BMW certainly hasn't been shy in promoting its hydrogen-powered vehicles, and that promotion extends into some classrooms. As part of its education/promotion campaign, BMW has issued a document called H2 - Mobility of the Future, and yesterday provided an updated version of the package on this website by clicking on the heading "Educational Projects."

What's in this "educational package"? 31 chapters on the supply of hydrogen, how fossil and renewable energy will continue to play a role in BMW's future and how we'll eventually get to a hydrogen economy. The H2 package also includes "an extensive glossary, a list of additional internet links, as well as a portfolio of exercises specially tailored to the needs of pupils aged 15 and older. Practical notes from Germany's State Institute for Teaching Quality and Education Research (ISB) on the inclusion of the materials in science teaching round off this information pack." Sound like good reading? The Bavarians will mail you a free print copy if you'd like (see details after the jump).

[Source: BMW]

German automakers like BMW, Mercedes, and Porsche have been at the forefront of battling the proposed EU carbon dioxide emissions limits. Those manufacturers have traditionally had among the highest fuel consumption averages because of all the high performance cars they build. In spite of that, BMW actually had the greatest reduction in CO₂ emissions from its fleet in 2007. BMW's fleet average fuel consumption dropped by 7.3 percent from 2006 to 2007 and its CO₂ emissions went from 184 g/km to 170 g/km. The average improvement for all the big manufacturers was only 1.7 percent. That's still well above the 158 g/km average for all large manufacturers and the 130 g/km target for 2012. Nonetheless it shows the progress that's possible even without sacrificing too much performance capability. BMW has already declared that it will not pursue building supercars instead focusing on more efficient powertrains. Hyundai and Daimler also made significant improvements of 3.9 and 3.5 percent respectively. The final form of the new regulations are still being debated and are scheduled for a vote in the European Parliament's Environment Committee on Sept. 8-9.

[Source: European Federation for Transport and Environment]

Preparing for the next-generation of auto dealerships, the Bill Jacobs BMW/MINI shop will break ground September 12 in Naperville, IL. The dealer's website features a countdown timer and a whole heap of information about how Bill Jacobs' crew hopes to make the building a way to "discuss the importance of eco-friendly initiatives in the automotive industry, as well as why automotive retailing is ready for these sorts of changes." How ready? Well, the shop will have a BMW Hydrogen 7 on hand on the 12th, so let's just say that they're ahead of the curve. The building will also feature sun shading, low VOC paints and "will take advantage of water, recycling and ventilation technologies to make the dealership more environmentally stable." Sensible.

[Source: Bill Jacobs Groundbreaking]

Click to view the BMW Vision EfficientDynamics concept in hi-res

The automotive industry seems to be heading in two diametrically opposed directions: developing fuel-efficient, environmentally-friendly cars on the one hand, and a seemingly never-ending race for more horsepower on the other. While BMW continues to produce overpowered performance vehicles like the V8-powered M3 and V10-powered M5 and M6 to gun for top honors in the latter category, executives in the Bavarian automaker insist that their main focus is on the former.

In an interview with AutoTelegraaf, Klaus Draeger, the BMW board member spearheading the EfficientDynamics program, says that, despite the unveiling of the M1 Hommage supercar concept, BMW will not be producing a competitor to the Audi R8 supercar. Citing deployment of the EfficientDynamics system in 850,000 vehicles this year alone, Draeger says that the company will instead focus on green technologies. "That is our biggest investment in the coming years." We'll see.

[Source: AutoTelegraaf via eGMCarTech]

Two weeks ago, the 2008 Hydrogen Road Tour started up in Maine. Today, the tour made its final stop in Los Angeles, following a cross-country tour that opened new hydrogen stations in Missouri and Massachusetts along the way. BMW's Hydrogen 7 was along for the ride and the Bavarians sent out a press release today announcing the completion of the 4,000-mile trip (read it after the jump). BMW sent along two dual-fuel Hydrogen 7 and two mono-fuel versions of the luxury sedan. The hydrogen-only version of the 7 has a range of 200 miles of hydrogen-only driving. This is just one more example of the many, many miles of PR BMW has gotten out of these vehicles and with the Hydrogen Road Tour now over, do you think this is all we've heard about the Hydrogen 7? Not very likely.

