BMW's announcement this week that its ActiveHybrid X6 crossover utility vehicle will carry a U.S. sticker price of nearly $90,000 was disappointing, but even more disappointing is the fact that the model isn't alone among hybrids priced well out of reach of most people.
Toyota offers a Lexus LS 600h L for $107,300. The 7-Series Hybrid from BMW will surely be a six-figure car when it becomes available this spring. The Cadillac Escalade Hybrid starts at $73,425. The list is frustratingly long.
Our hawk-eyed colleagues at Edmunds' AutoObserver.com picked up on the trend and wrote about it in a piece that's as well written as it is informative. We encourage you to use your turn signal, pull to the side of the road and give it a read.
Mazda Motor Corp. will showcase the subcompact Mazda2, scheduled to be sold in the U.S. and Canada beginning late next year, at next month's 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show.
The model has been a brisk seller for Mazda since it first went on sale in 2003 in Europe. The second-generation Mazda2 commenced sales in Japan in July 2007.
The five-door hatchback coming to North America will share a platform with the Ford Fiesta, which is scheduled to launch on this side of the Atlantic next summer. In addition to the Fiesta, the Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris and Chevrolet Aveo will offer the Mazda2 some stiff competition.
In Europe, the Mazda2 is offered with several gasoline and diesel engines. The U.S. edition will feature only a gasoline-powered, 1.5-liter four-cylinder.
Mazda has provided few specs for the North American Mazda2, but the gasoline-powered, 1.5-liter four-banger sold in Europe delivers 103 horsepower and 101 pounds-feet of torque.
That engine also propels the Mazda2 from 0 to 62 miles per hour in 10.4 seconds while delivering 41 miles per gallon in Europe's combined driving cycle test; in the more real-world American combined driving cycle test, fuel economy should be in the 35-38 mpg range.
Car is Heavier Than Chief Engineer Would Like, but There's Time to Slim Down
Video of Volt battery pack crush test shows just one of the scores of indignities the packs have been subjected to in an effort to find any flaws before they go into production cars.
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
With a year to go before production begins on the 2012 Chevrolet Volt, General Motors has 80 prototypes running around the country to test the critical battery and power electronics systems and program managers say they're happy with what they re seeing - except, perhaps, around the car's waistline.
There have been problems - mostly small ones that have been resolved - Volt's new chief engineer, Andrew Farah, said in a media briefing this afternoon.
One ongoing concern is weight - the battery pack still weighs in at more than 400 pounds, and the car is heavier than Farah would like. Although not critical to the launch, it's an important issue as every pound of weight eats into fuel economy and battery range.
Farah (left, with pre-production Volt model) wouldn't say what the actual or target weights are for the car, GM's first extended-range, plug-in hybrid.
He did say that efforts to slim down the Volt are ongoing.
Farah also continued to support the company's controversial claim that the Volt could qualify for a 230 MPG city-cycle rating under an early proposal for one of the new federal fuel economy tests being developed for cars that use rechargeable batteries and electric motors some or all of the time.
We continue to shake our heads, suspecting that the claim is likely to come back and bite GM, hard, when real drivers get out there and find that a lot of fancy slow-motion driving tricks will be needed to come close unless then never drive hard or far enough to deplete the batteries and religiously charge them up every night
Among the lesser, and resolvable problems has been that the car's quiet operation in the all-electric mode revealed some noise and vibration issues that would not have been apparent in a noisier car with a conventional powertrain drowning out some of the exterior road and wind noise and mechanical humming and thrumming that affects every vehicle.
Volt plug-in hybrid (right) and Cruze compact sedan will be featured at Chevrolet's 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show display.
Got a Chevrolet Volt on your car-shopping list but don't know where to get one once they become available?
General Motors Corp. says it will announce in two weeks - at the upcoming 2009 Los Angeles International Auto Show on Dec. 2 - the first markets in which it will be selling the extended-range rechargeable hybrid starting very late in 2011 or early in 2012.
The automaker also will unveil the U.S. production version of the fuel-efficient Chevrolet Cruze compact sedan, for which it is claiming highway fuel economy of close to 40 miles a gallon.
Already on sale in Europe and Asia, the Cruze will hit dealer showrooms in the U.S. in the third quarter next year.
GM, which for decades ceded the small car market to Japanese automakers, is aiming squarely at Toyota and Honda with the Cruze, claiming in its early marketing materials that the sedan will have more passenger and cargo space than either the the Honda Civic or Toyota's Corolla.
A few weeks ago, the marketing reps behind the Chevrolet Volt asked the public to submit names for the exterior paint color of the hybrid. Some 13,000 names were submitted.
We think "greenish silver" pretty much describes the paint job you see here, but the Volt folks wanted - and got - more thoughtful entries. Among them: Joule of the Nile, High Ohm Silver!, Kermit the Fog and Bye Bye Foreign Oil Blue!
Well, today the list was narrowed down to three. Yes, one of the following three names will be the name General Motors gives the original Volt exterior paint:
Viridian Joule, submitted by David Thomas of Sanford, Florida.
environMINT, submitted by Matthew Valbuena of Rancho Santa Margarita, California.
EV-ergreen, submitted by Devin McQuarrie of San Jose, California.
If you feel strongly (or even if you don't) about this, you can vote on one of these names. GM promises that the name that receives the most votes will be the name assigned to the paint. The deadline to vote is 8 a.m. Eastern time, Dec. 1.
And what, ask you, will David, Matthew or Devin receive? GM will be sending all three to the Los Angeles Auto Show, where the winner will be announced on Dec. 1. And "the winner will have the chance to drive a pre-production Volt."
Yeah, we think the winner deserves more than that, but hey, GM just posted a $1.2-billion loss. At least the winner will have a chance to turn the motor over. Electricity isn't free, you know.
Nevermind the fact that major automakers are racing to bring hybrid and electric vehicles to market.
Sales of low-priced muscle cars such as the Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro (pictured) and Dodge Challenger jumped 68 percent in October, compared with the same month last year.
Sales of muscle cars for 2009 are up 7.2 percent, while most segments have posted double-digit declines.
From an environmental perspective, it doesn't help that the price of gasoline remains less than $3 a gallon in most of the U.S. As recent history has shown us, the typical American isn't particularly interested in fuel-efficient cars until the price of gas tops $4/gallon.
It helps, of course, that muscle cars tend to be fairly inexpensive. And some even have decent fuel economy, so fuel-conscious buyers can more easily rationalize their purchases.
The muscle-car boom, if it continues, won't be enough to lift the auto industry out of its doldrums: It accounted for only 2 percent of overall passenger car and truck sales in October, which have declined 25 percent this year.
In fact, sales of muscle cars may be cannibalizing sales of other types of cars. Industry researcher IHS Global Insight says some of their buyers would have previously bought large pickup trucks --- more for image than for their intended use.
The Cadillac Converj plug-in hybrid concept is on the way to becoming a real car, the Detroit News is reporting.
---------- GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz with the Cadillac Converj concept at the 2009 Detroit auto show. ----------
Citing unidentified insider sources, the newspaper says that General Motors sees the highly styled Caddy, which would use the same technology as the Chevrolet Volt extended-range plug-in, as one way to help generate new excitement around a brand that has been losing sales all year.
Although GM officials, concerned at the time about the company's plummeting financial fortunes, later said they didn't plant to build the car, (a decision the automaker's bankruptcy, federal bailout and new recovery plan may well have changed) GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz remarked at the show that if the Converj were to be put into production, the retail model would closely resemble the concept.
He also said he saw a market opportunity for a Cadillac plug-in hybrid because it would be easier to pass on to luxury car buyers the cost of the expensive lithium-ion battery pack (estimated at $10,000 to $12,000 for the four-seat Volt, which will retail for more than $40,000 before federal tax credits).
Spurred by factory incentives, replenished stocks and the relative freshness of several models, sales of hybrid-electric cars and SUVs soared in October, easily outperforming the market as a whole.
Compared to October '08 - a month with six fewer hybrid models available - sales of Ford, General Motors, Honda, Nissan and Toyota hybrids were up 12.1 percent, while sales of conventionally powered cars and trucks were flat.
The one-month picture was even rosier, as October hybrid sales jumped 22.5 percent from September's, versus a 12.1 percent hike in sales of conventional models.
Nissan, which has only one model - the Altima hybrid, - and sells it in just the nine states with the toughest emissions standards, was the only hybrid maker to record a sales decline for both periods, dropping 46 percent from a year earlier and 13 percent from September.
As with most hybrids - Toyota's Prius excepted - Nissan's actual numbers are quite small because of low sales volumes. October's sales drop represented just 46 fewer Altima hybrid sales than in September.
Toyota's redesigned 2010 Prius, sweetened by a small factory incentive, remained by far the segment leader, accounting for 55 percent of all hybrid sales for the month.
General Motors, concerned that the departure of Volt development leader Frank Weber will worry the faithful - and mindful of its long-ago and well-kept promise to open the doors on the program - is hosting a live Web chat at 4 p.m. Eastern time this afternoon (1 p.m. Pacific) to answer questions and explain how the change in Volt leadership will, or won't, affect things.
Weber himself, along with Doug Parks, who will be replacing him in the Chevrolet Volt program, are hosting the chat.
We're providing a platform, so sign up below for a reminder and come back at the appointed time to follow along and ask questions of your own.
Automaker Says Departure Part of Long-Planned Shift of Duties; Volt Still on Schedule
GM is losing the longtime head of it's Chevrolet Volt extended-range, plug-in hybrid development team but says the departure of Frank Weber (left) to its German subsidiary, Opel, is part of a long-planned leadership shuffle.
Weber, 43, is returning to Opel, where he previously was a top product developer, after heading the Volt project since March 2007.
He is the second top member of GM's vehicle electrification team to depart in recent months.
Bob Kruse, executive director of vehicle engineering for hybrids, electric vehicles and batteries, left in September to start a consulting firm and was replaced by GM engineering veteran Micky Bly.
Doug Parks, chief engineer for GM's compact car programs in Europe, will replace Weber, who is returning to Opel Dec. 1 in a still undefined "senior leadership" post.
Weber's shift comes just as a post-bankruptcy GM, looking for cash and ways to refocus itself on its core products, is scheduled to close its deal to sell majority interest in Opel to a group headed by Canadian tier-one components manufacturer Magna International and backed by Russia's Sherbank.
The Chevrolet Cruze compact that was supposed to get General Motors off to a good start in the 2010 summer selling season will be a late starter instead.
The automaker has decided to push back the Cruze launch date until at least early July.
Initially, GM has planned to start production in April, with sales to follow soon after. But that was an artificially compressed schedule, according to spokesman Klaus Peter-Martin.
It would have meant, among other thing's that the only engine available at launch would have been the a 1.4-liter turbocharged four-cylinder fuel economy engine, capable of delivering an EPA rating, GM insiders suspect, on the order of 40 MPG or more.
Why, we ask, is that such a bad thing? (We know, variety is the spice of life.)
We're sure they've got an in-house name for it, but GM says it will give consumers a chance to come up with the official name for the Chevrolet Volt's initial exterior color - a silvery hue that has a slight color-shift toward emerald when the light hits it just right.
Killerwatt?
