Filed under: Hybrid, MPG, Ferrari, Fiat
With European Union regulators preparing to clamp down on automotive carbon dioxide emissions, the lower volume manufacturers of high performance cars are wondering how they can possibly meet the new requirements. This conundrum may be partly behind why Porsche has recently taken a controlling interest in Volkswagen. Presumably the fleet average will be a weighted calculation over all the vehicles produced by a company.
One company almost never thought of when considering green anything (except for cash) is Ferrari. The home of the prancing stallion makes a few thousand of the most expensive, beautiful, fast and thirsty cars on the planet every year. Meeting any kind of CO2 emissions limit would be nearly impossible on their own without destroying the essence of what a Ferrari is. Nonetheless they must find a way.
One part of the plan will surely involve lumping their fleet in with 85 percent stakeholder FIAT but they will likely go further than that. Diesels have apparently been ruled out as has biofuel, although eliminating ethanol as an option seems silly. Ferrari could surely do a turbocharged ethanol burner that would achieve their required levels of performance. The company has pulled some of the Formula One engineers into the the discussions and options like hybrids are being considered and elements like regen braking, start-stop, and direct injection would seem like obvious choices. Will they follow Tesla’s lead away from internal combustion altogether? Unlikely, but you never know.
[Source: Elmundo.es via MotorAuthority]
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