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If you want to see the latest low and ultra-low emission vehicles – as well as development vehicles that aren’t even on sale yet – then Cenex LCV is the event to attend. Here’s our ‘pick of the show’ of the low carbon vehicles at LCV2014 that you need to know about…
The BMW i8 is the car that all driving enthusiasts who also understand that cars need to be more sustainable have been dreaming about for years. The BMW i8 looks fantastic, it has great performance, and we achieved more than 50mpg in the i8 during normal driving when we tested it – read our BMW i8 review. Critically, the BMW i8 shows that green cars can be incredibly aspirational. For its achievements with the i8 and the i3, BMW won the Low Carbon Car/Van Manufacturer of the Year Award, as well as the ‘Grand Prix’ Award for Outstanding Achievement in Low Carbon Transport (the ‘winner of winners’) at the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership (LowCVP) 2014 Low Carbon Champions Awards which were presented at a dinner during the LCV event.
One of the many vehicles at LCV2014 that showed how far the industry has progressed from the perception of green cars being boring was the Ariel Atom. However this was not a standard Ariel Atom, this car had a chassis made out of titanium – making this structure 45% lighter than the standard car. This Ariel Atom is not for sale – it’s the outcome of a project supported by the Niche Vehicle Network (NVN) to see if it’s possible to weld titanium into a chassis. Caged Laser Engineering managed to achieve this, although there were some rather significant challenges that the company had to overcome with welding such a large titanium structure. We drove the Atom around Millbrook’s hill circuit and it showed that lightweighting is a key, usually overlooked recipe for a rewarding driving experience, as well as for improved efficiency.
Many car buyers assume that all the components in the car they buy are developed and manufactured by the car company. However this isn’t the case, as companies such as Bosch develop many bright technical ideas that manufacturers subsequently adopt. Bosch is working away on various technologies to help lower emissions, amongst many other things, and it has decided to showcase its latest plug-in hybrid technology in a V12 Aston Martin DB9. By incorporating electric motors driving the front wheels, the result, as was evident on Millbrook’s high speed bowl, is an Aston Martin that has more power, more torque, more performance – as well as potentially much better economy. Like the Ariel Atom, this is not a car that you can buy from Aston Martin – yet – but like many vehicles on display at LCV, it points to the sort of cars that you may be able to buy in the future.
The LCV event has been running since 2008 and in the first few years no-one could have imagined that a 200mph+ hypercar would be on display at such a low carbon event, but that’s exactly what was on show at LCV2014 in the form of the McLaren P1. The P1 is a plug-in hybrid, meaning that it has a top speed of over 200mph yet official NEDC cycle emissions of less than 200g/km CO2. Plug-in hybrid technology will come to many new cars – not just hypercars – over the coming years.
Just to prove the point that plug-in hybrid technology is here and is appearing in a growing range of vehicles, the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV is the first (part-) electric 4×4. Thanks to its low company car tax rating of just 5% Benefit in Kind, its ability to drive on pure electric power for up to 32.5 miles before swapping to a potential 300+ mile petrol range, its all-round practicality, and its reasonable purchase price, the Outlander PHEV has now become the UK’s best-selling plug-in hybrid vehicle. Read our Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV review.
As if the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV isn’t an attractive enough financial proposition anyway, Mitsubishi launched a commercial variant of the 4×4 at the LCV show, which, in addition to being eligible for the government’s £5,000 Plug-in Car Grant, as well as just 5% BIK, is also much cheaper for businesses to buy due to the ability to reclaim the VAT on the purchase price.
Yet another car that blows away the perception of green cars being slow and dull, the all-electric Tesla Model S has a potential range of more than 300 miles, it has supercar levels of performance, zero company car tax, a £5,000 government subsidy, and it’s even available with seven seats. Read our Tesla Model S review.
The BMW i8 may have stolen the limelight from its little brother, but the BMW i3 is still an extremely desirable package, either in all-electric or range-extender form. Read our BMW i3 review.
The complete new Jaguar XE wasn’t at LCV, but its chassis and engine was. The Jaguar XE is a 75mpg four-door saloon which demonstrates that advanced downsized diesel engines, intelligent design, and a lot of aluminium can deliver sub-100g/km CO2 emissions, Euro 6 compliance, and a seriously desirable package.
Professor Gordon Murray and Innovate UK Chief Executive Iain Gray CBE revealed Yamaha’s all-electric MOTIV.e at LCV2014. The MOTIV.e utilises Gordon Murray Design’s iStream manufacturing technology which incorporates Formula One composite technology and delivers new levels of lightweight, safety, vehicle dynamics and manufacturing flexibility alongside low environmental impact. Innovate UK, the new name for the Technology Strategy Board, first invested in MOTIV.e’s underlying iStream and related technology in 2011 which formed part of a £9 million investment from its predecessors the T.25 and T.27.
The British all-electric Lightning GT was displayed on the stand of Magtec, the company that has developed the GT’s drivetrain. Lightning claims that the car will have a 0-60mph time of under 4.5 seconds and a top speed in excess of 175mph. Magtec was also using its all-electric double-decker bus to transport LCV visitors to Millbrook’s car park.
Another supercar at LCV? – what’s going on? The BAC Mono was on the Niche Vehicle Network (NVN) stand – although the Mono is lightweight and efficient anyway, this car has lightweight ceramic brakes developed by Surface Transforms, as part of an NVN project.
The Caterham 160 has a small engine, is very lightweight, and is super-economical – unfortunately we can’t report on the driving experience it as it wasn’t able to be driven…
The Morgan e3 is an electric three-wheeler – we can’t say much about how it drives as it wasn’t available for driving.
Read our review of
LCV2011
Read our review of
LCV2010
Read our review of
LCV2009
Read our review of
LCV2008
See the video from
Green-Car-Guide Live! 2008
, co-sponsored by Cenex
Read our review of the
Cenex Hybrid and Electric Vehicle Conference 2011
Read our review of the
2010 Green Vehicle Congress
Other electric and low emission vehicle event reviews:
Niche Vehicle Network Symposium 2013
Motorsport Industry Association Cleaner Racing Conference 2013
The Electric Vehicle Conference 2013