The automaker will fly three finalists in the Volt color naming contest to Los Angeles for the 2009 LA Auto Show in December (there are worse places to be that time of year) - they will also get a $400 gift card, two nights at an LA hotel and admission to the show's initial media preview day on Dec. 2.
ElectroLicious?
The finalists will be announced Nov. 16 and the public will be asked to vote on the best name from then until Dec. 1 on a special GM website.
Names can be submitted on the contest site until the evening of Dec. 1, when the winner will be announced.
Shockingly Silver?
In addition to the trip and show, the winning contestant will get the opportunity to test drive a pre-production Volt.
GM says it will spend $202 million to ready its Flint Engine South site to build the 1.4-liter four-cylinder engines that will be used as on-board generators in the Chevrolet Volt extended-range hybrid .
The company originally had planned to spend $359 million to build a new factory on a nearby site at its Flint campus, but its reduced financial circumstances have led it to settle for renovation of an existing plant there.
As has always been the plan, the factory also will build the engines for use in a conventionally-powered small car, the Chevrolet Cruze, which is scheduled to launch in the U.S. in late spring next year. The Volt won't go into production until almost the end of 2010.
The Flint plant, which GM first announced last July, then suspended amidst the financial tumult that led the the automaker's short bankruptcy and taxpayer rescue, is slated to produce 40 engines per day when production starts late next year. Production will hit 800 engines a day by fall 2011, GM officials said.
Pre-production Chevrolet Volt (left) on display at GreenHouse in Virginia; Studio shot of Chevrolet Cruze compact (right).
Because the cars will launch before the factory's running at full capacity, engines for both - a turbocharged 1.4-liter for the Cruz and a normally aspirated version for the Volt - initially will be imported from a GM plant in Austria, a company spokesman said.
Volt test car passes UPS truck on Interstate 80 near Toledo, Ohio, during 2-day engineering development drive.
An engineering team for the Chevrolet Volt - the highly-touted plug-in hybrid General Motors Co. plans to launch around this time next year - is on the road for a 1,200-mile test in a fleet of eight pre-production Volts and pulled off to the side of the road today for a brief chat with journalists.
The big story for Volt skeptics may be the report from engineers that they don't see any problem achieving the car's targeted 40 miles of all-electric driving range.
The Volt's lithium-ion batteries are performing well and chief engineer Andrew Farah said he has "no concerns about being able to get up to 40 miles" with production Volts.
The team (left) departed the the Detroit area Tuesday and was in West Virginia this afternoon, about halfway through the Volt test drive.
Overnight, half of the test fleet got battery charges and half didn't, the better to replicate real-world driving in which some drivers may not have access to the overnight recharging that would allow resumption of battery-only operation.
The cash for clunkers frenzy that pulled many hybrid shoppers into the market earlier than they'd intended in July and August caused a big letdown in September as sales of gas-electric cars and trucks, which had been rising steadily all year, plunged 48.4 percent.
Only 19,977 hybrids were sold in September, down from 38,701 in August. The sales slide was the first in several months and was worse that that of the far larger conventional vehicle segment, which dropped by 40.9 percent from August.
Falling sales of the Toyota Prius - they were down 42 percent for the month - contributed heavily to the numeric decline although almost every hybrid model lost ground.
On a month over month basis there were no corporate winners in the hybrid segment as even Toyota - the industry leader with three out of every four hybrid sales - saw a 39.7 percent decline in its Toyota and Lexus hybrids.
And that was the segment's best performance.
Lots of Losers
Nissan, which has been on a tear with its single offering, the Altima hybrid sedan (helped by generous incentives in recent moths), saw its hybrid sales plunge 89.1 percent in September; Honda, the number two hybrid company, saw sales fall 61.6 percent; Ford, which had been rising since the March introduction of its Fusion hybrid sedan, was off 54.5 percent, and GM's hybrid sales fell by 40.8 percent.
Compared to sales at the end of the third-quarter last year- when the financial industry collapse began and the bottom fell out of the auto market, the picture was a little better as hybrid sales last month were down just 4.1 percent from September '08.
In contrast, conventional car sales fell 22.5 percent in the September-September comparison.
Bob Kruse, who recently led a team that played a key role in the development of the Chevrolet Volt and who crafted the automaker's long-term electric-vehicle strategy, has resigned effective today.
Kruse, executive director of global vehicle engineering for hybrids, electric vehicles and batteries since early last year, left to focus on an EV consulting company he founded last month.
He will provide automotive and vehicle electrification expertise for companies looking to seize a piece of more than $1.3 billion in federal grants available to Michigan and Detroit's major automakers.
"My departure from General Motors has nothing to do with my view of the future success for the Volt," Kruse said. "I've left on very good terms. I have a lot of respect for the leadership of General Motors."
GM spokesman Rob Peterson told Green Car Advisor that Kruse's resignation, coming only 13 months before the Volt's scheduled production launch, "won't have any impact" on the gasoline-electric hybrid sedan.
"There's never a good time to lose good people, but there's a deep bench with the Volt and that team was working together before Bob joined and they will continue to march on," he said.
Kruse's resignation comes at a crucial time for GM, which is banking on the Volt extended-range electric vehicle to help it meet stringent new government fuel-economy rules and to change the public's perception of the company as being an electric-car killer and a proponent of gas-guzzlers.
The second-generation hydrogen fuel cell system (pictured) in development by General Motors Co. is half the size, 220 pounds lighter and uses less than half the precious metal of the current generation in the Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell electric vehicle.
And, the production-intent fuel cell powertrain can be packaged under the hood in about the same space as a four-cylinder engine, GM announced in a statement today. It contains GM's fifth-generation fuel cell stack, which the company said could be commercialized in 2015.
Hydrogen-powered fuel cells are a few years away from widespread commercial use because of the need for additional investment and partnership, along with expanded availability of hydrogen fueling stations.
In a statement, Charles Freese, executive director of GM's fuel-cell program, said GM has invested more than $1.5 billion in fuel-cell technology and is committed to continuing to invest, but "we no longer can go it alone... We will require government and industry partnerships to install a hydrogen infrastructure."
Through Project Driveway, a demonstration fleet of more than 100 hydrogen-powered fuel cell electric Chevrolet Equinox crossovers has amassed more than 1 million miles of every-day driving by ordinary citizens, celebrities and others since late 2007.
In recent weeks, a consortium of the German government and leading industrial companies has announced plans to build up to 1,000 hydrogen fueling stations by 2015, about the time several automakers expect to have hydrogen fuel cell vehicles for sale. Earlier, a group of 13 oil and gas companies in Japan announced similar plans.
"Failure to act will insure the U.S. cannot meet its long-term fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas reduction objectives," Freese said. "We know what needs to be done. Now is the time to get started."
General Motors and India's Reva Electric Car announced today that they will jointly produce a battery-powered vehicle for South Asia based on the Detroit carmaker's best-selling mini-car, the Chevrolet Spark (pictured).
Under the alliance, GM will provide the vehicle platform and manufacturing facilities for the zero-emissions car, which will begin production next year, while Reva will supply the technology for the battery, electric drivetrain and power management systems.
They did not provide forecasts for production, but GM has the capacity to produce 225,000 vehicles of all types at its two plants in India and has plans to scale up its factory in Maharashtra state by an additional 160,000 vehicles.
GM, which is also due to launch its plug-in Chevrolet Volt in the U.S. next year, joins a growing list of the world's major carmakers that are due to launch electric cars over the next three years as part of their carbon-cutting strategy.
Some, including Japan's Mitsubishi Motors, have already launched them.
Last week at the Frankfurt Motor Show, Renault announced that it was launching four electric vehicles in 2011-12. Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz showed planned battery-powered luxury models.
General Motors announced today that it will create a laboratory in Shanghai to contribute to technological innovation in a number of automotive-related fields for GM both domestically and on a worldwide basis.
The announcement came less than a month after GM disclosed that its sales in China in the first eight months of this year increased 49.6 percent on an annual basis to 1,111,401 vehicles.
The China Science Lab (pictured) will be the first major laboratory established by a global automaker in China. In a statement, GM said the lab's initial focus will be on research related to advanced propulsion technology and joining technology.
But the lab will also focus on battery cells, megacity safety research, advanced vehicle development, and light materials. It will engage in additional activities in accordance with market conditions and its own research capability as it ramps up.
The lab will also carry out collaborative work with universities and government-run scientific institutions across China. It is expected to employ up to 100 staff during its early stage of operation. No specifics were provided regarding the lab's scheduled construction and opening dates or its cost.
Kevin Wale, president and managing director of the GM China Group, said that through the lab, "we will leverage the country's outstanding research talent together with GM's extensive resources to come up with new innovations for the benefit of vehicle users around the globe."
Environmental car data released by a new automotive Website today shows that the latest 2010 range of new cars available in the U.S. is 6.6 percent greener than the 2009 model-year range.
The data supplied by WhatGreenCar also demonstrate that the shift to green is gaining pace. To date, this year's 6.6 percent reduction is more than three times last year's improvement of 2.1 percent.
Comparing model year 2009 cars with the latest model year 2010 line-up, 10 volume automakers are now offering a new model range above the average improvement of 6.6 percent.
The top 10 manufacturers achieving this are: Chevrolet (20.3 percent improvement), General Motors (15.3 percent), Mercedes-Benz (13.6 percent), Lexus (13.2 percent), Mercury (11.6 percent), Kia (11.0 percent), Ford (10.4 percent), Acura (8.0 percent), Volkswagen (8.0 percent) and Suzuki (7.7 percent).
The tables below are self-explanatory, and can be enlarged by clicking on them.
After wavering awhile, Mazda has decided to jump into America's rapidly growing small-car segment with the company's fuel-efficient Mazda2 model.
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Right, the current Mazda2. The U.S. version will debut in L.A. in December. ----------
The five-door hatchback, which is currently sold in Europe, will begin appearing in U.S. showrooms during the fall of 2010, company officials told Mazda dealers at the automaker's annual meeting this week.
The vehicle will share a platform as the Ford Fiesta, which is scheduled to launch in America next summer. In addition to the Fiesta, the Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris and Chevrolet Aveo will provide the Mazda2 with some stiff competition.
The U.S.-spec Mazda2 will be unveiled at the Los Angeles auto show in December. The current version of the Mazda2 has been on sale in Europe and Japan since 2007. In Japan, it is known as the Demio.
In Europe, the Mazda2 is offered with several gasoline and diesel engines. The U.S. edition will feature only a gasoline-powered, 1.5-liter four-cylinder.
That version in Europe delivers 103 horsepower and 101 pounds-feet of torque. It propels the Mazda2 from 0 to 62 miles per hour in 10.4 seconds while delivering 41 miles per gallon in Europe's combined driving cycle test; in the more real-world American combined driving cycle test, fuel economy should be 35-38 mpg.
The Mazda2 is offered as both a three- and five-door in Europe, but only the five-door will be available in the U.S. It comes only with a five-speed manual transmission in Europe, but the U.S. version will be available with a five-speed automatic.
Mazda would not disclose U.S. pricing, but in the U.K. it's priced around $16,750 not including taxes and fees. A Mazda source said the U.S. version will be priced somewhat lower.
Opel debuted the Ampera at the Frankfurt Motor Show this week, but one question lingered when the crowd shuffled off to another unveiling: Would the gasoline-electric hybrid -- the Chevy Volt's European twin -- actually launch?
