The fleet of new cars and trucks sold to U.S. consumers averaged 21 miles per gallon in the 2008 model year, a modest increase over the previous year, with Honda and Hyundai having the most fuel-efficient fleets in America, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported Friday.
New vehicle fuel efficiency improved 2 percent in 2008 from 20.6 mpg for the 2007 model year. The government projected it will improve slightly to 21.1 mpg in the 2009 model year.
The EPA figures are based on real-world estimates for city and highway mileage found on window stickers at dealer showrooms, instead of mileage values developed through laboratory testing.
Honda Motor Co. led the industry in 2008 with 23.9 mpg, followed by Hyundai Motor Co. and its affiliate Kia Motors Corp. with 23.7 mpg, and Toyota Motor Corp. with 22.8 mpg.
Volkswagen AG's fleet averaged 22.3 mpg, followed by Nissan Motor Co. with 21.9 and BMW AG with 21.2.
General Motors Co. led U.S. automakers with 19.7 mpg, followed by Ford Motor Co. with 19.4 and Chrysler Group LLC with 19.3. The EPA projects Ford will increase its fuel efficiency by more than 1 mpg in the 2009 model year and overtake GM.
The California agency that sets the American standard for automotive emissions today unveiled a much-improved Website that helps consumers choose the least polluting cars on the market.
---------- Click on art to enlarge. ----------
The California Air Resources Board Website, using information collected for vehicle certification in the golden state, offers a practical and easy to use system that ranks vehicles according to their emission characteristics and provides tools to compare models.
The site allows visitors to view models by technology/fuel type, smog score, global-warming score and engine family. And there's a very smart tool that, with a click of your mouse, allows you to view all the tax incentives available for a particular model.
Last year, the agency adopted a state regulation requiring automakers to affix the Environmental Performance Label to California showroom models that convey the vehicle's smog and greenhouse-gas emissions. The simply illustrated graphic has two rankings, from one to 10, that depict vehicle emissions. The higher the score, the less polluting it is.
Driveclean.ca.gov puts these same rankings in an online format, making them practical for web research. The Website also provides information about clean-car technology and guides users to consider the emissions of the models they are evaluating.
We salute CARB, once again, for taking another significant step to make the world we live in a healthier place.
Panelists Say Earth-Friendly Future Won't Come Easy For Private Transportation
Although predominately a business-oriented exploration of environmental practices and processes the Opportunity Green 2009 conference at UCLA this weekend promised transportation geeks a look at ideas of personal mobility in a green future.
We're not sure it followed through, as the program became in part a promotion of the Mini E electric vehicle program - thanks to the event's sponsorship by Mini USA - and in part an examination of the obstacles still in the way of truly green mobility.
---------- Passer-by eyes Mini E parked on UCLA campus during Opportunity Green conference. ----------
Thus the opening of the panel entitled "The Next Generation of Transportation," consisted of a somber warning from moderator Dan Neil, the L.A. Times' Pulitzer Prize-winning auto critic.
"I'm sorry," he opined, "but I fear that society cannot magically make the wide, sweeping changes needed in transportation without suffering" the same far-reaching government and corporate grab for control "that we see coming in health care."
Event sponsor Mini, of course, disagreed - the company was there to persuade eco-friendly professionals that parent BMW, a fossil fuel-burning company of global proportions, is finding its inner green machine and that the right answers to our transportation needs are on the way.
Spotlighting the Mini E and offering test drives to the participants of the event, Mini collected input from drivers about their experiences to add to the data its in-house green team will use as it plans the BMW's eco-friendly future.
Neil pointed out in the transportation session that the Mini E is a not-ready-for-prime-time electric car - not with that "beautifully upholstered lithium battery pack in the back seat," taking up room most drivers would want for passengers and cargo.
BMW says it will offer four-cylinder diesel engines in some of its U.S. cars, definitely in the 3 Series and likely in the 5 Series sedans as well.
The automaker had revealed the four-cylinder diesel program more than a year ago but said at the time that a decision to bring it to the U.S. would be made after the Presidential election and a clear signal from the new administration as to the fuel economy demands that would be placed on auto makers.
President Obama's decision to accelerate the federal 35.5 mile-per-gallon fleet average fuel economy requirement to 2016 from its original 2020 deadline apparently was the signal BMW needed.
The company, which sells a ton of diesels in Europe, said it hopes to eventually hit 20 percent market share for its oil-burners in the U.S., Inside Line Senior Editor Erin Riches reports in a dispatch from the company's North American headquarters in New Jersey.
Video explains Fiat Multiair system that will be used in many of Chrysler's new models to improve fuel efficiency, reduce emissions and boost power.
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
Chrysler's new powertrain chief, Paolo Ferrero, says the company will begin widespread adoption of gas and diesel engine technologies from its new owner, Fiat Group, with the first of a family of more fuel-efficient engines due next summer.
The company believes that hybrids and electric vehicles are a longer-term strategy and will concentrate in the "short-to-medium" term on internal combustion engine improvements and downsizing, and introduction of fuel-efficient clean diesels and engines using alternative low carbon fuels such as compressed natural gas.
Chrysler also will be adopting the start-stop system, also called a micro-hybrid system, that is used in some Fiat models to shut down the engine at stop signs and when idling. It can reduce emissions and improve fuel economy by as much as 5 percent, Ferrero said.
The first model in the Chrysler lineup to use it will be the the 2011 Jeep Wrangler.
By 2014, Ferrero said during a morning presentation at the day-long Chrysler product plan meeting, 38 percent of Chrysler vehicles will use small, four-cylinder engines, up from 19 percent today, and 14 percent will use diesel engines, up from 9 percent now.
From Gas to Electric, 3-Wheelers to Exotics, Contestants Vie to Build 100 MPG Vehicles
Students from West Philadelphia High School are youngest competitors, but no slouches when it comes to design or performance, as shown by their Alternative category entry, the biodiesel-electric EVX-GT hybrid sports car. The school also has a diesel-electric hybrid Ford Focus in the Conventional class.
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
Judges for the Progressive Automotive X Prize contest have winnowed the field in the race for $10 million in prize money for building the best 100 MPG MPH car to the final 43 teams.
The teams will enter a total of 53 vehicles (there are different categories, so multiple entries are possible) in a competition pitting them against one another in a variety of road and safety tests.
All the finalists already have survived two design judging rounds that pared the number of entries from the original 111 teams with 135 vehicles.
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The Progressive Automotive X Prize was launched at last year's New York Auto Show.
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The contest, aimed at inspiring green-car development, was announced more than 18 months ago. It challenges contestants to design, build and operate a commercially viable vehicles that can deliver fuel economy of at least 100 miles per gallon - or the equivalent.
Part of the competition involves presenting a marketing plan to the judges, who will decide if the vehicle has real-world possibilities.
Among them, the final entrants use 14 different fuels including gasoline and electricity, with battery-electric and hybrid-electric the most popular types of powertrains.
In the hybrid-electric category, teams are entering vehicles whose internal combustion engines run on gasoline, diesel biodiesel, ethanol, butanol and compressed natural gas.
There are even three entries that use plain old gasoline as their sole fuel.
For every energy unit in fossil fuel it takes to produce biodiesel, more than four units are contained in the fuel, the National Biodiesel Board said this week, citing the report.
The board is promoting the biodiesel energy improvements study in hopes of influencing the Environmental Protection Agency as it prepares rules to implement the expanded federal renewable fuels standard.
The carbon impact of each fuel is weighed in setting the mix of fuels to be used in the country and the agency is using a four-year-old study to establish baseline numbers for petroleum and biodiesel and the numbers favor gasoline because biodiesel production was less energy-efficient then, the board says.
Volvo officials didn't have much to say about U.S. plans when they showed off their new C30-based electric car concept and a prototype plug-in, diesel-electric hybrid (right) in Sweden last month.
But the head of the automaker's U.S. operation confirmed in a recent interview what we've long suspected, that Volvo does plan to bring plug-in hybrids and diesels to this market at some point.
The big questions are when, and what about that EV? Both went unanswered in Volvo Cars North America CEO Doug Speck's interview with Automotive News.
Fuel prices, consumer interest and government support of the various advanced automotive technologies will drive Volvo's efforts, Speck said.
He repeated what Volvo told us last month - that the company's first pug-in hybrid would hit the market in Europe in 2012. He added that it will come to the U.S. sometime after that, and that Volvo diesels also would be sold here at some point.
It all makes sense - as does our suspicion that a Volvo EV won't be withheld from this market for too long once the company gives the go-ahead to a production project.
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Volvo showed off this C30 hatchback-based battery-electric prototype in Sweden last month.
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The U.S., after all, accounts for nearly a quarter of Volvo's sales and the company can't afford to withhold its newest and most advanced vehicles for very long.
Add to that the demands of the new U.S. CAFE rules which require average fleet fuel efficiency to hit 35 mph by 2020 and you can build a pretty good case for Volvo hybrids, diesels and EVs being sold here.
Lowe's Fernandez Acura driven by Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz took top green honors in the American Le Mans Series prototype class as winner of the annual Michelin Green X Challenge for finishing highest with the lowest environmental impact.
Gil de Ferran, Simon Pagenaud and their LMP Acura took the checkered flag in the prototype class at this past weekend's American Le Mans Series final at Laguna Seca, but the increasingly important 'green' flag was captured by another team of prototype Acura drivers.
Edmunds.com photo editor Kurt Niebhur was there to take in the race and filed this report for Green Car Advisor on the environmental aspect of the competition. ---------- Race for the Green
Racing and environmentalism might seem to run on different sides of the track, but the Michelin Green X Challenge just might have something to say about that.
Started in 2008, the Michelin Green X Challenge was formed by the tire maker in conjunction with a major racing series, the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy and the Society of Automotive Engineers International.
As a race within a race, the Green X Challenge awards points to cars - and drivers - based on four different criteria; releasing the least amount of CO2, displacing the least amount of petroleum, excelling in energy efficiency during a race weekend, and last, but by no means least, finishing position.
As testament to the fairness of the rules in both the ALMS and the Green X Challenge, the 2009 Season saw nine different cars from eight different teams representing five different manufacturers. All teams involved ran on E10 ethanol blended gasoline, E85R gasoline blended ethanol, GTL biodiesel or E10 with electric hybrid power.
For the 2009 season, the winners of the Michelin Green X Challenge were the #15 Lowe's Fernandez Acura, driven by Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz, in the Prototype category, and the #44 Flying Lizard Porsche, driven by Seth Neiman and Johannes Van Overbeek, in the GT category.
With the success of the Green X Challenge, as well as the focus these days on environmental responsibility, it came as no surprise that Michelin announced it would continue the challenge through the 2010 American Le Mans Series..
Audi's A3 TDI diesel and Mercury's Milan Hybrid are two of the contenders in LA Auto Show's green car face-off.
It will be diesel vs. hybrid and luxe models vs.standards in Green Car of the Year judging for December's 2009 Los Angeles International Auto Show. The five finalists in the annual competition, announced today, are the Toyota Prius (left), Honda Insight (below, right) and Mercury Milan hybrids on the gas-electric side and the Audi A3 TDI and Volkswagen Golf TDI (below, left) on the diesel side.
Judges picked the VW Jetta TDI last year, so if either the Golf or A3 win it will be two-in a-row for the fuel that most Americans still equate with big-rigs and giant bulldozers. There could be sentiment of the small luxury-performance car, which would help the Audi, but the engine in both the A3 and the Golf is the same that won it for the Jetta TDI in 2008.
Our handicapper at Inside Line's Straightline blog seems to be betting on the redesigned 2010 Prius, reasoning that the Milan Hybrid doesn't stand much of a chance because its twin, the Ford Fusion Hybrid, was nominated but didn't win last year, and that the judges will be loathe to salute diesel for a second consecutive year.
That leaves the Honda Insight and Toyota Prius, and the Pruis is the greener of the two by dint of its greater fuel economy.
A clean-trucks program at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in California has shown quick progress, with an 80 percent decline in diesel emissions expected by the end of 2010 -- a year ahead of schedule.
"This is the most successful effort to clean a port in the world," said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. "I mean, think about it. Nobody thought it was possible to retrofit 5,000 trucks in a year, and we're at 5,500 and growing."
So far, the program has reduced diesel truck emissions at the Los Angeles port (pictured) by 70 percent compared with 2007 levels, Villaraigosa said. Long Beach has seen similar results, according to Mayor Bob Foster.
The program is part of a larger effort to reduce diesel emissions at the port complex, one of the major sources of pollution in Southern California. Increased rates of cancer, asthma and other serious health ailments for area residents have been attributed to port pollution.
Villaraigosa and Foster unveiled the promising figures during a briefing at the Port of Long Beach on Thursday, when U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced $26.5 million in federal grants for clean-air programs throughout Southern California.
The 2010 Golf TDI, which will feature the 2.0-liter 140-horsepower four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine already selling out in the Jetta TDI, will carry an MSRP of $22,690 with a six-speed manual transmission. Fuel economy with this pairing is 30/41 miles per gallon city/highway.
For an additional $1,100, you can get the same vehicle with the six-speed DSG transmission. With it, fuel economy nudges up to 30/42 MPG.
If your 2010 Golf must have four doors and a manual transmission, Volkswagen offers a six-speed manual on the four-door TDI.
Acceleration is comparable for both models. Golf TDIs make the 0-60 mph sprint in 8.6 seconds, or four-tenths of a second slower than the pricier Jetta TDI.
Standard equipment on all Golfs include a trip computer, eight-way manual-adjustment front sport seats, dual-exhaust tips, heated exterior mirrors and an auxiliary input jack. The Golf TDI adds a leather steering wheel, 6 months of Sirius, a touch-screen sound system, fog lights, 17-inch alloy wheels (above the standard 15-inch steel ones on the five-cylinder Golf), a sport suspension that lowers the car, and an armrest.
Bluetooth is a $199 option, though curiously, a chart in Volkswagen's press release says it is "forced on all TDI's [sic] by Corporate." Xenon headlights are $700 and a navigation system with a 6.5-inch screen and 30-gigabyte hard drive $1,750, and can be ordered only on the Golf TDI. The same is true for the 300W Dynaudio premium sound system.
Federal and California standards for heavy duty diesels call for near-zero emissions of particulates and NOx in 2010 and beyond - the strictest big-rig exhaust regulations in the world.
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Freightliner Cascadia tractor uses both types of engines Detroit Diesel hopes to certify for 2010 emissions standards.
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They apply to all diesel truck engines built next year and beyond, and almost every truck and engine manufacturer has vowed to meet the standards.
We don't write a lot about trucks, but when we're talking 450-horsepower and 1,600 ft.-lb. of torque...how could we resist?
Besides, big rigs are big polluters, and anything that helps clean up the air quality mess caused by our transportation systems is worth noting.
The most recent to move forward is Detroit Diesel, which said today it has filed applications for federal EPA and California Air Resources Board certification for two of its most fuel-efficient engines, equipped with BlueTec emissions control systems.
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Hauler: 14.8-liter DD15 engine from Detroit Diesel offers 350-450 horespower and 1,350-1,650 ft.-lb. of torque and, with new exhaust treatment, company says, almost no nasty emissions.
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The company, owned by Dailmer, has been testing the Daimler-developed BluTec system for more than 25 million miles of on-road driving and says that EPA and CARB certification would mean a "paradigm-changing product for our customers."
The upcoming 209 Tokyo motor Show is going to be the slimmest in decades, with no US or major European automakers slated to attend - casualties of the recession.
---------- Mazda says its Kiyora city car concept will be updated with newest technologies for the Tokyo Show next month. ----------
That may, however, work to the advantage of hometown automakers such as Mazda.
The company said late Monday that it will use the show to spotlight the world premiers of two new fuel-efficient engines - a clean diesel and a direct-injected gasoline model, as well as a new high-efficiency automatic transmission,
Mazda also will stage the Japanese introduction of its Kiyora concept car that showcases the car makers' next-generation environmental and safety advances.
Originally unveiled at the 2008 Paris Auto Show, the Kiyora is a flame-shaped, glass-roofed. 4-seat city car concept that foreshadows the replacement for the Mazda 2 city car.
Land Rover announced today that a production version of its Range Rover LRX Concept SUV (pictured) will be built, with sales to begin in 2011.
Designed and engineered at Land Rover's Gaydon facility, the new Range Rover will be the smallest, lightest and most fuel-efficient vehicle the company has ever produced.
The three-door SUV will be built in Halewood, near Liverpool, England, subject to quality and productivity agreements, and will be sold in more than 100 countries around the world, the company said in a statement.
In an interview with Edmunds.com's Michelle Krebs this morning, Jaguar Land Rover spokesman Stuart Schorr said the LRX will be the first of four new segment offerings from the company, with Jaguar and Land Rover to receive two each.
He stressed the four will be premium brands, meaning they won't come cheap. Schorr also said that Jaguar Land Rover is committed to hybrids and electrics, but he refused to provide further details.
The LRX Concept debuted at the Detroit Auto Show last year and featured a 2.0-liter diesel-hybrid powertrain, which when running on biodiesel achieved a claimed fuel economy of 60 miles per gallon.
Jaguar or Land Rover Plant to Close
In a related development, India's Tata Motors Ltd. said today it will close one of the three Jaguar Land Rover assembly plants in England by 2014 in a bid to move its money-losing British unit into profitability.
The federal government has awarded $100 million in grants to 43 metropolitan transit agencies that had submitted plans to cut emissions and create so-called "green" jobs.
The grants mark the Obama Administration's continued investment in reducing the environmental impact of transportation vehicles by using technologies that boost fuel efficiency and cut pollution.
Many of the green grants are for agencies to replace diesel transit buses with diesel-electric hybrid and battery-electric buses, but a number also involve increased use of solar energy.
California-based transportation agencies such as the Bay Area's AC Transit and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority will be given more than $17 million for projects such as boosting solar energy capacity to make hydrogen with clean electricity, installing photovoltaic panels to offset electricity use at maintenance yards, and installing a flywheel energy storage system, the U.S. Transportation Department said in a statement announcing the grants.
Audi CEO Rupert Stadler says American consumers will get more clean diesels -- but they will pay a premium for them.
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Right, the 2010 Audi Q7 TDI starts at $50,900. ----------
"I think the problem is that we don't really have an honest discussion," Stadler said in a press roundtable at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
"There is a very, very high level of investment, and nobody today knows if the return will come," he said.
Johan de Nysschen, president of Audi of America, says that ultimately Audi sees itself as selling 20 to 25 percent of its vehicles in the United States with diesel powertrains.
For the Audi Q7 crossover, Audi's first diesel in the United States, diesel penetration is 35 percent, he said, and the brand ran short of diesels during model-year changeover.
The share is even higher for the A3 TDI subcompact, he added.
But, de Nysschen said, Audi is supporting the technology financially: "There certainly is a price premium, which we are partially recovering, but not totally."
BMW plans to offer four-cylinder gasoline engines in the United States in an effort to meet stricter fuel economy rules, a company executive said today.
Introduction of the powerplants, equipped with the automaker's next-generation twin turbochargers, "is the goal and we will do it," Jim O'Donnell (pictured), chairman and CEO of BMW of North America, said on the sidelines of the Frankfurt Motor Show, subscription-based Automotive News reported.
O'Donnell said the engines will allow the automaker to reach U.S. fuel-economy targets before 2015. Under federal guidelines proposed today, automakers will have to improve the fuel economy of their fleets by 5 percent annually before a national standard of 35.5 mpg takes effect in the 2016 model year.
BMW will add a four-cylinder variant for its next 3 series in the United States by spring 2012, O'Donnell said. The automaker already equips its European 3 series with four-cylinder gasoline and diesel engines.
BMW also is considering adding four-cylinder gasoline engines to its X1 and X3 crossovers and 1-series model in the United States.
In Europe, the X1 will be available with a four-cylinder, twin-turbo diesel engine when it launches this fall. The X3 and 1 series also are offered with four-cylinder gasoline and diesel engines in Europe.
"We see potentially a significant market that could get to 100,000 four-cylinder engines" in the United States, O'Donnell said.
With the premature appearance of some photos of the current L1 Concept in the German media over the weekend, Volkswagen today distributed information and multiple images of the ultra-high-mileage carbon-fiber two-seat diesel runabout ahead of its scheduled debut at the Frankfurt Auto Show.
The German automaker announced that the L1 Concept is powered by a new two-cylinder 0.8-liter turbocharged direct-injection engine -- the smallest diesel engine intended for production applications ever built by Volkswagen.
That engine is mated to a 10-kilowatt/14 horsepower electric motor and a 7-speed direct-shift gearbox (or DSG, an electronically controlled multiple-shaft dual-clutch manual gearbox without a conventional clutch pedal) -- all situated at the back of the car. Together, the three components create the "most fuel-efficient road-legal car hybrid drive in the world," according to Volkswagen.
The L1 -- which takes its name from 1 liter of diesel will provide 100 kilometers of driving, although in reality 1.38 liters are required to go that distance -- is operated in two different modes depending on the load conditions.
In the standard "ECO mode," the TDI engine develops a power of 20 kilowatts/27 horsepower at 4,000 revolutions per minute. In sport mode, the car's power rises to 29 kilowatts/39 hp at 4,000 rpm. The TDI's maximum torque is 73.7 pound-feet at 1,900 rpm. A stop-start system automatically shuts down the engine when vehicle has stopped and restarts when the accelerator or "E-pedal" is pressed.
A Little History
This isn't the first L1 VW has come up with. Seven years ago, Dr. Ferdinand Piech, at that time chairman of the board of management at VW Group, drove a prototype L1 from Wolfsburg to Hamburg "that was unlike any other car before it: the Volkswagen 1-Litre car -- the world's first car with fuel consumption of one litre fuel per 100 kilometers," as VW tells it.
Hyundai Motors' ix-Metro Hybrid city car is one of several dozen 'green' cars and concepts debuting at Frankfurt show.
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
This week's Frankfurt Auto Show promises to be the greenest major auto show to date - a showcase for fuel efficiency improvements and alternative powertrains that are coming to the forefront as the mainstream auto industry finally begins coming to grips with the need to begin weaning itself - and us - from petroleum.
Daimler AG has added a pair of BlueEFFICIENCY AMG models fitted with four-cyliner diesel engines to its growing family of Mercedes-Benz GLK sport utility vehicles, and the automaker hints one or both may come to the U.S.
The greener of the two is the rear-wheel-drive 2010 GLK 220 CDI with the familiar 170-horsepower four-banger achieving between 36.8 and 39.2 miles per gallon depending on options, the automaker said in a statement today. That model's claimed carbon-emission figures range from 158 to 168 grams per kilometer.
The all-wheel-drive 2010 GLK 250 CDI 4MATIC features a 204-hp engine producing 368 pound-feet of torque. Daimler claims it is the most powerful four-cylinder diesel engine in the SUV world. It achieves a claimed 35.1 mpg and emits 176 grams of CO2 per kilometer.
As far as acceleration, the RWD GLK 220 reportedly reaches 60 miles an hour in 8.5 seconds and has a top speed of 122 mph, while the AWD GLK 250 completes the sprint in 7.9 seconds and can reach 129 mph.
While not discussing whether it intends to export either model to North America, Daimler made the point of stating that in addition to meeting the EU5 emissions standard, both models have "the potential to fulfil the EU6 limits as well as the BIN 5 requirements in the USA."
We hope the German automaker will provide additional details at the Frankfurt Motor Show, which takes place next week.
Solazyme Inc., a California company specializing in renewable oil production company, has been selected by the U.S. Department of Defense to research and develop commercial scale production of algae-derived biofuel for the Navy, the company reported today.
---------- A worker pours biofuel at Solazyme. ----------
The contract also calls for delivery of more than 20,000 gallons of Soladiesel F-76 Renewable Naval Distillate fuel to the Navy for compatibility testing over the next year.
F-76 Naval Distillate is similar to diesel fuel and is the primary shipboard fuel used by the Navy.
The contract is significant to green-car proponents in that it gives the alternative-fuel industry more reason to invest algae-derived fuels, which may one day account for much of the fuel powering cars and trucks.
Solazyme CEO Jonathan Wolfson said in a statement that the fuels made with his company's algal technology reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by more than 85 percent versus standard petroleum based fuels.
The company, which is headquartered in South San Francisco, said its Soladiesel F-76 fuel meets the Navy's F-76 specification.
"This program will lead to the eventual certification of Soladiesel F-76 Naval distillate for commercial sale to the U.S. Military," the company said.
Calls placed to Solazyme seeking the dollar amount of the contract and other details were not immediately returned.
Perhaps Discussing GM's Silly 230 MPG Claim for Volt Would Have Been More Productive
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
Whoops.
Diesel booster and Audi of America President Johan de Nysschen, whose remarks questioning the common sense (or worse) of people who'd pay $40,000 for an extended-range Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid have been all over the Internet today (including an earlier Green Car Advisor piece), says he didn't mean it that way.
In fact, the famously outspoken de Nysschen (left) says in a new posting on Audi's Facebook page that he doesn't recall using the term 'car for idiots' to describe the Volt (what he did say, apparently, is that "there are not enough idiots who will buy" Volts), and certainly didn't intend to disparage electric cars or people who want to buy them.
He'd better hope he hasn't done the latter - Audi is working on an electric-drive car of its own.
In any event, de Nysschen said in his Facebook posting, "if I was unclear on either of those points then I need to eat crow."
What he did want to make clear, he said, is that, in is opinion the Volt, which he believes will be selling for a "50 percent or so price increase...over a similar gasoline car," won't be able to earn back the price difference for owners through fuel savings alone.
Diesel 'Premium' Buys a 41% Combined Fuel Economy Improvement Over 2-Liter Gasoline Model
Audi A3 TDI on the road in diesel mileage marathon event earlier this summer.
