The Fruit of Knowledge
Posts tagged city car
Volkswagen Cross Up revealed
Feb 12th
The VW Cross Up – an SUV-style version of the city car – will make its debut at the 2013 Geneva motor show.
Official: BMW taps Local Motors crowd-sourcing community to design the city car of 2025
Sep 20th
Filed under: Concept Cars, Technology, BMW, Design/Style
Design-by-commitee. It is a term that we usually reserve for cars that are conceived by number-crunching product planners, rather than true designers, but this case might be different. What if that committee was every enthusiast on the planet? “Crowd-sourcing,” or “open-sourcing” is a concept employed by upstart automaker Local Motors. The first spawn of this process was the insanely cool Rally Fighter, so you can’t argue with the results, right?
BMW agrees, and has announced that it is teaming up with Local Motors to put on the BMW “Urban Driving Experience Challenge.” It is a competition, conducted by Local Motors through its extensive crowd-sourcing community, to develop a city car for the year 2025. According to Local Motors, the competition gives its community “the opportunity to identify and design the premium vehicle features and functions that will enhance the urban driving experience of the future.”
Phase One of the competition begins September 25 and runs to October 16. The second phase starts in mid-November. A total of $30,000 in prize money will be awarded in the competition, and the top winners will each travel to Munich, Germany to meet BMW’s director of research and development.
There’s a good bit of synergy between these two automakers. Following the Rally Fighter, Local Motors voiced its interest in crowd-sourcing a city car, which is a shared interest with BMW, given the automaker’s i3 concept. Also, before the 6.2-liter GM V8 ended up under the hood of the Rally Fighter, the original powerplant was a BMW diesel 3.0-liter straight-six.
Scroll below to check out the promo video and press release.
Continue reading BMW taps Local Motors crowd-sourcing community to design the city car of 2025
BMW taps Local Motors crowd-sourcing community to design the city car of 2025 originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 20 Sep 2012 08:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Driven: Citroën C1 VTR+
Apr 19th
Citroën has revamped its fuel-sipping city car, but can it rival the Volkswagen Up? We drive the C1 VTR+ to find out.
VW Up wins World Car of the Year title
Apr 5th
Volkswagen’s Up city car has taken the top honour in the World Car of the Year awards.
Toyota teases FT-Bh concept hybrid city car ahead of Geneva
Feb 11th
Filed under: Hybrid, Toyota, Geneva Motor Show
Most concepts you’ll see on the show stands of the Geneva Motor Show will come packing some manner of sci-fi powertrain and ultra-expensive chassis and body materials. That’s where the Toyota FT-Bh concept stands apart.
Toyota is calling it a “full hybrid city car study,” so the FT-Bh isn’t destined for production. However, Toyota’s goal was to create an inexpensive, fuel efficient urban runabout that doesn’t rely on expensive materials or complex manufacturing, but rather uses existing technology to make an affordable hybrid for the masses – something that would be perfect for Europe.
Thing is, Toyota is bringing just that to Geneva in mass-market form.
Joining the FT-Bh on stage is the production version of the Yaris Hybrid, which for all intents and purposes is exactly what the FT-Bh is: an inexpensive, small hybrid based off an existing platform and using tried-and-true technology. Packing a 1.5-liter gasoline engine mated with an electric motor, the Yaris Hybrid outputs 98 horsepower and is some 20% lighter than the Auris Hybrid. Toyota is calling it “Europe’s first full hybrid supermini,” which begs the question: Where’s the line between a “supermini” and a “city car?” We’ll find out when we’re on the floor in Switzerland next month.
Get all the details on Toyota’s Geneva plans in the press blast after the break.
Continue reading Toyota teases FT-Bh concept hybrid city car ahead of Geneva
Toyota teases FT-Bh concept hybrid city car ahead of Geneva originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Sat, 11 Feb 2012 08:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Geneva: Toyota teases FT-Bh concept hybrid city car ahead of Geneva
Feb 10th
Filed under: Concept Cars, Hybrid, Geneva Motor Show, Hatchback, Toyota
Most concepts you’ll see on the show stands of the Geneva Motor Show will come packing some manner of sci-fi powertrain and ultra-expensive chassis and body materials. That’s where the Toyota FT-Bh concept stands apart.
Toyota is calling it a “full hybrid city car study,” so the FT-Bh isn’t destined for production. However, Toyota’s goal was to create an inexpensive, fuel efficient urban runabout that doesn’t rely on expensive materials or complex manufacturing, but rather uses existing technology to make an affordable hybrid for the masses – something that would be perfect for Europe.
Thing is, Toyota is bringing just that to Geneva in mass-market form.
Joining the FT-Bh on stage is the production version of the Yaris Hybrid, which for all intents and purposes is exactly what the FT-Bh is: an inexpensive, small hybrid based off an existing platform and using tried-and-true technology. Packing a 1.5-liter gasoline engine mated with an electric motor, the Yaris Hybrid outputs 98 horsepower and is some 20% lighter than the Auris Hybrid. Toyota is calling it “Europe’s first full hybrid supermini,” which begs the question: Where’s the line between a “supermini” and a “city car?” We’ll find out when we’re on the floor in Switzerland next month.
Get all the details on Toyota’s Geneva plans in the press blast after the break.
Continue reading Toyota teases FT-Bh concept hybrid city car ahead of Geneva
Toyota teases FT-Bh concept hybrid city car ahead of Geneva originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Official: Skoda up!grades with five-door Citigo
Feb 6th
Filed under: Geneva Motor Show, Europe, Hatchback, Skoda
On this side of the Atlantic, one Volkswagen division’s new product may not have a significant impact on those of another. That’s because the German auto giant’s brands are kept quite separate in North America. Less so, however, back in Europe, where a new VW is likely to reappear in due time as a Seat or Skoda.
Case in point: the new Up! city car, which is also sold overseas as the Seat Mii and Skoda Citigo. And, true to form, with the Volkswagen brand having enlarged its city car to a five-door, its Czech cousin has followed suit.
And so, starting in May (after its debut at the Geneva Motor Show), European buyers will be able to get their hands on a five-door Citigo, offering the same 1.0-liter three-cylinder engine (in either 60- or 75-horsepower guise) as the Up, Mii and three-door Citigo. Details in the press release after the jump.
Continue reading Skoda up!grades with five-door Citigo
Skoda up!grades with five-door Citigo originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Volkswagen reveals four new Up city cars
Feb 3rd
Thanks to some diminutive derivatives trading, we drive Volkswagen’s Up city car in five-door, GT, electric and off-roader configurations.
Report: Design chief Callum says he’d like a Jaguar city car
Nov 18th
Filed under: Budget, Jaguar, UK, Design/Style, Luxury
When we think of British automobiles, they tend to land in one of two extremes: big luxury vehicles from Bentley, Rolls-Royce and Range Rover on the one hand, and Mini on the other. Both extremes are quintessentially British, but if any company can bridge that divide, it’s Jaguar.
The Coventry marque makes vehicles of various sizes, and if its design chief has his way, it could branch southwards into the city car segment. Speaking with Britain’s What Car? magazine, Ian Callum expressed his viewpoint that a properly high-end small hatchback, coupe or sedan could anchor the shallow end of the company’s lineup, though he did qualify that his was a “personal view.”
In that respect, any such car would be following in the footsteps of former sister-company and longtime rival Aston Martin – whose DB7, Vanquish and Vantage were also designed by Callum – which recently teamed up with Toyota to offer the Cygnet city car. As long as Callum doesn’t envision a Tata Nano with a Leaping Cat on the hood, we’ll wait and see how this turns out.
Design chief Callum says he’d like a Jaguar city car originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Belumbury presents its DANY city car at the Milan International Motorcycle Show
Nov 14th
Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Lightweight, Europe/EU
While one might imagine that the Milan International Motorcycle Show (EICMA) is strictly a two-wheeled affair, it’s become apparent that’s not necessarily the case. The proof? Meet DANY, a two-door city car with seating for four, by Belumbury.
The new Italian company decided that having the chance to have its debut product seen by the 500,000 people that attend EICMA was too great an opportunity to pass up, despite a potentially excessive number of wheels. Developed in conjunction with the Università di Camerino, DANY comes in both electric and gasoline-powered flavors.
Both are of steel tube construction with plastic bodies with lots of thought given to safety and sustainability. Both have 4-wheel disc brakes, MacPherson struts suspension and are rear-wheel-drive with a turning radius of 8.4 meters (27.6 foot).
The electric version is powered by a 10 kW (13.41 horsepower) AC motor motor capable of 140 Nm (103 lb ft) of torque. The juice is stored in a 16.3-kWh lithium-iron phosphate (LiFePO4) battery pack and is said to offer 112 miles of range in Eco mode – 90 miles in “Race” mode. Top speed is listed as just 96 km/h (59.3 miles per hour), allowing it to be categorized as a Quadricycle in Europe.
The gas-powered version uses a two-cylinder engine with a half-liter of displacement that makes 15 kW (20.12 horsepower) and 36.5 Nm (37 pound feet) of torque. All that power – yes, all of it – is sent to the wheels via a CVT (continuously variable transmission). Gasoline consumption is said to be a reasonable 26 km/l (61.16 mpg), while the top speed is slightly less than the electric variant at 90 km/h (55.92 mph).
There’s no word yet on when the Rome-based production will start or the size of the price tag. When the DANY does go on sale, it’s likely that distribution will be limited to Europe. Hit the jump to see this smartly-designed Italian in action in its promotional video.
Continue reading Belumbury presents its DANY city car at the Milan International Motorcycle Show
Belumbury presents its DANY city car at the Milan International Motorcycle Show originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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