---------- Pictured, Ampera meets the press in Frankfurt. ----------
Or would it be shelved as a result of a controlling share of Opel being sold to Canadian autoparts supplier Magna International and the Russian financial institution Sberbank?
The answer, we learned today, is that the Ampera program is very much a go.
In an email exchange with Dan Pund, who writes for Edmunds.com's Inside Line, Dave Darovitz said the Ampera is still slated to launch in Europe. As communications manager for the Volt and Chevy fuel-cell Equinox, Darovitz would know.
General Motors last week agreed to sell 55 percent of Opel to Magna and Sberbank in a 50-50 split. GM will keep 35 percent, the biggest single stake in Opel, and Opel workers will hold 10 percent.
The deal still hinges on conditions that could take weeks or months to work out, such as final agreement for government financing and union support for what could be painful cuts.
Additionally, Belgium has asked the European Union to investigate the deal to make sure Germany was not violating antitrust rules.
We strongly suspect the mark had already been passed when GM first started talking about its fuel-cell electric Chevrolet Equinox fleet 'approaching' the cumulative million-mile mark.
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Jeanine Behr-Getz, holding daughter Millicent, logged the millionth mile.
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But we think fuel cell vehicles are important,so we gave 'em some ink earlier in the week, an now we'll do it again as the automaker says it is now official: the Equinox FCEVs have tallied more than one million collective miles since GM's Project Driveway began at the beginning of last year.
GM says more than 5,000 people have been given short-term loans of the crossover SUVs that are powered by electricity generated on board in a fuel cell that converts hydrogen and oxygen to electrons.
The officially recognized millionth mile was driven by Jeanine Behr-Getz, a Greenwich, Conn. children's books author who told General Motors screeners that the hydrogen vehicle "fit my family, groceries, golf clubs and work supplies with no problem and it drove the same as my fossil fuel crossover vehicle."
As a bonus, she said, the Equinox fuel-cell vehicle's zero emissions status meant she was the only parent "allowed to idle my car in the [student] pickup line at school.
General Motors began deploying Chevrolet Equinox fuel cell electric vehicles two years ago as part of its Project Driveway program to test FCEVs in everyday driving conditions, and yesterday the General reported that the vehicles have passed the million-mile mark.
As Mark Vann, Chevy's FCEV deployment manager noted in GM's Fastlane blog, no other automaker comes close to the number of miles they've logged using hydrogen in real-world conditions "with real people driving these Equinox fuel cell EVs."
In case we didn't know what real people were, he goes on to describe them: "These people are teachers, homemakers, accountants, video game designers and people from many other walks of life just like you, and they were selected based on their passion for the environment and new media prowess."
All good. But it's the lessons he and others associated with the project have learned from all those real people that we wanted to know about, and Vann didn't disappoint:
"We've used these experiences to extend fuel cell stack life and improve the regenerative braking system, which benefited our 2-mode hybrid vehicles since it's the same brake system used on the Chevy Tahoe and GMC Yukon 2-mode hybrids. Plus, we've applied what we've learned about fuel cell thermal design to the Volt battery design.
He went on to say that he and his team could have tested the vehicles at GM's proving grounds, but the opportunity to have real people drive these vehicles "gave us a much higher degree of relevant feedback on the vehicle's performance -- and even more important, it gave us a great opportunity to listen to our customers."
Then today, during a Web chat with the public, Vann provided additional information we believe may be of interest to you.
Much fuss has been made this year about General Motors' claim that the Chevy Volt extended-range electric vehicle due out next year will be able to travel 40 miles on electricity only, and the fact (often heralded by GM) that most American motorists drive fewer than 40 miles a day.
The General hopes you'll connect the dots, but he's been saying it loud and clear for more than a year anyway: Unless you drive more than 40 miles between charges, you probably won't need to put any gasoline in the plug-in automobile.
But if you should happen to go as far as the Volt can take you on a single charge, the General says, don't fret. As an extended-range EV, the Volt is packing a small gasoline-powered engine-generator that can keep juice flowing to the electric motor that propels the vehicle.
Now imagine this: You open a report from the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Postal Service on the feasibility of electric vehicles in the USPS and you read that (1) only about 3 percent of the service's 146,000 delivery vehicles travel more than 40 miles a day, and (2) those vehicles average a lousy 10 miles per gallon.
No doubt your heart would race if you read those factoids, just as ours did when we read the 23-page report, released last week with little fanfare.
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.
In an interview earlier this week, Audi of America President Johan de Nysschen (right) dismissed the upcoming Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid as "a car for idiots."
He said that few consumers will be willing to pay $40,000 -- the Volt's estimated base price -- for a car that competes against $25,000 sedans and conventional hybrids. Nor, he noted, is the Volt a luxury car whose green-technology costs will be excused because it also delivers prestige or performance.
"No one is going to pay a $15,000 premium for a car that competes with a (Toyota) Corolla" in terms of prestige and performance, he said. "So there are not enough idiots who will buy it."
More than a few people at Chevrolet took offense. In an interview with Green Car Advisor, Volt spokesman Rob Peterson said:
"I'm pretty surprised somebody would make such a bold statement that challenges the intelligence of anybody in the EV movement, and especially those people who are anxiously awaiting the Volt. It just doesn't seem like a real bright statement."
It'll be interesting to see how well the Volt sells. The vehicle is slated to start appearing in showrooms in very limited numbers at the end of next year.
Mercedes-Benz has added a small gas engine to its BlueZero E-Cell electric car concept to turn the limited range battery-electric hatchback into an extended-range hybrid in the manner of the upcoming Chevrolet Volt.
The battery-extended Benz, called the E-Cell Plus, utilizes a turbocharged, 1-liter, three-cylinder engine mounted over the rear axle to serve as a generator feeding juice to the lithium-ion battery pack once the initial charge is depleted.
Mercedes says the E-Cell Plus has a range of up to 600 kilometers - 375 miles - including 100 kilometers, or 62 miles, of all-electric drive from its grid-charged battery before the engine-generator kicks in and starts burning gasoline. The original BlueZero concepts were unveiled at the Deptroir Auto Show in January.
The compact concept car uses the same electric drive system as the non-augmented E-Cell, with an 18 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack feeding a 70-kilowatt sustained output (100 kilowatt maximum) compact electric motor capable of 320 Newton meters of torque (236 lb-ft).
It is capable of pushing the car from 0 to 100 kilometers per hour (60 mph) in "less than 11 seconds" - nothing to write home about unless its way, way less than 11 - and is electronically limited to a top speed of 150 kph (93 mph).
The gas engine in the E-Cell Plus wouldn't improve performance figures as it would be used only to continue generating electricity to extend the vehicle's range to three times the pure-electric model's 200 kilometers, or 125 miles.
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Concept shows 1-liter gas engine-generator through cutout in cargo bay floor.
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Mercedes says that with a special rapid charger the E-Cell Plus' battery can be brought up to half-full n just 30 minutes and to full charge in just under an hour. Charging could take 6 hours or so with standard household current. On-board electronics would support the billing and information systems used by the electric charging stations that are slowly being installed in cities around the globe to accommodate increased use of plug-in electric vehicles.
Nissan Altima hybrid was one of the stars of August, more than tripling sales for the month despite limited availability.
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
The federal Cash for Clunkers program may have been good for conventional cars in August, but monthly sales performance was a letdown for hybrids after an explosive July.
Oh, sales of gas-electric cars and SUVs were up last month - a 9.2 percent gain from July, but that pales by comparison to the 35 percent gain the segment recorded in July over June and doesn't stand up well, either, against the 26.6% August increase posted by conventionally powered vehicles (cars and trucks except hybrids).
Overall, however, August 2009 hybrid sales of 38,701 gas-electric cars, SUVS and pickups were up 48.6 percent from 26,044 in August '08 - a significant gain explained in large part by the addition of half a dozen new hybrid models, including the Honda Insight, Ford Fusion and Lexus HS250, that weren't available a year earlier.
Ford Motor Co. Executive Chairman Bill Ford (pictured), in an interview with Edmunds.com reporter Bill Visnic earlier today, suggested the EPA's methodology for electric-vehicle fuel economy figures was meaningless.
"This question devolves into madness," he said in response to a question regarding General Motors' and Nissan's recent claims that their Chevrolet Volt and Leaf plug-in hybrid electric vehicles will have government fuel economy ratings of 230 and 360 miles per gallon, respectively.
"The government will have to come up with a meaningful number for customers - a user-friendly label. And I think they will. I can't dispute that number, but I'm not sure it's relevant to the customer either," he said.
GM announced last week that it is investing $43 million in a Detroit-area factory that will make lithium-ion battery packs for the Volt. Asked if Ford intends to make batteries for its EVs, the grandson of the company's founder said, "Initially, we should just buy batteries. We don't have any particular expertise in batteries. We'll probably stick to the vehicle-integration part of the puzzle."
On GM and Nissan huge claims for mpg for Volt and Leaf: "This question devolves into madness. The government will have to come up with a meaningful number for customers - a user-friendly label. And I think they will. I can't dispute that number but I'm not sure it's relevant to the customer either."
As more customers buy cars under the cash-for-clunkers program, General Motors is adding more shifts and offering workers overtime at Ohio and Michigan plants to meet the new demand.
The shifts have been added at plants where the Chevrolet Malibu and Pontiac G6 sedans and Chevrolet Cobalt (pictured) compact are assembled, GM spokesman Chris Lee said.
GM's sales of cars and light trucks decreased 19 percent in July compared with the same month in 2008. Analysts had predicted the company's sales would fall 24 percent.
Ford Motor Co. announced last week that it would boost production by 26 percent in the second half of 2009.
Fisker Automotive said today that its Karma plug-in gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle, or PHEV, reached 100 miles an hour without consuming a single drop of gas during the car's public driving debut at Laguna Seca Raceway on Saturday.
The low-emissions, fuel-efficient four-door sedan made only one lap on the famous track Saturday, but CEO Henrik Fisker said today that the lap showed a lot of promise.
"This demonstration represents a significant milestone for Fisker Automotive and PHEV technology. The future of clean cars is bright," he said.
According to him, the Karma will be able to travel up to 50 emission-free miles on electricity from a single battery charge (or 10 miles more than the Chevrolet Volt) and extend its overall range to more than 300 miles with aid from an on-board gasoline-powered internal combustion engine-generator (same as the Volt).
The Karma is scheduled to go on sale in May 2010, with a base price of $87,900.
Only 19 months after being unveiled as a concept car, a prototype of the Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid electric vehicle made its public driving debut today (pictured above and below), silently rolling out of a staging tent and onto the track at the legendary Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California.
Under partly cloudy skies, the swoopy luxury-sports sedan accelerated quickly up hill and into Laguna Seca's famous Corkscrew - a plunging left-right corner - en route to making one lap on the 11-turn course before a large crowd that had gathered primarily to watch the annual Historic Automobile Races, held this weekend.
Like the forthcoming Chevrolet Volt, the Karma will be able to travel up to 50 emission-free miles on electricity from a single battery charge (or 10 miles more than the Volt) and extend its overall range to more than 300 miles with aid from an on-board gasoline-powered internal combustion engine-generator (same as the Volt).
Two 201.5-horsepower electric motors send enough traction through a single-speed differential to reach 60 miles per hour in about six seconds and a top speed of 125 mph. Together, these components make up a powertrain exclusive to both Fisker automobiles (the other being the Karma Sunset hardtop convertible).