[Source: BMW]

Apparently, the problems that BMW Sauber had with its Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) are completely correctable. The racing team also believes that its mechanics and drivers were never in any real danger despite the high voltage system carried by the Formula 1 car. It seems that there was some sort of discharge due to a faulty controller. Whoops! The mechanic was thrown to the ground after touching both the carbon chassis and steering wheel of the race car. Why then, you may wonder, was the driver not harmed? BMW believes that Christian Klien was protected by his racing suit and gloves.

The problem was difficult to trace due to the controller's sporadic failure... sometimes it worked, sometimes, well, not so much. Fortunately, the lengthy period BMW spent searching for the problem will result in a much safer system and the team plans to begin testing again in the autumn. For the 2009 season, the entire roster will be racing with the KERS hybrid systems installed.

[Source: F1-Live]

We have heard all about these European hypermilers who manage to churn out 45-50mpg U.S. in production cars, usually with high-technology turbocharged diesels. However, British TV station Channel 4's motoring website 4Car has carried out real-world fuel economy tests on eight low-emissions cars (5 diesels, 2 gasoline and one hybrid) and has found out that they didn't meet the official mileage and CO₂ emission figures. Although the EU driving cycle is more theoretical than real-world driving, the difference is quite stunning. For instance, the worst offender was the Ford Focus Econetic, which got 11mpg Imperial (9mpg U. S. or almost 1l/100 km) worse in the Channel 4 tests than the official numbers whould have us believe. Moreover, higher fuel usage means that these cars pollute more than expected, and means they should fall in a different Vehicle Excess Duty (Road Tax) band and the driver should pay a higher rate. Follow us after the jump for the complete list and their press release which explains their evaluating method.

[Source: 4Car]

Yesterday a National Hydrogen Road Tour kicked off in Portland ME. A motley collection of ten hydrogen fueled vehicles from a variety of manufacturers will be making their way from Maine to California over the next two weeks. The cars including the VW Tiguan HyMotion along with cars from BMW, Honda, Toyota, GM and others will be making 31 stops in 19 states along the way. Not all of the vehicles will be driven the entire route. General Motors for example will bring out its Project Driveway Fuel cell Equinox in the cities where that program is running, New York, Washington and Los Angeles. BMW will be using the mono-fuel (hydrogen only) version of the Hydrogen7 and is planning to cover the entire route. The tour is being sponsored by the California Fuel Cell Partnership, the Departments of Energy and Transportation and the National Hydrogen Association to promote hydrogen as a way to promote hydrogen's potential as a fuel. VW's John Tillman is writing a tour blog as they cross the country in the Tiguan. The VW press release is after the jump.

[Source: Volkswagen]

Researchers are competing to meet a challenge from the U.S. Department of Energy: Improve fuel economy 10 percent by converting wasted exhaust heat into energy that can help power the vehicle. That's not a trivial improvement: 10 percent savings would amount to more than 100 million gallons of fuel per year in GM vehicles in the U.S. alone.

So this is where a group of researchers have created a metallic device which is attached to the exhaust pipe, producing electricity from the otherwise wasted heat: a thermoelectric generator, a device that uses temperature differences to create electricity. When installed on a Chevy Suburban, it improved by 1mpg (which is 5 percent). The generated electricity was used to reduce the load on the alternator, therefore using less fuel through reduced parasitic losses. A Suburban produces 15 kilowatts of exhaust heat energy during city driving, which is enough to power three or four air conditioners simultaneously. When cruising between 50 and 60 mph, the generator can produce about 800 watts of power, which is enough to power the GPS device, the DVD player and potentially the water pumps. This device will be installed in a 2009 Suburban and a BMW to check how effective it becomes in real life.Thanks to my friend Chuck for the tip.

[Source: Associated Press]

In Germany there is a long history of small aftermarket companies that specialize in taking production vehicles from one of the big German automakers and transforming it into something special. That something special usually amounts to taking cars that already have a healthy amount of power and making it an insane amount along with some body modifications and suspension upgrades. AMG (now owned by Mercedes) and Brabus specialize in tuning cars from Stuttgart while Alpina's focus is on BMWs. Alpina's latest effort is based on the 3-Series coupe with propulsion coming from a version of the 2.0L dual turbo diesel in the 123d. The D3 Bi-Turbo gets only a slight bump in power from 204 to 214 hp. Torque however swells from 295 lb-ft to 332 lb-ft. That's good enough for a sub 7 second 0-60 run while still getting a combined 43.6 mpg (US) with CO2 emissions of 143 g/km (all with the manual transmission). Attractive new wheels and lower air dam give the D3 a distinctive appearance from a run of the mill 3-Series as well.


