While waiting for final government approval of its sale of the ailing Hummer brand to China's Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Corp., GM is hoping to give it a sales boost with the introduction next month of a flex-fuel engine for the 2010 H3 and H3T models.
Adding E85 (ethanol) capability is part of the GM calls the brand's "evolution to offer responsible ... more efficient" models that don't sacrifice any of the big trucks' all-terrain capabilities.
The 5.3-liter, 300 horsepower flex fuel V8 is a new engine that, GM says, will be a standard offering across the entire 2010 Hummer Alpha series performance lineup.
GM no longer lists Hummer as one of its models - anticipating completion of the brand's sale early next year - but a slightly higher horsepower version of the same engine in the Chevrolet Tahoe is rated at 14 MPG in the city and 19 MPG on the highway - 16 MPG combined - using gasoline. You can figure a 25 percent drop in fuel economy - but lower CO2 emissions - when using E85.
The larger H2 Hummers got their flex-fuel engines with the '09 model launch and fuel economy for the 6.2-liter V8 got a combined city-highway rating of 14 MPG on gasoline, dropping to 10 MPG on E85.
We're not sure the new H3 powerplant will help that much - if Hummer's got a good market anywhere in this country it's Southern California, and there are only 10 ethanol stations in the entire region.
With sales down more than 60 percent this year after falling 50 percent last year and 20 percent the year before that, adding a biofuel-capable, high-performance engine to the Hummer H3 lineup is sort of like trying to patch the Titanic's hull with bandages from the infirmary.
Oh, wait - there also are three new exterior colors for 2010. That ought to help.
Argonne National Laboratory researcher Thomas Wallner explains the R&D center's omnivore engine project.
The nice thing about flex-fuel engines is that if one type of fuel isn't available, the other probably will be.
The not-so-nice thing that automakers with flex-fuels in their lineups don't like to talk about is that they mostly are turned for gasoline, so performance diminishes when ethanol, natural gas or other fuels are used.
The answer maybe the so-called omnivorous engine, set up to burn all kinds of fuels and overseen by a smart engine control unit that changes valve and injection timing and other variables to minimize emissions and maximize performance, and fuel economy, from whatever is exploding down there in the cylinders.
Bentlley says initial Continental Supersports to hit U.S. shores won't be able to use ethanol.
A quarter-million-dollar, 12-cylinder Bentley with 621 horsepower and top speed of 204 m.p.h. was always bound to be an unlikely champion for environmentally friendly driving. News that Bentley Motors will delay the much-touted flex-fuel compatibility for its new U.S.-bound Continental Supersports isn't likely to help.
The fastest and most powerful Bentley ever, the 2010 Supersports was also due to be the company's first model capable of running on bio-fuels like E85. But a variety of problems means the first Supersports to hit our shores will be limited to a diet of gasoline.
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).
There wasn't a lot of detail in General Motors Corp. CEO Fritz Henderson's press conference this morning, but he did vow that fuel economy and energy independence will be among the automaker's prime goals as it emerges from bankruptcy.
The company will make advanced battery technology - for hybrids and all-electric vehicles - a core competency, with several announcements about its battery work expected for later this summer, GM said in a statement issued after the press conference.
In his opening remarks in a conference devoted largely to structural changes, Henderson (right) reiterated the the Chevrolet Volt is still on schedule to launch late next year - it will be the first mass-produced "extended range electric vehicle," capable of up to 40 miles of all electric travel. A small gas engine will generate power for the electric drive system once the batteries, charged from the commercial power grid, are depleted.
GM also has promised to build a new small car in the U.S. - we're still speculating in the absence of an announcement by the company - that it will be based on the Spark subcompact initially designed for Latin America and Europe.
Henderson said green initiatives already underway, including the company's work on hydrogen fuel cells, hybrids, biofuels and cleaner and more effcient internal combustion engines, will continue.
And he put to rest,fr now a least, speculation tat the General, hankering for a new image, was planning to change the background color of ts corporate logo from blue to green.
The logo he said, "is not on my desk to change, and I don't have any plans to change it."
We hope though that the company, with the same old logo and much of the same management (although many managemet change annnouncemenmnts are exected in coming week), still will be a "new" GM with a new emphasis on greening its cars and trucks.
For more news and opinion about GM's management and product outlook, check the continuing coverage at our sister blogs, Auto Observer, Inslde Line news and Straightline.
Gasoline prices have been creeping up since about the start of the year, and that's a good thing if you're in the ethanol business.
According to the American Automobile Association, the nationwide average price of gasoline today is $2.51 a gallon, or about 50 cents a gallon more than it was only four months ago.
But according to E85Prices.com, the nationwide average price for a gallon of E85 (85 percent ethanol, 15 percent gasoline) is $2.02 a gallon today.
Or put another way, gasoline now costs 19.4 percent more than E85, the most common of the various ethanol mixes.
So, this is a good time to own a flex-fuel vehicle, right? Not necessarily, because what most people don't realize is that ethanol is 10-25 percent less efficient than gasoline.
If your flex-fuel-accepting engine is more than 19.4 percent less efficient when you've got ethanol in your tank, you'd be better off filling it with gasoline.
We're pointing this out because a number of blogs are making a big deal about the current gasoline-ethanol price spread without mentioning the significant efficiency difference that exists between the two fuels.
Unfortunately, the automakers that produce flex-fuel vehicles don't say which of them are more (or less) efficient in their use of ethanol. Rather, the owners of flex-fuel vehicles are left to figure it out for themselves.
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.
The Detroit 3 and eight other major automakers adamantly oppose a bill in Congress that would force them to produce more flex-fuel vehicles, and their opposition has merit.
At a time when lawmakers and the White House are pressuring America's carmakers to produce vehicles that are fuel efficient and competitively priced, Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman of California has introduced legislation that would create an "open fuel standard" requiring automakers to produce more cars and trucks capable of running on high blends of alternative fuels, assuming the fuels and infrastructure supporting them are available.
Democratic Representative Eliot Engel of New York says that's not enough. He's said that he might introduce legislation that would require half of new U.S. cars and trucks to be flex-fuel capable starting in 2012, with the mandate jumping to 80 percent by 2015 - regardless of fuel availability.