In press releases, Fisker Automotive has said the powertrain can deliver fuel economy of 100 miles per gallon. Company founder Henrik Fisker told journalists covering today's event that he believed the powertrain would be capable of achieving 140 mpg.
EPA fuel-economy figures for the Karma are likely to be weeks if not months away.
Henrik Fisker said the Karma is still on track for a May 2010 showroom launch. Initial production is anticipated to be 15,000 vehicles annually, with pricing to start at $87,900.
General Motors Corp. announced today that is investing $43 million in a Detroit-area factory that will make lithium-ion battery packs for the Chevrolet Volt and other extended-range electric vehicles.
---------- Right, GM President and CEO Fritz Henderson announcing the new GM Subsystem Manufacturing facility, south of Detroit, earlier today. ----------
It will be the first lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant in the U.S. operated by a major automaker and it demonstrates GM's commitment to produce more fuel-efficient vehicles.
The automaker said the plant, which will be located in Brownstown Township, Michigan, will provide more than 100 advanced technology jobs and will be part of a wholly owned subsidiary called GM Subsystem Manufacturing LLC.
Local and state incentives, along with Recovery Act funding announced last week by the U.S. Department of Energy, are helping to make the facility possible.
The investment includes renovation and lease costs for the 160,000-square-foot landfill-free facility, new machinery and equipment, and special tooling.
With the exception of specialized battery machinery and equipment, GM will be reusing equipment from other GM facilities. Equipment installation is under way and production will start in the fourth quarter of 2010 to support the launch of the Volt, GM said.
General Motors is planning on adding electric motor development and manufacturing to its list of electric-vehicle specialities that it hopes to bring in-house, in order to further its expertise in the field as the electrification of the automobile continues.
---------- Right, a pre-production Chevrolet Volt is loaded with a lithium-ion battery. ----------
GM reps attending the Plug-In 2009 conference in Long Beach, California, this week said the automaker wants to begin making its own electric motors in-house in order to use its own technology to try and save money, weight, and power consumption, while boosting performance.
The first application of the GM-designed and -built motors is likely to be in the Two-Mode hybrid powertrain system for the upcoming front-wheel-drive Buick CUV that was originally slated to be a Saturn.
Breaking With Tradition
Traditionally, automakers have relied on their varying expertise in powertrains to differentiate themselves from one to the other. GM's expertise in automatic transmissions, for instance, or BMW's in straight-six engines has provided notable selling point discriminators between vehicles that companies can point to as sources of excellence when selling a vehicle.
But with powertrains changing so dramatically with the onset of electrification, a whole new skill set must be learned to the point of expertise - and in some ways, GM is behind.
We Deconstruct the Claim; Remember - Your Mileage May Vary
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
I've figured out how to get 230 miles per gallon driving a Chevy Volt around the city.
I've also figured how to go the same distance and get only about 40 mpg, with the same car on the same route.
If that sounds confusing, just wait 'til I try to explain to you how GM came up with its 230 miles per gallon city driving figure for the Chevrolet Volt - apparently with the tacit agreement of the EPA, despite the agency's stated inability to confirm GM's news-making fuel economy claim for its four-place, extended-range hybrid.
First off, though, let's get something straight: That the Volt might or might not get the equivalent of 230 miles per gallon doesn't mean it actually would go 230 miles if you put a single gallon of gas in its tank and sent it out to find its way in the world.
That's preposterous.
Despite what GM calls it, we're talking about a gas mileage equivalency, not real miles per gallon.
Infinity MPG?
Under the rational that GM says the EPA applied to the Volt, an ell-electric car such as the upcoming Nissan Leaf or existing Tesla Roadster would have an official rating of "infinity miles per gallon."
In response to a request from Green Car Advisor seeking clarification and confirmation of General Motors' claim that the Chevrolet Volt extended-range hybrid achieves 230 miles per gallon in city driving using tentative EPA test technology, the agency issued the following statement:
"EPA has not tested a Chevy Volt and therefore cannot confirm the fuel economy values claimed by GM. EPA does applaud GM's commitment to designing and building the car of the future - an American-made car that will save families money, significantly reduce our dependence on foreign oil and create good-paying American jobs. We're proud to see American companies and American workers leading the world in the clean energy innovations that will shape the 21st century economy."
We at Green Car Advisor cannot be certain, but we strongly suspect that the person who wrote that statement was waving an American flag with one hand and holding a humongous slice of apple pie in the other. If the writer had used American in the statement just one more time, he or she surely would have qualified for some type of prize.
But seriously, we're still trying to figure out exactly how GM came to conclude that the Volt will get 230 mpg in city driving. And we're wondering what the automaker will say or do when initial Volt buyers discover - probably, but we're hoping we're wrong - that they aren't achieving anywhere near 230 mpg in city.
It's not as exciting as General Motors Corp.'s announcement this morning that its Chevrolet Volt is likely to win a 230-mpg fuel economy rating from the EPA for city driving, but the automaker's plan for charging the extended-range hybrid may be more meaningful.
---------- Engineer Gery Kissel explains GM's dual charging options to journalists at Plug-In 2009 conference. ----------
GM isn't planning on any sort of widespread public charging infrastructure being ready for the Volt, so it is equipping the four-seat car to be charged "at home" with either 100-volt or 240-volt systems.
The latter, GM executives said at a dinner last night held in conjunction with the Plug-In 2009 conference in Long Beach, Calif., is likely to be offered as an option, to be permanently installed in an owner's garage, carport or even an outdoor location.
GM's spent a lot of time talking about the car, its features and its design, "now here's the rest of it," Volt vehicle line director Tony Posawatz said as he pointed to the display stand on which the two systems were mounted.
A Homebody
"We've geared the Volt to be charged at home...if the infrastructure [for public charging] catches up with it, fine, but it won't be a necessity," he told Green Car Advisor.
An advertisement blanketing billboards across the U.S. that features "230," today's date and a smiling electrical outlet, we can now report, is an attention-rousing teaser referring to GM's announcement this morning of the miles per gallon its engineers expect the Chevrolet Volt extended-range hybrid to achieve in city driving using tentative EPA test methodology.
A General Motors spokesman attending the Plug-In 2009 convention in Long Beach, California, told Green Car Advisor early today that the gasoline- and electric-powered Volt four-door sedan will attain a city fuel economy of "at least 230 mpg," based on development testing using a draft EPA federal fuel economy methodology for plug-in electric vehicles.
GM representatives have repeatedly said that the Volt, which is scheduled to start production in late 2010 as a 2011 model, will be able to travel up to 40 miles on electricity from a single battery charge and extend its overall range to more than 300 miles with its on-board, flex- fuel internal combustion engine-generator.
"From the data we've seen, many Chevy Volt drivers may be able to be in pure electric mode on a daily basis without having to use any gas," GM Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson said in a statement that repeats clams GM executives have been making since the Volt was introduced as a concept car at the 2007 Detroit Auto Show.
However, it's unlikely many of those attending the plug-in convention - ourselves included - place much credence in the 230-mpg figure.
Several engineers and battery specialists asked about the claim Monday - while it was still a rumor - said that the EPA test figures for EVs are unrealistically optimistic.
GM itself dampened the news with a press release that said "Volt drivers' actual gas-free mileage will vary depending on how far they travel and other factors, such as how much cargo or how many passengers they carry and how much the air conditioner or other accessories are used."
On the other hand, Volt drivers who driver sensibly on unremarkable roads without hauling a carload of people or cargo - and who don't exceed 20 or 30 miles between charges - could avoid having to buy any gasoline for the on-board generator. The generator, a four-cylinder gasoline engine, feeds juice to the Volt's electric powertrain after the battery is discharged..
You've likely seen the advertising blitz featuring the number 230 and a friendly electrical outlet.
Below the number appears two more: "8-11."
And if you're of right mind, you've probably asked yourself: "What the heck is that about?"
The folks at Advertising Age did some virtual sleuthing and believe they know the answer.
According to them, the marketer behind the effort is General Motors. But no one at GM is willing to confirm that.
However, AA quotes an ad man for GM agency Starcom as saying, "I'm glad it's getting out there." He would not elaborate except to hint that all would become clear on Tuesday. As in tomorrow. As in August 11. Make that 8-11.
Since Advertising Age came out with that tidbit, bloggers worldwide have speculated that 230 stands for: the 230-volt outlets from which the Volt will get its juice; the miles it can travel on a gallon of gas (and electricity); and last but not least, something having to do with the Volt and Apple.
The suspense is killing us. We've not been this anxious since the "Who shot Mr. Burns?" Simpsons episode.
The public is invited to attend two major plug-in electric vehicle events in California in coming days.
The more newsworthy of the two will likely be the Plug-In 2009 Exposition held at the Long Beach Convention Center. It's there that green-car reporters from around the world will descend for more than three days of speeches, discussions and demonstrations revolving around plug-in electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.
The public is invited to attend a slice of the event - from 5:30 to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 11. The public portion will consist of vehicle displays (Chevy Volt, Ford 550 plug-in hybrid truck, Ford Escape plug-in hybrid, and a plug-in Toyota Prius to name a few), followed by a panel discussion.
Panelists will include: Peter Horton, writer/director, "Grey's Anatomy" and "The Philanthropist"; Bill Nye, "The Science Guy"; Chris Paine, director, "Who Killed the Electric Car?" and "Revenge of the Electric Car"; Chelsea Sexton, founder, The Lightning Rod Foundation and a former General Motors EV1 specialist.
Cost is $10 and tickets can be purchased at the door. Visit the Plug In 2009 Website for additional information.
The lovelier of the two events will be the 2nd Annual Benefit Party for Plug In America, a respected nonprofit organization that promotes PEVs and PHEVs, held this coming Sunday from 4 p.m. till 8 p.m. at the Thomas Fogarty Winery in Woodside.
Among the vehicles on hand will be the pre-production Aptera 2e, a Tesla Roadster, a BMW Mini E, a Tango, a Tzero, an A123 Hymotion Prius conversion, electric motorcycles from Mission Motors and Zero Motorcycles, plus some one-off conversions and plenty of RAV4 EVs.
The event, titled "Plug-Ins, Pinots and Progress," will make for an excellent and informative afternoon-evening and, as benefits often do, will contain a spectacular auctions portion. Among the items that will be going to the block: a week's stay at a Hawaiian resort for 2-3 people, a Zero X electric motorcycle, and an A123/Hymotion L5 Plug-in Conversion Module (a $10,000 value) for all you Prius owners.
Bids can be submitted online. Tickets to the event start at $120. Visit the Plug In America Website for more information.
Toyota's Perennial Best-Seller Records 48% Sales Jump For Month; Honda Hybrids Flat
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
If Cash for Clunkers lit a fire under July's auto dales in the general market, it apparently set off a rocket booster under the hybrid market.
---------- It was blue skies for Toyota as its 2010 Prius rebounded in July. -----------
Sales of gas-electric cars, SUVs and trucks were up an impressive 35 percent in July - for the month and from a year earlier. Almost all hybrid cars best the 22 mph minimum combined EPA mileage that qualifies a vehicle to be purchased using a cash for clunkers voucher. By comparison, sales of conventional new vehicles rose 15.4 percent for the month and were down 13 percent from July '08.
