French technology and car manufacturer MDI, is bringing its smart and simple, zero pollution car to the U.S.

If you thought the Citroen had a unique style, this car is offering some sort of trippy tribute to that car maker. Check out the AirPod (I’m sure Apple won’t litigate…).

The AirPod - It's French!

It’s like Jacques Cousteau wanted to resuscitate his Pacer.

And then there’s the MiniFlowAir (I’m sure Mini won’t litigate…).

The MiniFlowAir - It's French!

So next year, the year of the Chevy Volt, the year of the Nissan Leaf, will also be the year of the MDI air-compressed cars in the U.S. market. We’re looking at a 75 horsepower car, that goes 35mph (up to 90 mph with some gas involved), with a range of 1,000 miles at about a buck and a half to fill up, and has an initial investment of less than $20,000. That all adds up to interesting.

The first car the company will roll out in the U.S. will probably be the 4-door, 6-passenger CityFlowAir.

CityFlowAir

Not bad. While the CityFlowAir (or whatever better name they end up calling it) will probably start as a neighborhood compressed-air car (I might as well add the acronym NCAC), it has the capability of going much further. Sure, it’s no performance vehicle, but it’s got that one added bonus of saving the planet. i9z75k46nu

e-Zone Cop Car in China

Go China!

The car fits the niche of what’s coined the neighborhood electric vehicle (NEV) or city drive electric vehicles (CDEV). I personally prefer STGCEV (storm trooper golf car electric vehicles).

e-Zone NEV

The vehicle has quick-charge technology that lets it power up in 10 minutes (according to the company) from a standard 110-volt outlet and can go 70 miles on a single charge. It also includes a McPherson suspension system and 4-wheel drive with 4 direct-drive, in-wheel motors. The e-Zone includes regenerative braking using electromagnetic technology.

Potential U.S. plants to manufacture the e-Zone and its sister car the c-Zone (this is where the golf cart comes in) include Alabama, California, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. The company plans to employ about 2,600 workers and managers over the next five years with the hope of employing more than 10,000 workers by 2014 — with a major presence on the West Coast and the Southeast.

Lee Young Ki, president of CT&T, in an interview with Maeil Economy said the company plans to build “40 EV plants with the capacity of 5,000-10,000 units per year in the United States, including 10 plants in the state of California… 4 plants in Atlanta, Hawaii, and other locations.”

If CT&T does open up plants across the U.S., it should be careful about press releases with language like the “e-Zone is good for women and the elderly”… y’know, to bring home all the ingredients to mix their husband’s perfect hi-ball. Ugh. At least its environmental heart is in the right spot.

e-Zone

The e-Zone is expected to cost from about $8,000 to $17,500, which might be a hard sell in the U.S. when scooters can be bought for a fraction of that cost. Then again, CT&T also makes scooters.

Open the blast doors!

Vinod Khosla, one of the original founders of Sun Microsystems, is investing heavily in alternative energy. One of his recent investments is Transonic Combustion.  He wants to make the internal combustion engine 50% more efficient.

While Ford, GM and Daimler have been working on incremental improvements in the combustion engine, Khosla believes that only a startup can take the leaps necessary for radical change.

In May, Transonic received its C round of funding to improve upon its TSCi™ fuel injection system and get its technology to market.

EPA Cycle Testing of Transonic's Technology Demonstrator Vehicle (left) and TSCiTM R&D Prototype Injectors (right)

According to the company, “Transonic Combustion is on course to directly supply global automotive manufacturers with its high efficiency fuel injection systems. Transonic’s TSCi fuel injection system has demonstrated extraordinary fuel economy and lower emissions, while also running gasoline effectively within diesel architectures. To date, testing on several different engine platforms with multiple customers and multiple fuels has regularly achieved air-to-fuel ratios in excess of 80:1 at cruise conditions, with engine-out NOx at just 50% of comparable standard engines. These promising results have led to significant engagement with leading global automotive and engine makers.”

Fifty percent reduction in nitrous oxide exhaust. Fifty percent increase in efficiency.

Those are some nice numbers — and big promises.

Today’s engines transform about 15% of fuel into energy. Transonic promises 30%. What’s more, the company claims that major auto manufacturers don’t need to replace current engines wholesale but can adapt current designs to include the technology. The company also claims to have three of the top global car companies ready to use the technology.

Transonic expects it’s fuel injectors to be included in millions of engines over the next few years. Keep an eye out for this Khosla venture.

Classic Mercedes Gullwing

In July, Mercedes announced that it’s developing the SLS AMG Gullwing eDrive — and it promises a car that can do 0-60 mph in about four seconds. The all-wheel drive car has four electric motors (one per wheel, unlike the Tesla which has one for the rear axle only) and two transmissions. Mercedes says the car will have 525 horsepower and 649 lb/ft of torque.