To count as flex-fuel capable, internal combustion engines would need to be able to run on blends of E85 (a fuel mixture containing 85 percent ethanol by volume) or M85 (a methanol fuel mixture), and diesel vehicles would need to be able to operate on biodiesel.
The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group representing the automakers, contends that adding flex-fuel technology will increase the price of each vehicle by at least $100 to $300.
A high-volume engine such as the one pictured here can be converted to flex-fuel capability for $300 or less, the alliance says. But Alliance President Dave McCurdy noted in a letter to members of Congress last week that a mandate would increase costs dramatically because the technology cannot be applied easily to some powerplants.
Illustration of Lotus Engineering's omnivore engine doesn't disclose much about its inner workings.
It's not a particularly lovely beast, but Lotus Engineering says its prototype "omnivore" engine will thrive on all kinds of fuels and that's likely to make it a winner in the world to come -- when petroleum is fading away and biofuels from a variety of sources and in a variety of chemistries are developing to fill the void.
Lotus says the blocky internal combustion engine has the "potential to significantly increase fuel-efficiency" for sustainable alcohol-based fuels (ethanol, methanol. propanol and butanol ) and can also run on gasoline.
The prototype one-cylinder engine will be displayed at the Lotus Cars stand at the Geneva Motor Show next week (media days begin Tuesday and the show opens to the public Thursday for an 11-day run).
Lotus Engineering -- the research and consulting arm of Lotus Cars -- says the engine is a two-stroke, single-cylinder monoblock (the cylinder head and block are one piece) that uses a unique variable compression system and direct fuel injection.
The design can utilize high octane, alcohol-based biofuels better than the four-stroke (intake-combustion-power-exhaust) engines now used in cars and trucks, the company said.
We'll let our engineering gurus explain the precise working of the system in a later posting, but the short version is that Lotus claims the engine design and mechanics permit asymmetric exhaust timing, a continuously variable exhaust opening point and a compression ratio that changes to meet load demands.
It is collaborating on development of the Omnivore engine with Queen's University of Belfast, in Northern Ireland, and Orbital Corp. Ltd. of Australia, and said the program is being sponsored by Britain's Renewables Materials Link program, which helps fund collaborative industry and scientific segment research into uses of renewable materials for sustainable development.
The Omnivore program is one piece of Lotus' research into the processes involved in operating an engine on mixtures of alcohol-based biofuels and gasoline.
A previously displayed effort was the Lotus Exige 270E Tri-fuel concept (gasoline, ethanol, methanol or any combination of the three) shown a last year's Geneva Motor Show.
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.
Company Says Time is Right to Begin Marketing Kits to Add Natural Gas Capability to Conventional Vehicles
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
A California-based company that has played a major role in popularizing bi-fuel cars and tucks in Europe and Latin America is bringing its technology home.
IMPCO Technologies, manufacturer of a bi-fuel conversion system that can enable cars to run on natural gas or propane as well as gasoline, plans to announce this morning that it is establishing a new U.S. automotive division to take advantage of what it sees as a growth market for technologies that can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on petroleum.
The company's Automotive Alternative Fuels Division initially will concentrate of the fleet market with conversion kits for popular domestic pickup trucks and vans, said Tim Standke, IMPCO's director of automotive operations. The company also will show a converted Chevrolet Impala sedan - a popular government fleet car - at its press conference today.
IMPCO - a subsidiary of Fuel Systems Solutions - could expand its product line into the general passenger vehicle market if demand is there, Standke told Green Car Advisor in an interview earlier this week.
"Our goal is to open up to all markets," he said. "We want to be there, to be ready, when gas prices go up and the demand for alternative fuels grows."
The company already manufactures conversion kits for a wide variety of passenger cars sold in Europe and South America, including vehicles from Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp.
The big drawback to a widespread introduction in the U.S. passenger vehicle market is the cost of testing and certification, Standke said.
It costs about $50,000 to perform the tests needed to obtain federal Environmental Protection Agency certification for a kit for a specific model, he said, and almost $500,000 per model to gain certification from the California Air Resources Board, which requires far more testing than the EPA.
CARB certification is a necessity if the company wants to be able to sell its product in states that use California emissions rules rather than federal standards - the list includes many of the country's most populous states.
The company's system (left)
consists of a separate fuel injector rail, a control valve, fuel filter, new fuel lines for the under-the-hood portion of the system, pressure and temperature sensors and an injector control module that works with the vehicle's original engine control computer to permit seamless switching from gasoline to natural gas or propane.
Customers also must purchase pressurized fuel tanks and tank-to-engine bay fuel lines, typically from a licensed IMPCO installer.
The entire system, which is added to the vehicle in parallel with the existing gasoline fuel system, can run from $7,000 to $8,000, with the cost of the fuel tanks and pressurized fuel lines representing more than half the price.
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.
GM Still a Big Backer, Even If Not as Publicly as in Past Years
By Dale Buss, Contributor
Of all the contrasts between this year's Detroit auto show and last year's -- most created by the intervening global economic melt-down and resulting car sales crash -- perhaps none is more striking than what happened to ethanol.
---------- Ethanol-capable vehicles such as GM's flex-fuel Yukon were common at last year's Detroit auto show, not so common this year. ----------
At the North American International Auto Show here a year ago, ethanol and ethanol-burning vehicles were the belles of the ball. Ethanol was promoted at almost every major automaker's press conferences and cropped up in interview after interview. Ethanol-using vehicles were everywhere.
This year, it's almost impossible to find mention of ethanol anywhere out on the 700,000-square foot auto show floor at Cobo Hall.
The talk has all been of electrification of the transportation system, electric vehicles, batteries for electric vehicles, and ventures to develop and build better batteries.
But ethanol hasn't gone away -- it is just lying low.
At least one automaker remains bullish on the long-term prospects for the fuel, especially the cellulosic variety.
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.
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.
Enterprise Rent-A-Car, America's largest car rental company, has added 100 hybrid vehicles to its fleet of rental cars and SUVs at Denver International Airport.
