This month's Geneva Motor Show had a strong environmental focus from a number of major motor manufacturers keen to show off their latest 'green' offerings. These included Volkswagen's new Polo, the Bluemotion version of which is billed as the 'greenest' car available, with a potential CO2 rating of just 87g/km.
The 2009 Geneva motor show may have been a little subdued because of the world economic downturn, but there was a lot for fleet operators to look forward to.
On show were around a dozen cars with carbon emissions of 100g/km or less and all set for production in the next year or so. And, while some of these were smaller volume hybrids, the majority were derivatives of popular models, such as the Golf and Polo Bluemotion at 99g/km and 87g/km respectively, and the Peugeot 207 at 99g/km.
'Green' cars in larger sizes included the VW Passat Bluemotion at 119g/km and the Mercedes E-Class at 139g/km.
Volkswagen revealed the new Polo complete with six engine options - three 1.2-litre and one 1.4-litre petrol engines, and two 1.6-litre diesels. The most popular is predicted to be the 60PS 1.2-litre petrol.
The greenest model comes next year with a new three-cylinder 1.2-litre diesel to go into the new Bluemotion version of the car. It comes with stop-start tech and aims to limit emissions to just 87g/km, slightly less than the Smart diesel's 88g/km, while providing a claimed 85 miles per gallon.
The new Polo is expected to be priced about the same as the current model despite being bigger and having more features such as standard electronic stability control.
Prices for the new three-door Polo start at €12,150 in Germany, where it goes on sale from this month.
Volkswagen is gearing up for a new generation of green vehicles, starting with low-CO2 Passat models and the company's first hybrid, the Touareg parallel hybrid, due to be launched next year.
This will use Audi's s 3.0-litre V6 petrol engine, together with a Bosch electric motor and Sanyo-supplied battery. Further hybrids are planned, the most likely, according to VW, being a petrol-electric Golf-sized vehicle.
Also in the Volkswagen group, SEAT unveiled a concept of its Leon hatchback in Geneva that is capable of emissions of just 99g/km and economy of 74.3mpg.
Although it was on show only in concept form, the car on display was likely to be very similar to the one that will reach the showrooms, offering the same economy and emissions figures when it does. It achieves the feat through a 1.6-litre commonrail diesel engine, and will be the first Seat to offer a stop-start system when it is released in 2010.
It will match the Golf Bluemotion, coming later this year, as the lowest-emitting car in the lower medium class, apart from Toyota's hybrid Prius at 89k/km.
Ford was another manufacturer that was showing off green, stop-start technology in its latest Iosis concept car. According to Ford, the Iosis Max features lots of design cues for a car that will replace the C-max.
A 1.6-litre petrol engine with a stop-start system powers the concept, which is the latest of several Ford concepts to carry the Iosis name. Ford predicts that it will be capable of emissions of just 125g/km. The car also features new, efficient turbo-charging petrol engine technology dubbed Ecoboost, and is expected on Ford cars from 2010.
First for the number of new launches was Renault, who gave world debuts to seven models at Geneva, including the recently face-lifted Clio hatchback, the Clio Sport tourer estate and the new range-topping hot hatch, the Renaultsport 200.
The Megane family saw the addition of the Scenic and Grand Scenic people carriers, the Megane Sport Tourer estate and the Renaultsport 250 hot hatch.
Further up the scale, Lexus showed off its new hybrid RX450h in Geneva with claimed emissions of just 148g/km of CO2.
The luxury off-roader has boosted its efficiency compared to its RX400h predecessor by 28% to 44.8mpg. It also comes with a power output of 299PS, which means it can sprint to 62mph in just 7.8secs and keeps going until 124mph.
The RX450h, which goes on sale in the summer, uses two electric motors in the same way as its predecessor, one of which can control the rear wheels to make the car four-wheel-drive when necessary.
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