Carbon Motors Inks BMW Engine Deal

WASHINGTON, DC – Carbon Motors, the upstart police pursuit vehicle manufacturer, announced on Monday that they had reached an agreement with BMW for the supply of diesel engines. Under the terms of this agreement the German automaker will provide Carbon with 240,000 turbo diesel engines for its E7 model. That engine is believed to be a 3.0L V6; BMW is also expected to supply the six-speed automatic transmission.

BMW Engines

The deal had been long expected as Carbon has been using BMW engines in its prototypes. However, Carbon Motors is trying to secure a federal loan to build its dedicated cop car, monies that have yet to be awarded. If Carbon succeeds in its quest the automaker will compete against the three Detroit automakers, two of whom are owned by taxpayers.

At a joint press conference with representatives from the BMW Group, Carbon’s chairman and chief executive officer, William Santana said, “America’s largest, and most visible fleets of government-owned vehicles, now in excess of 450,000 units, deserve the most durable, efficient and reliable powertrain available. The strength of BMW as a partner will allow us to provide our women and men in uniform with a diesel engine capable of the performance they desire along with the significant reduction in fuel consumption and emissions that U.S. taxpayers need.”

Renewed Competition

Carbon will be facing stiff competition when (or if) its Indiana built police car comes to market. Ford announced recently that it was retiring its Crown Victoria, long the police car standard, in favor of a new model based on the Ford Taurus platform. That model change will occur late 2011, many months before the Carbon Motors E7 hits the market.

Beginning next year, General Motors will be importing a Holden built police cruiser from Australia, the same car based on the defunct Pontiac G8. In addition, Chrysler has promised that a new version of its popular Dodge Charger police car will find its way to the market sometime in 2011.

So, by the time the Carbon E7 hits the market, it will be competing against three new models. Still, the company says that they already have 13,000 orders for is model.

BMW Support

“We are delighted to support Carbon Motors Corporation with our engine expertise,” said Ian Robertson, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG. “BMW Group diesel engines have a clear lead over the competition when it comes to fuel consumption, emissions and performance. Today’s agreement with Carbon Motors marks an important milestone in BMW’s 35-year commitment to the United States market.”

Auto Trends will follow the development of the Carbon Motors E7 and its impact on the market and continue to report that information to our readers.

Source: Carbon Motors Corporation

Development Of Unique Police Vehicle Continues

The first purpose built police cruiser is the Carbon Motors E7, designed with input from law enforcement experts and comes fully equipped with a comprehensive suite of purpose-built, performance and safety features, utilizing the latest advancements in defense and law enforcement technology. It includes an ergonomically correct cockpit; a high-power, clean-diesel engine capable of running on biodiesel (providing 40 percent improvement in fuel efficiency) that will accelerate the vehicle from 0 to 60 mph in 6.5 seconds with a governed top speed of 155 mph; integrated external and internal surveillance capabilities, radar; LoJack; an automatic license plate recognition system; radiation and biological threat detectors; and 360-degree, built-in LED emergency lighting.

Ford Crown Victorias, Dodge Chargers and Chevrolet Impalas have been doing police duty, in some cases for many years, American built sedans that are used by law enforcement personnel across the United States. Inasmuch as these cars provide an essential service, a purpose built police cruiser is not available.

One company, Carbon Motors, is looking to change that by designing and building a car from the ground up for police duty. Dubbed the E7, the state of the art police cruiser will be powered by a 3.0L Forced Induction diesel engine paired with a six speed automatic transmission. With an aluminum spaceframe body structure being developed in cooperation with Hydro Aluminum, the rear wheel drive E7 is highly durable and will withstand rear crashes of up to 75 mph.