The explosive performance was led almost single-handedly by Toyota's 2010 Prius, which saw its first full month of sales with an adequate supply on hand at dealerships.
"I think hybrids are benefiting from the buzz of new models such as the 2010 Prius and Honda Insight and fresh models in segments other than compact car, as well as from Cash for Clunkers," said Edmunds.com industry analyst Jessica Caldwell.
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.
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2009 Camry Hybrid has lowest technology premium, $239.
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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.
General Motors, a leader in development of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, may have to curtail its cutting-edge work unless it gets another $50 million to $70 million from the government, GM's outgoing research chief warns.
GM just emerged from a painful bankruptcy restructuring in which it cut 1,100 dealers; shed Pontiac, Hummer and Saturn; and lost thousands more jobs. Yet, through it all, GM maintained its hydrogen research program pretty much intact, even though fuel-cell vehicles are still years away from going on sale.
"The program has not slowed down at all," Larry Burns (pictured), GM's retiring vice president of research, said in an interview with USA Today. "The issue is, going forward, do we have sufficient money to operate at that rate?"
You may recall that Burns is one of the auto industry's most outspoken backers of hydrogen technology. He shepherded the Chevrolet Equinox fuel-cell electric vehicle into existence and has helped lead the charge for development of a national hydrogen fueling system to support widespread use of the zero-emissions vehicles.
Trying to seek federal research dollars, directly or indirectly, comes at a sensitive time for GM. As of last month, the automaker had either accepted or been approved for $49.4 billion in government bailout funds. It has not had direct grants from the government for its hydrogen program.
Now, General Motors is in talks with "government and private entities" about grants or partnerships in hydrogen vehicle research, confirms GM spokesman Alan Adler.
Under Burns, GM has become known for its fuel-cell work. "They have done so much original, groundbreaking work in this area," Catherine Dunwoody, executive director of the California Fuel Cell Partnership, told USA Today.
Burns, 58, says he decided to retire to give the new GM fresh research leadership under Alan Taub, 54, who, he says, will continue with the same direction.
Hydrogen is a zero-emission fuel that emits only water vapor through the tailpipe. But fuel cells are costly, few fueling stations exist, and mass acceptance is considered years away.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu cut $100 million from the $168 million hydrogen research budget to focus instead on battery electric cars, which show more short-term promise. There are moves in Congress to restore hydrogen funding.
"It took over sixty years and six generations of gasoline engines for the Chevy Corvette to accelerate from zero to sixty miles per hour in under four seconds. The first version of the Tesla Roadster, which is the world's first Lithium-ion battery powered car, achieved that feat immediately. Whereas earlier generations of electric cars were plagued by poor performance, high cost, and short ranges, a new generation of affordable, high-performance electric cars is about to enter the U.S. market."
---------- Right, click on the image to enlarge it. ----------
Thus begins a very readable and interesting report commissioned by U.C. Berkeley's Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology entitled, "Electric Vehicles in the United States: A New Model with Forecasts to 2030." Its author is Thomas Becker, a U.C. Berkeley economist who specializes in international and environmental economics.
The paper estimates the rate of market adoption of EVs in the U.S. through 2030 and analyzes the impact of electric-car deployment on the trade balance, business investment, employment, health care costs and greenhouse-gas emissions. And, the paper forecasts three electric-vehicle adoption scenarios based on two oil price scenarios and possible purchase price incentives for electric cars.
Before moving on to a summary of the paper, there are some things we feel you ought to know about it. In response to a query from Green Car Advisor, the university acknowledged that Better Place - a huge advocate of electric vehicles in general and the major proponent of battery switching technology in particular - helped fund the program that conducted the study, which found that the U.S. can greatly benefit from EVs and battery switching.
The study's premise is that electric vehicles would be sold without batteries at a cost similar to conventional gasoline or diesel cars, and the batteries would be leased at a cost approximating the monthly cost of gasoline for a conventional vehicle.
That is a big part of Better Place's business model. The company envisions itself as a major battery leasing enterprise and operator of quick-change battery swapping stations.
We queried the university and Better Place after both issued reports Monday that shed an attractive light on electric vehicles. The timing of the reports seemed coordinated; the university and Better Place denied that the same release date was anything more than a coincidence. Click on "5-Nation Survey by Electric Vehicle Backer Shows Strong Consumer Interest in EVs" to read our piece on the report issued by Better Place.
Now, without further adieu, click on the "Continue reading" button, below, to read a summary of the U.C. Berkeley study.
General Motors Corp. is close to announcing its decision to locate a new small-car plant at an existing facility in Orion Township, Michigan, The Wall Street Journal
(subscription required) and The Detroit News
reported today, citing unnamed sources.
GM spokespersons Tom Pyden and Sherrie Childers declined to confirm the location of the plant, but the former said an announcement would come as soon as today.
The automaker had been looking at three plants that were slated to close as part of GM's bankruptcy reorganization: in Orion; Spring Hill, Tennessee; and Janesville, Wisconsin. The Orion plant currently produces Chevrolet Malibu and Pontiac G6 sedans.
The Journal said the Orion plant was chosen in part because the region has many displaced autoworkers and because the facility is already a passenger-car plant, rather than a truck factory, meaning it potentially will be less expensive to retool for a small car, said one of the people familiar with the matter.
The News reported that tax breaks, not retooling savings, gave Orion the edge. According to the newspaper, Orion Township officials recently sweetened an offer to GM that includes a 100 percent tax break on new machinery and equipment for up to 25 years - more than double what was offered earlier this month.
General Motors will build the Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric car in China beginning in 2011 as part of the automaker's plan to roll out its revolutionary technology in a wide variety of vehicles around the world, AutoBeat Asia (subscription required) reports today.
All Volts built in China are to be sold there, according to the newsletter.
But the Volt's chief spokesperson, Rob Peterson, in an email sent to Green Car Advisor minutes ago, wrote:
"The Chevrolet Volt and Opel Ampera will be produced at GM's Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant. There are currently no plans to build the Chevrolet Volt outside of the United States at this time. (Note: Volt launches late 2010 in U.S., Ampera launches in caledar year 2011, Volts produced in D-Hamtramck are exported to China in calendar year 2011.)"
Outside the U.S., the Volt will be marketed as the Holden Volt, the Opel Ampera and the Vauxhall Ampera.
As we've previously reported, the Chinese government is aggressively promoting electric and hybrid vehicles as a way to reduce oil consumption and improve air quality in the country's polluted cities. So AutoBeat Asia's report wasn't far-fetched, even if it proved to be wrong.
China wants to have 60,000 alternative-fuel vehicles on the road by 2012, up from virtually none today. Most of the vehicles will be hybrids, but the government is eager to promote pure electric vehicles.
Fortunately for the Detroit 3, BYD's market right now is limited to China, and after the company unveiled its F3DM PHEV to North America. BYD has since announced that it doesn't intend to export the vehicle to America until 2011.
Chevy Volt Vehicle Chief Engineer Andrew Farah takes the first pre-production Volt for a drive earlier today.
After all the spy pics and autoshow rollouts of the so-called Chevrolet Volt, you might have thought you'd already seen the real deal. More than once probably.
But until today, the closest thing to a Volt that General Motors had unveiled to the masses was a mule - the not-so-flattering reference of an autobody married to a powertrain and other systems that aren't Volt-like at all.
The images you see here are an entirely different matter. They are, in fact, the very first photos of the pre-production Volt gasoline-electric extended-range hybrid.
What you see here is what some of you will get, with the exception of a few chiefly cosmetic items such as light clusters that designers and/or engineers are still tinkering with.
And somewhat remarkably - given all the turmoil GM has been through lately - the vehicle was completed a week ahead of schedule. That's right: GM had a July 4th deadline for the pre-production Volt.
The global economic crisis may force Jaguar to postpone production of its XE two-seat roadster beyond its hoped-for 2011 Geneva show debut, but the sports car will be fitted with a Chevy Volt-like powerplant when it does make an appearance.
That according to a report by Motor Trend, which says an electric motor with an extended-range three-cylinder gas engine is being engineered for the new-age E-Type.
Whether that powerplant would be in addition to Jaguar's conventional 5.0-liter and supercharged 5.0-liter V8s is unknown, as is whether the extended-range XE will make it beyond the concept stage.
Also unclear is whether the electric XE would be in addition to an extended-range electric XJ said to be scheduled for introduction in late 2011 (a year after the conventional XJ's release).
Ratan Tata, whose company bought Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford Motor Company, is said to support the XE's development. His father once owned a Jaguar XK120, and Tata told Autocar earlier this year, "We need to emerge with something shiny and new, which is why we are reprioritizing the roadster right now."
In addition to the Volt, an extended-range electric XJ would likely give the Fisker Karma some competition.
The official word from General Motors is that production of the 2010 Chevrolet Malibu hybrid has been suspended, to allow dealers to clean up a big backlog of the slow-selling model.
No word on how cancellation of next year's model will affect a possible 2011 model, but our best guess is the Malibu hybrid is gone, at least with the present mild or "weak" hybrid system.
It's most likely time to start signing "Bye bye, 'bu 'brid."
But GM spokesman Brian Corbett says that service for the '08 and '09 Malibu hybrids that have been sold "will not be an issue" and that there's an adequate supply of batteries in stock to take care of future maintenance needs for that critical component.
The hybrid system, he said, will continue to be covered by the 8-year or 100,000-mile warranty (10 years on the battery in California), and as (if?) dealers sell more of the '09 models, they'll be able to continue servicing them.
We at Green Car Advisor subscribe to many news services, and every so often one of them publishes a headline that stops us in our tracks.
The headline above, appearing in Wednesday's Automotive News Daily Newsletter, was one of them.
Everyone knows you don't put all your eggs in one basket, right? Everyone but the General, apparently.
Yes, yes, it's been said many times that General Motors didn't make small, gutless wonders (that nonetheless got great gas mileage) for the U.S. market because Americans didn't want them (except during the four months or so last year when a gallon of regular cost $4 or more).
And there's truth to that: As GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz has said many times, Americans want big and powerful vehicles. Those that don't want them, he has said, and said, and said, represent a very small minority.
And because the world's largest automaker by volume (formerly) decided not to spend as freely on small-car development as it did, say, on muscle car development and on perks such as private jets and other "necessities" for its executives, it found itself standing and unable to find an empty chair when the music stopped, so to speak.
But now, says the Automotive News report, GM is ready to tackle small cars. Here's the report in a nutshell:
GM thinks it has come up with a factory method it calls "interbuildability" to build small vehicles profitably in North America.
The rest of the world knows the method as "standardization." In this instance, GM is standardizing its factories worldwide so different models on the same architecture will have plug-and-play component modules, such as exhaust systems and front-end modules.
Now here's the good news (the bad news being that GM hadn't considered this well-known method sooner):
Gary Cowger, GM's group vice president for global manufacturing and labor relations, told Automotive News that a new group of mid-sized cars will be the first to demonstrate the system. That group includes the 2009 Opel Insignia and a new Buick Regal that will begin production in the U.S. next year.
The Chevy Malibu hybrid - a hybrid that really wasn't - soon won't be.
General Motors is killing the car, citing slow sales and a hefty backlog, according to the Wall Street Journal, which broke the news Wednesday night in the subscriber-only portion of its online publication.
We can't say we'll miss it.