Audi, whose top U.S. executive recently questioned the mental acuity of people willing to pay $40,000 (before tax credits) for the upcoming extended-range Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid, says it will price its 2010 A3 TDI clean diesel hatchback at $30,775.
(The diesel is likely to qualify for a $1,300 federal clean car tax credit; the Volt already has qualified for a $7,500 credit under the same program)
The EPA has rated the Audi A3 TDI at 30 mpg on the city cycle and 42 mpg on the highway cycle for a combined estimate of 34 mpg.
That compares to a 24 mpg combined mileage rating for the 2-liter, $29,575 gasoline A3 (there really is no fuel efficiency comparison with the Volt because the EPA still hasn't announced a methodology for computing fuel economy in a car that mixes all-electric and gasoline-engine augmented travel and won't go into production until late next year.)
For its $30,775 base price (includes the standard $825 destination charge), the Audi TDI offers a 140-horsepower, 2-liter clean diesel engine that develops 236 ft-lb of torque at max demand. Top speed is 130 mph, but you won't be getting 34 miles a gallon doing that.
Other touches include Audi's front-wheel drive set up and sporty suspension and handling, a top speed of 130 mpg, leather upholstery, 40/60 split and folding rear seats and lots of cup holders.
Options such as Audi Navigation, Bose premium sound, special alloy wheels, wood trim, upgraded leather and those neat LED daytime running lights that make Audis stand out in the crowd all will add a few thousand bucks to the base price.
The 2010 A3 TDI is slated to begin hitting dealer showrooms in November.
2010 VW Golf, Polo and Passat BlueMotion cars. The updated diesel-sippers will debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
Volkswagen revealed today that it will debut production versions of its fuel-efficient, diesel-powered Polo, Golf and Passat BlueMotion models at the Frankfurt Motor Show later this month.
The Polo BlueMotion was shown as a concept alongside the debut of the regular Polo editions at the last Geneva Auto Show. VW said the production-version Polo BlueMotion gets a combined fuel economy rating of 71.3 miles per gallon with carbon-dioxide emissions of just 87 grams per kilometer.
To put that CO2 figure in perspective, the Polo's recently developed 1.2-liter, 75-horsepower TDI engine produces the same amount of climate-changing emissions as the diesel Smart ForTwo, and yet the Polo is able to transport five people whereas the ForTwo is limited to two.
The new Polo BlueMotion is expected to arrive in the U.S. next year.
The Golf BlueMotion packs a 1.6-liter, 103-horsepower TDI engine and achieves an EPA-estimated fuel economy 61.9 miles per gallon in combined city and highway driving. It generates only 99 grams per kilometer.
VW says the Golf BlueMotion will appear in European showrooms later this year.
The mid-sized Passat manages 53.4 mpg combined; greenhouse-gas emissions are 114 grams per kilometers.
VW says the TDI engines in all three models are recalibrated compared to the conventional models and have a reduced idle speed.
Further minimizing the idle losses are an automatic start-stop system, low rolling resistance tires and reduced aerodynamic drag due to lower front air dams and rocker panel extensions.
According to the German Federal Bureau of Statistics, the average German motorist drives a total of 6,600 miles per year. For Polo BlueMotion drivers, this means that they can cruise the entire year on just eight tanks of diesel.
In addition to fuel-sipping engines, BlueMotion vehicles are equipped with start-stop technology, regenerative braking, low-rolling-resistance tires, lightweight low-drag wheels, and improved aerodynamics.
Chrysler announced today that it will be bringing the new Dodge Caliber to the Frankfurt Motor Show fitted with a new 2.2-liter, turbocharged, common-rail diesel engine that's Euro 5 compliant.
The engine, which is paired with a six-speed manual transmission, produces a claimed 163 horsepower and 236 pound-feet of torque. That's 16 percent more power, 3 percent more torque and 25 percent (3,300 pounds) more towing capability than the previous diesel engine.
But wait, there's more: Fuel consumption is improved by 5 percent (40.6 miles per gallon versus 38.6 mpg), and carbon dioxide emissions are improved by 3 percent (154 grams per kilometer compared to 159 grams per kilometer).
Chrysler says forged steel connecting rods, aluminum head and pistons, and fourth-generation direct-injection system with common-rail pressurized at 1800 bar provide durability, weight reduction and performance.
Passenger comfort also improves as dual balance shafts and sound-deadening materials reduce the diesel engine's vibration and harshness by 25 percent compared with the previous Dodge Caliber CRD.
Unfortunately, there are no plans to bring the new diesel engine to the U.S. Unless there's a change, Americans will only be offered Calibers equipped with Chrysler's gasoline-consuming World Engines.
The two World Engines (2.0- and 2.4-liter) in the Caliber are equipped with dual variable-valve timing and an intake manifold design with flow control valves. Combined, these features produce more power, better fuel economy and a smoother, quieter operation than engines without them.
The 2.0-liter World Engine replaces the 1.8-liter engine, delivering 4 percent more power (156 hp) and 13 percent more torque (140 pound-feet). For even greater performance, the 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine delivers 170 hp and 162 pound-feet of torque. But again, neither it nor the 2.4-liter will be offered to Americans as diesels.
The new Dodge Caliber will debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show in two weeks. It's interesting to note that the Dodge Caliber was the top-selling Chrysler Group LLC vehicle outside North America in 2008.
Bill Visnic's musings make sense, and if the Cayenne - in all versions, green and black - does fade away at the end of the present model cycle in 2016 or so, we won't shed tears.
It's a nice SUV, with tons of power and loads of style and accoutrements, but it's not exactly a vehiclel that the world needs. Porsche sells a lot of them, but we can see that with VW holding the purse strings, a Cayenne would offer unnecessary competition to the VW version - the Touareg - and the to Audi Q& from that rmember of the VW stable.
Still, we stand by our positions that:
the Cayenne hybrid, which goes on sale here next spring, is a very nicely done hybrid with impressive fuel economy for such a large vehicle; and
the Cayenne diesel, on sale in Europe and under study for the North American, ought to be sold here - it would be a lower-priced alternative that's almost as fuel-efficient and as fun to drive.
And wouldn't it be interesting if this early word of the potential demise of the Cayenne caused sales to rise, thus prompting VW to rethink the money-making potential of the line and evenutally deciding to keep on trucking with Porsche?
BMW, which is repositioning itself as a green-car company after years of branding itself as a maker of high-performance cars, announced today that it will unveil its ''Vision EfficientDynamics'' diesel-electric hybrid sport car concept at the Frankfurt Motor Show next month.
The 3-series-size concept is a showcase for BMW's lightweight body construction, hybrid-drive technology, and new packaging and aerodynamic ideas. It features gullwing doors and is powered by a 1.5-liter, three-cylinder turbocharged engine that's slated for production in 2011.
That engine works with two electric motors, mounted front and rear. The rear motor is said to generate 34 horsepower and 214 pound-feet of torque, although BMW says it can achieve 51 hp for short bursts.
The motor acting on the front wheels delivers a claimed 80 hp and 162 pound-feet of torque, but can supply up to 139 hp momentarily. Altogether, BMW's new diesel-electric hybrid system is rated at 356 hp and 590 pound-feet of torque.
The high-profile debut of the vehicle is significant in that it is clearly represents BMW's shift toward low-emission vehicles and technology as part of its wider EfficientDynamics strategy.
As you'll recall, BMW pulled out of Formula One as part of this repositioning of the brand. The company has done a splendid job of selling itself as the maker of the "ultimate driving machine" as defined by high performance.
That said, its marketing department believes that BMW will not be regarded as a premium brand in the future if it does not become overtly environmentally friendly. Hence the release of photos, including the one shown here, showing the car in a verdant setting.
Porsche promises V8 performance and 4-cylinder fuel economy with 2011 Porsche Cayenne S Hybrid.
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
Hmm. A Porsche Cayenne hybrid, or the diesel?
Spend $70,000 or so for a superpowerful, hybrid gas-sipper (27 mpg versus 18 mpg for the V6-equipped standard Cayenne), or around $52,000 for a powerful diesel that delivers about 24 mpg? (The price tags are our best guesses. Porsche hasn't said anything official.)
Diesel? Or Hybrid?
Oops, the diesel isn't a choice, yet. You can only get it in Europe, South Africa and Australia right now - although Porsche is trying to find out if enough U.S. buyers would want one to make a business case for jacking up the emissions treatment system to meet U.S. standards and sending a few over.
The hybrid, however, goes on sale here in the spring, just in time to satisfy the green fancies of those who (a) have the bucks and (b) want to one-up the other Cayenne owners at the country club.
We got a chance this afternoon to take both new SUVs - a preproduction prototype Cayenne S hybrid and a European-spec Cayenne diesel - for a short spin in the hills of Beverly and were mightily impressed by both.
Diesel? Hybrid?
It wasn't that long ago that most everyone in the automotive media was raising eyebrows and questions about Porsche's decision to build an SUV.
Volkswagen has been producing Polos in Europe since 1975. The German automaker has offered Polos in various body styes over the years and now it says it will soon debut a production-version diesel Polo that gets 71 miles per gallon.
It's not clear from the statement issued by VW earlier today whether that Polo will be the three-door hatchback (pictured) or the five-door hatchback -- both will be available as BlueMotion (think fuel-efficient) models fitted with 1.2-liter, 75-horsepower diesel engines.
A concept version of the low-emissions Polo BlueMotion appeared at the Geneva auto show in March. VW said today that the vehicle will be available in Europe later this year. It is not expected to appear in American showrooms for at least another year.
In addition to the BlueMotion diesel engine, the Polo will initially be available in two other diesel and three gasoline powertrain choices, and some of which will be available with a fuel-saving seven-speed transmission.
The least expensive of the new group of Polos will start at 12,150 euros, or about $17,800.
It's not as good as a price cut, but at least it's not an increase: Audi says its redesigned 2010 Q7 TDI quattro will retain this model year's starting price of $50,900 (plus $825 in those lovely destination fees).
---------- 2010 Audi Q7 ----------
The 3.0-liter turbo-diesel Q7 SUV also qualifies, for the time being, for a federal alternative motor vehicle tax credit of $1,150 - about 10 percent of a decent down payment.
It comes with an EPA fuel economy rating of 17 mpg in the city and 25 mpg on the highway - 20 mpg overall average - which doesn't sound great until you note that it represents a 30 percent improvement over the comparable 3.6-liter, V6 gasoline model.
Audi says improvements to the 2010 Q7 include "updated" front and rear bumpers, new front headlamps and several interior trim tweaks.
The clean diesel 2010 TDI model - which starts with Audi's Premium trim level - is 50-state legal, meeting California's ULEV emissions standard.
The 2010 Q7s are due in Audi dealers' showrooms next month.
Hyundai Motor Co.'s all-new Tucson ix, a compact SUV that's more fuel efficient than its popular predecessor, went on sale in South Korea today following 36 months and $225 million in development.
The vehicle, which will be named the ix35 outside South Korea, comes with a choice of 2-liter engines: either the all-new 184-horsepower diesel R or the 166-horsepower gasoline Theta-II. Both are fitted with Hyundai's all-new six-speed automatic transmission for improved fuel economy.
Hyundai said the diesel engine meets the Euro-5 emissions standards and in the Tucson ix achieves 35 miles per gallon, while the version fitted with the gasoline engine achieves 26.5 mpg. The diesel version is offered in both front-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive configurations, while the gasoline variant is available only in front-wheel-drive.
Named after a city in Arizona, the Tucson has been one Hyundai's most popular models, with more than 1 million units sold worldwide since its launch in 2004.
The Korean-market Tucson ix is built in the Ulsan plant, while the European edition ix35 will be built in Europe with production and sales commencing in Europe early next year, the automaker said in a statement.
Full details about European powertrains, trim levels and option packages will be announced September 3rd on the eve of the 2009 Frankfurt auto show. North American specifications will be announced at the Los Angeles auto show later this year.
Hyundai said it is aiming for sales of 16,000 units of the new Tucson ix this year in the Korean market and 40,000 units annually starting next year. From 2011, Hyundai said it predicts the vehicle's sales to reach 300,000 units globally, with 260,000 units sold in the overseas market.
BMW announced today that it will debut an ultra-high-mileage version of its 320d sedan at the Frankfurt Motor Show next month.
The car, officially the 2010 320d Efficient Dynamics Edition, is equipped with a diesel engine achieving 57.4 miles per gallon and equally impressive CO2 emissions of just 109 grams per kilometer.
The automaker attributes the vehicle's lofty fuel economy to turbo-charged version of BMW's 2-liter, 4-cylinder, 163-horsepower engine, which is mated to a 6-speed manual transmission.
The vehicle sits lower to the ground than its regularly aspirated diesel sibling and is fitted with low-drag wheels to improve aerodynamics.
Additionally, the usual power parasitic losses that occur are stymied a bit through the use of brake-energy regeneration and electric power steering.
Acceleration remains a very respectable 0-62 miles per hour in 8.2 seconds despite all the attention given to the vehicle's fuel economy and greenhouse-gas emissions.
It would be nice of BMW exported it to the United States, but no one in Munich is discussing that option - at least not publicly.
Likewise, the price of the vehicle has not been disclosed publicly.
Editor's Note: It has come to our attention that the claims expressed by Moinuddin Sarker might not be rooted in good science, but we are not in a position to disprove them.
Plastic and petroleum fuels come from the same place - crude oil. So with more than 15 million tons of plastic entering the nation's waste stream every year, and with the U.S. importing more than 12 million barrels of oil per day, why not turn some plastic into oil?
That's the question a Connecticut-based startup asked itself - and it intends to provide the answer.
Moinuddin Sarker says that his company, Natural State Research, has developed a way to turn waste plastic into finished oil products for a final cost of less than $1 a gallon.
The process, Sarker said, is as simple as heating up the plastic until it becomes vapor, and then letting it condense back into liquid - the way water droplets condense on the cover of a pot of boiling water.
It works because both plastic and oil are made up of carbon molecules, only plastics' molecules are long chains called polymers. Breaking the bonds in the chains, Sarker said, results in smaller carbon-based molecules - the basis for fuels.
While at least six other companies in the U.S. and abroad are already converting plastic to fuel, Sarker said that the technology that NSR has developed is simpler and cheaper.
The company uses a natural air mix at normal pressures, whereas most other companies depend on processes that use oxygen-free air and high pressures, said Sarker, vice president of research and development at NSR.
Almost any type of plastic can be used, Sarker said, and various types of finished fuels - like gasoline, diesel and jet fuel - would be the result.
Sarker said the company is still tweaking the process, but its plan is to build a pilot facility in the next six months, and by 2011 or 2012 to start commercially licensing or selling the technology, which is currently pending patent approval.
Because each ton of plastic can yield about 8 barrels of oil, U.S. plastic waste could theoretically generate 120 million barrels of oil per year. With U.S. oil consumption at more than 19 million barrels a day, that would amount to reducing 2 percent of annual oil use by, essentially, recycling some of it.
Eight U.S. airlines will use up to 1.5 million gallons a year of synthetic diesel made from plant waste starting in 2012, the fuel's manufacturer announced today.
Rentech Inc.'s fuel will be used for ground-service transportation at Los Angeles International Airport and be made primarily from urban woody green waste such as yard clippings, the company said.
Using the renewable fuel will be American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, US Airways, Southwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines and UPS Airlines.
Rentech plans to produce the fuel at a new plant in Rialto, California, which is slated to open in 2012.
The Air Transport Association of America, the domestic industry trade group that joined Rentech in announcing the deal, called the purchasing agreement the first of its kind and said it could signal an industrywide move toward using lower-carbon fuels.
"This transaction promises to be the first of many such green-fuel purchase agreements by the commercial aviation industry," said Glenn Tilton, ATA's chairman.
Likewise, Rentech heralded the agreement as a sign of things to come.
"We expect this agreement to serve as a model for future supply relationships at other airports and for other fuels, including Rentech's synthetic jet fuel, which was recently approved for commercial airline use," said D. Hunt Ramsbottom, Rentech's president and CEO.
The fuel economy rule of thumb used to be that a full hybrid like the Toyota Prius was great for city driving but not so much better than other cars on the highway; that smaller cars were more fuel efficient than larger cars, and that diesels kicked butt in mileage contests.
Edmunds.com's crack(ed) team of testers set out last month to see if that's all still true with the new crop of cars and came to some surprising conclusions in what is becoming our annual Fuel Sipper Smackdown.
Over two days and 700-plus miles of driving, from Southern California to and around Las Vegas and then back, the team put the 2010 Ford Fusion hybrid, 2010 Honda Insight, 2009 Mini, 2010 Toyota Prius and 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI through a series of driving conditions, tracked fuel costs and computer CO2 output.
You can read the results here, and watch the video, above, for a 5-minute summary, but we'll give you the boil-down now:
China's First Auto Works, which builds trucks and buses as well as cars, has taken delivery of the first 70 of an order of 220 "pre-transmission" hybrid drive systems ordered from Enova Systems, the California-based electric and hybrid drive-systems developer said this morning.
---------- FAW hybrid buses in China will be using U.S. hybrid drive systems. ----------
Enova
, making the announcement on the eve of the Plug-In 2009 electric and plug-in hybrids conference that begins tomorrow in Long Beach, Ca., said it also has signed an agreement to supply 800 more of its parallel hybrid drive systems to FAW
in 2010.
Daimler Buses North America says it has received the initial order in an agreement to supply up to 500 diesel-electric hybrid transit buses to the Seattle, Wash., area's public transportation agency.
The first year order is for 93 of the Orion VII buses, with deliveries to begin in mid-2010.
Daimler Buses, located in Greensboro, N.C., said it also has received an order for 80 of the hybrid buses from the city of Ottawa, Canada's transit agency.
The buses are 40 feet long and seat up to 44 passengers. They use a series hybrid system in which a 5.9-liter Cummins V6 clean diesel engine generates power for an electric motor that propels the bus.
The orders bring to 2,900 the number of hybrid transit buses Daimler Buses North America has supplied or is building for customers, a volume that, the company, says makes it the world's largest provider of hybrid buses.
Now, if they could just get rid of the diesels, clean as they are, and go all electric.
J.B. Hunt Transport Services, the second-largest trucking company, in the country, has signed an agreement that could make it a substantial purchaser of biodiesel from SunEco Energy
, which specializes in making fuel from algae oil.
---------- A SunEco test truck using a 50 percent algae-oil blend. ----------
The companies executed the preliminary purchase pact after results of tests that mixed the algae oil with petroleum diesel. Trucks driven on mixtures of 20 percent and 50 percent algae oil were found to have reduced emissions by 82%, said closely held SunEco
, which is based in Chino, Calif.
J.B. Hunt has almost 3,200 big-rig tractors in use across the country, and weaning them from even 20 percent of their petro-diesel consumption would be a boon to air pollution cleanup efforts.
For Hunt it could also mean lower fuel bills.
SunEco, which entered the biofuels industry a few years, is one of a number of firms developing methods of extracting fuel-grade oil from algae - a rapidly growing acquatic plant material that is relatively rich in oil, doesn't take land away from food crops and isn't particularly water intensive as about 90 percent of the water used to grow the algae is recycled.
If C4C Comes Back, Tech Premium For Many Could Be Offset; Manufacturer Rebates Would Do Same
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
Got a gas guzzler that would qualify under the cash for clunkers program for a federal credit toward a new, more efficient car or truck? (That's if we still have a cash for clunkers program when the dust settles from Thursday's reveation that the programs's initial funding apparently has run dry.)
The situation's up in the air right now, but if you are in the mood to keep doing research, or perhaps have had the car-buying impulse jump-started and have decided to take the plunge - clunker incentive or no - this is a good time to look at hybrids and diesels.
----------
2009 Camry Hybrid has lowest technology premium, $239.
----------
If Congress keeps cash for clunkers going, or automakers step up with bigger incentives of their own to keep the market moving, the credits - ranging in the C4C program from $3,500 to $4,500 depending on the fuel economy of the new car or truck - could help make a previously unaffordable hybrid or clean diesel a lot more compatible with your budget.
When BMW's Mini unit launched its Cooper D -- as in diesel -- last summer, there was talk
that the company would bring the fuel-efficient, low-emissions vehicle to the U.S.
Citing unidentified sources, the blog reports that the cost of tweaking the European diesel engine in the current, R56 generation of Mini Coopers to meet U.S. emissions standards is so great that it would prohibit the pint-size oil-burner from being price competitive the American market.
Calls by us to Mini USA seeking confirmation were not immediately returned.
The Euro-spec Mini D delivers about 50 miles per gallon -- that's U.S. gallon, not British -- and putts along quite nicely with a 120 mph top speed from a 110-horsepower engine that delivers 177 pound-feet of torque.
BMW, which you wouldn't expect to be a big player in the Cash for Clunkers program
, is trying to use it to move some metal by offering to match, or in one case double, the clunker cash for buyers of the company's diesels (right)
: the 335d sedan
or the X5 xDrive35d
sport utility.
The German automaker says it will provide a $4,500 trade-in allowance on the two models to buyers who don't have qualifying clunkers to surrender for the federal clunker credit of $3,500 to $4,500.
That's a good thing because the X5 diesel has a base price ($51,200) that's more than the $45,000 clunker program cutoff and wouldn't qualify to be purchased with a clunker credit. And only the $44,000 base model of the 335d qualifies under clunker program rules - upgraded models quickly go over the limit.
In addition to the BMW incentive and any clunker credit, the $44,000 335d sedan also qualifies for a $900 federal "clean car" tax credit because of the diesel's lower CO2 emissions.
That means it would be possible, with the right trade-in (one that qualifies for the federal clunker credit) to get a $9,900 discount on a base 3-series diesel.
The diesel Smart Fortwo CDI, another fuel miser we can't get here, will get a big boost in horsepower and torque for the 2010 model year, parent company Daimler said today.
The reengineered 3-cylinder diesel engine gets new pistons and re-calibrated injectors and fuel pressure to achieve the power increase.
The increased torque, the company says, enabled engineers to lengthen the gear ratios in third and fourth and lower the shift points on the transmission's automatic mode - modifications that helped the gutsier engine keep the same fuel economy as the '09 model.
The new engine output figures are 40 kilowatts, or 54 horsepower - an increase of 9.5 horsepower - and 130 Newton meters of torque (that's 98 lb-ft) , an 18 percent increase.
Is Now the Time for A Gas Tax to Help Americans Revolt Against King Petroleum?
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
Gasoline burners still rule, but interest in hybrids and diesels is climbing along with summer fuel prices, and an impressive number of shoppers are looking at flex-fuel trucks.
Those are the chief findings of just-completed research into the kinds of vehicles Edmunds.com users are researching these days, and it underscores the close tie between gasoline prices and the "green-ness" of the auto market.
As long as the prices of diesel and hybrid cars and trucks remain significantly higher than those of their conventional gasoline counterparts, the level of interest in the alternative models is likely to stay well below interest in gasoline vehicles.
Tipping Point
But as gas prices rise, the payback for hybrids and diesels drops and interest levels creep back up the charts.
Anything to take away some of that pain at the pump seems to be the mantra of many car shoppers..
That's what David Tompkins. Edmunds' executive director of business solutions, found when he and his team looked at the percentage of Edmunds.com users researching the various type of vehicles over the past 18 months.
Tompkins specified "researching" rather than "browsing" because people researching a vehicle are more likely to be buyers than the people who, in the real estate market, would be called "lookie-loos." It's a key difference that some analysts haven't caught onto yet.
Comparing levels of interest shown by shoppers in June of '09, Tompkins found more than twice as much research into hybrid models than into diesels, 9 percent versus 4 percent.
Electric cars and natural gas vehicles didn't register at all, given that the number for sale in the U.S. is so small, but the data suggests that if there were a number of vehicles available - cars and trucks that didn't need gasoline at all - interest in them would soar with fuel prices.
After all, when gas prices were above $4 a gallon last summer, interest in gas vehicles dropped to 84 percent while 26 percent of shoppers researched hybrids, the only significant alternative in the market at the time.
Hybrids began dropping out the picture as gasoline prices fell and by December accounted for only 4 percent of shopper research on Edmunds.com, while gas-burners were back up to 96 percent.
Now, as gas starts what most analysts believe will be a steady upward climb, research into hybrids is rising, hitting up to 9 percent in June.
Gasoline vehicles fell slightly to 93 percent last month, while 4 percent of research in June was directed at diesel vehicles. (The numbers exceed 100 percent because of overlapping research by shoppers who research more than one type of vehicle when trying to select a fuel or powertrain type).
Beginning a nationwide roll-out of the diesel big-rig emissions cleanup demanded under federal emissions rules for 2010, the nation's largest operator of travel centers said it will install "at the pump" diesel exhaust fluid dispensers in 100 of its locations. Pilot Travel Centers, which operates or franchises more than 350 locations, said it also will sell the fluid, a mixture of purified water and urea, in containers at the remaining "travel centers" (they used to be called truck stops).
It is the same stuff that Mercedes-Benz diesel passenger car owners know as AdBlue.
The fluid, known generically as DEF, is stored in a separate tank on board a diesel truck and is sprayed directly into the exhaust stream to chemically neutralize about 90 percent of harmful nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions.
It also helps increase fuel economy, reducing the big trucks' overall per-trip output of emissions including CO2, one of the principal greenhouse gases linked to global warming.
Mercedes-Benz says it will add a pair of fuel-efficient 4-cylinder models to its E-Class series in Europe later this year.
Both will feature direct-injection engines - one a diesel.
---------- The 2010 Mercedes-Benz E-Class. ----------
The gasoline-fueled E200 CGI BlueEfficiency (that's a name that'll take up the whole trunk if plastered on a chrome badge in German) will feature a 32 mpg, turbocharged,1.8-liter direct injected engine capable of delivering 0-60 acceleration in 8.5 seconds and a top speed of 143 mpg, according to Mercedes' literature. (We translated the liters and kilometers into U.S. measurements.)
