Plug In Hybrid Hummers Set To Take On Antarctica

A group of intrepid polar explorers who call themselves Zero South are preparing to make the first trip to the South Pole without burning one drop of fossil fuel says Green Car Reports. The group will use a pair of plug-in hybrid Hummers with 3.2 liter diesel engines for the 1200 mile journey. The engines will burn only bio-diesel on the way down and back. The Hummers also have an electric motor front and rear, and a 24 kWh battery pack that powers the motors and can be recharged by the diesel engines. The batteries are heavily insulated to protect them from the -60 degree Fahrenheit temperatures expected along the way.

Both Hummers have been fitted with treads from Mattracks to give them the sure footed grip they will need to traverse the frozen wastes of Antarctica. Their suspensions have been heavily reinforced to withstand the rigors of the trip across uncharted territory. One of the Hummers will also tow a modified Airstream trailer — dubbed the Snowstream — which will  provide shelter for the explorers along the way and while conducting their research at the South Pole.

The choice of the Hummer H1 as the basis for the expedition vehicles was not random. The Hummers’ wide stance will aid stability over uneven terrain. But there is a bit of “intentional irony”  as well.

The normal Hummer H1 has just about the largest carbon footprint of any wheeled vehicle on the planet except, perhaps, for your average Peterbilt. By converting the Hummers to run entirely on electricity and bio-diesel, the team is making a very deliberate statement about their respect for the environment. “We shall draft a symbol of military defense for the front lines of environmental defense,” expedition organizer Nick Baggarly has declared.

 Naturally in this world of the selfie and non-stop marketing, the Zero South team expects to videotape the entire adventure. A 10 part television series and a full length feature movie are planned, both based on those videos.

The Future According To Volvo

Volvo has always been different. It started by building some of the safest cars around, then fitting them with passenger safety items like seat belts and air bags that eventually became standard equipment on all cars. If you were about the have a close encounter with a Peterbilt, you definitely wanted to be driving a Volvo when it happened.

Today, the automotive world has been turned upside down by the advent of electric cars and autonomous driving systems. Volvo has looked at all these trends and plotted a course for its future that steers away from the more extreme visions of both.

No all electric Tesla fighters or self driving Google cars for them. In the world of Volvo, people will continue to pilot their cars manually most of the time and those cars will continue to have internal combustion engines to eliminate any whiff of range anxiety. Very sensible. Very prudent. Very Volvo.

In a recent conversation with AutoBlog, Hakan Samuelsson, Volvo’s CEO, said his company believes traditional hybrids are the future.

“We’re rather clear on that. With a pure battery car, OK, you can do it, if you have it as a hobby car, no problem. But if you want a real car, I mean if you really want to go somewhere, skiing or whatever, then it’s difficult to have this limitation in range,” he says. “So I think it’s much more realistic to have a hybrid.”

“I think in the future there will be an evolution, also maybe downsizing of the engines, and more batteries, more powerful batteries, and then you can call that an electric car with a range extender. It’s exactly the same technology. So, that’s the path we have chosen.”

Volvo also thinks autonomous cars will be the next big thing and expects to be a major player in that technology. But once again, it has a slightly different take on things.

“Our vision for real autonomous driving, is that you don’t do it from A to B, like Google. There’s no market for such a device, it’s too unsafe. So you drive manually, like an aircraft takes off and lands manually, but if you reach a boring passage, that’s when you press ‘auto.’

You will see on a map that autonomous driving is now possible, and you will be able to select it, but it will go beyond today’s semi-autonomous systems that only follow the car in front of you. It will be able to automatically change lanes, and overtake cars, and so on.”

Finally, Volvo is committed to uncluttering the interior controls of new cars. Where most cars today have dozens of knobs and buttons, the interior of the forthcoming XC 90 features a large touch screen with only 8 knobs.

“We want to work with connectivity, the HMI interface, and the touchscreen, to make them simple to use. We want to get away from button-heavy cabins, the car has to be simple, but understand you.”

Until the all electric car becomes mainstream, Volvo will continue doing what it has done for generations — build high quality, reliable and safe cars that meet or exceed the needs of modern drivers. Would you expect anything less from Volvo?