The Malibu hybrid is what's called a mild-hybrid, too mild in this case. Its small electric motor isn't really used for much, other than providing instant start-up for the gas engine, which shuts down at stop signs and other situations where a conventional car would sit and idle.
The stop-start function saves a tiny bit of gas and helps cut noxious, smog causing emissions, but does nothing to make the Malibu hybrid competitive with cars like the Nissan Altima and Toyota Camry hybrids - cars that should be rivals but are clearly too superior to even be on the same court as the Chevy.
The WSJ report cites an unnamed GM spokesman as saying the company will continue making Malibu Milds for the commercial and government fleet markets, but not for regular consumer - who don't seem to want them, anyway.
Since it's inception last August, sales of the Malibu hybrid have averaged just 388 a month. Its best month was one of its last - May, with 706 sales, and those thanks largely to fleet buying and fairly big incentives. It's worst month was January, with just 145 sales.
One reason the Malibu hybrid did so poorly that that GM failed to make a compelling case for it.
The car, like its conventional Malibu siblings, is a good one - perhaps one of the best sedans GM has turned out in decades.
But a base 4-cylinder 2009 Malibu costs $22,325 before whatever incentives GM and its dealers are throwing on the hood these days. The 2009 Malibu hybrid, with all the same regular equipment and a few upgrades including its petite hybrid system (batteries, electric motor, regenerative braking to charge the batteries and a beefed-up power management computer to make it all work) comes in at $3,950 more.
Worse, the system delivers just 33 miles per gallon in combined city and highway driving, according to EPA estimates, while the regular 4-cylinder delivers 33 mpg. That's a lot of premium to pay for a 3 percent bump in fuel economy and not much else.
LG Chem Ltd., South Korea's leading producer of chemicals, broke ground today on an $802 million factory that will be used to build lithium-ion polymer batteries for electric vehicles.
The ground-breaking took place in Ochang Techno Park, some 60 miles south of Seoul, with officials from both General Motors Corp. and Hyundai Motor Co. witnessing the event.
Robert Kruse, GM executive director-global vehicle engineering, and Yang Woong-chul, Hyundai president of research and development, were on hand as both automakers have contracts with LG Chem to supply batteries for their electric-vehicle and hybrid programs.
LG Chem will begin shipping LPI batteries for GM's Chevrolet Volt program in November 2010, company officials said. A subsidiary of LG Chem in Troy, Michigan, will assemble the batteries into packs for use in the car.
South Korea's Minister of Knowledge Economy Lee Youn-ho told reporters that the "government plans to grow the Korean green-car industry to be one of the world's Big Four by the mid-2010s."
The government will provide research and development funds to LG Chem, he said. No figure was given.
In a regulatory filing, the company said it expects global demand for EV batteries to reach 3.3 million units by 2013 and 4.6 million by 2015.
The company's revenue from battery sales is projected at more than $1.6 billion by 2015, when the global market is estimated to be more than $8 billion, the filing revealed.
Until now the only color General Motors has allowed us to view the production 2011 Chevrolet Volt in is silver.
But John McElroy over at Autoline Daily (subscription required) has managed to take some of the first pics of the Volt in another color, as you can see for yourself.
Complementing the jet-black paint is a stingy (some might say subtle) amount of chrome. Some cars look awesome in black, but we think the Volt looks better in the original color.
General Motors has yet to disclose the various colors the Volt will be available in when it enters the marketplace 18 months or so from now.
Below, we've used a photo-editing tool to show you how the car would look in other paint colors, namely metalic copper, misty green and pale purple. Click on the pics for enlargements.
Plug In Conversions Corp. has completed a breakthrough software upgrade to its plug-in conversion kit that for the first time will allow all-electric mode driving at speeds of up to 70 miles per hour in a converted Toyota Prius.
Previous Prius conversion kits have been limited by Toyota programming to a top speed of 34 mph in all-electric mode.
The software upgrade also will allow Prius drivers with PICC conversion kits to boost highway fuel efficiency to 170 miles per gallon until the rechargeable battery is depleted, as recently measured by Argonne National Laboratory.
Chicago-based Argonne reported even higher all-electric mileage in city driving tests of vehicles equipped with the software upgrade and PICC's nickel-metal hydride battery conversion kit.
"What we're essentially offering is all-electric performance for about 25 miles at highway speeds," PICC President Kim Adelman said Tuesday. "The car is no longer limited to 34 miles per hour, all-electric. This also allows a Prius to perform much like the Chevy Volt, but for a much lower cost."
Fuzzy Math
Not so fast. A 2010 Prius starts at $22,000. Add the cost of the conversion kit ($12,500) and the software upgrade ($2500) and the cost of this impressive Prius starts at $37,000.
The Volt, which won't be available for at least 18 months, is expected to carry a price of about $40,000 before a hefty $7,500 rebate from Uncle Sam, which would bring its price down to $32,500 - or $4,500 less than the modified Prius.
When GreenCarAdvisor reached Adelman by phone Tuesday afternoon to point out the discrepancy, he said that most Prius owners who convert their vehicles don't do so when they are new.
He said their Priuses are generally used and worth $14,000 to $15,000 at the time of conversion, but we don't see how that changes things if the owner paid $22,000 for it new. The car has depreciated, but the out-of-pocket expense remains the same.
Adelman also said he believed that the conversion kit will soon be eligible for a 10 percent rebate, which would reduce its price to $11,250. That would still make the converted Prius $3,250 more expensive than the Volt.
Says Cars Now Dictated by Federal Policy, Not Demand, But Calls Volt Part of the Future
He still comes across as a sort of automotive Neanderthal, convinced that if Detroit just keeps shoving muscle cars out the door people will gobble them up.
But Bob Lutz (left), General Motors' vice chairman and car guy extraordinaire is also the Chevrolet Volt's biggest backer and provided a fascinating look in Sunday's Washington Post at how the Volt came to be and what he thinks of its chances and its ability to help rejuvenate the General.
The lengthy article, well worth reading, explores GM's financial decline, its unwillingness in the early days to see Toyota's funny little Prius as a serious threat and throughout is saturated with Lutz's view of things.
It is, in fact, a fond look at the man who brought us the Dodge Viper as well as the Volt and is preparing to retire later this year at age 77 after 45 years in the auto industry, where he's worked at Opel and BMW in Germany, at Ford, Chrysler and GM, and also spent three years as head of battery developer Exide Corp.
But we digress.
Volt Needed, Not Desired
On the topic of the Volt, Lutz remains insistent that it is exactly the kind of car GM needs to produce right now in order to satisfy political demand for advanced-technology, fuel-efficient cars.
He's not persuaded though, that the Volt or any other green car is what the American consumer is crying out for.
Like an infamous former vice president of the U.S., Lutz divides the country into East and West coast intellectuals and the rest of America, which he says still wants V8 engines and sexy styling.
"When you get out into the marketplace, it's probably just 5 percent of the public that desperately wants something environmentally sound and is willing to pay a premium for it," he said in the interview.
"I would say the East and West Coast intellectual establishment kind of lives in its own world. When you get to the broad American marketplace, excitement [over autos] is still kind of defined in the way it used to be."
General Motors expanded its battery research and development capabilities today with the opening of the largest and possibly most advanced battery laboratory in the United States.
---------- Right, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and GM CEO Fritz Henderson prior to press conference announcing the opening of GM's newest battery lab. ----------
The new Global Battery Systems Lab in Warren, Michigan, will lead GM's advanced-battery engineering efforts and expedite the introduction of electrical-powered vehicles, including the Chevrolet Volt, as well as plug-in hybrid and hybrid-electric vehicles and fuel-cell vehicles.
In a statement released today, the automaker described the lab's opening as the latest move in GM's comprehensive battery strategy, which includes ramping up in-house responsibility for advanced battery technology and a broad portfolio of supplier partners.
At 33,000 square feet, the lab is four times larger than the automaker's previous battery laboratory on the same GM campus and will be used by the automaker's thousand-plus engineers assigned to developing advanced batteries and electrically driven vehicles.
Low-cost, lightweight and powerful batteries are widely regarded as the final piece of the puzzle to an affordable all-electric vehicle, so the importance of the lab to GM at a time when the automaker is in deep financial trouble cannot be overstated.
Toyota Motor Corp. on Wednesday announced that it would begin leasing 500 plug-in hybrids based on the Prius model globally by the end of this year, primarily for government and corporate use.
Toyota, the world's biggest automaker, said in a statement it would lease 200 in Japan and 150 each in the United States and Europe, including 100 in France.
Plug-in hybrid cars can be cleaner than regular hybrids because they can be charged to run purely on electricity, but the need for more batteries makes them expensive. Many companies are working to bring the price of the batteries down, which in turn would reduce the price of the low-emissions, fuel-efficient vehicles.
Toyota's plug-in cars would be the brand's first to employ lithium-ion batteries, which are costly but can store more energy than nickel-metal hydride batteries used in most gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles.
Among other carmakers, bankrupt General Motors Corp. is planning to launch its much-hyped Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid next year.
In the statement, Toyota said it is developing a plug-in hybrid vehicle based on the third-generation Prius and capable of being recharged via external power sources such as household electrical outlets.
A plug-in hybrid vehicle typically operates as an electric vehicle when used for short distances and as a conventional hybrid vehicle when used for medium- to long-distance trips. This means it can be driven regardless of remaining battery power or the availability of a battery-charging infrastructure.
Sales of hybrid cars and trucks outperformed the market in May, giving lie to the belief, popular among mainstream industry analysts and pundits, that Americans are only interested in the gas-electric vehicles when fuel prices are stratospheric.
---------- 2009 Prius was top hybrid with best sales in 7 months. ----------
In a month when sales of non-hybrid vehicles rose 12.9 percent from the prior month, hybrid sales were up 18.2 percent. Incentives were applied liberally to hybrids and conventional vehicles alike during May, reducing the likelihood that cash-back offers or cheap interest rates unfairly boosted hybrid sales.
And while sales of both hybrids and conventional vehicles fell far short of matching year-earlier tallies, hybrid sales were off only 26.7 percent from May, 20008, compared to a 33.5 percent decline for non-hybrids.
At the same time, conventional small car sales fell short of overall market performance, indicating that shoppers had more than just fuel economy on their minds. The hybrid market may be benefiting from increased concern that fuel prices, which have been below $3 a gallon for nearly a year after approaching the $4-per-gallon mark last summer, are on the rise again and may be heading for new highs.
In all, dealers sold 25,693 hybrids last month, up from 21,735 in April but down from 35,042 in May 2008.
With the exception of Toyota's Camry hybrid, the top-selling Prius - which continues to dominate the U.S. hybrid market - and Honda's Civic hybrid, sales of individual models are low enough that it doesn't take much to cause a large jump in percent of increase or decline.
That said, Ford's new Fusion sedan hybrid scored an impressive 75 percent gain from April while sales of the Ford Escape SUV hybrid were up 62.2 percent for the same period.
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.
General Motors Corp., which was going to import a new subcompact car called the Chevrolet Spark directly from China when it goes on sale in 2011, now says it will build them, and at least 100,000 more new small cars each year, in the U.S.
---------- Spark Concept at Detroit auto show. ----------
The decision is being billed as a concession to the UAW to get the autoworkers union to sign off on GM's reorganization plan, and that's likely true.