The 2.1-liter diesel in the E200 CDI BlueEfficiency, delivers 45 miles a gallon, 0-60 acceleration in just under 10.2 seconds and a top speed of 130 mph.
Mercedes says the cars will offer the same level of interior quality, safety equipment and overall driving performance as the larger-displacement E-Class models.
Nothing says "I really care about the planet" quite like a race car.
ByScott Doggett, Contributor
The American Le Mans Series, contributor of countless tons of greenhouse gases for sport, says it has formed "a relationship" with The Nature Conservancy, a nonprofit organization renowned for its wildlife conservation and environmental regeneration efforts.
"As the Global Leader in Green Racing, the Series believes it is as important to lead with off-track programs as much as it is to lead with on-track innovation that emphasizes energy conservation and sustainability within a highly relevant platform applicable to today's automobile and transportation industries," the race series' organizers said in a press release Thursday.
The relationship has several components: the racing organization, teams and fans can donate money to the conservancy's adopt-an-acre reforestation project in California (which, of course, they could do before the relationship), and they can purchase T-shirts that read "Growing a Greener Tomorrow ... Faster." The shirts will be at American Le Mans Series races and on its Website with a portion of the proceeds going to the conservancy.
As if that weren't innovative enough, the Series says it will soon announce a Green Park program - "a media-driven event" (that usually means that it is being done to attract media coverage) "for each of its race markets."
The program involves planting trees in areas affected by the ALM Series races, specifically a "city park, local children's hospital, track, etc., along with construction of environmentally sustainable playground equipment provided by Lowe's Home Improvement Stores and Michelin."
So in the great American spirit of paying someone else to clean up after you, the race series has taken a page from the playbook of hundreds of other businesses and decided to plant trees in the neighborhoods affected by the emissions it causes.
The series is also promoting use of cleaner fuels and this year is even letting a hybrid race car run.
Hundreds of solar panels contribute up to 40 kilowatts directly into the Auriga Leader's electrical system
.
By Scott Doggett, Contributor
The Auriga Leader, the first pure car carrier partly powered by solar energy, called on the Port of Long Beach Wednesday to unload a cargo consisting chiefly of Toyota Priuses (pictured right).
Rising more than seven stories out of blue-green water, the ship sported 328 solar panels affixed to the top deck to offset diesel fuel consumption and reduce air pollution.
The 656-foot, 60,000-ton vessel can carry more than 6,200 cars at a time and regularly does so, transporting Toyota, Lexus and Scion vehicles from Toyota Motor Co. factories in Japan to this port 24 miles south of downtown Los Angeles.
On Wednesday, under a clear blue Southern California sky, Captain Eugen State (pictured
) told Green Car Advisor
that on this trip some 60 percent of the vehicles aboard his ship were third-generation Priuses - a fact he said with pride.
While Toyota on Wednesday reported a 32 percent plunge in June-over-May sales overall, demand for the spunky hybrid actually rose 10 percent for the same period and its second-quarter sales outperformed first-quarter figures by more than 51,000 vehicles.
But enough about the car. On this day the news at Toyota's 144-acre spread at the Port of Long Beach was the seaworthy car-mover, not the cargo. Pure car carriers are notorious for fouling air while docked, and the world's biggest automaker was doing something about it.
In the seven months since the Auriga Leader was fitted with solar panels, the first vessel in its class to utilize solar technology to add electricity to its grid - as opposed meeting a particular need, such as powering a ship's low-watt lighting - curbed its thirst for diesel by an estimated six tons, State told us.
State emphasized that the panels constituted an experiment to see if such a system would work effectively aboard a car carrier. So far, so good, State said, adding that not a single problem had arisen since the panels were installed last December.
"She may be the first of her kind," he said, "for sure, she will not be the last."
Four versions of the Fiat 500, a fuel-efficient, low-emissions subcompact car that's been a bestseller in Europe for years, will be coming to the U.S. as early as 2011, according to Automotive News
(subscription required).
Often compared in style and character to the Mini Cooper, the Fiat 500 will be the first of the Italian automaker's modern offerings to reach the New World and it will be built at one of Chrysler's own U.S. plants, possibly the one in Belvidere, Illinois, not in Mexico, as had been speculated, the News reported.
In the wake of Fiat's becoming a 20 percent owner of the newly reorganized Chrysler, company officials have said to expect the 500 in about 18 months, allowing time for federal emissions and safety certification.
Like the Mini Cooper, the 500 is an updated incarnation of an iconic original, but with modern safety and emissions equipment. The 500 also borrows retro styling cues from the original, and it offers seating for four, like the Mini, but the 500 is 7 inches shorter and weighs 500 pounds less.
Four versions of the red-hot little car will be built for the U.S. market, Automotive News reported, quoting 500 designer Robert Giolito, who confirmed the plan to Edmunds.com in Italy. Two hatchbacks -- one standard, one sporty Abarth model -- a convertible and a wagon, will comprise the U.S. lineup.
The trade publication noted that it is possible a four-wheel-drive SUV version of the tiny car could be in the works as well for U.S. consumption.
The original 500, referred to as the Cinquecento in Italian, got its name from the size of its engine, an air-cooled scooter-like two-cylinder displacing just 479 cubic centimeters. It was a true gutless wonder.
Four engines are available in the current 500, ranging from a 69-horsepower 1.2-liter engine to the 1.4-liter engine generating 135 hp in the sporty Abarth version. It's unknown at this time if all of these engines will be offered in U.S.-bound 500s, and it's too soon to say if a diesel variant will be available (as it is in other countries today).
Unlike the original 500, the new one has a front engine and front-wheel drive.
As far as style is concerned, the 500 is offered elsewhere in 12 exterior colors, including pastel, metallic and pearl finishes, according to Fiat's Web site. Checkerboard paint schemes are also available, and the interior accommodates four passengers on a variety of seating fabrics and leather.
Audi is joining stablemate VW in an ongoing campaign to sing the praises of diesel in a country that largely considers the fuel an oily, smelly, poor cousin to gasoline.
But the German automakers have invested a ton in bringing several of their diesel-powered vehicles to the U.S., and are determined to make consumers here as aware of diesel's good points as are consumers in Europe - where diesel vehicles are more popular than gasoline versions.
The basis of Audi's diesel campaign, which launched today, is that diesel packs more energy than gasoline, and thus delivers better fuel economy, which can help reduce our national consumption of imported crude oil.
Drive a diesel and help the U.S. cut oil consumption by 1.5 million barrels a day is the message posted on YouTube, plastered on fuel pumps and broadcast on TV in ads like this:
Audi would prefer that you drove one of its diesels - the Q7 crossover SUV is already here and the A3 hatchback launches this fall.
Seattle, one of the country's major municipal purchasers of biodiesel - used for the fire trucks, pickups and other diesel-burning vehicles in its city fleet - is thinking of switching from plant-based fuel to one made from waste grease.
----------
Biodiesel made from used cooking grease is being tested in Seattle's city fleet.
----------
The city, noted for green initiatives that include a world-class mass transit system and a determination to foster use of electric and hydrogen vehicles, is concerned that soy-based biodiesel isn't all that good for the environment, according to a recent report in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Not all alternative fuel are the same, city fleet director Brenda Bauer told a reporter for the city's major newspaper. "We are trying to stay ahead of the curve in terms of finding fuels that are responsible fuels that will help us reduce our petroleum consumption."
Crop-based biofuels, including diesel made from soy oil, have been heavily criticized for the amounts of land, water and energy use in their production.
By using locally produced biodiesel made from used cooking oils and other waste grease - let's call it greasel fuel - the city could be further reducing its carbon footprint.
The city uses about 73,000 gallons of biodiesel a month and will temporarily stop using the soy-based stuff while its tests grease-based fuel to see if it will work as well.
Although it has less of an environmental impact, the fuel isn't without problems of its own, one being the increase in "grease rustling" that's been experienced in communities where "greasel" fuel use has made grease-collecting into a profitable business.
Another is that greasel tends to coagulate and not run through fuel lines very well when temperatures fall - and it can get fairly chilly in Seattle.
But Hike in MPG Requirements Could Resurrect It and Other Abandoned Diesel Plans
Chrysler's bankruptcy reportedly has killed its diesel engine development contract with Cummins, at least temporarily halting work on a fuel-efficient, light-duty diesel for the Dodge Ram pickup.
The enthusiast site PickupTrucks.com first reported the situation, quoting Cummins pubic relations director Mark Land as saying that while development could be resumed, "it just won't happen under the terms of the original contract."
Chrysler is shedding its old obligations as part of the bankruptcy, and would have to negotiate a new pact with Cummins to move forward on the diesel Dodge Ram project.
Chrysler has been noncommittal, saying only that is continues to explore all powertrain options. It wouldn't wouldn't be alone, though, if it doesn't move forward.
In what seems like a continuing shift of automotive investment away from Michigan and into California, Austrian powertrain engineering firm AVL has opened an alternative-fuels powertrain engineering center in the Orange County city of Lake Forest.
The center will be used for prototype and proof-of-concept work, said Bruce Falls, the center's director of engineering. Anything closer to production will be sent to AVL's larger engineering centers in Plymouth, Michigan or Graz, Austria.
Falls said AVL is looking at bridging the systems-engineering gap between automakers and suppliers, both sides of an equation chasing next-generation propulsion systems.
"We're technology neutral. We're a facilitator. Systems engineering has always been the bottleneck," he said. "We're seeing how refined a concept car can go with mechanical integration, so that it's more than just a show car."
Among the center's features is an all-in-one test bed (pictured) that integrates a chassis tester and wheels-off dynamometer with drive-by-wire wheelslip simulators. The rig can handle any vehicle from a small car to a bus to a Class 8 tractor trailer, Falls said.
Here's an idea for hybrid truck makers looking to get their companies' names and products in the news: Support a charity by donating one of your vehicles, then news blogs with a soft spot for good deeds (even if done with a little bit of an ulterior motive) will write you up.
That's what we're doing with Daimler Trucks North America's
donation of one of its Class 7 Freightliner hybrid trucks (left)
to Detroit's Forgotten Harves
t mobile food rescue organization.
The truck, outfitted wth a refrigerated cargo box donated by Johnson Refrigerated Truck Bodies of Rice Lake, Wisc., is a 31,000-pound, '09 Freightliner diesel-electrict hybrid; the first hybrid in Forgotten Harvest's 21-truck fleet.
Forgotten Harvest collects usable food that would otherwise be thrown away by restaurants, grocery stores and caterers and delivers it to homeless shelters and other social services agencies that feed the hungry.
Susan Goodell, executive director of the program, said the hybrid truck will enable the group to collect as much as 850,000 pounds of additional fresh food each year, with a 30-40 percent fuel savings for that one truck versus a conventional diesel Class 7 truck with a diesel-powered refrigeration unit.
"It will not only improve our operating efficiency by keeping fuel costs down, it will also allow us to direct more donated dollars to distributing food in a way that protects the environment," she said.
Daimler is presenting its new Mercedes-Benz Citaro FuelCELL Hybrid city bus to a conference of public transport authorities in Vienna all of this week.
The fuel-cell hybrid bus is the first vehicle in Daimler's new generation of fuel-cell buses. According to its maker, the bus combines the environmental advantages of the diesel-electric Citaro G BlueTec Hybrid with those of the hydrogen-powered Citaro fuel cell buses, which have delivered impressive performance in fleet tests.
The Mercedes-Benz Citaro FuelCELL Hybrid runs without emitting any pollutants and is virtually silent, making it ideal for use in highly congested inner-cities and urban areas.
Daimler is the No. 1 busmaker by volume worldwide. If any company is positioned to revolutionize that market, it's Daimler. And clearly the compnay is attempting to do just that.
The Mercedes-Benz Citaro FuelCELL Hybrid was developed within the framework of Daimler's global commercial vehicle initiative to use clean, efficient drive systems and alternative fuels to make zero-emission commercial vehicles a reality.
The fuel-cell systems used are identical with those installed in the Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-CELL passenger car, for which small-lot production will begin later this year. Several components were also borrowed from the B-Class F-CELL, with developers mutually benefiting from their respective test results.
Daimler will produce a small batch of about 30 vehicles of this new generation of fuel-cell buses and offer them to European mass transit companies.
Beginning in fall, Daimler will be conducting extensive, large-scale testing of the Mercedes-Benz Citaro FuelCell Hybrid bus in a number of European cities.
Cancer is caused by hereditary and environmental factors. Little can be done about the former. But quite a lot can be done about the latter - and the American Trucking Association doesn't want to hear another word about it.
Just when the political climate seemed right for air-quality regulators and others to protect the millions of people who live downwind of America's seaports, the self-proclaimed "advocacy organization for the U.S. trucking industry" stepped forward and crushed that presumption with lawsuits.
At the heart of the conflict are old big rigs that haul goods from the seaports inland, spewing thousands of tons of carcinogenic diesel particulates annually as they go.
But the greatest concentration of their microscopic toxic emissions exists at the ports, where the trucks congregate, engines running, awaiting turns to load up and move out to destinations throughout California and beyond.
That their emissions contribute to abnormally high numbers of asthma, bronchitis and cancer victims in and around the ports is irrefutable. Studies have shown that like an atomic bomb detonated in a populated area, the casualty count is greatest at ground zero and decreases with distance from it.
For this reason, the state's air-quality regulators, port authorities, environmental groups and others have sought to reduce the amount of lethal emissions leaving tractor-trailers at the state's various seaports.
They had initial success last year with the neighboring ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, where for a time they were initially able to require trucking firms to use new cleaner-burning diesel trucks or trucks fueled with natural gas.
Authorities say the two ports spew more soot and smog than half a million cars, an oil refinery and a power plant combined. Port trucks produce 30 percent to 40 percent of that pollution, with the rest produced by ships and locomotives at the ports.
Then thanks to the truckers' advocacy group, lawyers entered the fray and cried foul. Ultimately, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in the ATA's favor, calling the ports' requirement unconstitutional on the grounds that it interfered in interstate commerce.
The ATA claimed the ports' requirement placed a tremendous financial burden on trucking firms. Doesn't matter that the ports - the nation's busiest - offered to help with a $20,000-per-truck incentive for trucking operations that bought clean rigs.
Despite the ports' defeat in court, the Port of Oakland this week tried to pass an air-quality plan aimed at cleaning up one of the dirtiest industrial areas in the country.
The port's commissioners voted 3-2 for a truck management rule that would ban many old haulers and require others to retrofits to reduce diesel pollution. The tally was a vote shy of the four needed to clear the proposal.
Volvo today presented a new concept car that combines a plug-in charged lithium battery with a diesel engine, technology the Swedish automaker aims to have on the market in 2012.
"This is a significant leap compared to our earlier plans of offering a regular full-hybrid on the market by 2012," Volvo CEO Stephen Odell said at a press conference in Stockholm.
The plug-in hybrid car, developed in partnership with Nordic power utility Vattenfall, can run on battery power for up to 50 kilometers (31 miles), Odell said.
He said emissions would be below 50 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer (about half the emissions of the best hybrids currently on the market), and he called for politicians to offer consumers incentives to make the new technology affordable.
"We do of course expect that the purchasing price will be higher," he said. "In this area we are keen to see further subsidies and incentives from the political arena to promote green choice among customers."
In a press release issued today, Volvo said the car could be fueled with electricity from a 220-volt wall socket.
Downsizing Won't Kill Automaker's Initiatives, but Demand for Quick Profits Could
As General Motors Corp. begins reshaping itself in a complex, government-assisted bankruptcy process that leaves taxpayers as its major investor, one thing remains clear -- the automaker's future depends on its ability to develop cars that are both fuel-efficient and desirable.
To do so in an era of economic uncertainty marked by sluggish car sales, wildly fluctuating fuel prices and consumer confusion about the best car-buying strategies as we wait for the new generation of advanced technology vehicles to appear is going to require a degree of discipline that so far has been woefully lacking at GM and other domestic auto companies.
So it was heartening to see this morning that GM accompanied its filing for a pre-planned Chapter 11 reorganization
with the promise that even as it pares expenses to the bone it would "continue and increase its investment and leadership in fuel economy and advanced propulsion technologies."
---------- Chevy Volt "extended range EV' is one of the cars on which GM is betting its future. ----------
The "leadership" claim is a bit much -- marketing never stops.
But the rest of that vow, contained as it was in a statement undoubtedly edited and approved by the Obama administration, shows that GM so far is on the right path, and is pursuing it with government backing.
The Chevrolet Volt, GM's gamble on a potentially game-changing fuel-efficiency technology, will continue on schedule for launch in late 2010, according to this morning's statement.
Additionally, GM said it will continue development of conventional gas-electric hybrid technology, with 14 models due in the market by 2012, and will continue outfitting cars and trucks with flex-fuel systems so that by 2014 a full 65 percent of its vehicles will be capable of using ethanol or other alternative fuels, such as biodiesel.
We know GM also has been working on battery-electric and fuel-cell electric drivetrains and expect that R&D effort to continue as well.
Go Long
There will be many stumbling blocks to be overcome in the GM bankruptcy, but with the purse-string controlling government so far signing off on the automaker's intent to make fuel-efficiency and the development of petroleum-free powertrains a centerpiece of its recovery effort, things are getting off to a good start.
If the Feds succumb, though, to the cult of immediacy that has hamstrung so much of American industry for so long -- the demand by investors and market analysts for ever-increasing growth and profitability at the expense of solid long-term planning -- then all bets are off.
Most Americans likely expect the price of gasoline to one day reach the record highs we saw last summer. The question is not so much will the price soar again, but rather when will it.
According to the Energy Information Administration's 2009 outlook report released today, oil prices will return to $110 per barrel in 2015 and could go up to $200 per barrel in 2030, depending on supply
You'll recall that the nationwide price for a gallon of regular unleaded topped $4 when the barrel price of oil reached $147. But with taxes on gasoline expected to rise, the per-gallon price of gasoline will likely be significantly higher than $4 when the barrel price of oil revisits $147.
World energy consumption - the driving force behind higher gasoline prices - is forecast to increase by 44 percent from 2006 to 2030, the report says, with almost two-thirds of that coming from developing countries and fossil fuels that continue to dominate energy supply.
Developing countries are projected to increase demand by 73 percent by 2030 in the outlook's base reference case - EIA's analysis under current laws and policies - whereas developed countries will grow by 15 percent, the report says.
Liquids, including biofuels, will reportedly continue to be the primary energy source in the world's transportation sector unless there are "significant technological advances" and despite several policy changes.
Unconventional resources such as oil sands and biofuels will become increasingly competitive, accounting for about 13 percent of the world's liquid supply by 2030, according to the report.
The U.S. in particular will see an increase in biofuels, mostly in advanced cellulosic rather than corn-based ethanol, acting Administrator Howard Gruenspecht said at the report's release event in Washington.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger joined the 2009 Hydrogen Road Tour today at Stop 6 of a 9-day, 28-stop, 1,700-mile road trip, telling a group of reporters at the site of the state's first integrated (H2 and gasoline) station that California remains committed to a future where hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles replace gassy rides regardless of what Washington does.
Speaking at a Shell station in West Los Angeles, Schwarzenegger reminded reporters that the California Air Resources Board, which sets vehicle-emissions standards for the state, recently passed a low-carbon fuel standard - the world's first such standard.
It will, he said, ensure that the cleanest fuels, including hydrogen, will always have a strong market in California.
"And the reason why this is so important is that on the federal level, they [politicians] make decisions based on where the oil price is. That means that sometimes the federal government, when the oil price goes up, they go in the direction of renewable energy and alternate fuels. And when the oil price goes down, they abandon those policies," the "Governator" said, his back to a row of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles made by Daimler, Honda, Toyota, KIA, Volkswagen and Nissan.
"Well we don't do that here in California. We only march in one direction and that is forward. And we're not going to slow down. In 2010, we will have seven new hydrogen refueling stations in California and we will invest another $40 million over the next two years in hydrogen stations."
The governor reminded the automotive press that 20 percent of the new vehicles sold in the United States are sold in California, which is home to 25 million cars and trucks. (Those vehicles, not incidentally, consume 50 million gallons of gasoline and diesel a day and produce 40 percent of the state's greenhouse gases.)
As a result of California's vehicle market share, and that fact that Washington often follows the state's lead regarding tailpipe-emissions regulations, automakers can count on there being a large market for hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles and companies considering investments in an H2-refueling infrastructure can rest assured there will be vehicles requiring the fuel, he said.
Seems a Mahinda executive misspoke in an interview with the Asian Wall Street Journal when he said the company wouldn't launch sales of its diesel pickup in the U.S. until sometime next year.
In fact, said spokesman Michael Geylin, Global is planning a slow, region-by-region rollout of the trucks, beginning late this year in the Southeastern states.
There won't be a flood, more like a tickle, but a "small number" of Mahindra diesels will be on sale in this country by the end of the year, Geylin said. But the company won't be selling nationwide until the latter part of 2010, he said.
The rest of the info in this morning's article was correct, we're happy to say.
(Note: See new article that corrects misstatement by Mahindra executive: Small number of diesel trucks will go on sale in Southeastern U.S. by end of 2009.)
Indian automaker Mahindra & Mahindra now says it will be sometime next year before it begins selling its diesel-powered compact pickup (right)
in the U.S., the second change in plans since the company initially announced its plans
for the American market early last year.
The company, which had planned on launching U.S. sales this year, also now plans to import the first trucks from India rather than assembling them in the U.S.,according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
That strategy will require Mahindra to pay a 25 percent import duty on each vehicle but will save it the cost of a U.S. assembly plant.
Initially, Mahindra had said it would assemble the trucks at a plant in Ohio from parts shipped in from India in order to avoid the so-called Chicken Tax tariff - a hangover from a 1963 import war between the U.S. and Europe in which the U.S. imposed a stiff tax on imported pickups in retaliation for a European tax on U.S. chickens.
Mahindra's trucks, at last report, are to be powered by a 2.2-liter diesel engine mated to a six-speed automatic transmission and are expected to achieve an EPA fuel economy rating of 30 miles per gallon in combined highway and city driving. the company makes both two- and four-door models.
Pricing hasn't been announced, but is expected to range from $22,000 to $25,000.
Mahindra has said that it also wants to bring a small SUV to the U.S. after it gains maket traction with its pickups.
Subaru, famous for its horizontally opposed "boxer" engines, all-wheel-drive systems and furiously fast high-performance models, isn't noted for delivering great fuel economy in its cars and SUVs.
Now the company is hoping to fix that with a new clean-diesel engine and a hybrid drive system.
The Japanese automaker, owned by Fuji Heavy Industries, has a diesel version of its four-cylinder engine in use most of its models in Europe and in some Japanese models and has been testing U.S. customers' interest in diesels although the present engine won't meet federal emissions standards without expensive modifications.
Fuji Heavy's president, Ikuo Mori, told reporters in Japan earlier this week that Subaru now is developing a new diesel to meet tougher global emissions standards in 2011 and "hopes" to have a gas-electric hybrid vehicle in the market that same year.
He said Fuji would license hybrid technology from its largest shareholder, hybrid vehicle pioneer Toyota Motor Corp.
Subaru already has developed an all-electric drive system for its Stella minivan and will be introducing the electric Stella (right)
in limited numbers for testing in Japan this summer.
Fuel-efficient diesel and gas-electric hybrid models would go a long way toward helping Subaru meet the Obama administration's national standard for reduced automotive greenhouse gas emissions and comply with accelerated federal fuel economy rules that call for automakers' U.S. retail fleets to average 33.5 mpg by 2016.
The company, as do all automakers, also faces increasingly tough European emissions standards.
Today we'll fill you in on a proposed plant in Rialto, California, that would turn urban woody green waste and processed sewage sludge into low-carbon synthetic fuels. And, while burning that waste, the plant would generate 35 megawatts of renewable electricity for sale to local electric utility companies.
The plant proposed by Los Angeles-based Rentech Inc. would produce about 600 barrels per day of pure renewable synthetic fuels that would be compatible with existing fuel pipelines and engines.
Rentech executives describe the process as turning low-value biomass into high-value energy and power. Rentech has been operating a demonstration plant in Commerce City, Colorado, that produces 420 gallons a day of synthetic jet and diesel fuel.
The Los Angeles Harbor Commission has approved up to $44.2 million in funding that will be used to help increase the number of alternative fuel trucks operating at the Port of Los Angeles. The funding is part of the port's Clean Truck Incentive Program, which last year helped owners and operators bring 2,200 cleaner vehicles into service at the port.
The 2009 CTIP goal is to add 1,000 additional trucks that are powered by CNG, LNG or lithium-ion battery packs. The port hopes to bring 100 electric-powered trucks into service this year.
In 2012, the port will ban 2003 model year and older trucks from its terminals. The goal is to cut port-related pollution caused by diesel engines by more than 80 percent.
Truck operators can qualify for up to $80,000 in incentives for each LNG or CNG truck purchased. Port terminal operators and concessionaires also can qualify for up to 80 percent of the cost of each electric vehicle purchased for work at the port.
A qualifying LNG truck costs between $160,000 and $190,000. The electric trucks that qualify for incentives cost about $230,000, according to the port, which is now testing two all-electric vehicles at its terminals.
Today's diesel-powered automobiles aren't your father's diesel-powered automobiles.
That's one of the core messages Volkswagen Group of America Inc. hopes to deliver in a new (and sufficiently quirky, given the company's advertising heritage) marking effort that includes a website where light-footed VW owners are boasting about extreme mileage accomplishments.
The pro-diesel push comes at the same time as a new "Meet the Volkswagens" ad campaign that pairs Max, the restored black VW Beetle that speaks with a German accent, with "Bus," an immaculately restored white and red 1968 Microbus (whose voice is supplied by actor Thomas Haden Church).
VW has a simple message in each instance: its autos are fuel-efficient, green and safe vehicles that won't break the household budget. And, to ensure that the message has a chance of being heard, VW plans to keep its 2009 advertising budget at the same level it was in 2008.
