Plug-in hybrids are seen by many, including Magna, as the next great  frontier.

By John O'Dell, Senior Editor

Another entry in the plug-in hybrid race, this time from a competitor with really powerful potential.

Magna International, the top-tier Canadian auto parts maker, says it will roll out a plug-in car late next year or in 2010.

So as not to foul relationships with the major automakers that it already supplies with scores of parts, Magna says it won't sell a competing plug-in but will sell them the bits and pieces needed to make their own.

In markets where its customers don't sell cars, though, Magna intends to field a complete plug-in under its own brand.

The company, which reported $26.1 billion in sales and a $663 million net profit last year, is serious about becoming a car maker.

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Hybrid version of BMW's X6 will hit U.S. roads as an '09 model.

BMW says a hybrid version of its X6 "activity vehicle" will, indeed, hit the U.S. market in 2009, initially available only with the company's twin-turbo, 407-horsepower, 4.4-liter V8 coupled to the dual-mode electric drive system co-developed with General Motors and the former DaimlerChrysler.

It's the automotive equivalent of strapping a hydrogen bomb to a nuclear bomb for extra oomph.

In that configuration the hefty X6 won't be the poster child for fuel economy, but it will use less gas than the conventional model.

BMW hasn't disclosed mileage estimates for the hybrid, but says it should be about 20 percent better than the 19 mpg combined city/highway rating for the conventional version. That would put it close to 23 mpg for drivers who can keep the accelerator pedal off the floor.

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By Robert E. Calem, Contributor

New York -- Mercedes-Benz is preparing to transform its flagship S-Class sedan into an "economy" car offering gas mileage comparable to that of the Honda Accord, and that will be only the beginning of the car's fuel consumption makeover, the company promises.

The key change: incorporating a new lithium-ion battery that Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler AG has been developing since the early 1990s.

Due largely to technology advances achieved in the last six years, Mercedes-Benz engineers say, the battery is now ready for mass production and will be used first in the S400 BlueHybrid , a new gasoline-electric S-Class sedan slated to go on sale after the summer of 2009.

The following year, the battery is to be used in a diesel-electric hybrid version, the S300 BlueTec Hybrid, and after 2010 in the more powerful S400 BlueTec Hybrid.

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Lithium-ion battery packs being tested at Argonne National Laboratory.

By John O'Dell, Senior Editor

Toyota, General Motors, Mitsubishi and Mercedes-Benz all say they'll have electric cars with lithium-ion batteries on the road at or near the end of the decade.

Because they can pack more power into a smaller and lighter package than the nickel-metal-hydride batteries that today's hybrids use, lithium-ion batteries are generally considered the only way to go as EV and hybrid technology pushes into the future.

But over at Honda Motor Co., chief Executive Takeo Fukui is suggesting that charging ahead slowly is the best way to go when assessing the battery portion of that technology.

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New York -- Under a shower of red, white and blue balloons at the New York International Auto Show Wednesday, Mercedes-Benz officially announced that this autumn it will offer three sport-utility vehicles in the U.S. that, in an industry first, will feature diesel engines meeting tough new emissions standards needed for sale in all 50 states.

The SUVs -- the ML320 BlueTec, the R320 BlueTec and the GL320 BlueTec -- spew so few greenhouse-gas emissions that they comply with federal Bin 5 and California's über-stringent ULEV exhaust standards, as well as Europe's next-generation EU6 emission standard.

All three models, initially to be sold only in the U.S., are powered by state-of-the-art, 3.0-liter V6 engines generating 211 horsepower (155 kW) and 398-pound-feet (540 Nm) of torque -- power typically found in V8  engines.

The diesel engine also makes them 20-40 percent more fuel-efficient than their gasoline counterparts, Daimler's Thomas Weber said.

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THIS....Chevrolet Volt typifies battery-electric cars GM's Lutz wants to promote.

Or THIS.....Honda FCX Clarity uses hydrogen fuel-cell electric drive system.

By Scott Doggett, Contributor

The schizophrenic nature of auto industry in an increasingly green market was perhaps never more evident than this past week, as major carmakers split on the future of fuel-cell vehicles.

Larry Burns, vice president of research and development for GM, kicked things off Monday on a positive note for fuel-cell fans, talking up the importance of company's Project Driveway. That's GM's just-initiated 30-month test program involving 100 Chevrolet Equinox Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Electric Vehicles being driven by consumers in Los Angeles, New York City and Washington, D.C.

