Mazda has announced that it will use the Eco-Products 2008 Show that takes place at Japan’s Tokyo International Exhibition Center over the period December 11 -13, 2008, to display its latest eco-friendly technologies aimed to further reduce CO2 emissions. The company’s main exhibit will consist of the new i-stop engine start-stop system that improves fuel economy by approximately 10 percent in Japan’s fuel economy tests and is scheduled for launch in 2009 as well as the Premacy Hydrogen RE Hybrid and the RX-8 Hydrogen test vehicles. Other exhibits at Mazda’s show stand will include the display of various weight reduction and material technologies.

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The auto industry is being hit hard by the global economic crisis, and no manufacturer is too big or too small to be affected. Just as General Motors, Ford, Toyota and the rest of the world’s big automakers have needed to refine their business plans, so must niche manufacturers like Bailey, which has been working on the new Blade supercar for the last few years. As you can imagine, introducing a supercar in a market such as this is tough, to say the least. All cars seem to require a “green angle” of sorts to remain relevant, and the Blade is no exception, getting two additional variants with alternative powertrain options. The first is the XTR, powered by a 750-horsepower 5.4L V8 engine… sounds about right for a supercar. The second vehicle in the works, called the EVR, uses an electric drivetrain featuring twin electric motors, four-wheel drive and lithium phosphate batteries. Awesome. We wish Bailey luck. The third version, though, we’re not nearly as excited about, as it is supposed to feature a supercharged V8 engine with *ahem* on-demand hydrogen that’s said to cut fuel consumption by 20 percent

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The rotary engine is world-renowned for many things, but fuel-efficiency isn’t one of them. Mazda wants to make Wankel’s masterpiece the poster child for its hydrogen-powered endeavors, so it’s considering offering a dual-fuel version of the engine in its next RX-badged offering.

According to AutoExpress, Mazda’s RX-8 Hydrogen RE vehicle will evolve into a new model, dubbed the RX-9, and is rumored to be motivated by a hydrogen-gasoline powertrain that will offer 20 percent better fuel economy and emissions over a traditional gasoline-powered Rotary. The rear-wheel-drive coupe will take styling cues from the Taiki concept and a dash-mounted switch allows drivers to toggle between gasoline and hydrogen fuel systems. For city driving, the hydrogen setting will be employed, which will reduce fuel consumption (at the expense of a 20 percent drop in power), while the gasoline system can be employed when drivers desire more performance.

Mazda’s goal is to make the rotary engine’s performance, fuel economy and emissions up the level of gasoline-electric hybrids, and if AE’s sources are to be believed, the hydrogen-powered RX-9 should arrive in 2012. See photos after the jump Continued

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Forget those pricy oxygen bars. If you want to breathe clean air, wrap your lips around the tailpipe of a BMW Hydrogen 7 (careful, it’s hot). The exhaust coming out is cleaner than the air this experimental car draws in to the engine, says the Argonne National Laboratories. That’s when the Hydrogen 7 is running in mono-fuel hydrogen mode, which is a buzzword way of saying it burns gasoline, too, on account of hydrogen stations being few and far between.
“The BMW Hydrogen 7’s emissions were only a fraction of SULEV level, making it one of the lowest emitting combustion engine vehicles that have been manufactured,” said Thomas Wallner, a mechanical engineer who leads Argonne’s hydrogen vehicle testing activities. “Moreover, the car’s engine actively cleans the air. Argonne’s testing shows that the Hydrogen 7’s 12-cylinder engine actually shows emissions levels that, for certain components, are cleaner than the ambient air that comes into the car’s engine.”

Don Hillebrand, director of Argonne’s Center for Transportation Research, said ” Argonne’s vehicle testing facilities are unique in that they are able to detect even trace levels of emissions. In this case, it was near-zero emissions … A gross polluter is easy to measure, but the cleaner the car the harder it is to test.” Or as was noted by BMW’s Wolfgang Thiel, the manager of operating support emissions analysis, “Zero is a very small precise number - we are pushing the boundaries of emissions testing.”

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Like Toyota, General Motors has offered some additional information into their viewpoint regarding hydrogen and fuel cells. As we recently reported, Toyota’s Irv Miller called out The Wall Street Journal for bad reporting practices when they quoted Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe as suggesting that fuel cells were falling off the alternative fuel roadmap. GM’s Bob Lutz was also quoted in that WSJ article, and it seems that he may have been misunderstood as well. According to Robert Babik, director of emissions, environment, energy and safety policy at General Motors, the General still sees hydrogen as a possible solution to our energy woes. Maybe it’ll take 50 years, but it seems that both Toyota and GM are committed to the technology.

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