That is a serious commitment given that VW reportedly raised last year's spend by 45.7 percent over the 2007 level. The Nielsen Company reports that the overall automotive sector cut overall 2008 advertising spending by 15.5 percent to just over $10 billion.
VW's U.S. marketing chief, Tim Ellis, told USAToday that "When we invest in marketing, things happen. We think it's important to stick to our roots and stick to our value message. We're getting a higher percentage of the dwindling marketplace. And when this crazy situation comes straight side up again, we'll be positioned to increase our share even further."
VW isn't escaping the auto industry carnage. The Herndon, Va.-based company saw April sales tumble by 16.1 percent to 16,289 vehicles. Full year sales for 2008 declined by 3.2 percent to 223,128.
The automobile industry's global slump underscores the bold nature of VW's American gambit. Last year it announced plans for a $1 billion production plant in Chattanooga, Tenn. that will produce 150,000 vehicles annually - 30 percent of which will be powered by VW's TDI (turbo direct injection) engines.
On top of that, VW has boldly set a U.S. sales goal of one million vehicles by 2018.
To reach its lofty sales goal VW knows that it must persuade Americans (the emphasis is on younger consumers) that diesels aren't the clunky, smoky and noisy engines of yesteryear.
Low gasoline prices are a boon for recession-weary consumers who are struggling to make ends meet. But cheaper gasoline also can be a deal-killer when it comes to persuading motorists to pay a relative premium for hybrid cars, fuel-sipping diesels or vehicles with fuel-efficient but relatively expensive direct-injected, supercharged engines.
So green automotive technology buffs had best fasten their safety belts before reading the federal Energy Information Administration's annual "Short-Term Energy and Summer Fuels Outlook."
Domestic gasoline prices are forecast to stay relatively low during the summer months that typically are a high-demand season. The EIA forecast calls for regular-grade gasoline to peak at $2.30 per gallon, with the summer average falling to $2.23 per gallon. That would mark a dramatic drop from last summer's per-gallon average of $3.81.
Though motorists will continue to benefit from lower petroleum prices, the weak economy will continue to dampen demand. Gasoline consumption should grow by 1.0 percent to 9.1 million barrels per day, according to the EIA forecast, but that growth is measured against last summer's consumption, which was "low due to the high gas prices and hurricane-related distribution problems."
Flat Until Q3
EIA doesn't expect gasoline consumption to begin showing consistent year-over-year growth until the third quarter.
To satisfy today's need for nastiness, we bring you word of yet another fuel-efficient vehicle that's big enough to be a family hauler yet small enough to be practical and that we probably will never see on sale here.
It's the 2009 Land Rover Freelander 2 TD4e, a turbodiesel SUV, due to hit the European market in May and rated at the U.S. equivalent of almost 35 miles per gallon in combined city and highway driving (that'd be 42.2 miles per gallon on the European Union's combined cycle).
The Freelander TD4e does so well in part because it also incorporates an engine stop/start system (sometimes called a micro-hybrid in the U.S.) that works only with a manual transmission.
That's not ideal for an SUV with luxury pretensions, but is something that could change as Land Rover, formerly owned by Ford and now by India's Tata Motors, works on an automatic that can handle both the increased diesel torque and the unique demands of a diesel stop/start that will work without causing the Freelander to shake and shimmy like a wet dog wringing out its coat.
Hopes for widespread introduction of clean, fuel-efficient diesel cars and light trucks in the U.S. over the next few year are diminishing as quickly as most of our 401ks.
---------- Diesels such as Ford's 65 mpg Fiesta ECOnetic aren't seen as marketable in the U.S. ----------
The latest casualty seems to be the once-promised Nissan Maxima diesel sedan, Senior Editor Billl Visnic reports in our sister blog, Edmunds' AutoObserver
.
The 3-liter V6 turbodiesel originally slated to launch here later this year is most likely on hold and well could be canceled, Visnic says, victim of the economic meltdown that has made spending on pricey technologies such as clean diesel a difficult decision for both automakers and consumers.
General Motors Corp. last week said it has shelved plans for a new diesel V8 for its pickups and SUVs, Ford Motor Co. has been grim about the outlook for diesel cars here, Toyota has canceled a diesel engine development program and Honda Motor Co. last year said it was ditching plans to launch a diesel Acura model in the U.S.
As Visnic points out, only the Europeans - heavily invested in diesel technology because of fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions policies over there - are still big backers of diesels for the U.S
Volkswagen already sells the new diesel Jetta here; Audi launches the diesel-powered Q7 late this spring, followed by the diesel A3 in the fall as a 2010 model; Mercedes-Benz has three diesel-powered U.S. models, the ML-, GL- and R-Class, and BMW currently offers a diesel-engine 3-Series sedan and a diesel-powered X5 crossover here.
Mazda says it has developed Japan's first urea treatment system for clean diesels, to be used in Japanese and European diesel models of the 2010 Mazda CX-7 crossover.
Spraying urea - a form of ammonia - into the exhaust stream sets off a reaction that neutralizes much of the smog-causing NOx, or nitrates of oxygen, in diesel exhaust, transforming it into nitrogen and water vapor.
The technology is called selective catalytic reduction, or SCR.
The urea treatment to knock down NOx in diesel exhaust was first developed in Europe and for a time it looked as though Japanese automakers would ignore it in favor of a system, developed by Honda Motor Co. that employs engine heat and catalysts to create ammonia from NOx and then uses it to neutralize the pollutant.
The Honda system is self-contained while the urea system favored in Europe, and now by Mazda, requires car owners to top up a special urea tank, generally with every oil change.
Mercedes-Benz and several other European automakers are using urea-treatment systems in diesels sold in the U.S., but Mazda hasn't said whether it plans to bring the 2.2-liter clean diesel 2010 CX-7 (below) or any other diesel model to this country.
Opel Ampera plug-in hybrid is among the green stars of the upcoming Geneva auto show.
By Nick Kurczewski, Contributor
When the Geneva auto show opens its doors to the media March 3, the exhibition halls will be jammed with a wider range of smaller, smarter and more fuel-efficient cars than ever before.
Green vehicles were once a sideshow, with headline-grabbing debuts of outrageous supercars and luxury sedans in the main ring at Geneva. But like easy credit and cheap gasoline, those days are gone.
Intelligently designed, fuel-efficient, low-emission vehicles are now the key to survival for the world's car manufacturers.
Even high-end manufacturers like Bentley Motors are getting in on the act. Rather than its usual lineup of sport-tuned touring cars that gulp gasoline the way a band of rugby fans down lager at a pre-game fest, the English luxury brand will unveil a bio-fueled concept -- albeit one with more than 600 horsepower.
Other stars of the show will include the Opel Ampera, the European version of the Chevrolet Volt; Mitsubishi's i-MiEV Sport Air, an electric sports car concept; and the shape-shifting Rinspeed iChange electric vehicle.
Green Car Advisor offers an advance look at these and other soon-to-be-unveiled eco-stars of the Geneva show.
Opel Ampera
As General Motor's European subsidiary, it makes sense that Opel would get a version of Chevrolet's much-hyped Volt hybrid.
Luckily for Opel, the Ampera also seems to have gotten the good looks in the GM family tree. While the Volt has been criticized for a somewhat bland exterior, the Ampera has a more aggressive and modern design that better lives up to the promise of the state-of-the-art drivetrain.
Like the Chevrolet Volt, the Ampera will be capable of running up to 40 miles on electric power alone, before switching to a small internal combustion engine that recharges the battery pack.
Opel says that the Ampera's lithium-ion battery pack can be charged from a standard European 230-volt outlet.
The Volt slated to arrive in U.S. showrooms near the end of next year, so expect the Ampera to make its European debut in 2011.
Mitsubishi i-MiEVs
Mitsubishi will debut a European version of the i-MiEV electric car it expects to launch in Japan later this year. Both are based on the Japanese company's tiny "i" city car.
The i-MiEV uses a 47-kilowatt (62-horsepower) electric motor that draws power from a 330-volt lithium ion battery pack. Range is estimated at 100 miles.
The European model will be slightly wider than the Japanese model, and perhaps a bit more powerful -- to cope with European safety standards and higher speed limits.
A U.S. version of the i-MiEV, if we get one -- and we think we will -- is likely to be based on the Euro model.
A sport version of the i-MiEV will also break cover in Geneva.
Very little is known about the concept, called the Sport Air, though we expect it likely will be a closer-to-production version of the huggable-cute i-MiEV Sport concept seen at the Tokyo auto show in 2007.
Chevrolet Spark
Not every important green car in Geneva will have an electric motor or hybrid power plant under its hood.
At first glance, the Chevrolet Spark looks like another sharply styled little Euro-hatch.
That's the point.
Frugal and attractive small cars like the Spark are key to the survival of General Motors -- and to weaning many American car buyers from opting for the super-size option in their dealers' showrooms.
The five-door Spark hatchback first appeared as the Beat concept car during the New York auto show in 2007.
The production version looks almost identical to that concept. When it goes on sale in Europe in early 2010, the Spark will feature a choice of economical 1.0- and 1.2-liter 16-valve engines.
U.S. sales are to follow in 2011.
Tata E-Nano?
A spokesman for India's Tata Motors told us to expect a surprise in Geneva.
Known for basic and cheap economy cars, Tata -- India's largest auto manufacturer -- is unlikely to pull a dust cover off some supercar.
Our guess: the top-secret news is the unveiling of an electric-powered version of the company's subcompact Indica hatchback, or the Nano city car (left).
Tata Motors has been working hard on developing electric versions of its current lineup for the European market. The company last year bought a majority stake in Miljo Grenland Innovasjon, a Norwegian company specializing in electric car technology.
The collapse of the global auto industry has hit Tata Motors hard, especially now that it owns struggling British luxury brands Jaguar and Land Rover, but we're not counting it out of the electric car sweepstakes.
The four-door Nano hatchback will be the cheapest car in the world, priced at roughly $2,000 when it goes on sale in India later this year.
A low-speed battery-electric version suitable for urban centers or gated communities could be just what Tata needs to get its toe into the European or U.S. markets.
Rinspeed iChange
Rinspeed's annual dream machines in Geneva have been capable of hovering above land and water, tilting, running on bio-waste, and adapting the cabin environment to match a driver's state of mind.
The wacky Swiss company is now ready to debut its latest crazy creation, a shape-changing electric car called the iChange. Power comes from a 130-kilowatt electric motor.
This concept car's most intriguing feature is the adaptable seating arrangement. The iChange has what Rinspeed refers to as "1, 2, 3 seating," courtesy of an "electronic trick tail."
The exterior body-panels of the iChange can be reconfigured depending on how many passengers are on board.
Rinspeed says the result is not only a zero-emission car, but one whose ultra-low aerodynamic drag helps reduce power consumption from the electric motor to give it more range. Details to come at the show, we hope.
Bentley BioFuel Car
Bentley couldn't simply unleash a bio-fuel car onto the world. It had to make it the fastest Bentley ever.
We can live with that, considering the speed and grace of this strangely alluring yet contradictory concept. Sneak preview photos provided by Bentley show a car very much resembling its current gas-powered Continental GT.
Larger lower intakes and outlets in the hood now feed extra air to the W12 engine, reconfigured to run on a mix of gasoline and ethanol.
Oomph is estimated to be well in excess of 600 horsepower.
Ethanol helps raise the octane level of the fuel, which boosts power and gives this bruiser Bentley the performance credentials needed to keep its blue-blood clientele happy.
If the ethanol comes from biowaste instead of valuable food crops, those Bentley bluebloods may even be able to claim they are turning blue-green.
EDAG Light Car Open Source Concept
German engineering firm EDAG will display a high-tech car that is completely recyclable, electric powered and featuring state-of-the-art LED technology.
From the sneak peeks of the car we've seen, the finished product looks great. Too bad EDAG slapped a painfully awkward name onto this otherwise very promising concept car.
The body of the Light Car is constructed of lightweight basalt fiber. As strong as pricey carbon fiber commonly used in race-car construction, the basalt-fiber platform is cheaper to produce, provides high levels of occupant safety, and is entirely recyclable.
Power for the Light Car is provided by small electric motors located in each wheel.
The car's headlight and taillight housings aren't real hardware but instead are projected onto the exterior using LEDs. According to EDAG, owners can customize the shape and size of the lights (though there was no word as to the legalities of this clever option).Here's a company video animation that explains how it would work.
LEDs in the tail provide vehicles that are following the Light Car with information that could include driving tips like the Rinspeed's braking force (back off, I'm hitting the brakes HARD) and public service info like real-time traffic updates.
Peugeot 3008 Hybrid
French automaker Peugeot will show its new 3008 MPV, a small crossover that employs a 2.0-liter diesel-electric hybrid powertrain and four-wheel drive. The system should be available in European models of the 3008 by 2011.
Sized to compete with small sport-utes like the Nissan Rogue, the 3008 hybrid will combine 36-hp electric motor with the diesel engine. The electric motor will provide power to the rear while the engine drives the front wheels.
Peugeot has no sales presence in the States, but we wouldn't be shocked if the 3008's hybrid system shows up here in another automaker's cars someday.
Keep in mind, the standard gas-powered version of the 3008 (above, left) uses the same 1.6-liter motor as the BMW Mini Cooper. A hybrid/all-wheel-drive version of the Mini Crossover Concept (a Mini-based sport-ute shown at last year's Paris auto show) sure makes sense to us.
Diesel-powered cars and trucks are gaining popularity in the U.S., and that's got many people in America's biodiesel industry all excited.
With more diesel vehicles on American roads and concern about global warming at an all-time high, sales of biodiesel in the land of the free ought to be brisk. But they aren't.
The problem, as the producers, brokers, distributors and retailers of biodiesel will tell you, is that automakers are being total party-poopers when it comes to warranty issues.
Never mind the fact that Rudolph Diesel, the inventor of the engine that bears his name, experimented with fuels ranging from powdered coal to peanut oil.
If you use a blend that contains more than 5 percent biodiesel (or less than 95 percent petro-diesel), you can kiss your vehicle warranty good-bye.
Doesn't matter if the higher blend -- say 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent petro-diesel -- was certified to stringent standards. Most automakers will nullify a warranty the moment they learn that a blend higher than B5 has gone into the fuel tank.
The biodiesel industry says it's not right. They say 20 percent biodiesel (B20) or even 100 percent biodiesel (B100) are wonderful fuels that don't do an engine any harm.
And now two of the industry's trade groups are trying to force this issue, pointing to the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act, a 1975 federal statute governing car warranties that prohibits any automaker from voiding a car's warranty based on the type of fuel used in that car.
Three days before Christmas, we joyously reported
that Idaho was looking to convert mountains of manure into natural gas for vehicles and homes.
Today, we're delighted to report that Hilarides Dairy of Lindsay, California, has gone a step farther: It's converted two of its diesel 18-wheelers to run on clean-burning biomethane made from the dairy's formidable stockpiles of cow crap.
In addition to curbing the amount of greenhouse gases that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere as the manure decomposed, by producing biomethane from cow waste the dairy is reducing the nation's dependence on foreign fossil fuels.
And the production will "give us some protection from volatile energy prices," said owner Ron Hilarides (pictured). Who'd have thunk so much good could come from cow patties.
The bio-gas making process begins with flushing manure from stalls housing 10,000 cows into a covered lagoon, where bacteria breaks it down. The resulting methane gas is then pumped to a refinery that removes carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and other impurities.
The purified methane is pressurized - made into compressed natural gas - before being pumped into the 18-wheelers, which are fitted with Cummins engines that have been converted from compression-ignited diesels to spark-ignited methane-burners.
The dairy generates 226,000 cubic feet of bio-gas per day - enough to slash the dairy's diesel consumption by 650 gallons a day, Hilarides said, adding that he intends to convert five pick-up trucks to run on biomethane.
Automaker Sees U.S. Market As Ready For Its 30 MPG Diesel Pickups and SUVs
Mahindra & Mahindra, an Indian manufacturer specializing in pick-ups and SUVs, believes that what works with value-conscious Indian car buyers will translate to American consumers weary of gas guzzlers but not quite ready to kick their SUV habits.
The company plans to enter the U.S. later this year with two and four-door versions of its pickup (below) followed by an as-yet-unnamed version of its Scorpio SUV (right).
A key part of the trucks' allure will be high fuel-efficiency figures. Power will come from a 2.2-liter common rail four-cylinder diesel engine, fitted to a six-speed automatic transmission. Mahindra representatives say the engine and transmission combination will deliver a fuel economy average of at least 30 mpg in combined city and highway driving.
The company also is working on hybrid powertrains, although the immediate target for them is the Indian market, said Dr. Arun Jaura, Mahindra's group chief technology officer.
"As a diesel-centric company, it was natural for us to get into diesel hybrids," Jaura said. "But at the end of the day, technology itself will not have a lot of traction. Technology that is affordable and seamless is what is needed." He said he believes developing a hybrid culture in India remains top priority.
There are no plans yet to bring a hybrid Mahindra to the U.S., he told Green Car Advisor
, reversing previous statements by the company that a diesel-electric hybrid
version of its pickup could be headed here as early as next year.
Mahindra already is selling a micro-hybrid with stop-start technology in India.
Developed in cooperation with Bosch, Mahindra's micro-hybrid turns the engine off whenever the vehicle is idling or in neutral. The engine restarts once the clutch is depressed.
The micro-hybrid is only offered on select models of the company's aging Bolero SUV, though Jaura confirmed that it will soon be applied to other models including the Scorpio SUV.
Mahindra claims the micro-hybrid system offers a 5-10 percent improvement in fuel efficiency over the standard model diesel. That would put the Indian-built trucks on par with eco-minded SUVs like Ford's Escape Hybrid, which averages 34 mpg in city and highway driving.
"When we look at the long-term, we see that for us to get there, [hybrid technology] is one of the enablers," said Dr. Jaura, in terms of cleaner emissions at home and projecting a positive image for the company's vehicle lineup in new markets.
Developing a vendor base of hybrid tech within India will prove vital to bringing down costs and widening acceptance of fuel-saving systems, both at home and abroad, he said. "We are learning to walk. At some point, we are going to learn to run."
They say you shouldn't count your chickens before they hatch, lest they don't. BMW was doing that back in November, when it talked about how federal clean-diesel tax credits would lower the diesel premium
it would be charging for its new diesel X5 crossover and 3 Series sedan models (right)
when they hit showrooms in the U.S. this year.
But the automaker lucked out -- it announced today that its diesel models have, indeed, qualified for the federal "Advanced Lean Burn Technology Motor Vehicle Tax Credit."
The BMW 355d sedan will earn purchasers a credit of up to $900, while the pricier X5 diesel (officially the "X5 xDrive35d Sports Activity Vehicle" -- only the Germans can best the feds at coming up with long, convoluted names for things) -- comes with a credit of up to $1,800.
The 3 Series diesel is EPA rated at 23 miles per gallon in the city and 36 mpg on the highway, the X5 at 19 mpg city and 26 mpg highway.
Before applying the credit, the 355d starts at $44,725, or $3,800 more than the comparable gasoline-burning 3 Series model; the X5 diesel starts at $52,025, or $2,550 more than its gasoline counterpart.
Wal-Mart Stores says it soon will begin testing two new hybrid systems and three alternative fuels in some of its heavy-duty Class 8 trucks - the ones that haul those big Wal-Mart cargo trailers down the highway.
----------
Trucks like this one with a Peterbilt-Eaton hybrid drive are part of wal-Mart test fleet.
----------
The company said it will test a diesel-electric hybrid system in the Detroit area. The system, developed by ArvinMeritor, uses the electric motor mostly in low-speed, high-demand situations, such as accelerating from a dead stop while pulling a full trailer.
The diesel engine begins taking over with the electric motor's contribution to propulsion power diminishing as the truck accelerates until it is operating as a conventional diesel truck at highway speeds.
A Peterbilt-Eaton "hybrid assist" system will be used on five trucks in trials Southern California, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and the Washington-Baltimore area.
Unlike the ArvnMeritor system, it will provide an electric power boost for the internal combustion engine in high-demand situations such as acceleration and hill climbing.
It also will serve as the trucks' auxiliary power unit to keep heating and cooling systems and other electrical components operating when the truck is stopped - eliminating the need to keep the diesel engine running to generate auxiliary power.
The company is hoping the hybrid systems will result in improved fuel economy and reduced fuel costs and emissions.
Finally, Wal-Mart said it will test biodiesel and reclaimed grease fuel (made from cooking grease used in food outlets in Wal Mart stores) in a fleet of 15 trucks at its Buckeye, Az., distribution center; and liquid natural gas in five trucks in the Southern California high-desert area east of Los Angeles County.
For a variety of reasons we're not big Wal-Mart fans, but we've got to applaud the company's efforts to look at alternative fuels and powerplants in its relentless hunt for ways to slash operating costs.
GM Gets Three Models on 'Greenest' List and Tops 'Meanest' Ranking With Hummer H2
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
In an anticlimactic repeat, Honda's natural-gas burning Civic GX topped the annual "greenest vehicles" of the year listing being published this morning by the non-profit American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.
It is the 12th year the Washington-based environmental and economic lobbying group has published its Green Book Online, which ranks passenger cars and light trucks for overall environmental impact.
Although the list for the 2009 model year contained no big surprises, it was marked by the reappearance of General Motors Corp., with trio of small cars among the dozen "greenest" vehicles in the market - the Chevrolet Cobalt compact and its Pontiac G5 twin placed eighth overall and the Chevrolet Aveo subcompact finished10th.
The GM cars, which were rated highly for their fuel economy, knocked Ford's Focus off the "greenest" list after its appearance there last year as the only domestic car in the top twelve.
The Ford didn't get a lower score - but the average scores in the top 12 were higher this year than last.
Evolution, Not Revolution
Generally, the 2009 list was marked by continued improvements in the fuel economy and reduced greenhouse gas emissions of scores of vehicles rather than by stellar performances from just one or two models.
Manufacturers are fine-tuning their engines and transmissions, improving materials, and adding emission control technologies, said ACEEE transportation program director Therese Langer.
When the neighboring Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach in Southern California finally decided that it was time to stop poisoning the air with clouds of soot from the hundreds of aging diesel trucks that haul freight to and from the docks all day, there was a lot of screaming.
---------- Trucks line up to go to work at Southern California ports. ----------
The ports' plan to require trucking firms to use new trucks fueled with natural gas or modern clean diesel was unfair, placed a tremendous financial burden on the trucking firms and would never work, opponents said.
But the ports - the busiest in the nation - held firm, put their policy into play and offered to help with a $20,000 per truck incentive for trucking operations that bought the clean rigs.
Well, not only did it work, it is working too well.
The Los Angeles Timesreported this week that the ports, which expected to have to subsidize about 1,000 trucks, have received bills from trucking firms for more than 2,200 trucks in the first three months of the program and expect to be hit for subsidies for as many as 7,500 this year. More tan 100 trucking companies have ordered new rigs under the program.
That's tough, because the ports' incentive fund has run out of money, the state is too broke to ante up any more and under the previous administration the federal government had refused additional funding as well.
The ports have had to dig into their own diminishing operating budgets for $44 million to help cover the initial 2,200 subsidies.
One trucking company operator interviewed by the newspaper said that he's ordered more than $15 million worth of new clean-emissions trucks, at an average of $130,000 each, and is counting on the subsidies to help pay for them.
"It's like no good deed goes unpunished," Total Transportation Services owner Vic La Rosa told the Times.
Although Audi says it'll be another year or so before the Bavarian automaker launches the A7 coupe/sedan, it gave those attending the 2009 Detroit Auto Show a strong hint of what's to come.
It did so by way of a Sportback Concept (right), the fuel-efficient, low-slung four-door with a monstrous hatch. Resembling Mercedes-Benz CLS, the Sportback Concept is powered by what might be the world's cleanest diesel technology.
The 3.0-liter V6 TDI diesel engine almost completely eliminates nitrogen oxides and meets the emissions limits of all 50 U.S. states as well as the EU6 standard scheduled to take effect in 2014. Audi says the car's fuel economy is a smidgen under 40 miles per gallon, which would be exceptional for such a large car.
The engine is the very same as the one propelling the Q7 TDIs that will be appearing in dealer showrooms across the U.S. starting in the next few weeks. The V6 also produces 225 horsepower and 405 pound-feet of torque
The Sportback Concept pairs the TDI V6 with the same 7-speed S-Tronic dual-clutch transmission used in the new S4 sedan as well as a fuel-saving automatic start-stop system.
The success of the A3 Sportback has exceeded even the expectations of its makers; far more customers choose the four-door model with the large rear hatch than its three-door sibling. No doubt Audi is hoping for a similar reception when it brings the A7 to market.
The new Mercedes-Benz E-Class will be launched this spring, consume up to 23 percent less fuel than current E-class models, and cost between $50,000 and $85,000, the German automaker announced today.
The model program for the new E-Class will consist of 10 variants equipped with four-, six- or eight-cylinder engines. Two additional low-emissions, fuel-efficient four-cylinder-engine models with new gasoline and diesel injection systems will be introduced in the fall of 2009.
Three of the new E-Class models will also be available with an improved 4MATIC all-wheel drive system that exhibits even fuel economy than current E-Class models.
Mercedes-Benz has supplemented the E-Class with features to further improve safety and comfort in the new model series. They include a fatigue recognition system, adaptive shock absorbers, a driver kneebag, an active engine hood, daytime running lights, a Bluetooth cell phone interface, and a large color display on the instrument panel.
The V6 and V8 models will be complemented by a 3.0-liter BlueTEC diesel engine capable of attaining 44 miles per gallon. They will boast as standard equipment a direct steering system and a seven-speed automatic transmission with a steering wheel selector lever.
The E 500 eight-cylinder model will be additionally equipped with pneumatic suspension and an electronically controlled damping system.
