Damon Hill and the New Tesla Sportscar

Today I caught up with Damon Hill as he was driving a black Tesla Roadster around London for the Greenfleet fuel challenge. The model is based on the Lotus Elise, and is in fact assembled by Lotus for Tesla in the UK.

Q: Good morning Damon. Can you tell us a bit about the Tesla, and what you think about it so far?

DH: Well, it's a sports car. It's designed on the model of a small sports car, so I think they're [Tesla] trying to say that, just because it's got an electric motor doesn't mean it can't be fun. I think that's very important to explain to people that this isn't some sort of puritanical kind of attempt to spoil everyone's enjoyment of the car....because those people love cars in their various forms, but we have to be able to make them accept the challenge that we need to try to make the world a better place and pollute less.

Q: Right. And how about performance?

DH: Well so far so good. I haven't really had a chance to take it out yet. I'm going to be driving around London as well, so the objective here is to see how efficient it is here, certainly on an urban cycle.

Q: Just practically, it gets 250 miles per charge, takes 3 hours to charge up, 0-60 in 4 seconds. How's that compare to, like a Porsche Carrera or something?

DH: I think you've probably got a ways to go as far as comparing performance to those sort of cars, but you could also ask, well, why do we need cars that perform like that on the road. I mean, the whole thing is an issue, and it's a question and I think by and large, it's pointless having a vehicle that can do 200 miles an hour if you're going to drive from Newham to London.

Q: So it's a nice way to..say your a business executive or a trader, you can still have a fun car but still, you know, flash around London

DH: I think it's about trying to be intelligent about it. I mean I don't think anyone wants to spoil anyone's fun, but we have to be a bit more intelligent I think about things because the message is quite clear that we can't keep on going like this.

For anyone interested, special edition models are still available for £79k

Get Lost Porsche - Make Room for the New Sports Cars

Move over Porsche.

The futuristic sports cars for the 21st Century are being developed by Tesla, RiverSimple, and now, the Lightning Motor Company.

According to reports, "the Electric Lightning GT appears to have everything an ecoconscious lover of British sports cars could want: a luxury interior, a top speed of 130mph and acceleration that would put a Porsche to shame." The Lightning GT will accelerate from 0-60mph in four seconds and will be able to travel up to 200 miles on a single battery charge.

They replaced the fuel tank, engine and transmission system found in standard vehicles with an electric motor inside each wheel. There is no gear stick, axle or drive shaft. "All of the power is generated at the wheel, the point at which it's required, which eliminates mechanical complexity and power losses experienced in standard sports cars," the company says.

The new prototype car will be unveiled at the British Motor Show in July.

New Video - Porsche Are the Real Dinosaurs

Email Address for the Head CEO of Porsche

If Londoners would like to personally communicate with the Dr. Wendelin Wiedeking, CEO of Porsche in Germany, about Porsche and the way they are behaving like the ugly German in the UK, then please use this email address. Always be sure to be formal and polite.

dr.wendelin.wiedeking@porsche.de

Neither Porsche Nor Boris Can Drive Away from Global Warming

Reprinted from an article in the New Statesman by Tony Bosworth at Friends of the Earth:

"The mayoral candidates need to consider global warming when discussing the congestion and emission charges.

Car ads sell us a particularly seductive modern day fantasy. We are promised open roads cutting through sweeping panoramic landscapes, speed, freedom, and excitement.

But for those of us who find ourselves inching along in snarled up traffic, the lack of speed isn’t the only difference between the dream and the reality of modern day motoring. Road transport accounts for about a fifth of the UK’s carbon emissions – and research shows using greener cars could be the fastest way to slash this. Therefore moves by national and local government to encourage drivers to use smarter cars – such as the Mayor of London’s proposal to increase the congestion charge to £25 for gas-guzzlers - are welcome.

