A New Generation of Green Wheels

By Kristina Grifantini

A New Generation of Green Wheels

A gallery of electric and hybrid vehicles on display at the International Motor Show in Frankfurt, Germany.

The Mercedes and Daimler AG Smart was developed in collaboration with chemical company BASF.

The electric concept car's transparent roof is made of solar panels that supply energy for climate control and the sound system. Plastic wheels make the car lighter, and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDS) inside the car supply low-power energy. An infrared-reflective film material developed by BASF also helps keep the inside of the car cool.

Credit: Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung

246 Days Ago
09/23/2011

hmmm

thermal fatigue and plastics are not friends.

but im sure the engineers at BASF made their

material to be a viable solution for wheels...

246 Days Ago
09/23/2011

....

Sorry TR but do you really need this tedious clicklines, especially if they reek like produkt-placement? Or do you need the page-impressions for some BS like Website-popularity ranking?

The german branch of Technology Review has some very good journalists which could cover the innovations that are shown on the IAA. They could do that even with some "content" other then this senseless "goes to 70 in x seconds".

Seriously you are "Technology Review" so review some of the technolgies in the cars indeepth, thats why i atleast read this page - to get an overview on new respective the latest technology and rechnical Solutions.

244 Days Ago
09/25/2011

It's a lost war my friend. TR has been clearly taken over by media "gurus", with all the emptiness that such thing implies

243 Days Ago
09/26/2011

Tab recover on IE8

Upon every click at TR my browser has to recover the tab. (I'm on IE8 in WinXP) Don't know what the backend software is running this site, but there's some fixin' need doin' if you want to keep readers.

243 Days Ago
09/26/2011

Too much 'design', too little engineering

I wish the electric car folks would just concentrate on making the thing work and spend less time on weird styling. I always suspect they are trying to divert attention away from bad engineering.

I want simple to use, efficient transportation which would just "get me there" while I work on something creative instead of wasting brain cycles on manipulating a vehicle.

Self-driving electric "pods" anyone?

243 Days Ago
09/26/2011

So true. So very tired of the 'green' concept cars that will obviously never see the light of a dealer showroom. The only exceptions in this presentation are, there will actually be a Smart electric (I think), and of course the Lexus hybrid. A few dead giveaways: if it looks weird, you will never ever be able to buy one. If it has gull-wing doors, the designers are not serious. Isolated wheels sticking out to the side or behind? Neverland. Three wheels? Vaporware. "Neighborhood" pixie cars that cost as much as a fully equipped Prius but are basically geared up golf cars? Don't think so.

.

A real alt-energy car that will make an impact will look pretty much like a Leaf or a Prius or maybe an Insight. Four wheels, regular old doors with hinges, a good old hatch or even (gasp) a trunk. The good stuff will be under the bodywork.

226 Days Ago
10/13/2011

Next steps? Technology that is available now and drastically reduces our oil dependency? How about a Prius, Volt, Leaf, that uses CNG!

243 Days Ago
09/26/2011

Yes indeed. How about an electrically assisted "Schweeb" See schweeb.com

238 Days Ago
10/01/2011

Very valid point.... in 20 years mobiles (or any other electronic device) have seen a complete revolution from pagers to tablets... but even after their existance for more than hundreds of years these car selling folks have still kept silly LEDs as a hype and don't know when the day will come when they will start imagining to think of removing those sturdy wheels and steering from the land rolling insects... these conceptual future cars don't hold any meaning to people who expect a change.

226 Days Ago
10/13/2011

I have long liked this idea. How about subways or BART (SF Bay) like transit systems that use individual pods or smaller 4 to 6 passenger pods that takes you directly to your stop instead of stopping at each stop. Cheaper to construct and operate and a faster commute for the public.

217 Days Ago
10/22/2011

Good idea?

Opel RAK e seems to flimsy to be marketing to young people. They are by far the most likely to get into an accident and the flimsy protection this thing offers will get a lot of their young people killed. Is that the message that Opel wants to send to the consumer? "We engineer to kill our youth."

BIG P.R. mistake!