Saab Provides Flex-Fuel Technology For Entire 9-3 Range

Anthony Fontanelle
March 6, 2007

The entire global community is now being confronted with the quite heated global warming issue. That is the reason why car makers are doing their share so as to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that are being released from their vehicles. Alternative fuels are being studied to be a substitute for fossil fuels.

Saab is one of the major players in the auto industry which have taken a step in the promotion of green cars. This is evident in the fact that Saab has introduced the new 1.8t BioPower engine which will be employed by all the models in the 9-3 range.

The automaker becomes the first and only auto manufacturer to offer flex-fuel engines for every model in its lineup. The engine will be available to the 9-3 Sport Saloon, 9-3 Sport Wagon, and the 9-3 Convertible. These vehicles will be sporting an alternative fuel powered engine in the near future which means that the amount of greenhouse gases from Saab vehicles will be substantially reduced.

Vehicles employing the 1.8t engine emit 50-70 percent less carbon dioxide, which is a known greenhouse gas, compared to the 1.8t gasoline powered engine. Although the vehicle will produce less greenhouse gases, the engine will provide 17 percent more power and ten percent greater torque over the gasoline engine. The engine will also run on E85 which is fuel that is a combination of gasoline and bio-ethanol. The E85 is composed of 85 percent bio-ethanol and 15 percent gasoline hence its name.

The 1.8t BioPower engine will be the third flex-fuel engine that will come from Saab. Saab originally equipped two of their 9-5 models with flex-fuel engines. Both shows reduced emissions and better performance than gasoline engines.

Jan ?ke Jonsson, Saab Automobile’s Managing Director, has this to say about the launch of the BioPower engines: “The success of the 9-5 BioPower has encouraged us to extend this concept to the 9-3 range. This means we can now offer BioPower variants throughout our core lineup”.

Currently, Saab is the largest seller of flex-fuel vehicles in Europe. And with the use of the 1.8t BioPower engine on the whole range of the 9-3 would only increase their popularity as the premiere producer of green cars in Europe.

The Saab 1.8t BioPower engine provides more power than the 1.8t gasoline engine. While the gasoline engine produces 150 horsepower, the flex-fuel engine can deliver as much as 175 horsepower. In terms of torque, the gasoline engine can produce 240Nm while the BioPower engine can produce 265 Nm. The increase in torque gives the flex-fuel vehicles with faster acceleration than gasoline engine equipped 9-3 vehicles. The better performance of the flex-fuel vehicles can be complemented with a set of high performance brake parts from Active Brakes Direct.

Source:  Amazines.com