Ferrari CEO: we are considering ethanol
Ferrari probably won't make a hybrid or a full electric car but they just might make a flex-flex car that can run on E85. That possibility comes directly from Maurizio Parlato, President and CEO of Ferrari North America, at the end of an interview at the LA Auto Show with the Wall Street Journal, which you can watch above. At first, the WSJ notices the Ferrari's beautiful, candy red looks but notes this show is all about green and then asks what have they got that's green, to which Maurizio replies; thank you for asking me that, we are very sensitive to this point and we have to be and then this;
We are thinking and moving in the direction of ethanol to make ethanol a part of our, basically possibility, we are considering seriously about that.
...ah, his English is not great but I think the message is clear. Ethanol makes a lot of sense for a sports car because you can get more power from ethanol and things like lower mileage or higher fuel cost are probably not of great concern to a sports car driver. It's really too bad Ferrari cannot look at hybrids as a being a source of power but this is great news none the less.
[Source: Wall Street Journal]
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(Page 1)2. ==Ferrari would never put a hybrid system into any of its cars unless it improved performance.==
Well then.
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As is, the Tesla Roadster can outpace any Ferrari besides the Enzo.
3. Then again, I wouldn't really expect any major Luxury car manufacturer to seriously consider lowering their emissions profile.
Also EROEI doesn't mean much to me.
I care more about GHG per mile.
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4. Didnt we see "It just so happens that the way that the vehicles are being produced by the factory also makes them technically green". yesterday?
with that mentality from the previous Ferrari mention, wont their cars be less green considering everything that goes into producing ethanol?
I seriously hope they look everything over, or atleast just look further into the future.
Posted at 4:57PM on Dec 2nd 2007 by Andrew Tanasescu
5. GreyFalcon, the Tesla only can outpace current Ferraris on 0-60 type tests. And on the track, the batteries will die right around the time the Ferrari is getting fully warmed up.
As to Ferrari considering ethanol, it's too bad. That's an awful cop out. I thought perhaps Ferrari was finally going to put some good engineering into their cars and make some decent mpg, but instead they'll just switch to ethanol, advertise even MORE HP and significantly worse mpg.
Lame.
Posted at 5:44PM on Dec 2nd 2007 by why not the LS2LS7?
7. "I thought perhaps Ferrari was finally going to put some good engineering into their cars "
Because the engineering they've put in their cars has been bad up until now?
Wow, so how did they get those 7 constructors championships in the past nine years, with BAD engineering?
8. 'Wow, so how did they get those 7 constructors championships in the past nine years, with BAD engineering?'
When Chevrolet is getting 80% better mpg from a vehicle with the same performance as a Ferrari, there's clearly plenty of room for Ferrari to improve their engineering.
Posted at 2:09AM on Dec 3rd 2007 by why not the LS2LS7?
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1. Ferrari would never put a hybrid system into any of its cars unless it improved performance. That would mean a power-centric system based on supercaps or a superflywheel (cp. KERS for F1). Fuel economy and CO2 emissions are simply not a concern for their road cars unless customers start demanding it for image reasons - or the law forces them to make design changes.
Ethanol for the US comes from corn. With an EROEI close to 1, it's not a particularly green fuel.
Posted at 2:36PM on Dec 2nd 2007 by rgseidl