The eDrive is powered by a liquid-cooled 400-volt lithium-ion battery of modular design with an energy content of 48 kWh and a capacity of 40 Ah.

According to Mercedes, the eDrive version of the SLS AMG Gullwing puts it on an even footing with the SLS AMG with a 6.3-litre V8 engine developing 420 kW/571 hp.

Pricing for the 2011 Mercedes SLS AMG Gullwing (non-electric version) is slated to go for about $250,000. For a high-end vehicle like this, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the eDrive version go for $50,000 more.

Car and Driver has some early photos of the new car. Call me crazy but it seems to be styled out like an American car.

Mercedes SLS AMG Gullwing

With an eDrive, the SLS AMG will be green and mean — but no word yet on how far a charge will take you.

Nissan Leaf - Coming in 2010

This is a smart move for Nissan. The design will be appealing to the average car buyer and should give other manufacturers a run for their money, especially if Nissan’s claims of the model being “affordable” are true.

Also smart is Nissan’s claim that the car will achieve 100 miles on a charge (compare that to the Chevy Volt’s current claim of about 40 miles).

bird's eye (front)

back side

Dashboard

interior (driver's side)

plug it in

Nissan Tiida EV-IT

The EV prototype electric car contains a 80kW/280Nm (207 lb·ft) electric motor, 24kWh lithium-ion battery pack rated 160km distance (about 100 miles), navigation system, EV remote control and monitoring.

The battery pack is positioned beneath the car’s floor to enable more cargo and people room within it. The battery will recharge in four hours plugged into a 220 volt socket (used for a typical washer and drier), or 14 hours in your average 110 volt socket.

Because Nissan expects this to be a mass market vehicle, it will have to be priced accordingly — and we’ll be keeping an eye out on the pricing when it comes to market in 2010.

According to Joule, in the past two years it’s developed its Helioculture technology—a process that uses sunlight to convert carbon dioxide into the company’s SolarFuel liquid energy in a SolarConverter device.”

How does it work? It’s not exactly simple but the good news is, it doesn’t need farmland or fresh water. In the company’s own words, the patent-pending Helioculture™ technology “leverages highly-engineered photosynthetic organisms to catalyze the conversion of sunlight and CO2 to usable transportation fuels and chemicals. The scalable SolarConverter™ system facilitates the entire process—from sunlight capture to product conversion and separation—with minimal resources and polishing operations. This represents a significant advantage over biomass-derived biofuels, including newer algae- and cellulose-based forms, which are hindered by varying obstacles: costly biomass production, numerous processing steps, substantial scale-up risk and capital costs.”

Joule SolarConverter

Basically biotech agents use sunlight to transform CO2 to fuel (and by-products) — and according to the company at a cost of less than $50 per barrel (current price per barrel is approximately $70 per barrel).

Currently, the U.S. consumes about 21 million barrels of oil every day according to the CIA. Joule says it can create 20,000 gallons of SolarFuel liquid energy per acre per year. So let’s do the math: 20,000 gallons of SolarFuel liquid energy equals about 476 barrels of oil. 476 barrels divided by 365 days per year equals 1.3 barrels produced per day per acre. That’s a whole mess of acres needed to get this beast going to make a dent in the nation’s energy needs.

But… the company says the product is scalable and already has a SolarCollecter prototype running in New Mexico.

We’ll be keeping an eye on Joule in 2010.

What’s causing the rapid rise? Wall Street couldn’t possibly be looking at the automaker’s false $2.3 billion quarterly profit announced last week (at an operating loss of $424 million). And surely it can’t be Monday’s news of S&P’s outlook of Ford changing from “negative” to “developing”. Not likely.

Odds are, Ford is continually making improvements to its vehicles — improvements that matter. Last week it announced its Escape hybrid received new nickel metal hydride cells that offer 20 percent more power.

The same week, it announced that its new 2.0-liter EcoBoost 4-cyclinder engine will debut in 2010 (that’s Ford’s version of a gasoline turbocharged direct injection (GTDI) engine), along with a 6-speed dual-clutch Powershift gearbox.

Those are the steady small gains while the company aggressively pursues plug-in hybrid and hydrogen fuel-cell powered vehicles.

Plus the company’s finally paying attention to design and beginning to compete with Euro cars.

Ford Flex

That combined with paring down labor costs — and all the sudden Ford has a fighting chance of holding on to $7 and seeing a slower-paced rise into 2010.

But will the company make it to 2010 without asking for its own bailout?