Ferrari, AMG go green

THE producers of some of the fastest cars on the planet have recognised they can no longer ignore climate change.

Top power brands including Ferrari and AMG are designing greener cars as they attempt to appease environmental concerns.

Facing increased pressure from their largest market, California, and now the rest of the US and Europe, both brands are keen to show they are prepared to work towards greener solutions for their supercars. Ferrari presented an F430 that can run on E85 ethanol at last week’s North American International Auto Show in Detroit, while GoAuto can reveal that the Mercedes-Benz performance division AMG is poised to announce an environmentally friendly model at the Geneva show in March.

It is not yet clear whether the special AMG development would involve a high-powered Bluetec diesel (the most likely option) or a hybrid, but the plans definitely do not include ethanol fuel.

AMG did build a diesel C-class for Europe in 2002, but has since concentrated on high-capacity petrol engines with massive amounts of power and torque.

AMG chairman Volker Mornhinweg told GoAuto the company would announce its environmentally friendly program at Geneva. He didn’t want to give too much away, but said the company began working on a green project soon after he took the top job in mid-2005.

“The point is that we started two and a half years ago to talk about environmental responsibility and so on, because at that time, when I stepped in to be head of AMG, I tried to figure out our best market, and it was California,” he said.

“Also, at that time (California governor) Arnold Schwarzenegger talked a lot about fuel consumption and so on and I said ‘hey, guys, we have to take this kind of signal - it is very, very serious,’ especially when the signals are coming from your most important market.”

Left: C63 AMG.

Mr Mornihinweg said it was clear AMG had to do something.

“I said we need to make the right decisions technology-wise... for the right fuel consumption in the future,” he said.

Mr Mornhinweg made it clear that any ‘greener’ AMG would still deliver the performance that its customers demand.

He added that, although AMG wanted to reduce its fuel consumption, its engines were already relatively efficient given their high levels of power and torque.

“In our competitive environment, when we talk about cars in our competitive environment, we talk about Bentley, we talk about Aston Martin, Ferrari, the high-level Porsches and M cars from BMW and Quattro cars from Audi. We are best in class when it comes to fuel consumption and CO2 level,” he said.

“We are currently at the top and, with this new technology which we can say in the next few weeks in detail, we will be number one in the future.” Ferrari has already announced it is working on programs that would see its fuel consumption drop by 40 per cent by 2012, which is an ambitious target to say the least.

The ethanol vehicle presented at Detroit delivers minimal environmental gains.

The modified F430 supercar features revised fuel lines and an altered engine control module in order to run on a fuel mix that contains up to 85 per cent ethanol.

That translates into a five per cent reduction in CO2 emissions, which is hardly going to save the planet. While the environmental benefits are minimal, especially when you consider the energy used to create ethanol fuel in the first place, using ethanol means the Ferrari delivers an extra 7kW of power.

Ferrari chief executive Amedeo Felisa said it was important for the company to look at green solutions that fitted in with the brand’s core values.

“This is important because we want to work in order to enhance our characteristic in terms of emissions, but of course we cannot lose the sportiness and the performance we have on our cars,” he said.

A Ferrari spokesman said government policy and the amount of ethanol made available would determine whether or not Ferrari models would be offered with E85 ethanol in the US.

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