Founded in 1957 and headquartered in St. Louis, Enterprise now offers 26 locations across the U.S. where travelers can rent Toyota Prius and Camry hybrid sedans and Ford Escape hybrid SUVs online or by phone starting at $59.99 per day, about $10 more than a standard internal-combustion vehicle of similar size.
The company intends to include 7,000 gas-electric hybrid vehicles in its national rental fleet, which currently contains 2,000, officials said.
In addition to the 26 locations mentioned above, Enterprise offers eight E85/FlexFuel sites where up to 30 percent of the vehicles for rent can run on the gasoline/ethanol blend.
The inclusion of hybrid and flex-fuel vehicles in Enterprise's rental fleet is but one of many efforts the company is taking to improve the environment. As the illustration shows, the fleet contains nearly half a million fuel-efficient vehicles.
Beyond that: Enterprise is planting 1 million trees annually until it has planted 50 million. The company offers customers the opportunity to contribute to certified offset projects that work to remove climate-changing gases from the atmosphere. And, the family that owns Enterprise last year spent $25 million to create a plant science research facility.
Visit our sister Website, Edmunds.com's InsideLine, or go to Enterprise's Website to read more about the company's environmental efforts.
Chrysler today submitted a plan requested by Congress detailing its business case for receiving government funding as part of a bailout for the struggling auto industry.
The
Chrysler Viability Plan.pdf
seems to some of us to paint a picture of a corporation that's struck an iceberg and may soon reach its final resting place, deep under water, despite the valiant efforts of its captain.
The captain would, of course, be Robert Nardelli (left), chairman and CEO of Chrysler, author of the company's viability plan. If he manages to get the $7 billion he says the company needs by the end of this month, he seems to feel he might just keep the thing afloat.
"The company believes this request is the least costly alternative considering the options we face," he writes in the last paragraph of the plan. "It provides the least detrimental effect on human capital and the stimulus necessary to prevent further economic decline, if not outright economic depression."
Reads like an obituary, which of course we hope it's not. That "human capital" to which he refers are people. The detriment: their sudden unemployment, their wounded self-esteem, fears, perhaps, of being out on the street with few prospects.
But if he gets his money--actually, he states that he would work for free--as well as $8.5 billion in low cost loans Chrysler is seeking from the Department of the Energy, he wrote that we can all expect green things to come from Chrysler.
They are: introducing the company's first full-function electric-drive model by 2010; making 50 percent of the Chrysler product line flex-fuel capable by 2012; and, producing 500,000 electric vehicles by 2013.
The viability plan
General Motors submitted to Congress today called for $18 billion in taxpayer aid and a dramatic shift in the company's U.S. portfolio, with 22 of 24 new vehicle launches in 2009-2012 being more fuel-efficient cars and crossovers.
---------- CEO Rick Wagoner. Better days ahead? ----------
After stating that over the past 15 years it "spent over $103 billion on retiree healthcare and pension expense, crowding out investment otherwise made in quality, safety, fuel efficiency and innovation," GM said it will substantially change its product mix over the next four years and "launch predominately high-mileage, energy-efficient cars and crossovers."
The plan includes introducing to the U.S. market the smallest 4-passenger vehicle, achieving higher fuel economy than the 2-passenger Smart Fortwo, which is the most fuel-efficient non-hybrid vehicle currently sold in America.
The plan for 2009 includes seven new vehicle launches in the United States, all of which will be either car or crossover models.
The plan also calls for making most of GM's vehicles flex-fuel capable by 2012--hopefully, the "flex" fuels will be greener by then, too--and it calls for GM to offer 15 hybrid models by then.
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.
How about putting one million made-in-the-U.S. plug-in hybrid cars, each getting 150 miles per gallon, on American roads by 2015, and handing a $7,000 tax credit to anyone purchasing an "advanced vehicle"?
Or perhaps you'd prefer a $5,000 tax credit for anyone buying a zero-emission car and a $300 million prize to the company that reinvents the battery to make those cars possible.
That's part of the choice in Tuesday's presidential election.
The plug-in hybrid goal and $7,000 tax credit are among the green-car related issues in Democrat Barack Obama's platform, while the flex-fuel target and the $5,000 credit are being touted by Republican John McCain.
We know the election is nigh, and most people have already made up their minds, but for those still dithering, or not absolutely certain of their choice, here's a last look -- from an environmental automotive viewpoint -- at the candidates' positions on green-car issues.
In yet another example of why it is foolish to install the roof before the walls are up, a government report finds that while federal agencies are meeting a mandate to buy and lease mostly flex-fuel vehicles these days, they rarely put anything but gasoline in the tanks.
That, of course, defeats the concept of using alternative fuels to boost our energy security - something you'd think federal agencies would be concerned about.
The problem is that alt fuel availability is pretty limited except in the midwest corn belt, where most of the nation's ethanol pumps are grouped.
Nationally, there are about 117,000 conventional gas stations but only 5,731 private and public alternative fuel stations.
That stunningly small total, compiled by the Energy Department, includes stations dispensing one or more of the various alt fuels: bio-diesel, compressed natural gas, electricity, ethanol, hydrogen, liquid natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG, which accounts for 2,141 stations, or 37 percent of the total.
While Detroit loves to make flex-fuel vehicles - automakers get extra credits for them than help them meet federal fuel economy requirements even though the cars and trucks aren't being used to help lower petroleum consumption - fuel companies are loathe to spend the money to install alt fueling pumps.
Additionally, ethanol, the most common alternative fuel after LPG, is corrosive and must be shipped by tanker truck, so moving it from the refineries to areas with large populations of flex-fuel vehicles gets to be an uneconomical proposition.
Limited availability of non-petroleum fuels means that it is not likely that government agencies can comply with mandates to boost alt-fuels use and reduce petroleum-based fuel use over the next several years, the Government Accountability Agency said in its just-released report.
The GAO complained that while agencies made sure they met the mandate that 75 percent of their new-vehicle fleets be flex-fuel compatible by the end of fiscal 2007, many - including the Energy Department, which ought to have known better - never ensured that the vehicles used alternative fuels.
Investigators said 2006 data indicate that the agencies primarily relied on gasoline, and that while they failed to file reports for 2007, there was no reason to believe things have changed.