The news release Volkswagen handed out as it unveiled its Concept BlueSport sports car in Detroit today said it all: "Volkswagen is starting the new year by presenting an automotive dream -- an affordable, uncommonly economical and highly agile mid-engine roadster."
The key word being "dream," because if the turbocharged clean-diesel roadster really does accelerate from zero to 60 miles per hour in 6.2 seconds, gets 42 miles per gallon combined, has a top speed of 140 miles an hour and is affordably priced -- all of which it claims -- Porsche would probably view it as a rival to its Boxster.
And with Porsche recently taking control of Volkswagen Group -- parent company of nine automakers, including VW -- all Porsche would have do to keep the BlueSport out of dealers' showrooms is vote it down at a Volkswagen Group board of directors meeting.
On the other hand, Porsche doesn't make a diesel Boxster and hasn't announced plans to come out with one.
A 6-speed dual clutch transmission -- the most economical and agile transmission system -- transfers the BlueSport's 350 pound-feet of torque to the rear wheels. It is shifted either automatically or via shift paddles on the steering wheel.
Making a positive impact on the car's range, fuel economy and emissions is the concept's start-stop system. When the car stops at a traffic light, for example, it automatically shuts off its engine. As soon as the light turns green, just tapping on the gas pedal is enough "to start the engine lightning fast."
Audi today announced that its 2010 A3 2.0-liter TDI diesel hatchback will appear in dealer showrooms across the U.S. starting early next year.
The low-emissions, fuel-efficient car won't be significantly different from the 2009 version, which Audi included in a herd of clean-diesel vehicles it drove across the land of the free last year.
The A3 got the best fuel economy of the lot, averaging slightly more than 45 miles per gallon over 4,000-plus miles.
Audi said it is targeting the Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight, both of which are hybrids. Some of the A3's prospective buyers will also likely be considering the Mini Cooper and Volvo C30.
The A3's powertrain will include a 140-horsepower, turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder diesel engine with a six-speed automatic transmission. Pricing of the front-wheel-drive vehicle won't be announced until much later this year.
Audi said standard features will include hill-hold assist, Sirius Satellite Radio, leather seating surfaces, leather steering wheel and auxiliary audio input. Audi Magnetic Ride will be optional.
BMW will soon kick off an advertising campaign as part of an ambitious effort to promote two of its fuel-efficient diesel vehicles: the X5 xDrive35d crossover and the 335d sedan
.
The Munich automaker believes the campaign, which will launch this Sunday with TV commercials during the season premiere of Fox's "24," is needed to change America's perception of diesel vehicles as mobile soot-spewing machines.
"They are demonstratively better than they were 25 years ago," Patrick F. McKenna, the German automaker's U.S. marketing manager, told the Wall Street Journal recently.
Because diesel gets better mileage than gasoline, it emits fewer greenhouse gases. And the cancer-causing particulates found in diesel emissions are now mostly trapped in filters.
To change diesel's negative perception, BMW is using ads that feel like a grammar-school science lesson. The teacher: Brian Unger, the host of the Discovery Channel show "Some Assembly Required."
In one commercial, the Journal reported, Unger uses a scale to weigh beakers of fuel. "If this is the amount of gas it takes to go 10 miles, then this is the amount of diesel that it takes to go the same distance," he says, showing off less liquid in the diesel beaker.
In another spot, he holds up a tiny metal ball. "Imagine this is a gallon of fuel," he says. "If we all switched to diesel, we could save 90 million of these every single day." Millions of little metal balls begin to rain down on him.
It's the first time in a decade that BMW has enlisted the help of a pitchman. The campaign will also include print and online ads.
The carmaker on Monday began production - for the European market only, it says - of a diesel version of its Cayenne SUV (right).
Porsche's first diesel will be outfitted with the same 3.0-liter, 240 horsepower V6 TDI engine that Audi and Volkswagen are using for their upcoming diesel SUVs, the VW Touareg (the Cayenne's cousin) and Audi Q7.
Porsche has said that it expects its diesel Cayenne to achieve about 25 miles per gallon in overall fuel economy, a substantial improvement over the base gasoline model's federal EPA rating of just 16 mpg overall.
No word yet on when, or whether, Porsche might decide to ship its diesel SUV stateside.
Citing the ongoing economic meltdown, several automakers have canceled diesel plans for the U.S. recently (Honda most notably) because the engines and required emissions controls make them cost thousands more than their gas counterparts.
While we're waiting for word on the diesel Cayenne's future in the U.S., we're also still waiting for the hybrid Cayenne that Porsche promised us way back in 2005. Initially it was to have been a 2009 model but it now has been pushed back to 2010.
Liposuctioning unwanted blubber out of pampered Los Angelenos may not seem like a dream job, but it has its perks. Free fuel is one of them, according to a recent article in Forbes magazine
.
For a time, Beverly Hills doctor C. Alan Bittner (pictured) turned the fat he removed from patients into biodiesel that fueled his Ford SUV and his girlfriend's Lincoln Navigator.
Fat -- whether animal or vegetable -- contains triglycerides that can be extracted and turned into diesel. Poultry companies such as Tyson are looking into powering their trucks on chicken schmaltz, and biofuel start-ups such as Nova Biosource are mixing beef tallow and pig lard with more palatable sources such as soybean oil, according to Forbes.
Mike Shook of Agri Process Innovations, a builder of biodiesel plants, says this year's batch of U.S. biodiesel was likely more than half animal-derived since the price of soybeans soared.
A gallon of grease will get you about a gallon of fuel, and drivers can get about the same amount of mileage from fat fuel as they do from regular diesel, according to Jenna Higgins of the National Biodiesel Board. Animal fats need to undergo an additional step to get rid of free fatty acids not present in vegetable oils, but otherwise, there's no difference, she told Forbes.
Greenies like the fact that waste, such as coffee grounds and french-fry grease, can be turned into power.
"The vast majority of my patients request that I use their fat for fuel -- and I have more fat than I can use," Bittner wrote on lipodiesel.com, which is no longer online. "Not only do they get to lose their love handles or chubby belly but they get to take part in saving the Earth."
Using fat to fuel cars might be environmentally friendly, but it's definitely illegal in California to use human medical waste to power vehicles, and Bittner is being investigated by the state's public health department.
Cellulosic ethanol, which people from President-elect Barack Obama to struggling farmers from his home state view a promising biofuel, is actually worse than much-criticized corn ethanol because cellulosic ethanol results in more air pollution, requires more land to produce and causes more harm to wildlife, a major study has found.
The energy alternatives "that are good are not the ones that people have been talking about the most. And some options that have been proposed are just downright awful," said Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, in a paper that reviewed and ranked major proposed energy-related solutions to global warming, air-pollution mortality and energy security.
"Ethanol-based biofuels will actually cause more harm to human health, wildlife, water supply and land use than current fossil fuels," he said, adding that ethanol may also emit more global-warming pollutants than fossil fuels, according to the latest scientific studies.
Jacobson has conducted the first quantitative, scientific evaluation of the proposed major energy-related solutions by assessing not only their potential for delivering energy for electricity and vehicles, but also their impacts on global warming, human health, energy security, water supply, space requirements, wildlife, water pollution, reliability and sustainability.
His findings indicate that the options that are getting the most attention are between 25 to 1,000 times more polluting than the best available options. His findings were published in this month's issue of Energy & Environmental Science.
Honda Motor Co. won't be bringing its mid- and large-size clean diesel engines to the U.S. in 2009 as planned due to rising material costs, slumping economic conditions and the significant disparity between diesel fuel and gasoline prices, a company spokesman told us today.
---------- Honda displayed its four-cylinder clean diesel engine at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show. ----------
"We will postpone the introduction of the mid- and larger-size diesel engines into the U.S. market," David Iida, a spokesman for American Honda Motor Co., said. The company had said it was working on a low-emissions diesel V6 engine, as well as a four-cylinder diesel engine that would be introduced in the Acura series next year.
But because of the factors mentioned above, "we've changed our focus right now and we're going to devote a lot of energy to the further development of hybrid models," Iida said. "In the short term, we think this is probably the most efficient way to achieve CO2 reductions as well."
Iida confirmed Honda's plans to introduce the Insight hybrid in the U.S. this Spring and put the CRZ hybrid on sale by the end of 2010.
"We'll also look into enhancing our hybrid lineup with possible applications of hybrid technology to medium- to large-size vehicles," he said. He said he could not discuss which models be effected at this time.
Iida announced that a new assembly line for hybrid engines was just added to Honda's Suzuka plant, raising from 70,000 to 250,000 the number of hybrid engines that can be produced at the factory annually.
Battery Venture Announced
Also today, Honda President Takeo Fukui announced the automaker is partnering with battery maker GS Yuasa Corp. to develop lithium-ion batteries for hybrid cars.
The new venture will launch next year at a cost of about $170 million.
The announcement came immediately after Honda slashed its profit forecast by more than half for this year, its third cut.
Fukui said the company believes accelerating the development of advanced environmental technology will be crucial in the severe business conditions.
If you've been thinking of circumnavigating the globe in a donated diesel Toyota Land Cruiser, fueling it with biodiesel you make from waste vegetable oil you collect from bewildered but friendly people along the way, just so you can tell your friends you were the first person to do it -- and to make a green statement -- forget about it. It's been done.
Shusei Yamada (pictured), a Japanese photojournalist and rally driver, ended his round-the-world romp the first of this month in Vancouver, 360 days after setting out from Tokyo. He appeared no worse for wear.
The same could not be said for the Land Cruiser, which racked up 29,734 miles from start to finish. Yamada, who gave interviews along the way, often described the sport ute as the only biodiesel vehicle that can refine its own fuel from waste oil. Judging by the photo, the biodiesel fuel processing plant that filled the cargo bay was no Mickey Mouse production.
For further information -- like, how many people donated waste vegetable oil to Yamada (779) and how much waste vegetable oil did they donate (6,504 liters) -- check out the Biodiesel Adventure Website.
The Toyota-Isuzu diesel project, announced in June, 2007, was a direct response to Honda Motor Co.'s earlier announcement that it was developing a diesel for its passenger cars and would introduce it in the U.S. and Japan in 2009.
Honda earlier this year put its U.S. diesel plans on hold because the price gap here between diesel fuel and gasoline has erased the more expensive diesel engine's fuel efficiency cost advantage.
Toyota and Isuzu had said they would start introducing diesel engines in Toyota cars in Europe in 2012.
Toyota, which has focused on gas-electric hybrid technology in the U.S. and Japan, has said it could bring a diesel passenger car to the U.S. if demand were there, but has never announced a project.
Now, with sales of all types of cars and trucks plummeting, Toyota is reviewing every project as it seeks ways to cut costs. It also is suspending work on a Mississippi plant that was to be the home for U.S. produced Prius hybrids.
Depending on how you chose to look at it, California's air regulators have struck -- or triumphed -- again.
We're going with "triumph."
---------- Aerodynamic, fuel-efficient, clean diesel trucks will someday be the norm on California highways. ----------
Just one day after giving the green light to the nation's toughest greenhouse gas emissions limits, the California Air Resources Board late Friday approved the nation's strictest regulations on emissions from diesel big-rigs.
The short version: Older, dirtier diesel engines will gradually be phased out starting in 2012, so that by 2023 every diesel truck operating in California -- whether the 400,000 registered in the state or the estimated 500,000 that traveling in from other states -- will have to have engines no older than the 2010 model year.
Starting a year earlier, in 2011, trucks also will have to be fitted with the newest diesel emissions filters to slash emissions of smog-causing and toxic pollutants.
Trucks and trailers also will have to be shod in low-rolling-resistance tires and sport aerodynamic bodywork to help them slip through the air with less resistance, improving their fuel-efficiency and cutting down on their greenhouse gas emissions.
The World Car of the Year organization has announced the initial slate of candidates for 2009 World Green Car of the Year.
Launched three years ago, the title has been awarded in the past to the BMW 118d (2008), the Mercedes-Benz E320 Bluetec (2007) and the Honda Civic Hybrid (2006).
The 2009 candidates must be new and on sale by December 31.
The list includes the Audi Q7 3.0 TDI (pictured), BMW 335d BluePerformance, Chevrolet Tahoe/GMC Yukon hybrids, Citroen C1, Fiat Palio Weekend Electric, Fiat Siena Tetrafuel model, Honda FCX Clarity. Go to Edmunds.com's Inside Line to view more candidates.
The organization includes working automotive journalists from around the globe, including regular Inside Line contributors Matt Davis, Hormazd Sorabjee, Peter Nunn and Peter Lyon.
The top 10 finalists will be announced in January, with the winner revealed in April at the 2009 New York Auto Show.
Ward's Automotive Group has announced its 15th annual 10 Best Engines list, which "reflects the diversity of 2009 powertrains that will play a role in reshaping America's automotive landscape."
The winning engines were selected by editors for Ward's, publisher of automotive trade magazines since 1924.
Thirty-two engines were considered this year. Eligibility requirements included: Availability in a regular-production U.S.-specification model on sale no later than first-quarter 2009. And, the engine must be in a vehicle priced no more than $54,000 (a price cap indexed to the average cost of a new vehicle).
The winners by manufacturer, engine and vehicle tested:
Audi; 2.0-liter TFSI (Turbocharged Fuel Stratified Injection) DOHC (double overhead camshaft) I-4 (inline 4-cylinder); A4 Avant BMW; 3.0-liter turbocharged DOHC I-6; 135i coupe BMW; 3.0-liter DOHC I-6 Turbodiesel; 335d sedan Chrysler; 5.7-liter Hemi OHV (overhead valves) V-8 (a V-shaped engine with eight cylinders); Dodge Ram truck/Challenger R/T large car Ford; 2.5-liter DOHC I-4 HEV (hybrid electric vehicle); Escape Hybrid SUV General Motors; 3.6-liter DOHC V-6; Cadillac CTS sedan Honda; 3.5-liter SOHC (single overhead camshaft) V-6; Accord coupe Hyundai; 4.6-liter DOHC V-8; Genesis sedan Toyota; 3.5-liter DOHC V-6; Lexus IS 350 sedan Volkswagen; 2.0-liter SOHC I-4 Turbodiesel; Jetta TDI sedan
The diesel engines from VW and BMW and the engine from the Ford Escape Hybrid all got better than 30 miles per gallon during Ward's testing and often topped 40 mpg, said Tom Murphy, executive editor of Ward's AutoWorld magazine.
While most everyone else is saving money at the pump these days, city officials in Portland, Oregon, are filling up city vehicles with biodiesel costing almost $7-per-gallon -- and racking up fuel budget overruns near $300,000, to boot.
Adding to problem: Recent research that suggests that canola-based biodiesel isn't all that green.
That possibility didn't occur to city officials two years ago, when they entered into a contract with Oregon farmers to buy canola-based biodiesel from them in an effort to kick-start a local biofuel industry.
Since then, the cost of canola has skyrocketed while the cost of soy and other biofuel-based commodities have not. The result: the city is paying twice for its canola-based biodiesel what it could be paying for soy-based biodiesel.
The practice isn't helping the city's bottom line one bit. Its Office of Transportation is between $260,000 and $320,000 over budget as a result.
Commissioner Randy Leonard, who spearheaded the buy-local contract, says the expensive biodiesel accounts for just five percent of all city fuel and he insists it's worth paying more to reduce dependence on foreign oil and create a new clean industry in Oregon.
For nearly a decade, the American Le Mans Series sports car races have served as a research and development lab for Audi's diesel program.
---------- Audi's R10 TDI race car dominated American Le Mans Series and helped in developing company's diesel passenger cars. ----------
But the German carmaker, part of the Volkswagen family, is being pinched by the ongoing global economic crunch and said today that it will not have a factory team next year in the series it has dominated for the past nine years with its diesel-powered cars.
The company will maintain a diesel racing presence here in one race, however: Audi's RT15 TDI prototype race car will make its global debut March 21 at the 12 Hours of Sebring endurance race in Sebring, Fla.
(Sorry, Audi's keeping this one close to the vest for fear of tipping competitors to the car's advanced aerodynamics, so - so far - no art is available, not even a crummy design sketch.)
In addition to the brand awareness generated by its ALMS victories, Audi has used technology developed for its factory entries in the race series, and other series around the world, in improving its TDI (turbo direct injection) technology for consumer diesel engines.
"TDI technology in racing supported the market launch of Audi TDI technology in the U.S. perfectly," said Wolfgang Ullrich, head of Audi motorsports.
With the American race series no longer on its calendar, Ullrich said Audi will concentrate its motorsports budget, and development efforts, on the new R15 TDI prototype (which will make its second appearance in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race June 13-14 in France), as well as on the non-diesel A4 race-touring car used in the DTS (German touring car) race series and the race-ready R8 LMS developed for the GT3 class.
Winnebago Industries this week unveiled the world's first full-size Class A hybrid concept recreational vehicle at the 46th Annual National RV Trade Show in Louisville, Kentucky.
The 2009 Winnebago Adventurer Hybrid oncept vehicle features a Freightliner ecoFRED chassis with Eaton hybrid power system components. The full hybrid system utilizes two independent power sources--a diesel engine and an electric motor--that work in conjunction to optimally power the vehicle.
The Adventurer Hybrid also is the first hybrid motor home to feature an Auxiliary Power Generation unit that senses hybrid battery power levels and automatically engages the coach's engine to charge the batteries.
Because the hybrid system also supplies power to the 120-volt coach system, an on-board generator is not required to run plug-in electronic devices.
No details regarding fuel economy, possible launch date or vehicle price were immediately available.
The chief executive of chemical giant DuPont has called on America's major automakers to band together to create a butanol-powered, highly fuel-efficient "car of the future" within the next two years.
The endeavor could be called the Detroit Project, DuPont Chairman and CEO Chad Holliday (left) said in an address before the Detroit Economic Club on Tuesday, and would be led by General Motors, Ford and Chrysler in a collaboration akin to the atomic-bomb-making Manhattan Project of World War II.
The car that Holliday proposed would be powered with butanol, which is a solvent and biofuel made by DuPont. At 85 percent strength, butanol can be used in cars designed for gasoline without any change to the engine (unlike 85 percent ethanol) and it contains more energy than ethanol and almost as much as gasoline. It can also be used as a blended additive to diesel fuel to reduce soot emissions
"This is a unique time in history," Holliday said. "It just seems like this is the one window when you can pull something like this off."
The project would require $5 billion in seed money, he said, which could be raised by selling U.S. bonds similar to the way the government raised money for the war effort during the 1940s. The project would yield a strong return on investment, he said, and calling upon citizens to invest in the effort would "build some national pride around the project."
While the Detroit 3 would comprise the core of the project, other companies would bring "a different mindset and different answers" to it. He named Intel, Microsoft, Dell, Boeing and Google as possible collaborators, adding that he had not approached any of them with his idea.
In Troy, Michigan, engineers are reportedly tweaking what they believe to be the public transit vehicle of the future: a super-lightweight hybrid bus.
The GTB-40 (right) is made of a high-strength steel that will last longer than most bus frames. Its builder, Fisher Coachworks, says the chassis allows it to zip along with half the weight of its peers.
And, its hybrid-electric engine not only consumes less fuel, but also stores electric energy whenever a driver hits the brakes.
The result is a bus that gets 10 miles per gallon--if you convert its battery power to diesel equivalents, that is.
But the average diesel bus--the dominant vehicle in public transit--gets just over 3 miles to the gallon, so the new mpg number has city transit agencies taking note, the subscription news service ClimateWirereported today. Battered by fuel prices and hoping to spruce up their environmental records, they are buying more and more hybrid buses to run everyday routes.
Compared to the tens of thousands of diesel buses already in service, the hybrids are few. In most places, they haven't graduated from pilot projects. But they're at the front of a trend that's been building since early this decade. In 1995, according to the American Public Transportation Association, only 6 percent of buses ran on anything other than straight diesel or gasoline. In 2007, that number had risen to 22 percent, ClimateWire reported.
"They're all prototypes. None are really final in the sense that they're out on the road in any type of mass," Lurae Stuart, an alternative-fuels analyst with the American Public Transportation Association, told ClimateWire. "But that's still a rapid change for a technology."
When BMW's Mini unit launched its Mini Cooper D - as in diesel - last summer, we wished, oh how we wished, the company would bring it to the States.
---------- Right-hand drive version of the Mini Cooper D is at home in Great Britain. ----------
That didn't look possible then, but now AutoblogGreen
is reporting that a Mini diesel just might be in the works for us after all.
A year ago, demand for Minis, diesel and gas, had the factory in Oxford, England, running full time and there was no extra capacity to build more Minis for the U.S. There also was the little problem of getting a clean enough diesel system to pass tough U.S. emissions standards.
It seems, though, that the global economic crunch as slowed sales, and thus production, of Minis and the Oxford factory now has some unused capacity.
Additionally, Mini is working a U.S.-spec version of the Mini Cooper D engine. It would use special catalysts and a lean NOx trap, like the now delayed Honda diesel and the VW Jetta TDI, rather than a urea injection system as is used on larger BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes.
No launch date for the U.S. diesel Mini - with gas prices so low and diesel fuel still relatively high here, there's no big economic reason to rush one over.
Still, the Euro-spec Mini D delivers about 50 miles per gallon (U.S.) and putts along quite nicely with a 120 mph top speed from a 110-horsepower engine that delivers 177 pound-feet of torque.
With sales of its big SUVs stalled and a collapsing economy threatening to decimate its bread-and-butter luxury car audience, Mercedes-Benz is thinking the once-unthinkable: selling its subcompact A-Class (right) and compact B-Class (below) cars to Americans.
Steven Cannon, marketing vice president for Mercedes-Benz USA, told German weekly Auto Motor und Sport that his company is "looking at options to export" the next-generation A- and B-Class models to the U.S., according to a report this morning by auto industry analysts at IHS Global Insight consulting. Mercedes' smallest cars are next scheduled for updating in 2011.
In the past, Mercedes has been reluctant to drop below the C-Class in the U.S. for fear less expensive, less luxurious models would damage its upper-crust image.
Green Car Journal today honored Volkswagen's all-new 2009 Jetta TDI diesel-powered sedan with the magazine's Green Car of the Year Award, which was presented at the Los Angeles Auto Show.
The vehicle, which starts at $21,990 for the four-door sedan and $23,590 for the SportWagen, meets the low-emissions requirement for sale in all 50 United States and is EPA rated at 30 miles per gallon in the city and 41 mpg on the highway.
Volkswagen, which had claimed the Jetta TDI got 60 mpg, contested the government rating and hired third-party tester Automotive Marketing Consultants Inc. to conduct their own tests. AMCI's results: 38 mpg city and 44 mpg.
AMCI's results did not approach 60 mpg, but they do represent a 24-percent improvement over the EPA's figures.
Edmunds.com's Inside Line, which is conducting 12-month, 20,000-mile long-term test on the sedan, has reported getting only 31 mpg combined to date, but it should be noted that IL drivers aren't known for being light on their feet.
The BMW 335d, Ford Fusion Hybrid, Saturn Vue 2 Mode Hybrid and Smart ForTwo rounded out the top-5 contenders for the green-car award.
Vehicles using all types of technologies, fuels and powerplants are eligible for the honor. To qualify for consideration as a nominee, a vehicle must exhibit characteristics that substantially raise the bar in environmental performance and be in production by January 1 of the award year.
Additionally, a potential nominee must be driven by Green Car Journal staff. That requirement and others prevented some strong contenders--including the Tesla Roadster and MINI E electric vehicles--from being considered for the award.
Here's some good news for clean diesel fans: China apparently won't be sucking it all up they way it had been consuming the global gasoline supply before everyone's economy collapsed.
---------- In China, diesel is for tractors. ----------
A day after a representative of China's National Development and Reform Commission said that plug-in hybrids and electric cars were key to the future success of the Chinese auto industry, a major trade journal is reporting that the Middle Kingdom's central government doesn't see much future in clean-diesel fueled vehicles.
That fuel "is almost out of the debate," the subscription-only Automotive News China quoted an unnamed member of the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology as saying.
Diesel trucks spewing plumes of visible exhaust and idling too long in violation of New York air regulations are the targets of a new long-term enforcement strategy aimed at protecting public health, according to the Environment News Service.
Under the plan, Department of Environmental Conservation personnel will carry out regular but unannounced enforcement actions in places where heavy truck traffic enters or leaves a neighborhood, as well as in areas where diesel trucks tend to congregate.
In addition to implementing this plan in New York City, the department plans to take similar enforcement actions in environmental justice neighborhoods elsewhere in the state.
The initiative comes as a result of a successful city-state crackdown on truck and boiler pollution last year in East Harlem, a neighborhood with high asthma rates and heavy truck traffic, the news service reported.
Department of Environmental Conservation law enforcement officers pulled over and inspected 361 diesel trucks and issued 163 tickets for violations of various state air and safety regulations. The officers also issued 10 tickets for excessive idling.
Based on that East Harlem experience, the department estimates that close to 20 percent of the trucks traveling the area are out of compliance with state air regulations.
With transportation studies showing there are about 10,000 truck trips daily through East Harlem, that means that there could be nearly 2,000 trucks emitting illegal levels of pollutants every work day in the area.
A key feature of the program will involve empowering communities to identify idling hot spots in their neighborhoods. New Yorkers can call 311 and help identify the locations where enforcement personnel will find hot spots of smoking and idling trucks and buses.
BMW announced today that its high-performance, fuel-efficient diesel-powered 3-Series sedan and X5 crossover will be available in the United States starting at $44,725 and $52,025, respectively.
The 335d sedan (pictured) is priced $3,800 more than the gas-powered performance-comparable 335i model, which starts at $40,925, after the diesel's $900 tax credit is taken into account, BMW spokesmen said during a Web teleconference with reporters.
