SmILE - Showing Car Companies How it's Done

Performance Consumption : 3.5 l / 100km Power : 40KW, 55HP Top Speed : l50 km/h Drag Coeff: 0.25 Weight: 650 kg Safety : Unchanged Power: Improved How did we do it? High efficiency engine Power and load matching Reduced weight Better aerodynamics Low resistance tyres Greenpeace Demands: Pollution too: Sydney, Australia: air has more carcinogens than smoking ten cigarettes a day. Beware: Coalition for Vehicle Choice: a lobby group funded by GM, Ford, and Chrysler. The group has spent over $US 10 million to try to stop new fuel efficiency legislation in America. It cost less than $2 million to develop smile. A maximum consumption of 3 1/100km for ALL vehicles by 2002. An end to preferential tax and subsidy treatment for cars instead of public transport and non-motorised transport. No new road building in developed countries. An increase in fuel price in line with reduced fuel consumption.

Greenpeace is committed to the eventual phase out of fossil fuel, both in energy use and in transportation, Traffic consumes 60% of world-wide oil production and must be addressed if we are to halt climate change,

New cars are now produced at the rate of one per second, The average car pelts out 4 times its weight in CO₂ every year, Car numbers, poor emission standards and road building are an environmental outrage.

As long ago as 1981 , the prototype Renault Vesta was unveiled with a fuel consumption aimed at less than 3 litres per 100km, or 78mpg, In 1993 Greenpeace 'borrowed' the Vesta from a museum, and publicly humiliated Renault at the Frankfurt car-show for its lack of commitment.

The French government gave Renault and Peugeot $l80 million to develop the low consumption vehicles, The Vesta was supposed to be launched for production in 1990. It never happened.

Greenpeace took an average small car, a Renault Twingo, and cut its fuel consumption in half, The Smile : SMall, Intelligent, Light and Efficient. This car is what the motor industry said could not be produced for at least two decades!

Smile could have been adapted from any of the small cars currently on the market. It proves that manufacturers are simply not trying to reduce emissions

The Renault Twingo we started with now has better aerodynamics and a high output, low capacity supercharged engine. This is 'drop in technology' - it is not experimental or under development, it can be used RIGHT NOW!

Greenpeace has displayed Smile at several motor shows in 1996 and 1997, But the motor industry is not happy. The British Newspaper 'The Independent' said, "Why is the world's motor industry not willing to produce a car like this?" Why indeed?

How the engine reduces fuel, not power: The most frequently used operating point is matched to the point of highest thermal efficiency, and extra power is delivered when needed from a supercharger.

The engine is only 360cc, yet the smile performance equals or exceeds the 1.2 litre Twingo. Independent experts have verified that it is just as robust as normal, larger heavier engines.