But we suspect it also is part of GM's response to new federal fuel-efficiency standards and the Obama administration's push to wring more small car production out of the U.S. auto industry - now mostly in thrall to the federal government because it is supplying both GM and Chrysler the cash they need to stay in business.
Whatever the reasons, GM now says it will build up to 160,000 new small cars at a previously shuttered plant that it will reopen and dedicate to small-car production.
The automaker isn't disclosing the location of the plant yet. There are many shuttered locations to choose from and the company probably is asking the various communities to vie for the jobs a plant reopening will bring by offering tax breaks and other concessions that will help cut GM's operating costs.
Nor is GM saying which cars will be built at the plant.
We believe the Spark will be one - but as GM was only planning on annual U.s. sales of 50,000 of the three-door hatchbacks, we expect at least one, maybe two other compacts or subcompact models will be built there.
If you tuned into Late Show With David Letterman
last night you saw the 62-year-old talk show host do a good impersonation of Sam Donaldson, the longtime reporter for ABC News famous for asking hard-hitting questions.
Letterman's subject: None other than Bob Lutz, the 77-year-old vice chairman of General Motors Corp. The interview came three weeks after Letterman had Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk on the show and the two shared considerable laughter at GM's expense.
In perfect Donaldson style, Letterman didn't pull many punches, asking "Maximum" Bob pointed questions such as why GM seems incapable of building a battery-electric car like Tesla's Roadster and why don't U.S. automakers do the patriotic thing and make more fuel-efficient vehicles so we're less dependent on foreign oil. Letterman all but said American troops are dying in Iraq over oil.
Lutz responded with his usual song-and-dance, variously blaming the U.S. government for stupid regulations, and successive administrations for making bad policy -- such as keeping the cost of gasoline in America low and yet expecting Detroit to produce fuel-efficient vehicles when little demand exists for them.
But perhaps sensing that Letterman wasn't about to let him off the ropes, Lutz said something he's not wont to say unless pushed:
"Let's face it. During the '70s, '80s and up through the early '90s, the U.S. car companies built some really bad cars. And a lot of people still have that memory from their family -- 'My dad said don't ever buy an American car because they're all crap.' -- and of course that was true at one point but it's no longer true."
(Note: Updated 5 p.m. 5/7/09 to include link to Hydrogen and Fuel Cell groups' joint statement.)
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
In a huge blow to backers of fuel-cell electric vehicles, the nation's top energy official said today he sees little promise of the technology becoming a significant player in the nation's transportation system within the next two decades.
---------- Honda's FCX Clarity, now being tested in Southern California, uses a hydrogen fuel cell to provide electric power. ----------
As a result, Energy Secretary Stephen Chu is proposing that more than $100 million be cut from the Energy Department hydrogen program in the 2010 budget the administration is submitting to Congress.
The proposed budget slashes hydrogen fuel cell spending by 59 percent to just $68 million and focuses on programs for stationary power generation rather than for transportation.
"We asked ourselves, 'Is it likely in the next 10 or 15, 20 years that we will covert to a hydrogen car economy?' The answer, we felt, was 'no,'" Chu said in a briefing today.
The National Hydrogen Association and the U.S. Fuel Cell Coalition quickly issued a joint statement criticizing the program cuts.
A few days ago we moaned that General Motors Corp.'s decision to sell the Saturn brand would kill the company's planned Vue plug-in hybrid and reported that GM people were saying the company didn't have plans to quickly shift the technology to another brand.
We were right about the Vue plug-in, and are now thrilled to report that GM says it will do a replacement plug-in hybrid for either the Chevrolet, Buick, GMC or Cadillac brands (all that will be left after the company completes "Reorganization II: The Come Back").
It will be used on a compact crossover SUV and be entered into fleet service in 2011, according to GM Vice Chairman Tom Stephens, who disclosed the plan Tuesday on GM's FastLane blog.
Stephens didn't say so, but we'd expect retail sales of the new GM plug-in hybrid to follow sometime in 2012 unless the fleet operators have a terrible experience with it.
What he did say was that GM plans to offer 14 hybrid and electric vehicles by 2012 -- the "electric" apparently being the Chevrolet Volt, which GM insists on calling an extended range electric vehicle.
Unlike the Volt, which actually is a type of plug-in hybrid that uses only its electric motor for propulsion, the unnamed 2011 plug-in won't run solely on electric power but will use its electric motor to augment the gas engine (the Volt, due at the end of next year, uses its gas engine as a generator to provide electricity when the battery pack's charge is depleted).
Because it will use a more powerful battery pack than a conventional hybrid carries -- a grid-rechargeable battery pack - the new plug-in also will be able to provide a certain amount of all-electric drive before the battery charge is depleted and it reverts to operating like a conventional hybrid operation until it is plugged-in and the batteries are charged-up again.
Stephens said the plug-in will use a version of the GM dual-mode hybrid system now employed on Chevrolet and GMC hybrid SUVs and pickups.
A gleeful General Motors Corp. says that preliminary tests using the same protocol the EPA employs shows that its redesigned 2010 Chevrolet Equinox crossover SUV will get 32 miles per gallon on the highway.
The figure, moderated by a 30 percent lower city cycle of 22 miles per gallon for overall fuel economy of around 26 mpg, is for the front-wheel drive model equipped with the 2.4-liter direct-injected four-cylinder engine (right)
.
The ailing automaker, desperately in need of new models that will bring buyers into its dealerships, said the official EPA ratings are due "shortly." The 2010 Equinox is scheduled to hit showrooms in June.
The Equinox' chief rivals in the midsized crossover, four-cylinder SUV segment are the 2.4-liter Honda CR-V, which received a 2009 EPA fuel economy rating of 20 mpg in the city and 27 mpg on the highway (23 mpg combined), and the 2.5-liter Toyota RAV-4, with an EPA rating of 22 mpg city and 28 mpg highway (24 mpg combined).
Mindful that growing numbers of shoppers now are demanding fuel efficiency as well as utility in their SUVs - and that it has to meet that demand or die - GM had vowed when it showed the redesigned Equinox at the Detroit auto Show in January that it would get at least 30 miles a gallon on the highway.
Hybrid sales in the U.S. rose in April for the fourth consecutive month and posted the highest monthly volume since October 2008.
---------- Honda's 2010 Insight was one of the bright spots in the U.S. hybrid market in April. ----------
The bump illustrates the influence that novelty and price still have on the market: Honda's new Insight, Ford's new Fusion and a heavily incentivized Honda Civic hybrid overcame slumping sales of many other gas-electric models to account for the gain.
But in a month when car and light truck sales overall still fell well below the one-million mark, the performance of the hybrid segment wasn't much to get excited about.
The month-over-month increase wasn't strong enough, for example, to put April's hybrid sales in contention with April 2008, when gasoline prices averaged above $3.50 a gallon, car buyers were scouring the market for fuel-efficient models and recession hadn't begun wreaking havoc with the economy.
Financially struggling General Motors Corp., interested in getting as much positive press as it can these days, is making a rough draft of its Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid available to automotive journalists for limited test drive sessions at the company's research center.
InsideLine's Daniel Pund took a spin the other day and found it to be "more of a progress report than a final assessment."
GM, which has a month to get everyone signed on to its recovery plan if it wants to avoid a government-forced Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, has pinned a lot of its future on thesuccess of the Volt and other alternative fuel vehicles
The car the journos are testing is a modified Chevrolet Cruz (it uses the same platform as the Volt, which isn't slated for production until the end of next year) fitted with the present generation of the Volt's extended-range electric drive system (right).
The test car shows, Pund writes, that "as far as we can tell, development seems to be coming along nicely."
What he tested, he says, is very much "an electric car" with the smooth, quiet operation and impressive low-speed torque that characeterizes same.
Although techniocally a hybrid, the Volt only uses its internal combustion engine to generate electricity when the batteries, initially charged from the commercial power grid, are depleted.
And GM supplied a "mule" (auto-speak for a test car that uses a different body or platform than slated for the the production model) with fully charged batteries and never let Pund push it to the point that the gas engine/generator kicked in.
The fact that General Motors still makes vehicles sometimes gets lost amid all the news and speculation about the fate of GM as an ongoing business.
But it does make cars and trucks and one of the newest is the 2009 Chevrolet Silverado dual-mode hybrid pickup, which Edmunds.com Engineering Editor Jason Kavanagh recently drove and reports on today in a First Drive review for Inside Line.
We recommend you jump over and give his piece a read, but the short version is that Jason liked it, found that it is a good, full-service pickup with plenty of towing and hauling capacity, great acceleration, good road manners and 20-mpg fuel economy.
The downside is the roughly $4,000 hybrid premium, which would take more than a decade to earn back with fuel savings at today's $2.05 a gallon (national average) gas prices.
The pay-back period, of course, would get shorter as gas prices rise, which we expect will happen.
Besides the economics, there's also the environmental benefit -- harder to measure but worth considering. Driven 15,000 miles a year, the non-hybrid 5.3-liter Silverado annually would burn almost 190 gallons of gasoline more than the hybrid, and would produce about 1.5 tons more CO2.
And that's worth considering when making a choice.
Saturn Vue 2-Mode Hybrid, due this year, and plug-in Vue due in 2011 now appear dead.
GM says it will kill Saturn to help make some of its financial woes go away, and we expect the beleaguered automaker and its federal minders have done the number crunching and know whereof they speak.
But in killing its most fuel-efficient brand, GM also will be ending plans for several new Saturn hybrids, including dual-mode and plug-in hybrid Saturn Vue crossovers.
We figure that with its dramatic new restructuring plan also calling for the end of Hummer, Pontiac and Saab as GM brands, killing Saturn and its hybrids (it already markets the Vue Greenline mild hybrid and the Aura full hybrid sedan) won't damage GM's average fuel economy standing. Loss of the less-efficient Hummer and Pontiac brands will cancel out loss of Saturn and Saab in the annual corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) computation.
But GM tells us that it doesn't have plans to quickly shift the Vue hybrids -- existing and planned -- onto surviving Chevrolet, GMC, Buick or Cadillac platforms, and that's a shame. It would seem to run counter to the government's goal of getting a million plug-ins on the road by 2020.
Automakers Need Rechargeable Hybrids, EVs, Task Force Consultants Say
The Boston Consulting Group, hired by the Treasury Department to analyze recovery plans being submitted by General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC to the administration's Automotive Task Force, says it stands by the accuracy of its January report on the prospects of the electric vehicle segment in coming years.
The global consulting firm's analysis came under fire last week from Felix Kramer, founder of the influential plug-in hybrid and EV advocacy group California Car Initiative, or CalCars.
He said in a lengthy posting on the CalCars website that he feared the consultants had based their finding - that electrified vehicles are too costly still to be competitive with internal combustion engine vehicles without a wide range of government incentives - on flawed data.
Kramer's concern is that while the Obama administration has said it wants to encourage development of plug-in electric vehicles with a goal of seeing a million on the road by 2015, the consulting group seems to be downplaying rather that supporting the idea that such a goal is attainable.
Kramer linked the consulting group's January report to the the task force's finding, when it rejected GM's inital recovery plan last month, that the Cvevrolet Volt plug-in due out at the end of next year will be too pricey to be commerically viable in the early years. He appears to be concerned that this is an indication that the task force is getting advice to tell GM to drop or delay the project.