Ken Livingstone’s proposal has infuriated Porsche, which has launched a legal challenge against what it brands a ‘disproportionate’ measure. Of the 53 types of car that Porsche sells in the UK, 51 would pay the higher charge. In a document seen by the Daily Telegraph, the car manufacturer estimates its sales would fall by 11 per cent if the higher charge came in.

The London congestion charge isn’t the only climate-changing initiative that Porsche opposes. Along with the rest of the car industry, Porsche - which boasts of “protecting the environment to the highest degree” - is fighting new targets to reduce pollution from new vehicles by increasing their fuel efficiency. Could the bottom line be concentrating their minds?

Of course, if Ken doesn’t get elected as Mayor of London on 1 May then Porsche’s London legal challenge will vanish into thin air. Both Boris Johnson and Brian Paddick would drop the proposed gas-guzzler charge.

It’s telling, though, that neither of them would abolish the congestion charge in the original central London zone, pledging only to reopen consultation on the more recent extension into west London. Boris’s promise to look at introducing a flexible pricing system to target the worst congestion seems sensible – until you consider that many of the capital’s top congestion hot-spots are actually in outer London.

Brian Paddick’s plan to introduce a London-wide charge for all cars entering London from outside the city are certainly ambitious, but it would need top notch monitoring technology and drastic negotiations with train and bus operators to ensure the infrastructure is in place to shuttle a high volume of incomers into the capital and out again.

The Lib Dem and Tory candidates have also pledged to re-phase traffic lights to get traffic moving faster – a move which neither takes account of those of us trying to cross the road on foot nor tackles the central problem of the sheer volume of traffic on London’s roads.

The congestion charge is not perfect, but it’s a vital tool that, now it is in place, can be fine tuned and perfected in time. And it is crucial in sending the message to the rest of the world that global warming is not something any of us can simply drive away from in a cloud of dust."

Dinosaur Hunt Leads Team to a Petrified Porsche

Today, campaigners from the Alliance Against Urban 4x4s led a dinosaur hunt through Berkeley Square to the Porsche dealership in Mayfair, exposing Porsche as a dinosaur company petrified by a changing climate. Unless Porsche adapts their business model they will become extinct.

Adorned in pith helmets and hiking boots, equipped with binoculars and dinosaur field guides, campaigners lead members of the public to seek out those last remaining urban dinosaurs, relics like the Porsche Cayenne Turbo, Porsche 911 GT2 and other prehistoric Porsche species. Their banner read: Petrified Porsche – Stop Being a Dinosaur: Adapt or Become Extinct, while placards asked passers by to spot the difference between an Anchiceratops and a Porschus Carbonosaurus.

Porsche forced themselves into the limelight in the UK by legally challenging the latest congestion charge plans. According to their legal papers they will be representing all band G car owners. However, preserving sales are blatantly Porsche's main, perhaps only concern. 44 of the 45 cars they produce are in Band G, and when the £25 congestion charge is introduced in October, Porsche expect sales to plummet by 11%.

Londoners aren't the only one's to feel the brunt of Porsche's position as a carbon dinosaur.

Porsche are also fighting any attempts towards meaningful and binding emissions reductions by seriously undermining the EU CO2 regulations. According to Citigroup Global Markets, "Porsche faces huge financial penalties if the EU's demands are not watered down. Porsche would need to improve its fleet average fuel consumption from 20 mpg to close to 40 mpg by 2012, to avoid fines of more than $736 million by 2016". To do this they would have to cut an eye watering average of 138gm/km CO2 per car in order to meet the current target of 120 gm/kmCO2 by 2012.

To amplify how ill prepared Porsche is for change, Herbert Ampfere, Porsche's manager for energy and environment, said that the new EU rules on CO2 could lead to the company's demise.

The Porsche Cayenne Turbo is one of the most polluting 4x4s on the market, emitting an extraordinary 358g of CO2 per kilometer. Its peculiar design is a prehistoric spectacle of both enormous power and weight. A Porsche Cayenne Turbo can travel up to 171 miles per hour, but in London you're more likely to be crawling along at 5 miles per hour in traffic rather than burning the tarmac like Porsche's ads might suggest.