The watchdog agency also said it found "persistent data problems" that made it doubt the accuracy of government agency reports showing that about half have achieved the goal of using 10 percent more alternative fuel than in 2006 while two-third have achieved the goal of lowering gasoline and diesel usage by 2 percent.
It may be one of the biggest green gambles of the century: a national goal of converting wood, grass, corn stalks and garbage into 16 billion gallons of cellulosic biofuels annually by 2022.
No commercial-scale refineries exist, researchers have yet to agree on the best technology for fuel conversion and there is no distribution network to handle fuel once it is made.
Add it all up and the country's not even close to meeting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's renewable fuel standards a mere 14 years from now.
So says an Associated Press article distributed Thursday that's well worth the time it takes to read.
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:
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.
In an effort to end a Catch-22 situation, a bipartisan pair of senators from farm-packed states this week floated legislation to require half of new cars and light trucks sold in the U.S. to be able to run on any gasoline-ethanol blend of 85 percent ethanol or less starting in 2011.
The bill, backed by Democrat Tom Harkin of Iowa and Republican Richard Lugar of Indiana, would also mandate that that percentage increase from 50 percent in 2011 to 90 percent in 2013.
In perfect Catch-22 form, Detroit's Big Three automakers have been waiting for more 85-percent ethanol (E85) pumps to pop up nationwide before investing heavily in vehicles that can run on the blend, and the ethanol industry has been waiting for carmakers to produce more "flex-fuel" vehicles that can safely burn E85 before they install more gas-ethanol pumps.
Moreover, everyone is waiting for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to decide whether it's safe to use a 20-percent blend of ethanol (E20) in unmodified car engines -- a few engine and fuel-system modifications are needed before E85 can be used in vehicles that are otherwise identical to gasoline-only models.
Indeed, the EPA earlier this year warned that pumping E20 or E30 into a non-flex-fuel vehicle was a violation of the Clean Air Act and could result in fines for retailers as well as consumers.
The 10-percent blend is now the maximum legally allowed for unmodified engines. The EPA has approved E85 for designated flex-fuel vehicles.
Meanwhile, ethanol proponents say E20 and maybe even E30 are safe for unmodified engines, but the automakers disagree.
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."
Ford Motor Co. will launch production of the first EcoBoost V6 engines early next spring for installation into the Lincoln MKS sedan and Ford Flex crossover SUV, Automotive News reported today.
The automaker is planning to charge a $700 premium for the new 3.5-liter turbocharged and direct-injected engine, the subscription news service reported, adding that the first vehicles will be rated at 340 horsepower and 340 pound-feet of torque.
Ford spokesman Alan Hall, when asked to confirm the report, said, "We've not announced pricing."
The EcoBoost strategy, unveiled earlier this year, combines a smaller-than-usual engine with a turbocharger and direct injection to deliver 20 percent better fuel economy, 15 percent fewer tailpipe emissions and, often, more horsepower than the larger fuel-injected engines that typically would be offered as standard equipment in most models.
Compared to a similarly powerful V8 engine, the fuel savings from the new V6 were estimated at $339 a year at $3.25/gallon. The savings will be substantially greater at current gas prices.
In 2010, Ford will also add the engine to the F-150 pickup as an alternative to the current 5.4-liter V8, the service reported.
The automaker is expected to introduce four-cylinder EcoBoost engines in other models in the next couple of years. Ford has said that by 2012 it plans to offer EcoBoost engines for almost every model the company makes.
The annual Center for Automotive Research Management Briefing Seminars confab in Traverse City, MI, put together a feisty session Tuesday called "Energy, Efficiency and Climate -- What Role Auto?" And while the session resulted in some prickly give-and-take between auto-industry and environmental representatives, there was essentially agreement on one point: California needs to give up its crusade to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions.
Mike Stanton, president and CEO of the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers, which represents almost all domestic and import automakers doing business in the U.S. and a longtime auto-industry rep in Washington, DC, said simply, "It's a little ridiculous," to have federal emissions standards, competing state emissions regulations, and the potential for even more conflict with California's CO2-regulating proposal.
He said the 14 manufacturers represented by the AIAM want "one national standard" for emissions regulation.
But he also said political winds appear to be blowing against their wishes. Both presidential candidates support granting California's waiver to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions.
"Neither candidate (Democratic Sen. Barack Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain) has been terribly supportive of us in the past," Stanton said. Either presents challenges to the AIAM's hope for sanity in the emissions-regulation structure, he added.
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.
Large-SUV segment: Could reports of its death have been greatly exaggerated?
The run-up in gas prices from April through June spooked American car buyers into a manic rush to find the most fuel-efficient vehicles they could and to dump their gas guzzlers.
So new-car buyers nearly abandoned the large-SUV and pickup-truck segments, grew lukewarm about crossovers even compared with the first quarter, sought out small cars, pushed OEMs' subcompact-car manufacturing capacity to the max, and completely sucked up supplies of Prius and of some other hybrids. All the while, overall sales tanked.
So automakers made some of the most precipitous and significant decisions ever about production cutbacks and segment reallocations. Each of Detroit's Big Three and even Toyota moved quickly and massively to slash pickup and SUV production and goose small-car output as much as they could.
But the latest Edmunds.com data indicate that the industry may well have rushed into these moves too soon, perhaps overreacting -- along with the news media and other entities -- to how American consumers plainly were responding to skyrocketing gasoline prices.
To be honest, we nearly decided not to report the following development, because as anyone who has paid the slightest attention to EPA Administer Stephen Johnson (right) the past year knows, he was as likely to approve Texas's request to halve the 2008 renewable fuel standard as he was to appear before the Washington press corps in a yellow polka-dot bikini.
In denying the state's request to cut the national biofuels mandate in half for a year, Johnson -- a Bush appointee -- said today that the renewable fuel standard "is strengthening the nation's energy security and supporting America's farming communities."
The mandate "will remain an important tool in our ongoing effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lessen our dependence on foreign oil in aggressive yet practical ways," he said.
Texas Governor Rick Perry asked EPA to lower the 2008 renewable fuel standard from 9 billion gallons to 4.5 billion gallons, saying the mandate was spurring skyrocketing food and feed costs and hurting his state's economy.
