Cloning offers simple solution; STEVE HUGHES rounds up the week's motoring news.

Byline: STEVE HUGHES

AN Austrian automotive specialist design company has come up with a cunning ploy to help major motor manufacturers fund environmentally - friendly cars despite the economic woes .

Magna Steyr has created a production-ready vehicle that it is offering to as many car companies that are prepared to pay to put their name to it. The infrastructure is built in such a way that several brands could use the same basic platform to make cars that appear to be completely different.

This replicates the concept of current clones such as the Peugeot 4007, Citroen C-Crosser and Mitsubishi Outlander, which are fundamentally the same vehicles arising out of a collaboration of all three brands.

Manufacturers now need to have electric cars in their line-up even though they cost billions to develop, yet sell in relatively small numbers and never recoup even a fraction of their costs.

Magna Steyr, which already builds low-volume models for Chrysler and Mercedes-Benz among others, has got one ready to roll but does not have a global dealer network to get it to buyers, so it is offering it to those companies that do. Ford is so impressed with the company that it has awarded a contract to develop an electric version of the Focus, but in the meantime Magna Steyr has made its own model and all it needs now are car companies prepared to put their name to it.

The car is on display at this month's Geneva Motor Show, where it is being shown as a fully engineered vehicle that can be adapted to run on a variety of environmentally-friendly forms of power.

It can be built as a battery/electric car, a hybrid petrol or diesel/electric, a natural gas-powered car or even a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. It is designed to meet all crash-test standards and the platform is flexible enough to be changed significantly to create each car company's identity.

"We are hoping that a manufacturer will buy into the basic design, which would allow it to get a fully engineered green car into production far more quickly than if it were to start developing such a vehicle on its own," says a spokesman.

The show car is a four metre-long five-door model with a 67hp electric motor powered by lithium-ion batteries.

It has an average charging time of two-and-a-half hours and a range of up to 90 miles. Solar cells integrated in the glass roof provide additional energy generation.

Meanwhile, the car of the future could soon change out of all recognition - thanks to the reinvention of the wheel.

A working concept car at the Geneva Motor Show has transferred all of the major mechanical parts of the car into the wheel itself.

The car needs no conventional engine or transmission and housed within a wheel is electric suspension, brakes and a small electric motor.

This is sufficient to power a small city car but to increase the power and performance all that is necessary is to add more of Michelin's new Active Wheels, culminating in all four to create a high-performance model.

The Michelin Active Wheel has taken 12 years to develop and in most automotive applications it will be used in the two front wheels only.

However, French sports car maker Venturi is developing a coupe concept called the Volage, which will have four Active Wheels.

CAPTION(S):

STARTING POINT - Magna Steyr's vehicle can be customised from a basic shell; REVOLUTIONARY - The Michelin Active Wheel