modern cars heavier than their predecessors, despite pressure to lower fuel costs and reduce emissions. Lower weight means less fuel consumed. At the huge factory in Wolfsburg, Germany, where VW is based, a chunk of machinery the size of a house is at the cutting edge of efforts to shave more kilos off the steel content of cars. The giant tool presses sheets of steel into shape before they are assembled into a Golf. So-called hot forming makes steel lighter and less likely to deform in collisions. But the steel supplied by ArcelorMittal or ThyssenKrupp might one day give way to beechwood. A two-year project on the idea is being financed by the German Science Ministry. Participants include VW, the WKI and the University of Kassel. The aim is first identify the components that might realistically be fashioned from wood. More obvious applications include door and other interior panels, but Thole believes door
sills and side-impact protection beams may also be feasible in wood. The challenge for scientists is to create a stable structure using wood and adhesives, which is stiff and strong enough to absorb energy in a collision. Rust is the enemy of steel, but there are also dangers involved in the gradual deterioration of wood through rotting. It is possible to impregnate wood to stop rot, said Thole, but the costs are high, and economic viability has not been proved. As a raw material, beechwood is abundant in Germany, and it has another key advantage – wood can be recycled at the end of a car’s life-cycle. A superannuated car could even be burned as fuel, which would boost the overall energy balance. Weight-saving technology is being also driven by the need to make cars cleaner, since vehicles must be lighter in order to use less fuel per journey. Aluminium bodywork offers possibilities, yet its production consumes a lot of energy. Both VW and BMW are also eyeing carbon-fibre, which is the reason why the Bavarian maker has bought a substantial share of leading carbon-fibre producer
The New Porsche Turbo { Frankfurt / DPA } Porsche is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its flagship 911 Turbo later this year, when the wraps will come off a wild, new version of the car at the Frankfurt Car Show in September. The fastest and most technically sophisticated incarnation of the iconic, four-wheel drive sports car comes in standard trim, with a twin-turbocharged 3.8-litre flat engine. The unit generates around 520 horsepower (or 200 more horses than the original 1974 version), says the Stuttgart-based maker. The sixth-generation 911 Turbo comes in two versions – the Turbo and up-rated Turbo S, with an extra 30 horsepower on tap. Porsche claims 0 to 100 kilometres per hour acceleration of 3.1 seconds for the S – which puts the car performance-wise on par with the McLaren 12C. Weight has been shaved too, and the chassis geometry of the 911 Turbo has been tweaked, in order to improve the car’s power-to-weight ratio. Porsche says the adoption of four-wheeldrive for the new 911 Turbo boosts highway stability. The first customers will be able to take delivery of the new 911 Turbo in September this year. The price remains exclusive, starting at 162,055 euros for the Turbo, and 195,256 euros for the S version.u
SGL. Steel and aluminium can be melted down and used again, but the poorer quality of recycled carbon-fibre means the material is not good enough to be re-used for key automotive components. Not that Germany’s steelmakers need fear a rush of competition from Germany’s beechwood forests. “The project may lead us to the conclusion that many things are not possible with wood,” said Thole. Executives at VW have also warned against euphoria. A statement from the company’s media department pointed out that research into the issue is in its infancy, but promising enough that further investigation is warranted. At present the substantial demands in terms of torsional stiffness and damp-resistance would seem to preclude the widespread use of wood in vehicle construction. “Wood can nevertheless be used at various earlier stages of manufacture,” said VW, and stressed that the material does have considerable potential. The chemical lignin is most commonly derived from wood, and it can be used to make carbon-fibre, using much less energy than current oil-based production. u
New Range Rover { Berlin / DPA }
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he new Range Rover Evoque luxury SUV will enter showrooms this autumn, with the world’s first nine-speed car transmission as standard. The German-made ZF transmission is being billed by the manufacturers as the calmest and most fuel-efficient conventional automatic gearbox in the market. Although it offers three more ratios than a standard six-speed, the ZF nine-speed is 7.5 kilos lighter, and so slim that it can be squeezed into a limited space on front-wheeldrive or allwheel-drive cars – where the engine is mounted across the axle. Land Rover says the Evoque is the smallest, lightest and most fuel efficient Range Rover to date. ZF already builds eight-speed automatics, and the southern German-based company had built the first seven-speed manual box for Porsche. ZF says the nine-speed reduces engine revolutions by 700 rpm at 120 kilometres an hour; and when the car is braked hard it can quickly skip down gears to match. Industry sources say Chrysler is also set to use the ZF nine-speed this year – probably on the Dodge Dart, and in the 2014 Jeep Cherokee. u