Politically, rubbing some Texans the wrong way given that the state can be counted on to vote Republican anyway is a small price to pay compared to losing campaign contributions from the agriculture industry and votes from swing states where agriculture is big business.
Auto dealers and consumer advocates told federal rulemakers today that a proposed 25 percent mandatory increase in fleetwide fuel economy standards is out of touch with importance buyers now give fuel-efficiency.
Mark Cooper, research director for the Consumer Federation of America, said rulemakers wrongly assumed U.S. drivers would continue to covet large trucks and SUVs, even though car buyers began moving to smaller, more fuel-efficient cars in 2004.
"The auto industry acts as if plummeting SUV and pickup truck sales are a new phenomena," he told the National Transportation Safety Board at a Washington public hearing. "The fact is, gas-guzzling-vehicle sales have been falling off a cliff for over three years. And yet the administration's proposed fuel economy standards presumes no fall and no cliff."
As a result, Cooper said, the proposed fleetwide fuel economy standard of 31.6 miles per gallon by 2015 would fail to meet consumer demands. According to a study performed by his organization, 59 percent of those surveyed want their next vehicle to get more than 35 mpg. Meanwhile, only 1 percent of new models offer that degree of fuel economy.
Adam Lee, president of Lee Auto Malls, which has a dozen Maine dealerships, said he has seen firsthand the shifting buying trends that have resulted in across-the-board losses for major carmakers.
Lee said he has laid off salespeople while waiting for automakers to produce the type of cars Americans want. "We just don't have the cars to sell," he said. "And I'm not just talking hybrids.... Consumers are waiting for good, old-fashioned small cars."
With almost daily announcements of initiatives aimed at chopping the price of fuel at America's pumps, West Virginia, one of the nation's most prolific coal-producing states, is making a serious move to leverage the lumpy black stuff for transportation fuel by fast-tracking construction of a commercial-scale plant utilizing a proven coal-to-gasoline process.
The coal-to-liquids plant, which will be the first in the U.S., could be up and running as quickly as three years from now, according to published reports, at a cost of some $800 million.
The planned facility is in Marshall County, located not far from the major cities of Pittsburgh and Cleveland in the state's Northern Panhandle. It will be operated in a joint venture between Pittsburgh-based Consol Energy Inc. and Houston's Synthesis Energy Systems Inc.
The plant will employ standard coal and waste coal from a nearby Consol mine and could draw on coal from two other nearby mines.
The joint venture, called Northern Appalachia Fuels LLC, will employ SES's U-Gas process to gasify coal to synthetic gas then convert it to methanol, the primary product of the process.
Synthetic Energy then uses its proprietary methanol-to-gasoline process to convert the methanol to gasoline. The company is negotiating with Exxon-Mobil Research and Engineering to license the process.
Ford Motor Co. today announced plans to accelerate its transformation away from gas-guzzling pickups and SUVs to fuel-efficient vehicles with the addition of new small cars to its North America lineup and unprecedented production changes as the automaker reported a record-high total net loss for the second quarter of $8.67 billion.
In addition to bringing six small vehicles to North America from the company's European lineup, Ford is accelerating the introduction of fuel-efficient EcoBoost and all-new four-cylinder engines, increasing hybrid production and converting three existing truck and SUV plants for small-car production, beginning this December.
Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally said the company is more focused than ever on its transformation plan, which calls for:
• Aggressively restructuring to operate profitably at the current demand and changing model mix. • Accelerating the development of new products that customers want and value. • Financing the plan and improving the balance sheet. • Working together effectively as one team, leveraging Ford's global assets.
Aggressive Restructuring
Ford will convert three existing North American truck and SUV plants for small car production, with the first conversion beginning this December.
The moves are in addition to Ford's announcements in May and June that it is reducing its North American production plans for large trucks and SUVs for the remainder of 2008, as well as increasing production of smaller cars and crossovers.
Los Angeles County officials today approved a proposal by BlueFire Ethanol
to build what might be the first commercial facility in the U.S. to process biowaste into ethanol.
Members of the county's regional planning commission voted today to issue a permit to BlueFire Ethanol of Irvine, Calif., to build a $30 million facility in Lancaster, 70 miles northeast of downtown L.A.
Ethanol is the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages and in thermometers, but it's largest single use today is as a fuel for internal combustion engines and as a fuel additive.
BlueFire President Arnold Klann said the plant would be the first commercial facility in the nation to make ethanol out of wood chips, paper and other biowaste.
Construction of the plant, which would be located next to a landfill, is expected to begin this fall.
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.
By now most of us are aware of the pitfalls of ethanol, among them: It's raising food costs worldwide, it requires a tremendous amount of water, it produces less energy than gasoline while emitting more pollutants, it's contributing to rainforest deforestation, it's displacing valuable food crops, the fertilizers it requires are wiping out marine life. The list goes on.
But here's one pitfall this writer was unaware of: Ethanol is allowing Detroit's Big Three automakers to manufacture more gas-guzzling vehicles and as a result is making the U.S. more dependent on foreign oil, not less.
In his book "Gusher of Lies," Robert Bryce points out that the Big Three love ethanol because the automakers can use it to inflate the fuel-efficiency ratings of their cars artificially at a time when the federal government requires them to increase the corporate average fuel economy of their vehicle lines.
The CAFE rules allow for a complex formula that increases gas mileage by factoring in a percentage of ethanol use, but only counting the gasoline consumed. If, for example, the gasoline-ethanol variant of the Chevy Suburban used gas 52 percent of the time and ethanol 48 percent, it would have consumed a gallon of gas in the first 15 miles, then would be refilled with ethanol and would have used a gallon or so over the next 14 miles. But of the nearly 2 gallons consumed, only the gallon of gas would be counted.
So what does Bryce, a freelance journalist specializing in energy issues, suggest as an alternative fuel? Biodiesel derived from algae, solar and nuclear power to feed a grid that charges plug-in electric cars, and super-batteries that haven't been invented yet but likely would be soon if private foundations, the U.S. Department of Energy, or both offered a $1 billion prize to its inventor.