Ready for Prime Time

"We just coauthored a paper with Shell that makes a compelling case that the hydrogen infrastructure is real, it's viable, it can be done affordably and safely," Burns told reporters covering an alternative energy conference in New York.

"So the next step here as we learn from these hundred Equinox Fuel Cells will be getting into the thousands. We see that happening within the 2011-2012 timeframe. And then once we get to thousands we need to get to hundreds of thousands and millions. We think that within the next decade that is within our grasp."

So far, so good.

But only hours later, GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz was reading from a different page.

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Vision GLK Bluetec Hybrid foreshadows production model diesel-hybrid.

Mercedes-Benz will join VW in sharing the oohs and aahs of fuel-efficiency fans at the Geneva Motor Show next week when it unveils it 40-miles-per-gallon diesel-hybrid GLK crossover featuring a new lithium-ion battery pack.

The German luxury-car maker took the wraps off today, releasing a photo and a little bit of info about what it is calling the "Vision GLK Bluetec Hybrid."

Volkswagen recently confirmed that it will show a concept diesel-hybrid Golf capable of achieving 69.9 miles per gallon fuel economy.

Mercedes' entry in the field combines a 2.2-liter Bluetec diesel four-banger with a mild hybrid electric boost system.

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Mereceds-Benz' prototype "DiesOtto" engine has been awarded the Environmental Grand Prize at the 23rd Festival Automobile International in Paris.

The engine, first shown by Mercedes parent, Daimler, at the 2007 Frankfurt Auto Show, combines the horsepower and cleaner emissions of a gasoline engine with the low-end torque and fuel economy of a diesel.

The concept "provides an important basis for the future of the internal combustion engine" and "demonstrates the great innovative strength of the automobile industry," the prize jury said.

The DiesOtto technology includes direct fuel injection, turbocharging, a variable compression ratio and homogeneous charge compression ignition similar to that of a diesel. The ignition, which takes place deep in the engine cylinders under high compression, assures a cleaner and more complete fuel burn than the conventional gasoline engine's spark-ignition at the top of each cylinder.

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Fisker Automotive's exotic plug-in hybrid is one of the show's green offerings.

It's Sunday, kickoff day for the press preview of the North American International Auto Show and we're here in Detroit, struggling to get an overcoat on before heading out to chip the ice off the windshield and cursing  the wife for her cheerful telephone reminder that it's supposed to be 80-degrees at home today.

Used to be that heading for this show supercharged the brain's anticipatory centers, but this year it seems a bit ho-hum.

There' still good stuff, especially on the green car front, but several industry insiders have suggested in recent weeks as we pondered the show schedule together that the newly rejuvenated Los Angeles Auto Show, which now takes place in November instead of just days before Detroit, has stolen some of the thunder.

Or maybe it's the economy – the U.S. auto industry hasn't been all that healthy of late.

Whatever the reason, while there's enough here this year to make it worthwhile attending, there's not enough to get the salivary glands working overtime.

On the green front, much of what we'll be seeing is concept, not stuff that will hit the road this year.

We are expecting some announcements from Toyota about its hybrid and fuel economy strategies, and from the American Le Mans Racing series about further adoption of green technologies and fuels for racing. General Motors is expected to have something to say about its drive to make ethanol a bigger part of the U.S. fuel supply base.

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Fuel-cell car programs such as Honda's FCX need hydrogen to succeed.

In a blow to proponents of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, a trio of agencies that were to receive funding from California to build hydrogen fuel stations have dropped the projects.

The San Jose Mercury News reports today that the agencies dropping plans for hydrogen fuel stations cited concerns that hydrogen for transportation isn't going to be a viable technology in the near term.

That's the same concern that led Canada's Ballard Power systems to sell its pioneering fuel cell development operation to a consortium of automakers last year.

The moves, coupled with the closure of three stations that had already been up and running -- including the facility that served the California Fuel Cell Partnership – has raised concerns in some quarters about the future of fuel-cell test programs in the U.S.


Mercedes-Benz wants to lease more of its F-Cell cars in the U.S.

"We are quite serious about commercializing our fuel-cell vehicles," said William Craven, general manager for regulatory affairs for Mercedes-Benz of North America.

"But we have to look at where the fuel infrastructure is growing. And right now that's not in California, it's in Europe, and Japan.

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