Recently the Telegraph wrote "that 2008 is likely to go down as the year when even the most die-hard petrol-head realised that there will be no U-turn in the drive to abolish gas-guzzlers and develop more fuel-efficient cars. In the UK, Porsche's legal battle with London Mayor Ken Livingstone and the Chancellor's Budget measures to penalise thirsty cars may come to be seen as tipping points in officialdom's crackdown on the biggest emitters of C02. It's a situation being replicated around the world."

We expect to see a public backlash, and Porsche will suffer even more in its PR faux pas. Londoners feel that they, not Porsche, should decide whether or not to proceed with the CO2 charge on gas guzzling vehicles. To illustrate this point, some of the signatories on our petition against the Porsche legal challenge have included hefty comments such as the one below:

Mr. Robinson from NW11 writes: "I am disgusted by Porsche's attempts to prevent the imposition of a congestion charge on polluting cars in London. Porsche's stance looks both irresponsible and arrogant. And it is appalling PR. Even if the company choose not to support the ban by being so vocal in opposition they ally themselves with the past and not the future…Porsche are ensuring that they are seen to be irresponsible."

We feel that more actions are needed to challenge fossilized manufacturers, like Porsche, who are either oblivious like dodos or showing their teeth like velociraptors rather than clean up their vehicle fleets. Their engineering teams are perfectly able to make cars that don't create the excessive amounts of emissions of band G cars, yet that is where most have traditionally profited. With this new C Charge helping to change people's buying habits, the pressure is now on manufacturers like Porsche to produce and advertise cleaner cars for their customers.

With today's action we have focused the attention on a real dinosaur. We know Londoners will be watching to see if or how well Porsche can respond to the pressures for change.

Facts about Porsche

• Last year, Porsche also challenged the EU Commission as they drew up plans to set tough CO2 targets for the car industry. Porsche, who would be most affected by the new EU regulations, would need to cut an eye watering average of 138gm/km CO2 per car in order to meet the current target of 120 gm/kmCO2 by 2012.

• Porsche, as a member of ACEA have also lobbied for delays and weakening of years of European pollutant emissions standards for cars (Euro standards).

• In the USA, Porsche exerted their influence to weaken new CAFE standards in summer 2007. Porsche arranged for a Senator to offer an exemption ('application of an alternative average fuel economy standard') for small auto companies, and argued that as a low volume manufacturer, they couldn't meet 35 miles per gallon, requiring a weaker standard. The move was defeated.

• Porsche only produce gas guzzling and high-carbon emitting sports cars and SUV's. 44 out of 45 Porsche vehicles fall in Band G, the other in band F. The Cayenne Turbo is one of the most polluting 4x4s, with 378gCO2/km - that's nearly four times the level of the low emission VW Polo Blue Motion.

• The plain truth is - Porsche are at the top of the European league table as the most polluting
carmaker.

Porsche Makes a Public Apology to Londoners!

Today, in a breathtaking turnaround, the German sports car maker Porsche made a startling public apology to Londoners, and Mayor Ken Livingstone's Office!

According to Managing Director Andy Goss, Porsche apologized:

“For being so pigheaded in pushing for a judicial review of the recent changes in the congestion charge. A bit rash we know! Sorry. But now that we think about it, the change does actually seem quite a good idea.”

He continued, “And ok, you’ve got us. With a few of our mates, we have been doing our best to railroad EU plans to set binding emissions targets for gas guzzlers by 2012. Can’t blame us for having a go though can you? Ok, so you can. But look, we know it’s wrong”.

Finally, he added, “Oh, and last, but by no means least, we should stop claiming we’re ‘green’ while making incredibly polluting cars. So we’re pleased to announce a new concept model, taking the 4x4 into the 2x2 age.”