"Gusher of Lies" gives alt-fuel fans lots to think about. It lists for $27, but can be found at Amazon.com and other online stores for $10 less.
While most automakers have shifted production to focus on smaller vehicles, nearly 70 percent of consumers want the companies to invest more in existing and emerging powertrain technologies, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2008 Alternative Powertrain Study released today.
Now in its third year, the Alternative Powertrain Study examines the reasons why consumers consider or avoid alternative powertrain vehicles, such as gas-electric hybrid, flex fuel and clean diesel models.
The study includes the Automotive Environmental Index, which rates the 2008-model-year vehicles on the basis of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data to fuel economy and greenhouse-gas emissions, as well as expert input from J.D. Power & Associates.
The study found that more than 80 percent of the 4,000 consumers polled believe the U.S. is currently facing an energy crisis. Only 18 percent of these respondents believe the issue can be addressed by building small, fuel-efficient vehicle.
Thirty percent believe automakers should continue to produce a comparable vehicle lineup with a focus on gas-electric hybrid, clean diesel and flexible-fuel vehicles, while another 39 percent believe carmakers should focus on developing fuel cell and all-electric vehicles.
Future U.S.-bound Ford Explorers will likely be based on the European Ford Kuga crossover, right.
With high gasoline prices pressuring truck profits, making the Ford brand vehicle lineup fuel-efficient and profitable is Job 1 at Ford Motor Co. these days.
CEO Alan Mulally's product strategy calls for globalizing several small- and medium-size vehicles from Ford's European operations.
The new vehicles will be more premium than previous forays into the U.S. small-car business, but executives intend to make the investment pay by spreading costs across global volume.
Amy Wilson, a reporter for Automotive News Europe, did a fine job today of summarizing Ford's lineup for the near future. Because ANE is a subscription service that you likely don't have access to, we're going to post the summary here, with input from Green Car Advisor as warranted.
The same day a World Bank report identifies biofuels as the principal cause
of the global food crisis, the Bush administration announces creation of a Web site that Americans can use to locate biofuel service stations.
"Need to know where to buy E85 or other alternative fuels?" today's announcement asks. "The U.S. Department of Energy's Alternative Fuels and Advanced Vehicles Data Center now has an online station locator. Just specify which kind of fuel you want, then enter your address and the locator will map out the closest stations that sell that fuel."
It's been reported that the World Bank withheld publicizing its findings to avoid embarrassing President Bush. The World Bank's determination that biofuels are responsible for the food crisis that threatens the lives of 100 million people contradicts the U.S. government's claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3 percent to food price rises.
The White House must be delighted that Bush isn't the only Western leader with egg on his face today. The president's good friend, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, sparked outrage after it was disclosed today that he and other world leaders enjoyed a six-course lunch followed by an eight-course dinner at the G8 summit, where the global food crisis tops the agenda.
The prime minister was served 24 different dishes during his first day at the summit -- just hours after urging the world to reduce the "unnecessary demand" for food and calling on British families to cut back on their wasteful use of food.
For the low-down on that scandal, take a look at an article in today's edition of the British newspaper Telegraph.
Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75 percent -- far more than previously estimated -- according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian
newspaper.
The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally respected economist at the global financial body.
The figure emphatically contradicts the U.S. government's claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3 percent to food-price rises, the newspaper reported. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.
Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid embarrassing President Bush.
"It would put the World Bank in a political hot spot with the White House," said source is quoted as telling the Guardian.
The news comes at a critical point in the world's negotiations on biofuels policy. Leaders of the G8 industrialized countries meet next week in Japan, where they will discuss the food crisis and come under intense lobbying from campaigners calling for a moratorium on the use of plant-derived fuels.
Although not particularly good news for autoworkers worried about their jobs today, presidential hopeful John McCain's opposition to government bailout of the auto industry could hold promise for tomorrow's green technology should he wind up in the White House.
During a meeting with General Motors Corp. employees today, McCain told a Wall Street Journal reporter that rather than guaranteeing operating loans or providing direct grants, he would invest in research and development that advances fuel-cell and battery-electric cars.
"It depends on what you mean by a bailout," he told the reporter. If you're talking about it in the classic terms, I'm afraid not...I would like to invest American federal dollars in pure research and development as we move forward with new technologies, whether they be flex-fuel or whether it be hydrogen or whether it be the electric capability."
Now, if someone could remind him that flex-fuel vehicles aren't a new technology....
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...
Republican John McCain said today that if elected president he would challenge American experts to develop a futuristic battery to power cars and win a $300 million prize.
McCain, a week after taking heat from Democrats for reversing his stance on offshore oil drilling after long opposing it, sought to portray himself as a forward-looking leader on solving America's energy crisis.
With Americans reeling from record-high $4-a-gallon gasoline during the prime summer driving season, both McCain and his Democratic opponent in the November election, Barack Obama, are pressing their proposals for tackling energy problems that are dragging down the U.S. economy.
McCain noted that Brazil has largely weaned itself from oil imports by converting most new cars to flex-fuel capacity that use alcohol-based fuels. Brazil went from 5 percent to 70 percent of flex-fuel new cars in three years, he said.
Sen. Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican, says he's part of a group of lawmakers preparing legislation to require that at least 50% of all new cars and trucks in the U.S. in 2012 and after be able to run on biofuels.
The goal, he said at a Senate hearing on the oil market, is to help ensure that the country is "not a hostage to oil."
The good senator, whose constituency includes a lot of farmers who have seen the interest in biofuels help push corn and soybean prices to new highs, needs to do a little more thinking and a little less grandstanding.
Congress can mandate all the flex-fuel or biofuel capability it wants, and GM, Ford and Chrysler can make all of their cars and trucks ethanol and biodiesel ready, but if there's no place for people to conveniently buy the fuels, it will do no good.
Accelerating its attempt at quick and massive polishing of its green credentials, General Motors is tweaking and testing its advertising and marketing messages in various ways that amount to one bottom line: reducing its associations with Big Corn and Big Oil.
In the most definitive of these moves that were discussed by Kathryn Benoit, GM’s corporate marketing director, at an advertising forum in Atlanta this week, the company has basically shelved a once-ubiquitous marketing campaign for its E85 flex-fuel vehicles that use corn-based ethanol.