Top speed for the E7 is 155 mph and it has a projected 0-60 time of 6.5 seconds. The car will offer the following features to law enforcement agencies when it goes on sale in 2012:

• All-new purpose-built vehicle platform exclusively for law enforcement
• Meets or exceeds all regulatory requirements
• Designed to 250,000 mile durability specification
• Turn-key built-to-direct-order – 24/7/365 call center support
• Turn-key end-of-vehicle-life process
• Comprehensive warranty
• Aluminum spaceframe body structure
• 75 mph rear impact crash capability
• Cockpit with fully-integrated factory fitted law enforcement equipment
• Integrated emergency lights, spot lights, take down lights, and directional stick
• Segment exclusive coach rear doors for safer suspect ingress and egress
• Vehicle dynamic control
• Anti-lock brakes
• Optimized approach / departure angles and ground clearance
• NIJ Level III-A (or better) ballistic protection (front doors and dash panel)
• Purpose-designed seat for use with on-body equipment – Heated and ventilated seats
• Heads up display
• Reverse backup camera
• Remote start capability
• Driver specific intelligent key
• 360 degree exterior surveillance capability
• Automatic license plate recognition system
• Video and audio surveillance of rear passenger compartment
• 130hz – 350hz bass siren
• Nightvision compliant interior illumination
• Integrated forward looking infrared system (FLIR)
• Integrated shotgun mounts
• Optimized storage capability (compartment and cargo)
• Integrated front and rear passenger compartment partition
• Hoseable rear passenger compartment
• Integrated push bumpers and PIT capability

Auto Trends will keep our eyes open regarding further developments of this nifty looking cop car. We’ll be posting additional photographs in the near future and include related news updates at that time.

Source: Carbon Motors

Limo Board Bashes Hybrid Escape Taxis

Cites Rollover Danger As Main Reason Opposing New Taxis

A New York tradition is to hail a bright yellow cab and have the cabbie take you to where you want to go around the Big Apple. New Ford Escape Hybrid cabs offer fuel savings, but are they safe? A New York City limousine board argues that they are not.

New York City has tens of thousands of taxis plying the streets of Manhattan, Brooklyn, The Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island at any given time. New Yorkers, commuters, and tourists rely upon taxis to transport themselves to different parts of the city in these bright yellow cabs.

For many years the Ford Crown Victoria was the vehicle of choice for cabbies, but pressure from the mayor’s office to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is forcing owners to choose hybrids, particularly the Ford Escape Hybrid as their taxi of choice.

A recent crash in the city involving a Ford Escape Hybrid saw the vehicle roll over, occupants severely injured, and the car destroyed. That incident, along with two others, has led to the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade to investigate the Escape where they found that the hybrid has only a three-star rollover rating while the Crown Victoria has the industry’s highest with five stars.

“In all my work as an accident reconstruction expert over the past 26 years, I cannot recall a single case where a Crown Victoria or a Crown Victoria-like vehicle has rolled over in a vehicle-to-vehicle crash,” said C. Bruce Gambardella, P.E. before the New York City Council on June 3, 2008. In a comprehensive report on hybrid taxi safety issued last month, he noted that, “the Ford Escape Hybrid is more likely to roll over than the Ford Crown Victoria” and attributed the problem to the Escape’s “high C.G. (Center of Gravity) and relatively high seat positions” and he also noted that due to “far from perfect” New York City streets, “discontinuities in the road surface will help to trip SUV-type vehicles and increase the potential for rollover.”

The Board of Trade also determined that if a Crown Victoria was involved in the rollover accident instead of the Escape, it wouldn’t have rolled over. Moreover, the commission concluded that the accident would have been a simple fender bender for the bigger and wider Crown Victoria.

The report found several other safety hazards, many of which can be attributed to the unintended use of the Ford Escape Hybrid — a standard passenger vehicle — as a New York City taxicab. In analyzing the rollover accident, Mr. Gambardella found that:

• The side-curtain airbag did not deploy normally due to insufficient space between the partition and the top of the car.

• The L-shaped partition interfered with the 3-point unibelt because it changed the anchoring position of the belt.

• The partition did not stay in place during the crash and may have resulted in a violent head strike against the hard partition if there had been a passenger in the right front seat.

The limo board has brought a federal lawsuit against the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) and the City of New York to stop its 25/30 mpg taxi mandate, which would force owners to abandon purpose-built stretch Crown Victorias and purchase Ford Escape Hybrids and other untested and unproven standard non-commercial passenger vehicles and place them into service as taxicabs. The mandate, which was set to take effect on October 1st, 2008 has been delayed because of the ongoing court case. Arguments were to be heard in Manhattan federal court on this past Friday.

(Source: Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade)