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Last month we wrote about Ferrari reducing its emissions by 40% over the next five years (by 2012). This week at the Detroit Auto Show, they took a step toward reaching that goal by introducing a concept car that runs on E85 (85% Ethanol, 15% Gasoline). The "Ferrari F430 Spider Biofuel" is essentially the always-beautiful Spider, but with a few modifications. The fuel injection system was tweaked and of course the computer systems were changed to reflect the differences in the fuel. Of course, that's not all -- it also comes with fancy green stripes.
Interestingly, these changes (not the stripes), actually increased the power output, likely due to ethanol's higher octane and being able to be used in higher compression engines, providing greater horsepower than from traditional gasoline. It also resulted in a 5% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, which doesn't sound like much, but if you consider that 85% of the fuel is nearly carbon-neutral (we must add some emissions due to processing of the organic matter), it's not a bad start.
But as Matt James so aptly put it, though I am paraphrasing, "it's still a fuel-intense Ferrari that's not really green, and for all the 4 or 5 times it's used in a year, from cradle to cradle it's still a net loss for the environment."
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written by Ivan Hajnal, January 18, 2008
It is GREEN because it will make it much more SEXY for the average Joe to buy a greener car each time! It is a statement, one should never underestimate the power of icons over the masses!
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written by filip, January 18, 2008
it wouldnt' be such a drama, as a ferari, bugatti, RR...isn't really sold in great masses.
if they were green, it would certainly be setting an example to the masses, and as 100.000 dollars more or less wouldn't really make a difference, i think they should make bigger efforts than that
if they were green, it would certainly be setting an example to the masses, and as 100.000 dollars more or less wouldn't really make a difference, i think they should make bigger efforts than that
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And Hank, do you seriously think that ethanol is 85% carbon neutral? Which GM engineer told you that? Read Joe's article.