Small, Green Cars Here & Abroad
Wednesday, September 23, 2009 4:36 PM
Carmakers are thinking small - prompted by the environment and today's austere economy where every penny counts.
Today, Ford Motor Co. unveiled the Figo - its first small car to be manufactured in India. The four-door hatchback is named after an Italian word for "cool" and will be sold first in India, and later exported to international markets.
Small cars make up 73 percent of the 1.22 million cars sold in India. Read more from the Wall Street Journal.
And while Ford has set up shop in India to help corner the emerging Southeast Asian auto market, India is coming to New York. The Reva Electric Car Co. of India said it is planning to build a multi-million dollar automobile plant in upstate New York, where it will build battery-operated cars.
Reva now produces the two-seat EV, marketed under G-Wiz in Britain and the Reva in India). Click here to read more.
In the meantime, Fisker Automotive has received $529 million in low-interest loans from the U.S. Department of Energy to produce the Karma, a high-end, plug-in hybrid. Fisher will launch the car next summer, and it should retail for about $88,000.
Fisker says more than 1,500 customers have already placed orders. The car's plug-in hybrid technology operates exclusively on electric power for the first 50 miles. Then the gas engine turns a generator, which charges the car's lithium-ion battery during driving.
The Karma will be able to surge from 0 to 60 mph in 5.8 seconds and reach a maximum speed of 125 mph. Read more here.