Click above for a high-res gallery of the Lotus Exige 270E Tri-FuelWhile assorted activists, politicians and random individuals carry on about the spectres of global warming, imported oil, CO
2 emissions and other issues that combine to create timetable-free doomsday scenarios, there
are people working on potential solutions that do
not involve us driving around four-wheeled Segway scooters. That's right: the "dreaded" internal combustion engine might yet provide the answer -- or at least
an answer. And because Lotus is the entity searching for the answer in this particular case, the end result might not only be green -- it looks ridiculously fun, too.
The car you see here is the Geneva-bound Lotus Exige 270E Tri-Fuel concept, the successor to 2006's
Exige 265E, which made 265 horses running on E85. The 270E goes a step further. Not only can it run on gasoline or ethanol, it achieves its peak output -- 270 horsepower and 184 lb-ft -- on
methanol, hence the Tri-Fuel label. Incidentally, that power figure is the highest yet for an Exige coming out of Hethel. Even more interesting, however, is Lotus' research into producing
carbon-neutral synthetic methanol. You can read about it in detail after the jump, but in summary,
the process involves using atmospheric CO
2 and reacting it with hydrogen created via renewable electrical power to create methanol. Liquid methanol could be transported and distributed much in the same way gasoline is now, making for a feasible infrastructure if the idea were to take hold somewhere down the line.
Lotus is also hunting for solutions involving EVs, as well as optimizing the traditional gasoline-powered ICE through its
Hybrid and Electric Vehicle Group. One must admit, however, that the idea of a sustainable, synthetic, carbon-neutral fuel driving internal combustion engines with the same levels of power we currently enjoy is the equivalent of having your cake and eating it. Press on, Lotus.
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