[Source: Alpina]

The Kinetic Energy Recovery System will indeed be affixed to the powertrains of Formula 1 cars in 2009. The issue of whether the hybrid system should be delayed was recently brought up, with Renault calling a meeting of all the teams together to discuss the problem. It seems that BMW, Honda and Williams were all ready to go with their systems, as these three manufacturers voted in favor of the KERS technology for the '09 racing season. In fact, Honda has already successfully track tested its system and sees no reason why it can't be made safe. Even BMW believes it can have its system ready in time, despite the jolting wake-up-call that one of its mechanics recently got from a test-car equipped with the high-voltage system. Because a consensus is needed in order to change the previous decision, the KERS system appears to officially have the green light for '09.

[Source: autosport.com]

A grey 520d station wagon delivered in Munich and owned by Dr. Thomas Leske has become the 1-millionth BMW with EfficientDynamics. The choice of the model was significant, because BMW has also announced a 177hp 520d model with CO₂ emissions under 140 g/km for next Fall (at least in Germany). This model is is also Euro 5-compliant, and uses 5.1 l/100 km (46 mpg U. S.) as a sedan, or 5.3 l/km (44 mpg U. S.) for the Touring wagon. Moreover, a 2009-model 330d was also announced with BluePerformance (that is it uses an AdBlue NOx reduction system) which is Euro 6 compliant, the mandatory anti-pollution ruling for 2014. BMW claims that thanks to EfficientDynamics, its lineup of cars burns 25 percent less fuel than in 1995.

[Source: BMW]

For many motorists, V8 means the quintessential type of engine. Power and a beautiful roar from under the hood are its typical signatures, but it's also a synonym for high fuel consumption and a general sense of being dirty. Nevertheless, there are a certain number of V8 engines, and not only diesels, which spot decent fuel consumption and German site Auto-News has gathered them. Coming from a German source, it doesn't spot any small-block Chevy but besides Teutonics, there are three members from the Toyota family and a Briton. Curious? Follow us after the jump for the complete list.

[Source: Auto-News.de]

Click above for a high-res gallery of the 2009 BMW 3-Series

Earlier this morning we were tipped that BMW would be delaying its 335d until some time next year. According to BMW, this is not the case. While we were attempting to get a hold of a Bavarian spokesperson ourselves, we were beat to the punch by Kicking Tires, who confirmed with BMW spokesman Tom Plucinsky that the vehicles will begin production in September and go on sale in the U.S. in November of this year. The machines will be marketed as 2009 model-year vehicles. A short time after the 335d reaches a showroom near you, the X5 xDrive35d will show up, still likely in November. The official debut of the car in North America will be at the upcoming L.A. Auto Show.

Related:

• BMW confirms fall launch for U.S. diesels, racing to beat Mercedes
• BMW estimates US spec 335d will achieve 23/33 mpg

[Source: Kicking Tires]

Click above for high-res gallery of the BMW 123d

We've reviewed a number of high-mileage and alternative fuel cars that can't be purchased here in the USA. Why bother wasting time on such unobtainable machines you might ask? It's because the number of high mileage cars available in this market is relatively small compared to elsewhere in the world. Even more scarce are high mileage cars that are fun and interesting to drive. Until we get to buy more hybrid, electric and diesel-fueled cars here, we will keep bringing you samples of what the rest of the world has to offer. With that in mind we bring you the BMW 123d. BMW introduced the 1-series to the U.S. market for the 2008 model year, but only with six-cylinder gasoline engines. Across the pond buyers have the choice of three variants of a 2.0L four-cylinder diesel engine with various power levels. Automotive supplier Bosch tossed us the fob (no premium cars use actual keys anymore) to a 123d for a week. Read on to find out what it was like.


Photos Copyright ©2008 Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc.