The Lotus Evora beat out 29 other cars to win the title of Performance Car of the Year for 2009 from Car Magazine. The list included marquee car brands like Lamborghini, Ferrari, and Porsche, giving you an idea of what this vehicle brings. All 30 cars went through subjective and objective testing on the driving roads of Great Britain. Among the highlights of the Lotus Evora during this event included the smooth navigation and steering.

And to refresh your memory, the Lotus Evora features a 280HP 3.5 litre V6 petrol engine paired with a 6-speed manual transmission gearbox.

(Source) Auto Spies

Tags: car brands, car magazine, Cars, Evora, great britain, Lamborghini, Lotus, manual transmission, memory, performance car of the year, petrol engine, Porsche, smooth navigation, transmission gearbox

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Just as the Mercedes S400 is set to be shipped to U.S. dealers, Mercedes Benz has unveiled another future model in the Mercedes S500 Vision Plug-in Hybrid at the Frankfurt Auto Show. With the eventual coming of this new hybrid Mercedes vehicle, expect the Mercedes S500 to invade the luxury hybrid ring soon.

The S500 features economical fuel consumption, burning only 3.2 liters for every 100 KMS. Add as well the lower CO2 emissions for something as big as the S500 and a V6 petrol engine with fuel injection and you get the flexibility due from luxury hybrid cars today.

From the looks of it, while we are praising the coming of the S400, the S500 looks promising as well. The only difference is we don’t have an idea when it would come out or how much this would cost in the market.

(Source) Automo Blog

Tags: 2 liters, Blog, co2 emissions, economical fuel, flexibility, Frankfurt Auto Show, fuel consumption, fuel injection, hybrid cars, hybrid ring, market source, mercedes s400, mercedes s500, Mercedes-Benz, petrol engine, plug in hybrid

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The Ritz from Maruti Suzuki in India finally made its debut today, available in petrol and diesel engines. With the Ritz – a Superior stance hatchback positioned at the premium-end of the compact car market – Maruti Suzuki consolidates its leadership in the highly competitive compact car segment. The Ritz comes with the BS-IV and OBD-I compliance much ahead of the regulation being enforced in the country.

The Ritz has been specifically designed for India. Maruti Suzuki engineers worked with the Suzuki design team in Japan to co-design the car and carry out India-specific changes.

The heart of the Ritz are the brand new 1.2 Litre K12M Petrol engine and the 1.3 DDiS Diesel power-plant, each offering optimum performance and fuel efficiency. Alongside this, the transmission system has been optimized for the Ritz to match Indian driving habits. With this the Ritz offers the best-in-class combination of fuel efficiency and drivability.

(Source) PR Domain

Tags: bs, car market, car segment, co design, compact car, compliance, debut, diesel engines, diesel power, drivability, fuel efficiency, leadership, maruti suzuki, optimum performance, petrol engine, power plant, ritz, suzuki engineers, transmission system

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The Toyota Prius may be running on batteries but this does not mean that they are totally emission free. In fact, they are bound to produce some issues once on the road and the best people to answer these things in mind is no other than Toyota itself.

With the current Toyota Prius they looked at a vehicle’s whole life cycle, how it’s made, driven and disposed of. Based on 10 years’ use and driving 150,000km, the Prius achieves a 43 per cent reduction in the amount of CO2 emissions during its life when compared to a petrol engine vehicle of a similar size.

Although it is accepted that there are more emissions used in the initial manufacture of the vehicle and, in particular, its battery, after about 11,000km of driving, the life cycle CO2 becomes less than that for a similar petrol vehicle. It passes out diesel at 35,000km.

Toyota added that, given the improvements within the production process at the Tsutsumi plant in Japan where Prius is produced, it is quite possible that these figures have improved since this report was first produced.

(Source) Independent

Tags: batteries, co2 emissions, life cycle, petrol engine, Toyota, toyota prius

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Skoda has unveiled in Geneva its much hyped Fabia Sport Design Concept, the best car that the company has plans to bring out in recent times.

Part of the Fabia’s success is the fact that all of its mechanical parts are developed by or in conjunction with Volkswagen, but are offered in a package that is priced to undercut other models in the Volkswagen Group. The only trace of non-VW Škoda left in the Fabia is the 1.4 8v “MPI” Engine, which was a modification to Škoda’s own 1.3 engine, and was used in pre-Volkswagen Škodas such as the Estelle and Favorit.

It is said that the next Fabia vRS is set to use the VW group’s 1.4-litre TSI petrol engine rather than the old car’s powerful turbodiesel motor.

(Source) Khabrein.info

Tags: concept car, estelle, fabia vrs, Geneva, hyped, petrol engine, sport design, volkswagen, volkswagen group, vw group

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The Aussie counterpart of the widely popular Chevy Volt comes in the form of the 2012 Holden Volt, a sleek right-hand car whose details were released just recently.

GM Holden Chairman and Managing Director Mark Reuss said the company had been overwhelmed by public interest in Volt since announcing it would launch in Australia in 2012.

“We think Volt has the potential to change the game in Australian motoring,” Mr Reuss said.

“Since we announced our plans to introduce Volt to Australia, we have been overwhelmed by public interest in the car and the technology that makes it work.

“There is no doubt that Volt’s advanced propulsion systems represent some of the most exciting alternative fuel developments in motoring.

General Motors estimates that compared to similar sized petrol-powered vehicles, Volt will save motorists up to 1892 liters of fuel a year. This is based on US research that identifies 75 per cent of commuters travel an average daily distance of less than 40 miles (64 kilometers).

When Volt’s battery energy is depleted, a small petrol engine generates enough electricity to power the vehicle for hundreds of additional kilometers.

Volt is planned for manufacture at GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly and is scheduled for launch in the US in late 2010. The right-hand-drive version will launch later.

(Source) Jalopnik

Tags: alternative fuel, battery energy, chevy volt, counterpart, General Motors, gm holden, holden chairman, kilometers, motorists, petrol engine, propulsion systems, reuss

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The latest edition of the Honda Accord is perhaps the smoothest and sweeter version ever to be introduced by the German-based manufacturers. The new Honda Accord 2.4 i-VTEC Ex comes with 2.4 petrol engine paired with an automatic gearbox.

To most Europeans, a big automatic saloon with a largish four-cylinder petrol engine looks like a recipe for roughness, limp performance and poor fuel economy. So it is all to Honda’s credit that this new Accord promises a smooth and swift ride important to most car buyers today.

(Source) The Independent

Tags: automatic gearbox, europeans, german manufacturers, Honda, honda accord, petrol engine

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