French Hybrid Design Study Uses Wind Turbines To Recharge Batteries

Remember a few years ago when every wannabe gangsta was buying those awful “spinner” alloys for their beat up old Chevys and Oldsmobiles? Well, French artist and teacher Thierry Dumaine (who sounds like a character from a historical romance) has taken the concept of the spinner and applied it to an imaginary hydrid he calls the Ventile.

It’s all very simple. You know those bicycles that have pedal powered lights? Same principle, though in this case the fans are turned by the circular motion of the wheels and not by being affixed to the wheels themselves.

The fans power a generator that helps recharge the Ventile’s batteries. I don’t know how well this would work in the real world, mostly due to the Law of Conservation of Energy, but really who cares.

The Ventile is a sweet looking ride; sort of like the result of a 1930’s Ford being reinvented by MINI. There’s also a large underbody fan that is turned by air rushing over the vehicle’s underside; a far more realistic prospect for energy production. It’s not unlike that wind turbine car those two Germans used to cross Australia a few weeks back.

Dumaine’s creation was an entrant in the 2011 Michelin’s Challenge Design showcase, an annual exhibition of new automotive design talent on the web. You can check out our gallery below.

By Tristan Hankins

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Geneva’s Words from the Wise: Greener, Prettier and Pricier

With gas prices going up and car owners downsizing from V6’s to four cylinders and from luxury models to economical subcompacts, the question for automakers becomes; how do we remain profitable? As the automotive big wigs descend on Geneva with their latest and greatest models, this issue is weighing heavily on many minds. So, how does one do it?

Well, there are a few answers to this conundrum, one of which is move your subcompact cars upmarket. MINI has done it, Toyota is sort of doing it with the iQ and no doubt many of the world’s other automakers would very much like a piece of that pie. The answer lies very much in the look of a car: its design and the ambiance it gives off.

Ex-Fiat Chairman and current Ferrari CEO Luca di Montezemolo puts it succinctly: “Today, if you make small cars you cannot make poor cars. Even cars that are not expensive are making a big effort to present nice, good design, with accessories and color.”

Look at the radical design Mazda and Ford have taken with their otherwise staid Mazda2 and Fiesta models respectively, or compare the slab-sided Fiat Cinquecento of the 1990s with the current generation 500. Like that old adage says, “Sex(y) sells,” and even more so when it comes to cars.

Nissan cites the Juke as the perfect example of “form over function”; the small, youth-orientated SUV-wannabe commanding a hefty (for what it is) price tag of €18,000 (US$25,000). Then there’s the Range Rover Evoque, a car that goes against the company’s grain so much it seems like it came out of an alternative universe.

As an alternative to prettying up your smaller cars, car companies can make their bigger cars more appetizing to fuel price conscious buyers by making them more efficient. Automakers spend millions making subtle improvements in vehicle efficiency and investing in hybrid and EV drive systems.

Still, it will be an uphill challenge for many automakers attempting to make small and green the buzzwords of American car buyers. In the country that gave us the Cadillac Eldorado, the International CXT and the Hummer H1, can small, economical cars ever be more than an unhappy concession made by penniless motorists? Only time will tell.

By Tristan Hankins

Sources: NY Times

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