The X5 xDrive 35d (below) costs $2,550 more than the gasoline 6-cylinder X5 XDrive 30i, which starts at $47,925, after the diesel's $1,550 tax credit is factored in. But with the tax credit, the diesel variant is actually $6,150 less than the gas-slurping V-8 X5 xDrive 48i selling for $56,625 on up.
Both vehicles are 50-state legal, due to their low emissions, and feature an inline 6-cylinder engine with twin turbochargers that help it achieve 265 horsepower and an outstanding 425 pound-feet of torque.
Indeed, the 335d will only be available with an automatic transmission because the power would make a manual transmission "inappropriate," said Tom Baloga, BMW's vice president for engineering.
Despite the power, which takes the 335d from 0-60 miles per hour in a flat 6 seconds, the diesel sedan delivers an impressive 23 miles per gallon in the city and 36 mpg on the highway compared to the 17 mpg city and 26 mpg highway for the gasoline 335i.
Or put another way, the diesel 335 gets more than 30 percent better fuel economy around town and nearly 40 percent better fuel economy on the open road than the gasoline variant.
For years, members of Congress have been saying we needed to have more aggressive fuel-economy standards. And for years--32 to be precise--Detroit's automakers have lobbied aggressively to prevent that from happening.
The person the car companies have routinely turned to to fight their battles in Washington is Democratic Representative John Dingell of Michigan (right), the longest serving current member of the House and second-longest serving member in our nation's history.
For more than half a century, Dingell has fought virtually every regulation the automakers have opposed, from seatbelts and airbags to tailpipe emissions and fuel-efficiency standards. His position as chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce has given him enormous influence over such matters.
For nearly as long as Dingell has been in office, critics have charged that elected officials such as him are far too beholden to large corporate interests to regulate them in a socially responsible manner.
One of those critics is Democratic Representative Henry Waxman of California, who has been as strong advocate of fuel-efficiency standards and legislation curbing greenhouse-gas emissions. And this week Waxman stated his intentions to replace Dingell as chairman of the Commerce Committee in a power play the chairmen of the Detroit 3 can only dread.
On Wednesday, Waxman (left) released the following statement:
"When the new Congress starts in January, we will face unprecedented opportunities and challenges. The public expects Congress and President-elect Obama to work together to find solutions to the nation's most pressing problems. But the issues we will confront are immensely difficult. We will need the very best leadership in Congress and our committees to succeed.
"That is why after long thought I have decided to seek the chairmanship of the Committee on Energy and Commerce. Some of the most important challenges we face--energy, climate change, and health care--are under the jurisdiction of the Commerce Committee. In large measure, our success as Congress will depend on how the Commerce Committee performs.
"Enacting comprehensive energy, climate, and health care reform will not be easy. But my record shows that I have the skill and ability to build consensus and deliver legislation that improves the lives of all Americans."
A research team led by a Montana State University professor has found a fungus that produces a new type of diesel fuel, which they say holds great promise.
---------- An electron microscope's view of Gliocladium roseum, a plant fungus that produces a chemical very close to diesel oil. ----------
Calling the fungus' output "myco-diesel," Gary Strobel and his collaborators describe their initial observations in the November issue of Microbiology.
The discovery may offer an alternative to fossil fuels, said Strobel, MSU professor of plant sciences and plant pathology. The find is even bigger, he said, than his 1993 discovery of fungus that contained the anticancer drug Paclitaxel (or, commonly, Taxol).
Strobel, who travels the world looking for exotic plants that may contain beneficial microbes, found the diesel-producing fungus in a Patagonia rainforest. Strobel visited the rainforest in 2002 and collected a variety of specimens, including the branches from an ancient family of trees known as "ulmo."
When he and his collaborators examined the branches, they found fungus growing inside. They continued to investigate and discovered that the fungus, Gliocladium roseum, was producing gases.
Further testing showed that the fungus, when exposed to low amounts of oxygen, was producing a number of compounds normally associated with diesel fuel, which is obtained from crude oil.
"These are the first organisms that have been found that make many of the ingredients of diesel," Strobel said. "This is a major discovery."
Clean Energy Fuels Corp., the company founded and controlled through majority stock interest by Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens, issued a press release today following the defeat
of a California ballot measure that would have resulted in rebates for natural-gas-powered vehicles at great taxpayers' expense
.
Here is the press release in its entirety:
California voters yesterday turned down Proposition 10. Named The California Renewable Energy and Clean Alternative Fuels Initiative, the measure was a $5-billion, first-in-the-nation public investment to provide funds for a wide variety of clean energy projects across the state, including consumer incentives for clean alternative vehicle fuels and the construction of renewable energy generation facilities, such as solar and wind power plants.
"Everyone talks about reducing the use of imported oil, lowering greenhouse gas emissions and cleaning the air through the use of alternative energy resources, and California's voters considered supporting these critical goals in a meaningful way," said Andrew J. Littlefair, President and CEO, Clean Energy. "The passage of Prop 10 would have provided an important funding mechanism to rapidly turn these goals into a reality throughout the state.
"We supported the initiative, and while Prop 10 may have served as a catalyst to accelerate our growth, its failure does not reduce our opportunities. We believe our core business is strong and pledge to continue to help California and the nation meet our critical goals of reducing imported oil while increasing the use of clean, alternative energy for the health and welfare of all our citizens," Littlefair noted.
President-elect Barack Obama made many pledges, laid out lots of goals and otherwise built a substantial political platform to appeal to environmentalists and green-car proponents during an 18-month White House bid that culminated in victory several hours ago. Among those pledges and goals:
Increase Fuel Economy Standards. Obama and Joe Biden will increase fuel economy standards 4 percent per year while providing $4 billion for domestic automakers to retool their manufacturing facilities in America to produce these vehicles.
Get 1 Million Plug-In Hybrid Cars on the Road by 2015. These vehicles can get up to 150 miles per gallon. Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe we should work to ensure these cars are built here in America, instead of factories overseas.
Create a New $7,000 Tax Credit for Purchasing Advanced Vehicles.
Establish a National Low Carbon Fuel Standard. Obama and Biden will establish a National Low Carbon Fuel Standard to reduce the carbon in our fuels 10 percent by 2020. Obama and Biden will also require 60 billion gallons of advanced biofuels to be phased into our fuel supply by 2030.
Promote the Responsible Domestic Production of Oil and Natural Gas. An Obama-Biden administration will establish a process for early identification of any infrastructure obstacles/shortages or possible federal permitting process delays to drilling in the Bakken Shale formation, the Barnett shale formation, and the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
Invest in a Clean Energy Economy and Help Create 5 Million New Green Jobs. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will strategically invest $150 billion over 10 years to accelerate the commercialization of plug-in hybrids, promote development of commercial scale renewable energy, encourage energy efficiency, invest in low emissions coal plants, advance the next generation of biofuels and fuel infrastructure, and begin transition to a new digital electricity grid.
Ensure 10 Percent of Our Electricity Comes From Renewable Sources by 2012, and 25 Percent by 2025.
These bulleted items were taken verbatim from Obama's official Web site last night as the Democratic senator from Illinois gave his victory speech. In addition, Obama made many statements during his campaign that we expect him to honor.
Robert Bosch, one of the world's major diesel components developers and manufacturers, is paring back hours at its diesel parts facility in Bamberg, Germany, as diesel car demand slips.
---------- A Bosch common rail diesel-fuel injection system. ----------
That follows word we brought you the other day that Honda Motor Co. is reconsidering its U.S. diesel plans in light of a growing gap between gasoline and diesel fuel prices here.
A Bosch spokesman told the Wall Street Journal that a general slump in passenger car sales in Western Europe is partly to blame for its decision -- diesels account for about 60 percent of new car sales over there.
But sales of diesel vehicles in Europe also are being hurt as gas prices sink faster than diesel prices, in some cases erasing the price advantage diesel fuel once had.
The European Union may grant automakers a three-year delay in making new vehicles compliant with carbon-dioxide emissions regulations in light of the global financial crisis, negotiators said this weekend.
Representatives from the 27 EU nations met Friday and reached a consensus to push back the original 2012 deadline to 2015, according to wire services, citing a negotiator who participated in the talks.
The environmental target remains the same: New vehicles sold in Europe must emit no more than a benchmark average of 130 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer.
The consensus comes as European automakers seek $50.1 billion in loans to develop greener vehicles.
"The automotive sector is not in great shape, and for some, the commission's proposal amounts to asking a man who weighs 60 kilograms [130 pounds] to lose 30 kilograms [66 pounds] on pain of death," a negotiator was quoted as saying.
At the same meeting, the member states also agreed to an additional target to limit emissions to 95 grams per kilometer by 2020. The consensus now goes to the European Parliament for its consideration.
You can't always get what you want, but if you've got a big pot of money and a sweet-sounding environmental pitch, chances are you can get a proposition on a state ballot. In California, anyway.
And if there's enough money left in the pot to pay for volleys of TV ads after you've paid the people who gathered the signatures needed to put the proposition on the ballot, odds are it will become state law. In California, anyway.
And, because California is such a trendsetting state, if your proposition becomes law there, it stands a good chance of becoming law in other states as well.
Oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens knows this. It's why the Texas billionaire is bankrolling a proposition -- one that ostensibly would advance renewable energy and alternative fuels -- on California's November 4 general election ballot.
In truth, what it advances most is Picken's fortune -- while costing the state's taxpayers $10 billion.
To give you an idea of how little California can afford Pickens' proposition, consider that officials in Sacramento are expected to announce this coming week that the state's budget deficit has reached at least $10 billion.
The budget crisis is why Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger wrote to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson last month informing him that "California may need to turn to the Federal Treasury for short-term financing." A bailout, in other words.
At a time when the locomotive that drives America's economic train can least afford it, Pickens' initiative would nearly double California's deficit.
And despite the crushing cost the proposition would levy on all of the state's taxpayers, the ballot measure would benefit very few while throwing a tremendous amount of money behind an automotive fuel that isn't very green compared to other alternative fuels that could benefit from that kind of spending.
Concerns about rising material costs, slumping economic conditions and the growing disparity between diesel fuel and gasoline prices Honda Motor Co. is reconsidering its decision to launch clean diesel cars in the U.S. and Japan next year.
---------- Honda displayed its 4-cylinder clean diesel engine at the 2008 Detroit auto show. ----------
While no decision has been made, Honda product and market planners "are carefully assessing the situation, said David Iida, a spokesman for American Honda Motor Co. "We're concerned about fuel price trends and material costs."
Honda hasn't priced its proposed clean diesel models, but because they require more expensive engines with beefier components and sophisticated high-pressure fuel injection systems, diesels typically cost $1,000 to $3,000 more than comparably equipped gasoline cars.
In a falling economy with rising unemployment and record-low consumer confidence levels, the case for cars that cost more isn't a good one.
Adding to the pressure, the gap between diesel fuel and gasoline prices has been growing steadily as gas prices have plummeted in recent weeks,
Diesel engines typically deliver 20 percent to 30 percent better fuel economy than their gasoline counterparts, and motorists can see the benefit of a diesel car when diesel fuel doesn't cost much more than gasoline.
But diesel today is priced 31 percent more than gasoline on a national average, erasing the fuel economy benefits.
When the national average price of regular unleaded gasoline peaked at $4.11 a gallon on July 17, diesel was $4.84, or 18 percent more, according to the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report. Today, with gas at $2.55 a gallon, diesel is averaging $3.35.
Honda had said its first clean diesel for the U.S. would be in an unspecified Acura model (most industry watchers have speculated that it would be the TSX).
If the company pulls back for its 2009 launch date, the only diesel cars sold here will be from European manufacturers.
Like Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and a few others, Honda has developed a so-called 50-state clean diesel that meets the tough California emissions standards and can be sold throughout the U.S. It uses a special catalytic converter that uses ammonia created in the engine exhaust to neutralize nitrogen oxides, or NOx.
As part of a public-private partnership to increase the commercial availability and use of alternative fuel vehicles, United Parcel Service announced Monday its first purchases of a little-known technology -- the hydraulic hybrid vehicle -- that promises dramatic fuel savings and environmental benefits.
The Atlanta-based shipping company placed the purchase order with Navistar International Corp., headquarterd in Warrenville, Illinois. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The technology, originally developed in a laboratory of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and then improved upon by Cleveland-based Eaton Corp., stores energy by compressing hydraulic fluid under pressure in a large chamber. UPS road-tested the technology two years ago and now becomes the first delivery company to place an order for hydraulic hybrid vehicles.
Disclosing the results of its road testing on Detroit routes for the first time, UPS and the EPA said at a press conference at New York's Centennial Olympic Park that the prototype vehicle had achieved a 45- to 50-percent improvement in fuel economy compared to conventional diesel delivery trucks.
UPS believes similar fuel economy improvements and a 30 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions are achievable in daily, real-world use.
The EPA believes the technology can perform equally well in other applications such as shuttle and transit buses and refuse pick-up trucks.
UPS will deploy the first two of the new hydraulic hybrids in Minneapolis early next year. The five other hydraulic hybrids will be deployed later in 2009 and early 2010.
The question of just how automakers bringing diesels with urea-based anti-NOx exhaust systems into the U.S. would guarantee that the emissions-cleaning chemical would not be allowed to run dry was a sticking point for months in negotiations between federal regulators and carmakers.
---------- New 2009 Mercedes-Benz diesel SUVs use urea system to knock down NOx emissions. ----------
Well, now we know: The vehicles won't start if the urea tank is allowed to run too low.
We would love to make a joke here, but the industry trade journal Automotive News (subscription only)
beat us to it Monday, with one of the best double-entendre
headlines we've seen (or read) in years: "Urea must flow or new diesels won't go."
You know, of course, that the urea we're talking about isn't the kind produced by too many beers at a ball game, but a type of chemical ammonia that's synthesized from natural gas (and we'll spare you any attempt at a bodily functions joke here).
It is carried in large tanks on board the trio of Mercedes-Benz diesel SUVs -- the GL320, ML320 and R320 (above, right)
that hit dealer showrooms at the beginning of the month and is periodically injected into a special "selective catalyst reduction" or SCR exhaust catalyst, where it combines with the emissions of toxic NOx, or nitrogen oxide, breaking it down into harmless water vapor and inert nitrogen.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today issued its 2009 fuel economy guide
, with Smart cars and Volkswagen diesels now appearing on the government's top-10 list of most fuel-efficient vehicles available in America.
The Toyota Prius once again retains its position atop the list, with fuel-economy ratings of 48 miles per gallon in the city and 45 on the highway.
The additions to the top 10 list this year are the Smart ForTwo convertible and coupe and the Volkswagen Jetta diesels.
The Smarts, which arrived in the U.S. in January, were too late to make the 2008 guide. This year the Smart models hold down the No. 5 spot with ratings of 33 mpg city and 41 mpg highway.
The Jetta diesels were too heavy on emissions to enter the U.S. market last year, but they are in this year with improved emissions controls.
The Jetta diesel sedan and wagon with manual transmissions are in seventh place with ratings of 30 mpg city and 41 mpg highway. The sedan and wagon with automatic transmissions are in eighth place with ratings of 29 city and 40 highway.
Without further ado, here is the top 10 list for 2009:
Motor Trendreported today
that there are "whispers out of General Motors" suggesting that GM might offer the Cadillac CTS with a fuel-efficient 4.5-liter Duramax V-8 turbodiesel engine.
While the emissions-sensitive engine was initially expected to serve in SUVs and light-duty pickups, GM engineers have long pointed out that the dual overhead cam, four-valve diesel V-8 will fit in the same space as a small-block gasoline V-8.
GM says the 4.5-liter Duramax is capable of delivering more than 310 horsepower and 520 pound-feet of torque. It also claims the engine meets the tough 2010 emissions standards, making it legal in all 50 states.
Motor Trend points out that while the CTS is due to get a 2.9-liter V-6 diesel in Europe, the 4.5-liter diesel V-8 could easily fill the obvious gap between the 304-hp direct-injection V-6 of the regular CTS and the 556-hp supercharged V-8 of the CTS-v in the U.S.
That's especially true, the magazine notes, now that the Ultra V-8 engine program has been canned. In the CTS, the Duramax V-8 could easily deliver comparable performance to the Ultra, with 20-25 percent better mileage.
A diesel CTS for the U.S. would be a risk, but the downside for GM is in fact minimal. The engine already exists, as does the transmission capable of handling the torque, so there's little incremental investment required and therefore fewer sales needed to make the business case. The Duramax play also makes sense in light of the proposed corporate average fuel economy regulations mandating 35 mpg average by 2020.
American consumers are rightly wary of diesels, but moves by Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi to bring 50-state-legal diesel cars to the U.S. will help transform the oil-burner's image here over the next few years. And, as Motor Trend notes, it certainly won't hurt Cadillac's image to be seen offering the same sort of technology as Europe's blue-chip luxury brands.
QuantumSphere, a Santa Ana, Calif., company that develops technologies for portable power and clean-energy applications, has received a U.S. Army grant to come up with a methanol fuel cell that will help soldiers operate electronic devices on trucks without the noise and heat signatures produced by diesel generators.
In the first, nine-month phase of the project, QuantumSphere will receive $120,000 to study the synthesis and electrochemistry of bifunctional anodes, high temperature electrolyte membranes and low-cost cathode catalysts for a 5-watt methanol fuel cell.
If successful, the company will move to the second phase of the project, a two-year $750,000 effort to develop a 200-watt methanol reforming fuel cell in a smaller, lighter form to power portable electronic devices in the Army's Future Force Warrior program.
Future Force Warrior is the Army's flagship science and technology program, aimed at integrating best-in-class technologies to enhance the combat effectiveness of the soldier and small combat unit. The photo at right is one the Army has released depicting the modern high-tech U.S. soldier.
If QuantumSphere is successful, our hope is that one day we'll see methanol fuel cell technology in vehicles offered to the general public. It wouldn't represent the first time technology designed for military use made its way into and benefited the private sector.
Last June, as the market for full-size trucks tanked in response to high gas prices, Toyota shocked the auto industry by announcing
that for $20,000 over base price buyers could purchase the full-size Tundra pickup, the midsize Tacoma pickup or the FJ Cruiser SUV with additional power and abysmal fuel economy.
Jim Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., told Automotive News today that despite its recent zero-percent financing deals, Japan's No. 1 automaker is not going to engage Chevrolet, Ford and Dodge in their full-sized pickup sales war.
"I don't want to get stuck in the middle of Ford and Chevy battling for the No. 1 truck this year, and Dodge launching the Ram," Lentz said in an interview.
Chevrolet sold 50,428 Silverados last month, off just 3.9 percent in a plummeting segment that saw Tundra, Motor Trend's 2008 Truck of the Year, fall 60.7 percent, the Ford F-150 drop 41.6 percent and Dodge Ram off 30.9 percent.
Toyota had hoped to sell about 20,000 Tundras a month this year; September sales were just 7,696 units.
Lentz said part of the decline was an abbreviated 2008 model year from its Texas and Indiana truck plants that were temporarily shut down. With a segment forecast to be as low as 1.5 million trucks--down from a peak of 2.5 million--the pickup fight could get desperate.
Development of a diesel-engine variant of the Tundra has been tabled, Lentz reportedly told Automotive News. While the diesel has not been canceled outright, Toyota is studying whether it makes sense to enter such a small segment.
That's a big step back from Toyota telling dealers at the National Automobile Dealers Association convention last year that a diesel would arrive by 2010 or 2011.
There's been a lot of electric car and hybrid news out of France in the past week as automakers hosted the media at a preview of the Paris Auto Show.
Most of the cars, though, are unlikely to see these shores as they are derivatives of European models that wouldn't meet U.S. safety standards (and, some auto executives and marketing gurus insist, consumer demands for spacious interiors) without so much added weight that their alternative powertrains would no longer be practical.
One potential exception comes from Volvo, which has been working on conventional, diesel-electric and plug-in hybrids for years now and late last week announced that it will be bringing all of the above to market.
The first to come, a micro-hybrid in 2011, isn't likely to be sold outside of Europe. But for 2012 Volvo plans a diesel-electric hybrid that will combine the company's front-wheel drive D5 turbodiesel with an electric motor to drive the rear wheels.
And then, in an as-yet unannounced year sometime after the diesel hybrid, Volvo plans to launch a plug-in hybrid rooted in the California-designed ReCharge concept (above) it showed at the 2007 Frankfurt Auto Show.
As the world as we know it crumbles around us, with older Americans staring at shrinking pension funds, younger Americans looking at grim job and housing scenes and everyone wondering which big bank is the next to
----------
62-mpg diesel Golf BlueMotion concept from VW is one of the cars to be featured at Paris show.
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collapse, why there's no credit and when elected representatives will stop worrying about politics and start working for the people, the City of Lights is preparing to flick the switch on the first post-meltdown auto show.
Talk about good timing.
But the Paris Motor Show is in Europe, home of the fuel efficient small car (of course, Europe also has given us 9 mpg Lamborghinis and equally thirsty Rollers, Ferraris and big Benzes, but who's counting?), and while there will be a few exotics on display the spotlight for the next few days is going to be on the gas sippers that will be unveiled over there.
We gave you a taste a few weeks ago with Green Car Advisor'sParis preview, and today Edmunds Auto Observer brings a comprehensive look at the hybrids, electrics, diesels and other fuel-efficient cars - production and concept - that will be on display as the show prepares to open its doors.
Click here for AO's take on the Paris show, which holds its media preview Thursday and Friday and opens to the public Saturday for a 16-day run.
The United States is positioned to become the single largest biodiesel market with 19 percent of consumption by 2012, according to a report released Tuesday.
Menlo Park, California-based SRI Consulting said the industry grew 50 percent from 2002-2007 -- the highest growth in the chemical industry -- and is poised to grow at 30 percent between 2007 and 2012.
It will be followed by Germany and France. New and large markets for biodiesel are expected to emerge in China and India, since the governments of both countries have announced major biodiesel initiatives.
SRI projects a slower pace of growth for the global biodiesel industry due to market uncertainties such as the ongoing fuels-versus-food debate, rising raw material costs, changing regulatory environment, a slowing global economy and the current financial crisis.
"An important development over the last several years has been the shift in global biodiesel patterns. Only five years ago Europe was a dominant player, with 83 percent of capacity. By 2007 the European share had declined to about 46 percent as North America and Asia grew to 23 percent and 19 percent respectively," SRI said.
SRI is a business research service for the global chemical industry.
Eco-driving enthusiasts John and Helen Taylor set a Guinness World Record this month for lowest fuel consumption while visiting the 48 contiguous United States by averaging 58.82 miles per gallon during their 20-day road trip in a stock 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI.
The couple smashed the previous record drive of 51.58 mpg -- and did so driving a diesel vehicle with a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rating of 30 mpg in the city and 41 mpg on the highway.
The Taylors attribute their vastly superior fuel economy to driving instructions that can be found on the "Taylors' Tips" page of their Website.
Shell provided the 11.04 tanks of Shell Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel the couple burned during their 9,419-mile journey and VW lent them the Jetta. The couple averaged 853 miles per tank.
If you think 58.82 mpg is impressive, you might like to know that the Taylors averaged 90.75 mpg while setting a world record earlier this year for lowest fuel consumption on the coastal road route of Australia. They achieved that mileage in a Peugeot 308 HDi Diesel.
When the American Le Mans Series
Petit Le Mans event at Road Atlanta wraps up this weekend, one of the trophies to be awarded will be for the winner of a new "Green Challenge"
race within the race.
Favorites are the series' clean-diesel cars, but the first hybrid race car (left)
since the Panoz Q9 GT hybrids of the late 1990s also is in the running.
The Green Challenge is a new contest in which cars in the race are judged on green criteria including fuel consumption and total environmental impact.
Controlled Power Technologies
, a British startup formed by automotive executives to focus on carbon-reduction solutions, says its electric supercharger is ready for production and the company is seeking OEM customers.
Unlike mechanical superchargers and turbochargers, CPT says in a statement, the electric supercharger features a near-instantaneous air delivery system and costs considerably less (although no price was given).
The supercharger is a perfect product for "extreme engine downsizing" -- reducing the size of an engine by 50 percent or more -- according to its maker.
Shrinking an engine is one way to reduce a vehicle's fuel consumption and greenhouse-gas emissions, but it has the unwanted effect of reducing horsepower as well.
Superchargers and turbochargers allow an engine to deliver bursts of power on demand, offsetting the horsepower shortage that plague most small engines.
Controlled Power Technologies claims its electric supercharger not only provides power when called upon, but can also help reduce soot and particulate emissions from diesel engines.
After spending years and hundreds of millions of dollars fighting governmental efforts to get them to produce fuel-efficient vehicles, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler today scored $7.5 billion in taxpayer funds needed to guarantee $25 billion in low-interest loans to help the American automakers produce fuel-efficient cars and trucks.
By a 78-12 vote cast during a rare Saturday session, the Senate passed a $634-billion spending bill containing the loan guarantee and sent the measure on to President Bush, who was expected to sign it. The bill is needed to keep the government operating beyond the current budget year, which ends Tuesday.
The automakers will get up to 25 years to repay the loans. Because they have sub-investment grade credit, the automakers would save more than $100 million per $1 billion borrowed in lending costs. They could also ask the Energy Department to defer repayment for up to five years.
Congress appropriated 7.5 billion taxpayer dollars to cover the costs of the loans, including the risk of default.
GM and Ford lost nearly $25 billion in the second quarter of this year, and along with Chrysler are closing plants, shrinking their work force and slashing spending.
The manufacturers and their domestic suppliers say they will use the money to offer a broader array of gas-electric vehicles, more fuel-efficient engines and plug-in electric cars that could be on the market within two years. It's unclear how the money will be divided.
The loans could be available by mid-2009, although legal and administrative procedures could delay them until 2010.
Unlike most of the vehicles there, it won't be running, but a production model of General Motors Corp.'s Volt series hybrid car (left)
will be on hand for viewing at AltCar Expo 2008
this weekend in Santa Monica, Calif.
