BMW Z4 M, minus the M

The BMW Z4 sDrive35i is an excellent sports car. However, BMW's engineers, who must experience self-critical dreams every night about how much smoother a valve could be or whether changing the timing of a spark by a millisecond might improve combustion, couldn't leave it as is. They developed the 2011 BMW Z4 sDrive35is, a higher performance version of BMW's roadster.

Like the sDrive35i, the new roadster uses a twin turbo 3-liter straight six cylinder, but BMW fitted it with a new twin turbo unit to crank up the horsepower from 306 to 335, with torque up from 295 pound-feet to 332 pound-feet. This engine tweaking gives the sDrive35is acceleration to 60 mph in 4.7 seconds.

Beyond the engine work, BMW tuned the exhaust to give a more pleasing, sports car sound. Baffles and mufflers combine to give the car what BMW describes as a "deep rumble with a focus on the low frequency sound range." People will be surprised when they see a little roadster following that exhaust note as it works its way up the street.

The sDrive35is also gets BMW's seven-speed double-clutch transmission, a manual with two computer-controlled clutches. The driver can choose an automatic mode or shift manually, but doesn't have to push a clutch pedal. The result is no power loss at the wheels during shifts.

You can even get the car with some M equipment, including an adaptive suspension that uses electronically controlled shock absorbers to counteract roll and keep the tires gripping pavement. That's a lot of tech in a little car.

BMW will show the Z4 sDrive35is at the upcoming 2010 Detroit auto show.

New Toyota hybrid concept teased for Detroit

The 2010 car show season is set to kick off in January at the 2010 North American International Auto Show, affectionately and more commonly known as the Detroit auto show. Toyota is going to be there and, being Toyota, you can bet its booth will be stuffed to the gill with hybrids. We've just received a pair of teaser images for an unnamed Toyota hybrid concept.

The ultra-swept headlamps and rounded nose point toward a concept that's like no current Toyota offering.

The concept should be a new model and not simply a hybrid version of a currently selling vehicle. There's not much that we can tell from the pictures beside that it's a green Toyota hybrid. I'm guessing based on the steep angle of the A-pillar that this is going to be a tiny car. Perhaps a new subcompact hybrid that slots in below the Prius.

We'll keep our eyes peeled for more information as it comes available. In the meantime, give us your best guess as to what Toyota's got up its sleeve in the comments.

VW shows off hybrid coupe concept

DETROIT--Volkswagen on Monday rolled out a hybrid concept car called the New Compact Coupe, a machine the company said will get 45 miles per gallon by combining a four-cylinder gasoline engine from the company's TSI with a 1.1 kWh lithium-ion battery.

When the car's gasoline engine isn't needed, it shuts off and is disengaged from the transmission to cut down on drag, including at highway speeds. The braking system can recover energy by storing it in the battery, the company said at the concept car's unveiling at the North American International Auto Show here.

The electric motor, mounted between the engine and a 7-speed automatic gearbox, can be used for pure electric driving, Volkswagen said. The 1.4-liter gasoline engine generates power of 150 horsepower; the electric motor produces 27 horsepower.

The concept car's 8-inch touch screen can control the radio and navigation system. Climate controls are separate, located immediately below the screen.

The interior, done out in "Berry White" leather, seats four comfortably, VW said.

Ford foresees steady fuel efficiency gains

Rather than big surprises, expect a stream of technology improvements coming from Ford Motor's labs which, when added together, will deliver 5 to 10 percent gains in fuel efficiency in the next few years.

At the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on Monday, Ford introduced the latest Ford Focus, which is due in early 2011 and sports a 10 to 20 percent better fuel economy than the current model. The company also has plans to expand its line of hybrids, introduce an all-electric Ford Focus in 2011, and offer plug-in hybrids in 2012.

Making refinements to gasoline, diesel, and electric drive technologies will allow Ford to keep the fuel economy of its cars on an upward trajectory, according to Gerhard Schmidt, the chief technology officer for Ford's research and advanced engineering.

"There are a lot of steps which, sometimes from an external point of view, look small, but it all adds up to something that is really significant," Schmidt said from the Auto Show. "We can get 5 to 10 percent improvement based on the existing architectures."

Schmidt's lab at Ford is responsible for initially developing EcoBoost, which is now being rolled out across many Ford models. It uses turbo charging and direct injection to boost the power of gasoline engines, allowing Ford to use smaller engines and improve fuel economy. Gerhard said that Ford engineers are now working on the second generation.

In the area of electrification, Ford does not anticipate a breakthrough that will radically alter the cost or energy density of auto batteries. But there are significant efficiency gains by optimizing the power electronics that manage the mechanical systems in cars, Gerhard indicated.

Ford can also optimize gasoline engines to work with batteries and improve efficiency through aerodynamics and smart recharging, he said. Engineers are even looking at reusing waste heat from cars to inch up fuel economy.

Further out, fuel cells offer the promise of a similar range to what gasoline and diesel cars have today. But the technology is far more complicated than hybrids and there isn't the fueling infrastructure, Gerhard said. Ford expects to test out fuel cells in limited volume in 2015 through a partnership with Daimler.

"I'm still convinced that there's a place for fuel cell technology when you look to the future where fossil fuels are not available in the quantity that is needed and battery technology only has limited mileage," he said.