“Live Green, Go Yellow” was the tag line of the GM corporate campaign – that also got product-specific – promoting its industry-leading lineup of vehicles that could be powered by corn ethanol.
Now, in the wake of global controversy between the contribution of corn-ethanol demand to higher food prices, GM says it will be promoting “fuel options” broadly, including E85, hybrids and electric vehicles.
And GM spokeswoman Kelly Cusinato said that the company may soon consider promoting its partnerships with two startup producers of cellulosic ethanol, whose processes use non-food raw materials.
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.
Nearly 1.8 million alternative-fuel cars were sold in the United States during the 2007 model year, about 250,000 more than the previous model year, according to figures gathered by the automotive information and marketing company R.L. Polk & Co. and released by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.
The sales tally included 1,670,933 E-85-capable flex-fuel vehicles, 375,506 diesel-powered and 347,847 hybrids that use gas engines and electric motors. Honda Motor Co. also sold about 1,000 Civic models modified to run on compressed natural gas -- the only factory-built CNG cars in the market.
Sales of E-85-capable vehicles more than doubled from the 823,726 sold during the 2006 model year, while sales of hybrid vehicles increased 37 percent from the 253,081 hybrids sold during the 2006 model year. Sales of diesel vehicles actually fell 21 percent from the 475,203 sold during the previous model year, due to the discontinuation of some models.
Sales of diesel-powered vehicles and gas-electric hybrids are expected to triple their share of the U.S. auto market to a combined 17 percent by 2015, according to a study by J.D. Power and Associates.
The study also predicted that sales of vehicles equipped with four-cylinder engines will outpace sales of more powerful cars and trucks as automakers find ways to increase fuel efficiency to the federally mandated industry-wide fleet average of 35 miles per gallon by 2020...
Auto X-Prize entries will include mainstream vehicles and fanciful concepts.
By Robert E. Calem, Contributor
New York --The Automotive X Prize competition, an effort to do for the green car what the original X Prize did for private space flight, was officially launched Thursday at the New York International Auto Show, where sample vehicles were displayed by four of the more than 60 teams from nine countries that will be vying for shares of a $10 million bounty.
The prize money was put up by Progressive Insurance, which has become the main sponsor in return for a name change: the competition is now the Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize.
Additionally, the federal Department of Energy plans to provide a $3.5 million grant to fund a national education program organized around the competition in order to “inspire youth and the general public about the alternative vehicle and fuel options of the near future,” the X Prize Foundation announced.
Inspiring Entrepreneurs The contest, developed over the past two and a half years by the non-profit foundation, has the lofty goal of inspiring entrepreneurs to develop a new generation of commercially viable automobiles with low emissions and fuel economy equivalent to 100 miles per gallon.
More than 5 million vehicles -- and almost nine in 10 new vehicles -- in Brazil now run on both gasoline and ethanol, the head of the Brazilian auto-manufacturing association, Anfavea, reported Monday.
Anfavea President Jackson Schneider, addressing reporters in Sao Paulo, also said that flex-fuel vehicles -- which run on gasoline, ethanol or any combination of the two -- likely will comprise 52 percent of the Brazilian auto market by 2013, up from 12 percent in 2007.
Additionally, Anfavea will invest $4.9 billion in the industry in 2008, or more than double the amount invested last year, Schneider said. The first of the nation's flex-fuel vehicles rolled off the assembly line in 2003...
Exige Tri-fuel concept uses gasoline, ethanol, methanol or any combination.
There may be snow on the ground in Switzerland in early March, but there's also a lot of green, at least in Geneva, where a multitude of diesels, diesel hybrids and alternatively fueled cars will be making their debut this week at the annual Geneva Motor Show.
In one of the more interesting – a concept, not a production model – is the tri-fuel Exige (badged the Lotus Exige 270E Tri-Fuel), which, the company says, can run on gasoline, ethanol, methanol or any combination of the three.
Lotus, which recently unveiled a low carbon dioxide emissions engine concept, is deep into green strategies, buthasn't abandoned performance: The 270 horsepower, tri-fuel Exige is capable of 0-60 acceleration in 3.88 seconds, the company said, and has a top speed of 158 mph.
The company says ongoing work on absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere and turning it back into alcohol-based fuels such as methanol could make it possible to someday have cars that use internal combustion engines but have environmentally neutral tailpipe emissions.
It's time for session two of General Motor Corp.'s latest experiment in two-way communication on the green front: GMnext.
This is the General's latest effort to spread the company's message of "Hey, guys, we're not so bad!"
In session one, GM addressed concerns that its heavily-touted (can you say Second Coming?) Chevrolet Volt extended-range EV isn't just a PR stunt.
This time, GM is offering all comers the opportunity to chat with Wes Bolsen, vice president for product development at Coskata Inc., the start-up firm that the giant automaker has partnered with in an effort to develop a method for making ethanol that doesn't rely on depleting the planet's supply of basic food crops such as corn.
It's not packed with sexy new technology like hybrid or fuel-cell cars, but its clean, low-carbon fuel and respectable fuel economy combined to earn Honda's 2008 Civic GX top place on a leading environmental guide's "greenest cars" list for the fifth consecutive year.
Honda's natural gas Civic GX is rated "greenest" car in U.S. for fifth year.
VW's Touareg diesel ranked "meanest" of more than 1,300 vehicles rated.
The four-wheel-drive version of Volkswagen's diesel-burning V10 Touareg SUV placed dead last on the lengthy list, behind such gas guzzlers as the Bugatti Veyron, Lamborghini Murcielago and the 6.0-liter Hummer H2.
In taking the top spot the GX, fueled by compressed natural gas, once again beat out the Toyota Prius and Honda Civic hybrids.
The rankings are contained in the Washington, D.C.-based the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy's 11the annual Green Book
. The online guide to environmental rankings for every 2008 model car and passenger truck sold in the U.S. was released this morning by the ACEEE.
Warrenville, Illinois – Now that automakers have seen a bit of the downside of corn-based ethanol, General Motors said Sunday it has entered into what it calls a "very serious" partnership with Coskata Inc., a small start-up based here, to pursue commercialization of cellulosic ethanol.
