We know that the Tesla Roadster is headed to Europe. Part of getting ready for the European market means doing a little bit of promotion, and so Tesla Motors presented the Roadster at the Top Marques Monaco event this past weekend. Tesla's vice president of sales, marketing, and service, Darryl Siry, has posted a few pictures of the event, including one of Mr. U2 himself - Bono - having a seat in the show car. Siry says that he'll be posting a more detailed description of how some of Tesla's first European customers and "potential future customers" reacted to seeing the car in the metal, but for now he just wanted to share the pics. I wonder how Monaco's hydrogen-loving Prince Albert II feels about all of this.

[Source: Tesla]

April 2008 was the month when Venturi intended to launch the Fetish, a carbon-fiber EV sportscar which makes the Tesla look like a bargain. Instead of offering the car this month, Venturi has instead announced that they have managed to improve the Fetish engine - which now gets 300 HP and 380 Nm of torque (280 lb-ft) at 92 percent of efficiency - while reducing by 30kg the global weight of the car, down to 950kg. The batteries will be likely produced by France's Saft and will use lithium-ion technology. The car also features all-around carbon fiber technology.

Le Blog Auto now says that first deliveries are now expected to be held off until June 2009 for an astounding €297,000 (currently $465,000). The car will be assembled in Monaco, although the company is examining a new factory in France. The Fetish races from 0 to 100 km/h (0-62 mph) in 3.5 seconds, although maximum speed is limited to 160 km/h (100mph).

[Source: Le Blog Auto]

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A lot of green cars have made their way to the EVER MONACO exhibit: the Th!nk City, the Citroën Berlingo Venturi, the Venturi Astrolab and the Citroën C5 Airdream. You don't think BMW would let a chance like this slip by without trotting out the Hydrogen 7, do you?

They didn't. BMW handed over the keys to a dual-fuel-powered 7 series to Monaco's Prince Albert II (left in the picture above) yesterday, calling the vehicle's use part of the Principality's "Sustainable Environmental Protection" program. The prince said in a statement (pasted after the jump) that he looked forward to "discovering the advantages of the BMW Hydrogen 7 with interest over the coming weeks," and said he was keen on technologies that reduce people's environmental impact. Hopefully, he'll let everyone know just what those advantages are. Does Monaco even have a hydrogen filling station? Green Car Advisor says no, and that the car comes with its own tanker for the prince to use.

Although introduced in the Paris Motor Show in 2006, the Venturi Astrolab was spotted again at the EVER Salon in Monaco (Green Cars Autoshow). The concept, which showed an interesting tandem lightweight (only 280 kg!) architecture, was designed to provide the maximum surface available to recharge the car's batteries.

The car has a total surface of 3.2 m² which provide 600 W of energy to charge the NiMH Venturi NIV-7 batteries in five hours. With that, you have 18 km (12 miles) of range. But, if you plug it in, the range jumps to about 110 km (70 mi). The concept allowed the development of a solar roof for the second generation of the Eclectic announced for this year's Auto Show.

[Source: Leblogauto]

As you might know, because of the focus that European countries are putting on CO₂ emissions, most marques have created signature labels to certify when a certain vehicle is "clean" in the environmental sense. They basically take the least powerful version of the model, tweak the car aerodynamically, and install low-rolling resistance tires. Then they chose a fancy name.

Such is the case of Citroën with its Airdream label, which was seen in the C5 during the EVER Green Car Salon in Monaco last week. The C5 is a medium-sized sedan, about the size of a Mercedes E-Class, which is mated to PSA's well-known 1.6 HDi engine good for 110 HP. This allows the car to run 42 mpg US (5.6 l/100 km in mixed European cycle) and produce 149 g/km CO₂. As most diesel PSA powertains, it accepts a mixture of up to 30 percent of biodiesel . Unfortunately, although it's a nice car, it can't compete with the original concept.

[Source: Leblogauto]

One of the things happening during the EVER Salon of Green Cars in Monaco is a celebration at the "Rallye de Monte Carlo des Vehicules à énergie alternative" (Rally of Montecarlo for alternative energy vehicles) during the event.

Th!nk decided that, since they're going to sell their new City car in France in a few months (via web!), it'd be a good idea to add some fancy stickers that recall the Mini Cooper from the '60s to the display model. The Th!nk car will be on sale in France for about 25,000 € but the batteries will be leased at a good price (according to Th!nk). The car is expected to have a range of 180 km (120 miles) and a maximum speed of 105 km/h (70 mph).

[Source: Leblogauto]

French website Leblogauto writers went to the EVER Salon in Monaco and gathered information and pictures from the Citroën Berlingo Venturi, which is one of the two vehicles competing for the French Postal Service (La Poste) contract for suburban delivery EVs.

Although the range isn't that spectacular (60 miles), performance should be enough for postal duties: cargo space and payload remain unchanged from the gas/diesel versions. According to the manufacturers, the vehicle is able to achieve highway speeds effortlessly and can be recharged from a simple power outlet for less than 1 € / 100 km. Being optimistic, the diesel version makes about 7 l/100 km, at 1.30 EUR/l you can do the math. Price range is expected to be between €25,000-35,000.

[Source: Leblogauto]