The two-day event, now in its third year, is one of the nation's premier showcases for alternatives to the conventional gasoline-burning automobile.
Organizers say more than 100 vehicles - cars, trucks, scooters and 'cycles with natural gas, battery-electric, hydrogen fuel-cell electric, compressed air, biodiesel, flex-fuel and hybrid propulsion systems - will be on hand, several available for test drives.
The expo, to be held Friday and Saturday at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, drew more than 10,000 attendees last year.
In addition to the vehicle displays, the event features numerous displays by alternative energy providers and proponents; a series of seminars addressing climate change and transportation and energy trends and featuring panelists from government, industry and advocacy groups.
Hard on the heels of energy billionaire T. Boone Pickins' $58 million push
for adoption of natural gas as the nation's preferred alternative to gasoline, the ethanol industry is planning its own lobbying campaign.
Renewable Fuels Association, the ethanol industry trade group, plans to debut pair of television ads this week aimed at including the plant-based alcohol fuel in the national debate on energy security.
Greenwire, a subscription-only environmental issues news service, reports that the ethanol group has filmed separate 30-second ads and purchased time on cable news channels in the Washington and New York City markets.
The decision to mount the campaign was made after a recent study by the international management consulting firm Accenture suggested that neither consumers nor politicians in the U.S. are sold on the fuel.
That's largely because ethanol today is made from corn (and, in Brazil and many other tropical countries, from sugar cane) and there is widespread belief that increased production of the fuel has driven corn prices -and the prices of many foods based on corn and other grains - through the roof.
GreenHunter Energy Inc. said Monday it expects its Houston, Texas, biodiesel refinery to be out of service for six to eight weeks due to damage from Hurricane Ike.
The plant (right, pre-storm) can produce 105 million gallons of biodiesel per year, making it the largest biodiesel refinery in the country.
Located on 20 acres beside the Houston Ship Channel, it suffered floodwater damage and lost power when Ike came ashore early Saturday along the Texas Gulf Coast with strong winds and torrential rains.
The local utility in Houston, Center Point Energy, is expected to restore electricity and natural gas service to the location in six to eight weeks. In the short term, generators will provide temporary interruptible power.
GreenHunter can produce biodiesel from animal fats, vegetable oils or a blend of the two at the zero-emissions refinery.
The site was originally home to a waste-oil recycling facility owned by Channel Refining Corporation. GreenHunter bought it in early 2007 and converted it into a biodiesel plant.
The hordes of diesel trucks helping to clog Los Angeles freeways, and Los Angeles area residents' lungs, will soon be getting a new source of commercial biodiesel.
Tellurian Biodiesel
and fast-food industry supplier Golden State Foods
are jointly launching a new biodiesel storage and distribution terminal under an agreement forged earlier this year.
---------- High sulfur content in diesel derived from crude oil is responsible for much of the black smoke that pours from many trucks' exhaust stacks. Clean biodiesel can help reduce such pollution. ---------
The companies said they see a growing market for clean biodiesel to help meet the state's demand for low sulfur fuels and to help in the nationwide effort to reduce dependence on imported crude oil.
The biodiesel venture, located at an environmental waste collection storage and rail facility southeast of downtown L.A., is scheduled to begin operating later this month.
It will provide B99, or 99 percent biodiesel, to fuel jobbers and other wholesale customers throughout Southern California.
GM was still hoarding pictures of its Chevrolet Orlando concept when we posted our advance peek at the greenest vehicles making a bow at the upcoming Paris Motor Show.
But now the pics are out (funny how they managed to keep these hidden when photos of the production model of the Volt plug-in hybrid being officially introduced later this morning were leaking
all over the place in the last few weeks), and we're bringing 'em to you, along with a little more detail about the crossover concept.
General Motors is slotting the Orlando into its Chevrolet lineup, where a production version of the five-door tall wagon-SUV-van combo could serve as a large family mover or a sizable cargo carrier, or both.
Florida startup New Generation Biofuels
said today that it plans to build a refinery in Baltimore, Maryland, that will begin producing synthetic diesel fuel next year.
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Oil from plants such as this field of canola can be turned into synthetic diesel.
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Lake Mary, Florida-based New Generation told subscription-only E&E News that it has signed a lease with Atlantic Terminaling to build a commercial-scale refinery on the banks of Chesapeake Bay.
The refinery -- New Generation's first commercial-scale facility -- is to be capable of producing 25 million gallons of the petroleum-free diesel fuel annually from vegetable oil, animal fat and other feedstocks, E&E reported.
The low-sulfur fuel would be produced using a proprietary technology and would be sold in the mid-Atlantic region for use in power plants, industrial boilers and marine diesel engines, Phil Wallis, New Generation's chief marketing officer, told the energy news service
"This is a renewable fuel of second-generation nature," Wallis said. "It's effectively just veggie oil or other renewable feedstocks with proprietary additives."
New Generation could increase the modular refinery's capacity to 50 million gallons a year is there is sufficient demand, said Wallis.
New Generation signed its first sales contract in June -- to supply Houston-based Dynegy Inc. with 1.7 million gallons of synthetic diesel fuel annually -- but has hopes of expanding nationally.
Paris, fashion capital of the world, usually has more influence on what hangs in your closet than what's parked in your driveway.
But from October 4th through the 19th, when the doors to the Paris auto show are open to the public, the automobile takes center stage in the City of Lights, and big fuel economy numbers will be as essential to automakers as little red dresses or neatly tailored black suits are to the fashion world. Â
Car manufacturers will be displaying everything from hybrids, such as the new Honda Insight, to electric cars and fuel-sipping diesel and gas-powered models like the new Ford Ka and Toyota iQ (above) city cars.
To help whet your appetites, Green Car Advisor offers a look at the cars that are set to make the biggest impression in this distinctively enviro-chic auto show:
Honda Insight
The newest hybrid from Honda represents the Japanese company's most determined effort at cracking Toyota's stranglehold on this increasingly important market.
The five-passenger, four-door hatchback uses an improved version of Honda's Integrated Motor Assist system. Better fuel economy, a lower center of gravity and reduced cost are said to be the main benefits.
The Insight is expected to be cheaper than its rival, the next-generation Toyota Prius, when both cars go on sale early next year. Our one complaint: Why did Honda feel the need to copy the potatolike profile of the Prius?
Toyota iQ
If the Insight is Honda's take on a Prius fighter, the iQ is Toyota's attempt at outsmarting the Smart Fortwo.
The iQ is slightly longer than the Smart, and the Japanese city car offers two tiny rear seats, whereas the Fortwo -- as the name makes clear -- is strictly a two-seater.
The iQ goes on sale in Japan in October and in Europe later this year.
Will Toyota bring the iQ Stateside? The company's not saying, but with the sales success of the Smart Fortwo in America, it would be pretty dumb not to consider the idea. And Toyota's not noted for dumb.
Some blogs are reporting today that the U.S. government is now offering tax incentives for five diesel models, three from Mercedes-Benz and two from Volkswagen.
We brought you that information weeks ago, when it had just come out of the oven, so to speak.
But in case you missed it, here it is again, in a wrap-up of all the fuel-efficient vehicles that are now eligible for U.S. tax credits.
Just click on the charts below for easily readable charts of what's available.
BMW's North American President Jim O'Donnell, in a videotaped interview
with Business Week
, has confirmed rumors that the Bavarian automaker is developing a new 4-cylinder motor, one that's diesel-powered, turbocharged and will outperform the current 6-cylinder N52 engine (right)
,
which debuted in 2004 inside the BMW E63 630Ci.
In the interview, O'Donnell (below) said:
"We are working on a new, 4-cylinder engine that will deliver stronger performance in terms of acceleration than the current 6-cylinder, that will deliver lower emissions and will give you better fuel economy; so it's a win, win, win situation. So this will be a high-tech 4-cylinder engine, obviously turbocharged. We can't really confirm or deny when it is going to come into the U.S. -- if it's going to come into the U.S. -- until after the [presidential] election and the government makes it clear what is going to be the platform that manufacturers have got to work to."
We're not sure what to make of that last sentence, because if what he's saying about the engine is true, it shouldn't have trouble meeting America's fuel-economy standards.
Or is he saying BMW will have this hot new engine, but won't export it to the U.S. unless John McCain is elected president? Or unless Barack Obama wins the contest? Why would that be? The videotape ends with "got to work to"; if he explained himself moments later, whatever he said got left on the cutting-room floor, so to speak.
Or perhaps we've got it all wrong. Perhaps his comments were primarily intended to take some of the attention away from Mercedes' announcement earlier this week that it will launch a new generation of super-efficient diesel engines later this year, starting with a 2.2-liter four-cylinder "BlueEfficiency" powerplant.
Mercedes' turbocharged engine has a 7.0-second acceleration time from zero to 62 miles per hour, a top sped of 155 mph and yet gets a claimed 45 miles per gallon on the European test cycle; it'll be substantially less under the EPA test in the U.S. Still, that engine has people talking, certainly more than O'Donnell likes.
So, is this a case of German luxury rivals now competing for downsized-engine primacy? Could be, given that smaller engines are going to be the norm not only in Europe but in the U.S. and Canada as well as governments on both sides of the Atlantic require better fuel efficiency and fewer greenhouse-gas emissions from domestic and foreign automakers alike.
VELDEN, Austria
- Subaru is about to drop its 2.0-liter boxer diesel engine into the European-spec 2009 Subaru Forester, and the company invited a contingent of U.S. media here to drive it.
We should say right up front that there are no firm plans to put this four-cylinder turbodiesel into U.S.-bound Foresters.
Indeed, company officials tell us this vehicle would not meet California emissions standards without the costly addition of an AdBlue urea tank, and Subaru of America isn't ready to commit to that or to bring in cars it can't sell in all 50 states.
Even without the urea trank to cut down toxic emissions of nitrogen oxides, or NOx, the diesel Forester, which is badged "2.0D," still has a more robust, closed-type particulate filter than the open-type filter in the diesel Legacy and Outback we've driven previously
.
Subaru says you could take the Forester for a Sunday spin of 1,016 kilometers - 630 miles - on a single, 64-liter (almost 17-gallon) tank.
That's good for a rating of 6.3 liters per 100 kilometers, or 38.5 mpg, on the European test cycle.
More good news on the diesel front: Mercedes-Benz says it will launch a new generation of super-efficient diesel engines later this year, starting with a 2.2-liter four-cylinder "BlueEfficiency" powerplant.
The new diesel engine will debut in a limited production C-Class sedan to be called the "C 250 CDI BlueEfficiency Prime Edition."
(And while the engine may be efficient, the nameplate sure isn't. Imagine how much energy is consumed stamping out badges with all that verbage on 'em!)
The turbocharged engine, which uses high-pressure, common-rail direct injection, churns out 204 horsepower (150 kilowatts) and, as is a diesel's tendency, tons and tons of torque - 369 pound-feet, or 500 Newton-meters.
That's enough for a 7.0-second acceleration time from zero to 62 mph (100 kilometers per hour) and a top sped of 155 mph (250 kph), according to Mercedes.
Overall fuel economy is estimated at 5.2 liters per 100 kilometers or about 45 miles per gallon on the European test cycle, which typically gives vehicles higher mileage than they'd achieve under the EPA test in the U.S.
And the reason we're providing the stats in metric measure is that the car will be aimed first at European markets and only 5,000 will be produced.
There's no word yet on whether the new engine will ever show up in the U.S., but Mercedes drops a hint by saying that while not yet meeting tough U.S. diesel emissions standards, the 250 CDI "has the potential to comply."
Mercedes said in a release today that it believes the engine is powerful and responsive enough to be "a sensible alternative to the higher-displacement six-cylinder engines in future."
Volkswagen has big plans for the 2009 Jetta TDI, but sales of the new clean diesel model that debuted in the U.S. last month may be outstripping the company's best estimates.
"It certainly met and probably exceeded our expectations," Mark Barnes, chief operating officer of Volkswagen of America Inc., said in an interview with Bloomberg News. He wouldn't say, however, what those expections were.
Diesel Jetta sales in the U.s. last month totaled 2,417 - and the Jetta TDI didn't go on sale til Aug. 18. Total Jetta sales for the month rose to 11,217, with the diesel model accounting for 21.5 percent.
That could rise to 35 percent with a full month of sales in September, Barnes said.
VW has said it intends total U.S. sales of all of its models to top the1-million mark by 2018 and that diesel models will play a big part in the increase, which would more than triple last year's combined sales of the automaker's Volkswagen, Audi and Bentley models.
Mazda Motor Corp. announced today that it has developed three technologies that will make the vehicles it manufactures considerably greener.
The Japanese automaker says its unique idling stop system -- Smart Idle Stop System -- improves fuel economy by about 10 percent in areas where vehicles frequently stop at traffic lights or in heavy traffic.
Conventional idling stop systems restart a vehicle's engine with an electric motor using exactly the same process as when the engine is started normally.
Mazda's system, on the other hand, restarts the engine through combustion. It initiates engine restart by injecting fuel directly into the cylinder while the engine is stopped, and igniting it to generate downward piston force.
In order to restart the engine by combustion, the pistons must be stopped at exactly the correct position to create the right balance of air volume in each cylinder. The Smart Idle Stop System, Mazda says, provides precise control over the piston positions during engine shutdown to accomplish this.
The system indexes each cylinder and initiates fuel injection before the engine begins to rotate. This enables the engine to be restarted in just a third of a second, or roughly half the time of a conventional electric motor idling stop system.
We've been writing about some wonderfully fuel-efficient vehicles lately that won't be available in the U.S., among them the Ford Fiesta ECOnetic, Honda's Fit Hybrid and Volkswagen's Golf BlueMotion Diesel.
Now we're pained to report that Ford today announced that it will be manufacturing a diesel-powered KA that will achieve an estimated 56 miles per gallon -- and it won't be coming to America, either. Same deal with the second-generation gasoline-propelled Ka.
As Ford spokesman Alan Hall told us: "It is a product in our global product portfolio, so it is something that we have access to as we continue to monitor the marketplace, but we do not have plans at the moment."
We can blame the weak dollar for that. And we can blame the economic policies of the Bush administration for the weak dollar.
Back to the Ka, the gas engine will be a 1.2-liter 69 horsepower unit achieving 60.3 mpg while the Ka gets a diesel for first time with a 1.3-liter unit generating 75 horsepower.
The gas engine reduces fuel consumption by 21 percent compared to 1.3-liter unit in the first-generation Ka.
Volkswagen today unveiled a concept of its next-generation Golf, equipped with a BlueMotion diesel engine capable of achieving a combined 74 miles per gallon in European fuel-economy trials.
The U.S. EPA's fuel-economy estimate would be quite a bit lower -- about 62 mpg -- but that's still much better than, say, the mid- to high-40s of the fuel-sipping Toyota Prius hybrid.
The car is powered by a 1.6-liter TDI common-rail diesel engine developing 103 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque at 2,000 rpm. It can reportedly reach 62 mph from rest in a respectable 11.3 seconds before going on to a top speed of 117 mph.
The BlueMotion label represents the most efficient model in each of Volkswagen's passenger car ranges. As with all other BlueMotion models, this one has been tweaked aerodynamically, fitted with low-rolling resistance tires and mechanically optimized for fuel efficiency.
The production version is scheduled to go on sale in Europe in mid-2009. Unfortunately, due to the weakness of the dollar, Americans won't likely see it in showrooms at all and will have to make do with the standard Golf TDI with the 110-horsepower engine that VW says returns 52 mpg.
Beginning October 6, Audi will demonstrate the fuel efficiency of its new clean-diesel vehicles by driving a herd of them from New York City to Los Angeles via Chicago and Denver.
Included in the caravan will be 23 TDI vehicles that will be driven by more than 180 motorists along the way, including plenty of heavy-footed autowriters. But they'll be competing for ecodriving -- not speed -- honors.
Among the cross-country vehicles will be the diesel variants of the Q7 and Q5, and the A4 with the 3.0-liter TDI V6 and the A3 with the same 2.0-liter four-cylinder TDI used in the new VW Jetta.
Of all the diesel models shown off in this here convoy, only the Q7 will be available in the U.S. -- at least initially -- starting in early 2009. Due to its minimal emissions, it will be available for purchase in all 50 states.
To whet our appetites, Audi provided the photos appearing here. We don't know about you, but it works for us.
Ford's 65-miles-per-gallon 2009 Fiesta ECOnetic (right)
goes on sale in Europe this November, but it won't be coming to the United States. Not then, possibly not ever.
That according to a disturbing reportBusiness Week published today. The magazine says that despite the popularity of fuel-efficient cars in the U.S. these days, Ford doesn't intend to ship it there.
"We know it's an awesome vehicle," Ford America President Mark Fields told Business Week. "But there are business reasons why we can't sell it in the U.S."
The main one: The Fiesta ECOnetic runs on diesel. American motorists just don't like the stuff, based on memories of diesel-powered cars belching black clouds of exhaust.
Add to that U.S. taxes that make diesel costlier than gasoline, plus America's love affair with Toyota's Prius and other hybrids, and the outlook for diesel -- even clean-diesel -- cars in the States is bleak.
And, at prevailing exchange rates, the Fiesta ECOnetic would sell for about $25,700 in America. By contrast, the Prius retails for $22,000 there.
The bottom line: Ford doesn't believe it could charge enough to make money on an imported ECOnetic.
By Scott Doggett, Contributor and John O'Dell, Senior Editor
General Motors has reaped a ton of publicity from its Chevrolet Volt, a car with a grid-charged battery pack that will power an electric motor and an on-board gasoline engine that will generate electricity to keep the electric motor running and recharge the batteries when the initial plug-in charge is depleted.
Often missed in all the high-voltage buzz is that Ford Motor Co. showed a concept car with essentially the same system during the same January 2007 Detroit Auto Show at which the Volt took its bows.
Now comes word that Ford's Japanese subsidiary, Mazda, is putting its zoom into development of a Volt competitor of its own.
The British blog autocar says it has "learned that Mazda engineers are hard at work trying to develop a rival to the Chevrolet Volt -- a car which uses a petrol engine to charge a battery pack which powers the wheels via an electric motor."
High-ranking sources at Mazda, autocar reports, "say that trials are currently underway in Japan, with a prototype that uses a rotary engine to charge the battery pack. The tests are sufficiently advanced that Mazda has a working prototype in a Mazda 5 MPV bodyshell. Company bosses are said to be keen to put this system into production but no firm decisions will be made until the cost of batteries is reduced.
"In the meantime the company will concentrate on simpler green technologies. The first stop-start Mazda will go on sale in Japan next year and the system is expected to be rolled out globally on a variety of models."
Mercedes-Benz, with its 2009 BlueTec SUVs
, and Volkswagen with its 2009 Jetta TD
I are the big players in the U.S. diesel market these days. But it looks like BMW is close behind.
We got the keys to a Euro-spec BWM 745d over the weekend and gave it a whirl as part of a program, sponsored by diesel systems developer Bosch
, to show off the differences that advances in diesel technology have brought to oil-burners in recent years.
Diesels, long thought of by U.S. motorists as smelly, noisy and dirty - because they were smelly, noisy and dirty - have undergone a metamorphosis overseas as Europe's carmakers turned to them to help cope with governmental concerns over CO2 emissions and consumer concerns over fuel prices that are now running in the neighborhood of $8 a gallon.
They now are clean and quiet and pretty near odorless thanks to stringent emissions filtering systems and the low sulfur content of modern diesel fuel.
They also deliver quite a wallop in the fuel economy department - usually offering 30 to 35 percent better mileage than gasoline versions of the same vehicles.
The 745d, for instance, delivered a pretty consistent 24 miles per gallon in combined highway and city driving while we had it- 33 percent more than the comparably performing, gasoline-fueled 4.8-liter 750i sedan that's EPA rated at 18 miles per gallon in mixed use.
Apparently addressing concerns many Americans might have about spending $20,000 on an Indian-made pickup truck, Mahindra & Mahindra has decided to put 25 of its clean-diesel pickups on U.S. roads to collectively rack up more than 3 million miles in what amounts to additional testing to ensure the model meets U.S. expectations when it goes on sale here in the fall of 2009.
The additional testing will delay the model's U.S. arrival by three months. Mahindra, which sells about 10,000 farm tractors a year in the United States of America, still hopes to be the first Indian company to sell trucks here.
Assuming crude prices remain high, the timing will be good for Mahindra. Although the light-truck market is down, Mahindra's Appalachian pickup -- fitted with a 2.2-liter, four-cylinder engine and a 7.5-foot cargo box -- is expected to get about 30 miles per gallon in combined city and highway driving. That's considerably better that what its likely competitors -- the gasoline-powered Ford Ranger and Toyota Tacoma -- get, and the diesel pickup would likely deliver much better towing power.
While it's true that diesel fuel now sells for about 14 percent more than regular gasoline, diesels typically get fuel economy that is 20 percent to 30 percent higher than gasoline-powered engines. And, the Appalachian is expected to meet the emission requirements of all 50 U.S. states, putting it squarely in the so-called "clean diesel" corner.
The Appalachian will be available in two- and four-door versions when it reaches approximately 300 dealers nationwide during the fourth quarter of next year. The same vehicle with a hybrid drivetrain is expected to enter the U.S. market the following year for about $5,000 more before any available tax credits are applied.
Mahindra says the truck will be available in two- and four-wheel drive, come standard with a paddle-shift six-speed automatic transmission, and have a payload capacity of about 2,600 pounds. Final assembly of the Appalachian will be conducted in Ohio to avoid a 25-percent federal import tariff.
The Port of Los Angeles' clean-truck replacement program got a significant boost Thursday when two Arizona-based freight haulers agreed to participate in the program.
As you may recall, this is the same port that saw the world's largest electric truck -- potentially one of many -- put into service this past May in an effort to reduce the area's ghastly air pollution, as we reported back then.
The American Trucking Association has opposed the port's plans to replace its aging fleets, which produce a large portion of the diesel pollution at the nation's biggest cargo container complex.
The ATA filed suit in federal court to block the plans, asserting that the port's actions violate federal statutory provisions that prohibit states or their political subdivisions from enacting or enforcing a legal requirement that is "related to a price, route or service of any motor carrier."
The ATA said the filing points to "a host of regulatory requirements - such as the submission of truck-maintenance, safety and parking plans; equipment marking and tracking; financial oversight; routing mandates; and periodic reviews and audits - that will dramatically affect a motor carrier's operations at the ports in terms of price, routes, and services."
But the potential participation of the two Arizona companies -- Swift Transportation Co., which has 37 major terminals in 26 states and Mexico, and Knight Transportation Inc., with nearly half of its fleet consisting of 2008 models -- is a major development. Both companies are members of the trucking association.
"It shows that the Los Angeles plan is attractive and trucking companies are biting," Adrian Martinez, projects manager with the Natural Resources Defense Council, told the Los Angeles Times.
At the time the ATA filed its lawsuit, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said his office was "committed to rolling ahead with the world's most ambitious and bold plan to simultaneously green and grow a port," and port officials said they would press ahead with their plan.
The Clean Truck Program is designed to encourage rapid improvement of air quality at the port through use of grants and financial incentives that would allow trucking companies to accelerate the replacement of older, high-polluting trucks with newer, cleaner trucks.
There's no mistaking it: Sinister forces are still at work at Peugeot.
The French automaker presented the scariest car at the last Paris Motor Show, a wicked jet-black sedan concept packing a 700-horsepower V12 turbodiesel engine. It's name: 908 RC.
The lion-logoed family business has done it again, producing the stealthy, diabolical "RC..." concept pictured here; it's full name will be revealed when the vehicle debuts at the Paris show this October.
Peugeot is disclosing very little about the concept, but this much it has revealed: within the RC...'s four doors are four seats, and under the hood "highly innovative hybrid architecture."
The automaker's aim: a sedan offering a very high level of efficiency both in terms of performance -- with its potential 230-kilowatt, 313-horsepower electric motor -- and minimal impact on the environment -- carbon dioxide emissions of 109 grams per kilometer in the combined cycle or zero in electric mode.
In a statement, Peugeot says the vehicle demonstrates more than ever that the automaker "is capable of combining respect for the environment with driving pleasure."
If only Peugeot would take this breathtaking beast to market.
LS9 Inc. says it has created synthetic "industrial microbes" that can digest sugar in plant-based food and excrete it as hydrocarbon-based "petroleum replacement products."
But that's not all. The South San Francisco, Calif., company says it can genetically tweak the bacteria to produce a variety of "DesignerBiofuels" that are essentially indistinguishable from gasoline, diesel and even jet fuel.
LS9 says the fuel its proprietary microbes produce can go straight into a car's gas tank or be sent to a refinery for further preparation.
What's more, the fuels are nearly carbon-neutral, LS9 reports, meaning that about the same amount of carbon dioxide is generated by the combustion of its fuels as is consumed by the plant-based foods eaten by the bacteria.
The company suggests that its bacteria's efficient use of biomass or sugar cane addresses the food-versus-fuel issue plaguing corn-based ethanol and other alternative fuels.
LS9 says it is "rapidly commercializing and scaling up" production so that the company can produce fuel by the barrelful within a few years.
While automakers wait for more 85 percent ethanol blend gasoline pumps to be installed at gas stations, the ethanol industry is waiting for automakers to produce more "flex-fuel" vehicles that can safely burn the E85 blend, in what has resulted in a widespread waiting game.
"E85 needs more infrastructure," Rick Gunther, Midwest fleet and commercial operations manager for General Motors, told the subscription news service Greenwire. "I tell retailers, 'We're the chicken, you're the egg.' "
Detroit's Big Three automakers are waiting for Japanese companies Honda and Toyota to be more active in the flex-fuel market to stimulate demand for more pumps, but so far their response has been slow. Toyota plans to introduce a flex-fuel version of its Tundra in 2009.