Under Coskata’s process, cellulosic ethanol is created by proprietary strains of bacteria that convert farm waste, wood chips, old tires, landfill plastic and a whole bunch of other organic materials into fuel-grade ethanol.
The initial promise is that Coskata plans to produce enough cellulosic ethanol here by later this year to begin fueling the GM test fleet at the company's Milford Proving Grounds about 40 miles northwest of Detroit.
100 Million Gallons
If that works, Coskata projects that it could be running its first commercial-scale plant, producing 50 million to 100 million gallons of ethanol annually, by 2011. The timeline includes the two years it will take to build the plant.
“This can revolutionize the transportation-fuel business,” said Bill Rowe, a three-decade veteran of the water-treatment and process-chemical industry who now serves as Coskata’s CEO. “Just as important, it’s a speed-to-market play.”
We don't believe a candidate's stand on energy, or fuel economy regulation or even the larger issue of climate change, ought to be the sole reason he, or she, is judged worthy of office.
But it certainly ought to be an important part of every voter's decision-making, so we're offering up this look at the auto-related portions of the main candidates' energy plans to help those who haven't made up their minds with primary (and caucus) season rapidly closing in.
There are hundreds or sources for interested voters to find out how Hillary stands on health care, or Rudy on Iraq, but pinning down the presidential hopefuls' positions on CAFE and related alternative fuel issues isn't quite so easy.
To help out, we asked correspondent Terril Yue Jones to put together a look at the auto and fuels aspects of the energy plans of candidates who are polling at least 1 percent in national surveys
.
We're doing this now, of course, because voting season gets off to an especially early start this year, with more than half the primaries and caucuses slated to be held on or before February 5 -- the so-called Super Tuesday when 22 states hold primaries and the major party nominees, who won't officially be named until the Democratic and Republican conventions at the end of summer, will be all but set in cement.
First up, though, are the Iowa caucuses, to be held Thursday evening, a fortnight after President Bush signed sweeping new energy legislation that raises the required corporate average fuel economy
(CAFE) of automakers to 35 miles per gallon by 2020, from their current levels of 27.5 miles per gallon for passenger cars and 22.2 miles per gallon for light trucks.
Led by Hillary Clinton’s call for a massive increase in the fuel efficiency required of automakers, Democratic candidates' energy plans almost all spell out specific fuel economy standards for the nation’s automobiles. For the most part the Democrats even set fuel efficiency timetables.
Republicans speak in broader terms, preferring discussion of ending dependence on foreign oil and promoting alternative fuels and saying that specific miles-per-gallon benchmarks are not the way to go.
Here's the rundown on the candidates, in alphabetical order, from a green car perspective. Have fun!
It's official: Both houses of Congress have approved a new energy bill that would boost average fuel economy for cars and trucks to 35 miles per gallon by 2020.
The measure now awaits President' Bush's signature, and the White House has said that could happen as early as Wednesday.
It is the first significant increase in the so called CAFE (corporate average fuel efficiency) standard since 1975.
The bill also boosts production of ethanol – a measure that actually lets carmakers reduce real fuel efficiency by granting extra credit for flex-fuel cars and trucks even when sold in states, such as California, that have virtually no ethanol pumps...
Hybrid-electric Citroen prototype enters Challenge Bibendum in Shanghai.
By Kate McLeod, Contributor
There was little TV coverage and hardly anyone watched from the sidelines, but this still was one of the most important races in the world.
Run in the form of a rally on the public roads of China’s Shanghai province on November 14, it was part of a unique event, the Challenge Bibendum.
There were no winners, though. The Bibendum philosophy is that the race won't be over until we all enter and drive together to find a sustainable finish. The environment is the ultimate winner, says Michelin, although the Hyundai Tucson fuel-cell prototype received "As" in tests for noise, local pollutants, fuel efficiency and CO2 emissions -- tank to tire. Venturi’s Eclectic got As across the board for the above tests as well as acceleration and maneuverability. Two prototype buses made in China, WanXiang EV Co.’s C3 fuel cell and CITIC Guoan Mengguli’s battery-electric, also made top grades.
Until then, the event -- launched by French tire giant Michelin Group in 1998 -- is staged annually to showcase existing and developing technologies that can help save fuel and reduce atmospheric pollutants, including greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.
It brings together global vehicle makers, energy suppliers, researchers and political and economic decision makers and encourages discussion of potential solutions to transportation, energy consumption, and traffic congestion and noise problems.
Equally important is that it lets them see advanced technology vehicles in motion.
Studio shot of Chevrolet Volt test model hints at design changes under way.
Think General Motors isn't serious about the Volt and other electric vehicles?
Well, the company has just announced that it is opening a new design studio dedicated to the same.
If that's all part of an elaborate hoax to make us think the General has seen the error of its ways, it's a pretty expensive way to go about it.
The E-Flex Systems Design Studio will have 45 designers, model makers, engineers and support staff under Bob Boniface, the GM designer who led the team that did the original Volt concept's exterior.
Plants for cellulosic ethanol can be grown in much of the country
Garbage in, garbage out? Not if biofuels researchers and automakers have their way.
Facing limitations on how much corn-based ethanol can be produced to fuel automobiles and other gasoline-powered machines — not to mention questions about the energy efficiency and social impacts of converting corn to car fuel -- researchers are working on ways to turn underused plant material and municipal waste into a fuel called cellulosic ethanol.
National policy calls for less pollution from our trucks and cars and for our collective dependence on imported oil and gas to be overcome.
Ethanol is an important alternative fuel that can be used to achieve those goals in the short term — until more advanced battery and hydrogen fuel-cell technologies are made viable for mainstream vehicles.
But corn isn't a reliable source of ethanol: There's not enough of it, and a number of studies indicate that the energy used to grow, harvest and transport it, convert it to ethanol and then disperse it to fueling stations may negate the energy it saves by replacing gasoline.
While waiting for final government approval of its sale of the ailing Hummer brand to China's Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Corp., GM is hoping to give it a sales boost with the introduction next month of a flex-fuel engine for the 2010 H3 and H3T models. 