Wow. We're still a bit caught off guard here at the Alliance, but this goes to show that miracles do happen, even in the 21st century.

If anyone wants to thank Porsche directly for their tremendously courageous turnaround, they can be contacted by email at customer.assistance@porsche.co.uk or by telephone: +44 8457 911 911

Big Polluters Like Porsche or Rolls-Royce Have to Change

Today Europe's environment chief Stavros Dimas said that he personally sympathised with a plea made on the BBC recently by the former Shell boss Sir Mark Moody-Stuart.

In a Green Room article he urged the EU to set minimum standards for car efficiency in the same way they set minimum standards for fridges. He suggested totally banning cars that manage less than 35 mpg.

That would mean big polluters like Porsche or Rolls-Royce would have to radically change the way they make their cars or be banned from sale.

Mr Dimas said there was a clear ethical case for this argument - but that Europe had to protect its own industries too - and would stick by the current policy of asking manufacturers to produce 130g of CO2/km across the fleet.

Backtracking under pressure by the automotive lobby, Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, has done a complete climate change U-turn. According to the Times, “I will be standing up particularly for jobs in Germany’s car sector,” she said, under pressure from manufacturers such as Mercedes, Audi and Porsche which face big fines if they do not reduce exhaust emissions substantially.

According to Mr Moody-Stuart: " Without regulation to channel their power, markets will not deliver things which are of no immediate benefit to the individual making his or her choice, even though they may be beneficial to society."

This really is becoming a war between protecting the old economic industries and moving on to protect the planet. But can governments really afford to dig their heels in the ground?

new Video: Do You Really Need a 4x4?

Mayor and TfL Prepared to Fight Porsche in Courts

Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone and Transport for London (TfL) rejected a demand by luxury and sports car manufacturer Porsche to scrap plans for a higher £25 Congestion Charge for the very highest CO2 emitting cars, including many of the so-called Chelsea Tractors, the most powerful sports cars and some luxury executive cars, as part of the capital's plans to tackle climate change and cut congestion.

Ken Livingstone said: "Porsche have a clear vested interest in attempting to block this ground breaking scheme, against the interests of Londoners as a whole. They should focus their attentions on cutting CO2 emissions from the cars they produce, rather than pursuing this pointless legal action which we will vigorously contest. We have already seen several motor manufacturers rise to the challenge of cutting CO2 emissions from their cars and Porsche should join them.

Michèle Dix, Managing Director of Planning, TfL, said: "The Congestion Charge scheme has been a success at cutting congestion and traffic, with around 70,000 less vehicles a day entering the original central zone. Without it congestion in central London would be far worse.

"The principal aim of the scheme remains tackling congestion. The aim of the CO2 Charge element and discount of the scheme is to cut CO2 emissions by reducing the number of very high emitting cars driving in central London, influencing people's car purchasing choices and by stimulating the market for low emissions cars.

"At the moment, 17 per cent of cars driving in the charge zone are in Band G, while just 2 per cent are in Band's A and B. We expect to see the number of Band G cars cut significantly over time."

Specifically setting out to Porsche why their objections are unfounded, the Mayor and TfL made clear that:

· The CO2 Charge is about reducing CO2 emissions from cars driving in central London, whilst reducing congestion, as part of the Mayor's Transport Strategy and Climate Change Action Plan; and

· It is quite clear motorists have the choice not to drive a high CO2 emitting, car in central London, given the wide range of lower emitting cars available. Along with the higher £25 Charge for the cars emitting the most CO2, there will be a 100% discount for the least emitting.

It's a KO! - Watch as FoE Pounces on Porsche

Last week Porsche said it intended to judicially challenge the Mayor of London's plans to increase the London congestion charge to £25 for gas guzzlers.

Watch the Sky News Interview as Tony Juniper, Executive Director for Friends of the Earth, takes on Andy Goss, Managing Director of Porsche UK in Mayfair. (video in the toolbar)

The result is quite entertaining. Dance like a butterfly, sting like a bee.