Pump manufacturers told Greenwire they are waiting for Underwriters Laboratories certification of safety and efficiency on the new blender pump, which would offer more options for ethanol blends -- beyond the 10 percent or 85 percent currently available.
And everyone is waiting for U.S. EPA to decide whether it's safe to use a 20 percent blend of ethanol in car engines. The 10-percent blend is now the maximum for regular engines, although EPA has approved E85 for flex-fuel vehicles.
Ethanol proponents say E20 and maybe even E30 are safe for regular car engines, although automakers disagree.
In June we reported
that officials at Mercedes-Benz USA were hoping that their upcoming diesel-powered '09 models -- the ML 320 BlueTEC, GL 320 BlueTEC and R 320 BlueTEC -- will enable buyers to claim the same federal tax credit as is currently available to individuals who buy certain hybrid-electric vehicles.
The German automaker got its wish this week, when the Internal Revenue Service agreed with Mercedes' assertion that the new 50-state-legal, diesel-engine Benzes should be in the same category as hybrids that qualify for the federal Alternative Motor Vehicle Credit, because the diesels are every bit as "clean" as hybrids.
The decision comes two weeks after the EPA granted a $1,300 tax credit to the first 60,000 buyers of the 2009 Jetta TDI sedan and SportWagen, which like the BlueTEC vehicles, are diesel powered.
The three BlueTEC models are expected to go on sale beginning this October. The amount of the tax credit will vary with model, from $900 for the ML to $1,800 for the GL, due to the process the Internal Revenue Service uses to determine how much fuel will be saved by the vehicle.
America's auto-emissions regulators have nothing on the youth brigade of the Swiss Green Party.
The youth have obtained the 100,000 signatures needed to put a measure before Switzerland's voters that would ban passenger vehicles that have a curb weight of more than 4,820 pounds, emit more than 250 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer, or have front ends deemed dangerous to pedestrians.
The measure would also ban diesel cars lacking particle filters. Non-compliant cars registered before the measure goes into law would be fitted with a governor limiting them to 62 miles per hour.
The measure, which is viewed as moderate by its proponents, would remove all but the most fuel efficient models from Swiss roads. The forbidden list contains 785 models. In Porsche's lineup, for instance, all but the Boxster and Cayman fitted with 2.7-liter engines would be barred.
Lots of Mercedes-Benzes, BMWs and Audis would be history, as would every Ferrari, Maserati and Lamborghini. Not all automakers would suffer. Lotus's entire lineup, for example, would be compliant.
The vote has not been scheduled and could be a couple of years away. Also, more than 90 percent of initiatives presented to Swiss voters since 1848 have been rejected. But "moderates" can hope.
Volkswagen had planned to release official photos of the sixth-generation Golf on Wednesday in advance of the fuel-efficient car's debut at the Paris auto show in October, but at least two European Web sites leaked the photos today.
The images, which first appeared on Belgium's autogids.be and The Netherlands' autoblog.nl, show the 2009 model borrowed front styling features from the Scirocco but otherwise seems little changed from that of the current model.
What the photos don't show is what's under the hood of the Golf -- or Rabbit, as its badged for American consumers -- and that would be a motor that's more fuel-efficient than its predecessor's.
There will be a wide range of four-cylinder gas and diesel engine choices for the new Golf -- at least in Europe -- including a new 1.6-liter TSI engine developing 200 horsepower and a turbocharged 260-horsepower 2.0-liter engine reserved for the new GTI.
VW also is working on a diesel plug-in hybrid variant and expects to introduce new stop-start technology as well. Exactly which engines will be available on this side of the Atlantic has yet to be determined, or at least made public. Manual, automatic and DSG gearboxes will be available.
Both three and five-door bodystyles will be available, as will a convertible
Despite reports to the contrary, Volkswagen of America continues to certify the new Golf/Rabbit for sale in the United States.
A plug-in diesel-electric hybrid bus that may achieve up to four times the fuel efficiency of a regular diesel transit bus could hit the road as early as next year, the U.S. Energy Department's Oak Ridge National Laboratory reported today.
A prototype of the "lightweight urban transit bus," developed by the federal laboratory and a Michigan-based engineering firm using a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, will feature a hybrid power system and a body made from Nitronic 30, a high-strength stainless steel.
Less of the nitronic steel - touted as "stronger and stiffer" than its conventional counterpart - is needed to build these buses, resulting in a lighter-weight transit vehicle with a longer shelf life.
"The fact that stainless steel is also 100 percent recyclable and more environmentally friendly to produce than aluminum makes this an ideal green raw material for vehicle structures," Bruce Emmons, president of Autokinetics, said in a statement.
Emmons' company conducted the research and development for the bus up to this point, but will now hand over operations to the newly formed Fisher Coachworks, another Michigan-based company that will handle the commercialization of the bus and take over development.
The bus relies on a serial drive powertrain utilizing a high-capacity electrical energy storage system. About half of the energy used during a drive cycle is provided by the batteries and regenerative braking, with a turbo-diesel engine producing the remaining half in a range-extending charge mode.
The future of diesel passenger vehicles in the U.S. market is coming under question by some in the auto industry as diesel fuel continues to run about 20 percent higher than gasoline, nearly erasing the diesel vehicle's fuel efficiency advantage.
But European automakers with a strong diesel product line - including Volkswagen
, Mercedes-Benz
and BMW
- all say they will stick with their plans to launch a number of 50-state legal diesels in the U.S. in coming months and years.
The doubters are no slouches, though.
We've written about Nissan Motor Co.'s diesel concerns
(which exist even though the company intends to being a diesel car to the U.S.) and on Monday the Wall Street Journal
quoted a board member from tier-one auto industry supplier Continental saying he's become more skeptical about the economics of diesel in the U.S.
Fuel-Sipper Savings
Our own number crunching,
however, shows that even at a 20 percent fuel price disadvantage, diesels can still save money at the pump because they can deliver 30 percent or better fuel economy over gasoline-fueled versions of the same models.
The new diesels also are qualifying for federal green car tax credits that help offfset the diesel premium carmakers charge to cover the higher cost of diesel engines and emissions equipment.
Well, the car qualifies, but it's the buyers who'll get it -- a $1,300 federal income tax credit.
That's what comes with the first 60,000 of the 2009 Jetta TDIs that Volkswagen dealers sell.
The credit, from the same pot 'o funds that the hybrid credit comes from, is designed to help ease the pocketbook pain of buying greener cars with advanced or alternative -- and thus pricier -- powertrains and fuel systems.
The 50-state-legal '09 Jetta TDI, which hits dealer showrooms in late August (most dealers are limited to a single demonstration model right now), is priced $2,000 higher
than the standard gasoline model, so the credit will lower the diesel premium to just $700.
The diesel Jetta has recently been rated for fuel efficiency
by the Environmental Protection Agency at 30 mpg in the city and 41 mpg on the highway -- in a test that the government acknowledges wasn't designed to properly rate diesels and tends to understate actual mileage. A test commissioned by VW showed better numbers of 38 miles per gallon in the city and 44 on the highway.
Using the lower EPA fuel economy numbers, it looks as if TDI owners will be able to save enough on fuel to pay off the price difference in a reasonable amount of time.
Ford of Europe's most frugal car ever - the 2009 diesel-powered Fiesta ECOnetic - made its world premiere at the British auto show on Tuesday, but don't expect to see one in the U.S. anytime soon.
Powered by a specially-calibrated version of the 1.6-liter four-cylinder TDCi turbo-diesel engine, Ford's most economical Fiesta can travel 63.6 miles per U.S. gallon on the European Commission's combined test cycle.
That said, EC fuel-economy estimates tend to be slightly higher than those the U.S. government attaches to vehicles sold in America. That's because, unlike U.S. mileage testing, the fuel-economy tests for cars sold in Europe contain a minimum of acceleration and therefore differ significantly from normal driving conditions.
Still, the fuel economy is impressive and it's matched with a class-leading carbon-dioxide output of 98 grams per kilometer, making the Fiesta ECOnetic the lowest carbon vehicle in both its segment and Ford's European range.
Right, BMW 7 Hydrogen on Nürburgring racetrack. The car or one like it will be available for test drives.
The Detroit area is famous for the Woodward Dream Cruise, a summertime showcase of thousands of hotrods, muscle cars and other exotics.
Now in an effort to improve Motown's gas-guzzling image, a new group has organized what they call Nextcruise, which will actually give the public an opportunity to drive what many see as the next generation of vehicles - hybrids, fuel cell, clean-diesel, plug-in electric and other green machines.
The low-emissions, fuel-efficient vehicles will be available for free 15-minute drives on a first-come, first-served basis in Pleasant Ridge, just outside Detroit, in mid-August.
The event will take place from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 16, and from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 17, at Memorial Park, 23925 Woodward Avenue, Pleasant Ridge 48069-1199.
Nine automakers have agreed to provide green vehicles and green-car-technology demonstrations for event to date. They are: General Motors, Chrysler, Ford, Nissan, Toyota, Volkswagen, Audi, Mercedes-Benz and BMW.
One of our sister blogs -- specifically, Edmunds.com's InsideLine
-- reported in January that the U.S. version of BMW's 2009 diesel-powered 335d sedan with a 6-speed automatic transmission should achieve EPA fuel-economy estimates of 23 miles per gallon in the city and 33 mpg on the highway.
Why, then, are we reporting that information now?
Two reasons: First, BMW only today made an official announcement regarding the car's mileage. And second, because we should have spotted the InsideLine report and linked to it back in January, but the report somehow eluded us. Our attitude is better late than never, but we're still scratching our heads about it and pointing fingers at one another.
BMW today confirmed InsideLine's report that the brand-new twin-diesel engine puts out 265 horsepower and 425 foot pounds of torque. Acceleration from zero to 60 miles per hour requires a flat six seconds. IL had reported zero to 60 "in less than 6.2 seconds," which of course is not incorrect.
The price of the all-new 3-series vehicle, which will be available in all 50 states, has yet to be announced.
A transition to hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is entirely doable but requires nearly $200 billion in funding and further technological breakthroughs, National Research Council experts said today in a report requested by Congress.
While stressing the "best-case scenario" nature of their report, the experts concluded that hydrogen could be the key driver of a shift away from fossil fuels and emissions tied to global warming, with other clean technologies and biofuels helping in that transition.
"The benefits of hydrogen would be less in the early years but have a dominant effect" in the longer run, panel chairman Mike Ramage, a retired ExxonMobil executive, said in a conference call with reporters. "Hydrogen is a pathway to a sustainable energy future."
The best-case scenario assumes the automotive industry invests $145 billion and the federal government spends $50 billion over the next 15 years to drive down the costs of hydrogen production and vehicles that run on hydrogen.
"The number is big, but in perspective" it is doable, Ramage said, noting that the federal ethanol subsidy is at a pace to cost $160 billion over that same period. "We need durable, substantial and sustainable government help to make this happen, just as there is for ethanol."
General Motors Corp. announced today that it will lay off salaried workers, cut truck production, borrow up to $3 billion and make additional investments in green-car technologies in response to the weak economy, high fuel prices, shifts in consumer vehicle preferences, and the lowest U.S. industry sales volumes in a decade.
GM said the moves will raise $15 billion to help cover losses and turn around its North American operations, including $10 billion from internal cost-cutting and $5 billion from selling some assets and borrowing against others.
"We are responding aggressively to the challenges of today's U.S. auto market," GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner said in a broadcast to employees. "We remain committed to bringing to market great products that target changing consumer preferences for more fuel-efficient vehicles."
Wagoner noted that 11 of GM's 13 most recent major U.S. product launches, and 18 of its next 19 launches, are cars and crossovers, which are key growth areas.
Spending for non-product programs will also be reduced, the company said, but powertrain spending will be increased to support the development of alternative propulsion and fuel economy technologies and small-displacement engines.
Mitsubishi Motors gave the nod today for production of a new compact crossover model based on the popular Concept-cX that debuted
at last September's Frankfurt Motor Show.
Featuring a family of Euro-5 clean-diesel engines -- including a new 1.8-liter 4-cylinder turbocharged engine that produces 134 horsepower and 207 pound feet of torque -- a high-efficiency turbocharger and a diesel-oxidation catalyst with particulate filter, the full-time AWD sub-Outlander compact will serve as the showcase vehicle for the automaker's coming enviro-friendly technologies.
The wedge-shaped compact sport utility vehicle will wear the "Jet Fighter" grille introduced with the all-new Lancer family and use a derivative of Outlander's 4-wheel-drive drivetrain. Mitsubishi says the crossover will be the missing link (or is that the "found link"?) between its SUVs and its passenger cars.
The first production model is expected to roll off the assembly line in late 2009. Whether that vehicle or any of its clones will be sold in the U.S. has yet to be decided.
Also unknown is how a group of esteemed green-car enthusiasts would respond if asked whether the grille is more characterist of, say, the gull-sucking air intake manifold of an F-4 Phantom II supersonic fighter-bomber or the gaping maw of a great white shark? There is no wrong answer, though we'll be bitterly disappointed if you pick gull-sucking air intake manifold of an F-4 Phantom II supersonic fighter-bomber.
Beginning this September, all new drivers in Britain will have to pass practical green-driving tests as part of a government push to improve fuel efficiency for cars by 60 percent over the next decade.
The British government also announced Tuesday that it would soon begin educating motorists on "eco-driving techniques," saving fuel by driving more smoothly rather than accelerating quickly and braking sharply.
Ministers have also pledged to implement a "fuel-efficiency tire program." This will involve new "resistance standards" for tires and "onboard tire pressure monitors" in a further attempt to improve fuel efficiency.
Under-inflated tires can increase fuel consumption of cars by up to 3 percent.
Other measures for cutting emissions will include new standards for electrical items to reduce energy use when they are on "standby" and attempts to increase home insulation.
It's another concept car that no Average Joe will ever have an opportunity to own, right?
Wrong.
After making the rounds as a two-seater concept six years ago, Volkswagen's One-Liter Car was squirreled away, its maker waiting for the price of carbon fiber to come down enough to take the car to market.
The One-Liter Car concept vehicle -- so named because that's how much fuel it needs to go 100 kilometers (62 miles) -- sports a carbon fiber body that company executives figured would be too pricey to mass produce until at least 2012.
But the cost of the material has plummeted in recent years, and with the demand for fuel-efficient small cars never higher, VW has approved a plan to build 1,000 of the 660-pound microcars in 2010.
According to CanadianDriver, exceptional aerodynamics are key to the car's low fuel consumption. To keep the frontal area small, the engineers went with a bullet-shaped body and tandem seats.
Except for single demonstrator models in most dealerships, Volkswagen's 50-state legal diesel, the 2009 Jetta TDI, won't be in showrooms until August.
But early reports are that those demonstrators already are generating sales and enthusiasm fromVW and diesel fans.
In a blog posting late last week, salesman Jay Pichardo at Greenbriar Volkswagen in Chesapeake, Va., said that within 24 hours of its arrival at his dealership, the Jetta TDI demo car had been taken out for 13 test drives that had generated deposits from 10 would-be buyers.
The tester logged 120 miles during the drives and averaged 49 miles per gallon fuel economy, well above the 34 mpg that the EPA has estimated (although a more accurate representation of real-world mileage for gasoline-fueled cars and trucks, the new EPA ratings methodology penalizes diesels and hybrids)...
Despite the fact diesel is pricier than gasoline in the U.S. these days, Mercedes-Benz USA is confident its new Bluetec 50-state clean diesels will account for at least 15 percent of its SUV and cross-over sales.
Three new Bluetec vehicles go on sale in October with a new V-6 diesel: the 2009 320 ML crossover, GL SUV and R-class crossover (above).
The major reason for the diesels is fuel economy: A diesel is 20-33 percent more fuel efficient than a comparable gasoline model, a Mercedes executive said today, and the payback period is about two years faster than that of a hybrid gas-electric SUV.
Mercedes will charge a sticker premium of about $1,000 for its new diesels – comparable to what it charges on current diesel SUVs that can't be sold in eight states, Stephen Cannon, vice president of marketing for Mercedes-Benz USA, said at a press event in Vermont.
CIBC chart shows 10 million fewer vehicles on U.S. roads by 2012 than today.
Gasoline prices in America have risen from around $1.80 in 2004 to the current $4 per gallon mark. The most recent surge in pump prices has, in inflation-adjusted dollars, already taken pump prices to a buck a gallon above the record prices seen in 1981...
Congress is vowing to take actions that it believes will reverse runaway crude and gasoline prices. Oil rose above $136 a barrel on Monday – more than double what it cost a year ago – and gas hovered around $4.07 a gallon nationwide.
Lawmakers have introduced nine different bills on speculation, not to mention many more that tackle other causes of escalating fuel and oil prices. Several of the speculation measures have bipartisan support...
'09 Mercedes-Benz ML 320 BlueTEC may get same tax perk as a hybrid.
By Bill Visnic, Senior Editor
Officials at Mercedes-Benz USA are crossing their fingers that their upcoming diesel-powered ’09 models – the ML 320 BlueTEC, GL 320 BlueTEC and R 320 BlueTEC – will enable buyers to claim the same federal tax credit as is currently available to individuals who buy certain hybrid-electric vehicles.
The Environmental Protection Agency is considering Mercedes’ assertion that the new 50-state-legal, diesel-engine Benzes should be in the same category as hybrids that qualify for the federal Alternative Motor Vehicle Credit. Mercedes officials seem confident the diesels will, in the eyes of the EPA, be seen as equally “clean” as hybrids.
“We are waiting for final approval (from the EPA),” said Stephen Cannon, MBUSA vice president, marketing.
A Hefty Premium?
For now, Mercedes is mum on the final price of the diesel-powered SUVs and the R-Class wagon-type-thing, which go on sale in October.
You don't hear much about Suzuki's Swift in the U.S. days, particularly the inexpensive hatchback version sold in America from 1989 through 2001. The less-popular sedan silently left American showrooms soon thereafter.
With fuel-economy ratings around 40 miles per gallon and a price tag well below $10,000, the hatchback offered those needing basic transportation a wonderfully practical and generally reliable option...
Volkswagen of America announced today that prices of the much-anticipated 2009 Jetta TDI will start at $21,990 and its 2009 Jetta SportWagen TDI (above) at $23,590.
The turbo-diesel models meet the emissions requirements of all 50 United States, as Green Car Advisorreported last month, and they remain on track to appear in showrooms starting August.
But the news the automaker had really hoped to report it simply wasn't able to. That news would be that the new models would get something near the 60 miles per gallon highway fuel economy Volkswagen had been boasting earlier this year...
Among green vecicles to be shown by Japan's carmakers at July economic summit will be (clockwise from top left) Mitsubishi battery-electric i MiEV, Toyota Crown hybrid, Honda Clarity fuel cell and Nissan X-Trail clean diesel.
By Peter Nunn, Contributor
TOKYO-- Japan's automakers are rolling out a big green carpet for the coming G8 economic summit on the northern isle of Hokkaido.
Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi and Honda are among those planning major environmental vehicle and technology displays at the July 7-9 meeting.
As the world’s leaders and media gather up in Hokkaido, the G8 meeting is seen as the perfect platform to promote Japan's new, green-era cars -- even though no new, previously unseen models or technologies are likely to be unveiled.
"The G8 represents an important opportunity to showcase our latest environmental technologies," said Simon Sproule, corporate vice president of Nissan’s global communications department in Tokyo.
"With environmental challenges an important part of the agenda for the G8 meeting, we want to ensure the delegates can see for themselves the progress being made in the auto industry."
Celebrity poses with man in tree costume at launch party for green TV network.
By Scott Doggett, Contributor
The launch party for Planet Green, a 24-hour eco-lifestyle cable TV network that will displace the Home channel starting June 4, was anything but green.
The celebrities who attended Wednesday night 's event at L.A.'s Greek Theater mostly arrived in stretch limousines and gas-snorting SUVs. At least two – Mötley CrĂĽe drummer Tommy Lee and rapper Ludacris – arrived in personal buses.
The tabloid darlings strolled a green plastic carpet to a man in a tree costume to pose for paparazzi, oblivious to the live majestic oaks mere steps away.
Minutes later the celebrities were treated to cocktails "made from organic vodka" served in plastic cups and hors d'oeuvres made from macaroni and cheese served on plastic plates.
Oddly, the greenest VIPs at the event that we're aware of seemed to be the two men from General Motors Corp., who brought with them a fuel-cell vehicle and some positive automotive news.
A San Diego company claims it can turn algae into a green-colored crude yielding ultra-clean versions of gasoline and diesel without the drawbacks of biofuel production.
Sapphire Energy
uses algae, sunlight, carbon dioxide and non-potable water to make "green crude" that it says is chemically equivalent to the light, sweet crude oil that has been commanding record-high prices recently.
In a press release
issued Wednesday, the one-year-old company claimed its green crude could be processed in existing oil refineries and that the resulting fuels could power existing cars and trucks without any modifications.
The executive board of the European Union has fired the first shot in a potential transatlantic trade war by agreeing to ask the United States to address allegations its biofuel subsidies amount to an unfair trade practice.
The Guardian, citing confident documents, reported Monday that the European Commission will ask Washington this week to respond to anti-dumping complaints lodged by the European Biodiesel Board.
As we reported in March, a loophole in the 2004 subsidy act lets U.S. fuel blenders claim a $1 per gallon subsidy for entire boatloads of biodiesel produced elsewhere if they add just a dribble of petroleum-based diesel to the shipment before sending it off to Europe for sale.
Upon arrival, the biodiesel often sells at prices up to 30 percent below what European producers must charge...
What's green and white, can pull a 60,000-pound cargo container at a top speed of 40 miles per hour, and has a range of 30 to 60 miles between battery charges?
If you said, "It's the world's most powerful heavy-duty electric truck," the beer's on us.
With little fanfare, the first of potentially thousands of the emissions-free plug-in electric trucks, built in Los Angeles by Balqon Corp., was officially put to work at the city's port last week following four months of on-site testing.
The federal EPA rates the new turbo-diesel 2009 Jetta TDI at 30 miles per gallon in the city and 41 mpg on the highway, for a combined rating of just 34 mpg.
The automaker had been boasting of 60 mpg highway fuel economy for the new 50-state clean diesel Jetta, which goes on sale in late August.
That's a 40 percent difference.
The new Jetta's city-cycle numbers are part of the problem, as previous diesel Jettas regularly score city mileage ratings of 33 to 35 miles per gallon under the EPA's revised fuel economy test. (Many of them up through 2002 were rated at 40 to 42 mpg in the city under the pre-2008 EPA test, which was junked amid complaints that it didn't reflect real-world driving conditions.)
One reason for the uninspiring EPA ratings is that the '09 Jetta's 2.0-liter engine is the largest displacement ever, and the car is a good 200 pounds heavier than previus model, all of which saps fuel economy.
Nonetheless, VW is concerned and already has prepared a rebuttal for those who would suggest that the new diesel Jetta EPA mileage rating is a disappointment, fuel-economywise. (It is a disappointment, but VW isn't going to admit that.)
California, as we all know, is a trend-setting state bursting with movie stars, Valley girls and surfer dudes who spend all their time at the beach or cruising around in convertibles.
Who'da thunk the air they breathe is so ghastly that it annually kills up to 24,000 of them?
But that's exactly what the state's top air quality officlals discussed Thursday at their monthly staff meeting in Sacramento.
LAS VEGAS, Nevada --Energy gazillionaire T. Boone Pickens has been singing a variation of the same song for several years now, but it's a tune worthy of repeat play: The planet, says a man who made billions in petroleum exploration and ought to know his stuff, is using more oil than it produces, the situation isn't going to improve and nobody's doing much of anything about it.
"America is in a hell of a bad spot," he said in a presentation Tuesday at the Alternative Fuels & Vehicles annual conference here.
Without a radical reduction in the nation's appetite for imported crude, which now accounts for 72 percent of our total daily consumption, "we are going to be reduced to something less than the superpower we are now."
For Pickens, who has become one of the country's biggest backers of wind energy and of natural gas as a transportation fuel, the cure is painful but necessary.
We must cut back on the use of oil for automotive fuels and shepherd in a rapid and widespread adoption of domestically produced alternative fuels, he said,
Pickens, who left the oil exploration business in 1996 to set up his BP Capital Management investment company and, it turned out, to become one of the nation's biggest alternative energy boosters, has big holdings in natural gas and, not coincidentally, believes it to be the best interim solution on the transportation side of things.
"Everything" from propane to biofuels will have a place in the effort to reduce oil consumption, he said, but available supplies of domestically produced natural gas are the largest "alternative" energy source around and, if used entirely for transportation fuel, could reduce oil imports by 38 percent.
Gorton Vallely stands with his company's prototype battery-electric, medium-duty truck at Alternative Fuel Vehicles show.
LAS VEGAS, Nevada --The Detroit Auto Show this year had a herd of diesel concepts, a few hybrids and a host of muscle cars, typical fare these days for a mainstream auto show.
Absent was much of anything to do about other "today" alternatives to gasoline, leading people who are concerned about the auto, the energy sector and the environment to wonder what the automakers are up to and why they aren't moving faster to throw off the yolk of demon oil.
Can't answer that question. If I could I'd be out making millions as a highly paid consultant and seer instead of sitting in front of my computer in a 'Vegas hotel room overlooking the scenic roof of the power plant that keeps the casino chilled.
But I can suggest that for every innovation we don't see coming from our mass market automakers there's a small business out there somewhere hoping to offer up a solution.
Many of them are serving the fleet business – the trucking, bus and taxi companies that buy lots of relatively expensive equipment, are subject to strenuous emissions regulation in most states and bleed profits every time the price of gasoline or diesel goes up even a penny a gallon.
Walk around the showroom floor at the annual Alternative Fuel Vehicles national conference here this week and you see that can do spirit everywhere.
No sooner do we write up a piece on the 
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