But GM has said it will move ahead with the Volt and in a short statement provided Green Car Advisor today, Boston Consulting said that its Janauary report did not single out the Volt or any other specific model and that, indeed, it believes rechargeable, or plug-in, hybrids and all-electric vehicles need to be part of every automaker's fleet.
Here's the statement:
"Our January 2009 report, "The Comeback of the Electric Car? How Real, How Soon, and What Must Happen Next," discusses the prerequisites necessary for widespread adoption of electric cars in general, and not of specific models.
"The report's analysis was based on information from a wide range of sources and on a modeling of the propulsion-market evolution in Western Europe, North America, Japan and China, incorporating regional differences in average mileage, carbon dioxide regulations, taxes and likely acceptance of technologies.
"According to our projections, [global] sales of around 3 million electric cars and 11 million hybrids by 2020 are realistic under reasonable incentives and fuel-cost assumptions, with ICE-based cars still making the majority of the market.
As the report makes clear, our view is that all automotive manufacturers need to include rechargeable, or plug-in, hybrid-electric vehicles in their fleets. But unless governments intervene with strong incentives for car makers, power companies and consumers, key auto markets will remain dominated by ICE-based cars.
Since the report's publication, numerous informed parties - including many OEMs, suppliers and battery makers - have reaffirmed the validity of our estimates and conclusions. We will provide future updates as our research unfolds."
Advocacy Group Thinks Panel's Consultants Use Flawed Arguments to Downplay Technology
It's great that the Obama Administration is trying to do something to save the U.S. auto industry, but a bit unsettling that the right hand doesn't seem to know what the left is up to - a common Washington problem in general, we imagine, and in particular a problem in a new administration trying to grapple with half a dozen catastrophic events simultaneously.
----------
GM's Chevy Volt is seen by consultants as too expensive to be commercially viable in the nearterm.
----------
The issue we're talking about is the seeming disconnect between the president's oft-stated goal of promoting development of rechargeable, or plug-in, hybrid-electric vehicles - with a goal of having a million of them on the road by 2015 - and the administration's Automotive Task Force's apparent reliance on a consulting group that hasn't seen much future in plug-ins.
Felix Kramer, founder of the plug-in hybrid advocacy group California Cars Initiative, raised the alarm in a piece posted this week on the CalCars.org website.
It seems that the Obama administration, whose task force is charged with helping figure out how to save the U.S. auto industry, has awarded the Boston Consulting Group a contract worth up to $7 million for an analysis of the prospects of General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC.
Both automakers have said in the restructuring plans they've presented to the government that plug-in vehicles - hybrid and "pure" electric - will play a big role in their futures.
But Boston Consulting, Kramer says, has relied too heavily in the past on "business as usual" assumptions and "flawed data" in assessing plug-ins.
Kramer cites one recent report from the company, co-authored by one American- and four German-based analysts, titled "The Comeback of the Electric Car? How Real, How Soon, and What Must Happen Next." (Click here to download the 10-page report.)
The press release issued by the company to promote the report when it was released in January was headlined "Electric Cars Are Unlikely to Help Carmakers Cut CO2 Emissions Significantly by 2020," a less neutral approach that alerts you to the one of the report's conclusions.
We've no axe to grind with a hard-nosed assessment of the facts, but Kramer argues that the consulting company's analysis of the plug-in EV scene uses outdated, excessively high battery costs and ignores the impact of recent U.S. funding programs for battery development.
Green Car Advisor hopes to get Boston Consulting to comment, but two days after taking our request under consideration (with the remark that it would be unfair of us to write about Kramer's concerns without including BCG's response) the best the company's been able to come up with is a "no comment at this time."
Cadillac Converj concept uses GM 's extended-range plug-in system for all-electric drive.
It's time for the "will they or won't they" game to begin.
Motor Trend magazine says that GM insiders have leaked word that the Cadillac Converj extended-range hybrid has been given the green light for production.
General Motors Corp.'s official response is that the Caddy version of the Chevrolet Volt is still jut a concept undergoing, as do many concepts, ongoing review for production possibilities.
"We'll provide details if the status changes," said GM spokesman Rob Peterson - a statement that could be taken, if you were so inclined, to mean that GM at least is holding out the possibility that the status will change.
(A Cadillac spokesman said approximately the same thing Thursday to Inside Line's Straightline news blog, which interpreted it as an outright denial.)
The Converj, which would use the same "EFlex" extended-range series hybrid system as the Volt, was a big hit at the detroit Auto Show and would give GM the opportunity to sell a premium-priced version of its plug-in hybrid to help recoup come of the development costs.
But, of course, financially crippled GM is still working with the feds on a plan to stay alive and its ability to spend big bucks to get a car like the Converj ready for production is an even bigger question mark than its desire to do so.
If the Converj were to be slated for Cadillac dealers' showrooms, it likely would be a 2012 model, with a hefty price tag: The Volt, due out at the end of 2010, is expected to carry a sticker of somewhere between $35,000 and $45,000 and a Converj could easily double that - or more.
Ford's SmartGauge features a multitude of displays to help people become more fuel-efficient drivers.
By Robert E. Calem, Contributor
Regardless of the kind of car you drive, one of the keys to improving fuel economy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions is to drive smarter - don't hammer the accelerator pedal, don't brake harshly and do steadily maintain just enough speed to keep up with the flow of traffic without passing everyone in sight.
These often are not easy tasks.
To help, automakers have begun rolling out new features and technologies that call attention to uneconomical driving behavior and offer "rewards" for fuel-efficient driving.
Some of these features are passive, like instrument panels that change color as fuel economy improves.
Others more actively engage with the driver, such as an accelerator pedal that pushes back when pressed too aggressively.
Some automakers are even working on technologies that will be able to take the driver out of the fuel economy equation by allowing the car to practically drive itself with best mileage in mind.
Read on to learn more about the driver training features and technologies in cars you can buy today, and be able to buy tomorrow.
Smart Gauges Make Smarter Drivers
"The whole idea is coaching the driver, but as a good coach you don't want to preach," says Sonya Nematollahi, driver information engineering supervisor at Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn, Mich., while describing the "SmartGauge with EcoGuide" instrument cluster in the 2010 Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan hybrids.
Conceived by Ford in collaboration with IDEO, the design and innovation consultancy that also devised the Swivel 'n Go seating in Chrysler minivans, SmartGauge consists of two 4.3-inch, high-resolution color LCD screens - one on either side of the analog speedometer - that display a collection of digitally rendered gauges accessed through multi-layered menus.
SmartGauge with EcoGuide, fashioned by Ford Design Studio with features input from the industrial design firm Smart Design, uses the menus and gauges to offer increasingly detailed information in four modes: Inform, Enlighten, Engage and Empower.
"Like a good coach, we designed modes into SmartGauge to engage drivers at their experience levels and then guide them to new energy-efficient behavior," says Steve Bishop, global lead for sustainability at IDEO in Palo Alto, Calif.
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Green leaves 'grow' on fusion instrument panel as visual reward when fuel economy improves.
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"Video games engage their users in a similar fashion with levels. In fact, when we observed hybrid drivers, we found they were going for high scores, a gaming behavior that has never existed in cars before. We designed to accommodate it."
Steering-wheel mounted directional buttons are used to navigate through the modes, and the driver can customize the displays in each mode by adding or removing gauges.
It's no secret, hybrids haven't been doing well lately, on dealers' lots, in the media, or in a lot of political arguments. Sales data that comes in on a monthly basis shows hybrid sales sinking faster than auto sales as a whole. And there's nothing pretty about auto sales as a whole.
Indeed, looking at March's tally shows that the 21,433 hybrid cars and trucks sold in the U.S. last month represents a 43.9 percent drop from hybrid sales in March of 2008, while sales of all other types of new passenger vehicles, on a March-vs-March basis, were off "just" 36.5 percent.
So, the argument goes, hybrids can't hold their own, they cost too much and people don't really want them.
---------- Nissan Altima hybrid was one of only two models posting a first quarter gain. ----------
But we've never been big on the idea that a trend can be made, or broken, in a single month.
One could also argue, for instance, that March hybrid sales were up substantially from February and recovered more than did all other segments combined.
On a sales-per-day basis, to account for the shorter February selling period, March hybrid sales were up 20.9 percent, versus an 11.6 percent increase from February in sales of other types of new cars and trucks.
Does that mean that March sales show that people have changed their minds and are flocking to hybrids in droves?
Successfully Restructuring Auto Industry Isn't Something That's Entirely Up to Detroit
There's an old Caribbean folksong in which a son calls his father's effort to explain the birds and bees "as clear as mud, but it covered the ground."
That pretty much describes the Obama administration's early direction to General Motors and Chrysler as it rejected the automakers' initial restructuring plans this morning and said they'd be given financial support for a limited period to come up with better plans.
In both cases, the President said in his televised address on the auto industry restructuring this morning, that means a plan to be economically viable while building and selling "the fuel efficient cars and trucks that will carry us to an energy independent future."
America's automakers, Obama said, should "lead the world in manufacturing the next generation of clean cars."
He covered the necessary ground, but without much clarity in terms of just how those goals are to be achieved. That's to be left it up to the automakers and the administration's auto industry restructuring team.
Hyundai Motor Co. has been green with envy over the success that competitors Toyota and Honda have had in marketing their fuel-efficient cars to consumers.
South Korea's largest automaker has been playing catch-up as it develops a fleet that eventually will include a mix of conventional and plug-in hybrids, advanced-technology gasoline internal combustion engines and fuel-cell electric vehicles.
And, on Monday, Hyundai unveiled plans to expand that fleet with an all-electric, rechargeable car with a range of about 40 miles (62 kilometers).
"We cannot eliminate any technology. We have to keep them all," Hyundai Vice Chairman Lee Hyun Soon told the Bloomberg news service during an interview on Monday in Hwaseong, near Seoul.
"If your commuting distance is short, maybe you can justify using an electric vehicle," said Lee, who serves as research chief for Hyundai and its Kia Motors Corp. affiliate.
Lee did not say when the battery car will go on sale or which markets initially will be targeted.
Upcoming Kia and Hyundai hybrids, as well as the planned Hyundai electric vehicle, will use lithium batteries manufactured by LG Chem Ltd., South Korea's largest chemical company. LG Chem also is supplying lithium-ion batteries for GM's Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid, which will go on the market in 2010.
Kia on Tuesday introduced its Kia Forte hybrid, which will be the world's first hybrid-liquefied petroleum gas car when it goes on sale in Korea later this year.
AutoPacific projects a significant increase in sales of compact and mid-size cars, with compacts the volume leader.
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
Automakers, most of them anyway, have been telling American consumers for years that they didn't want small cars, the bigger was better, and safer, and sexier and more fun to drive.
That, said the likes of Ford, GM, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Chrysler, is why they weren't making them - that and the problems they had making small cars that could compete in price and quality with those coming over from Japan.
After a while, even the Japanese pretty much gave up on small cars, shifting their attention to the big SUVs, pickups and luxury and quasi-luxe sedans that the American public had been persuaded were safer and brought more status to the table than compacts.
That started changing as fuel prices began soaring a few years ago, and the pace of change has accelerated as the economy has sunk into a deep recession.
Compacts have replaced mid-sized cars as the volume leader in new car sales, and many analysts believe that's not going to change even when the economy turns around.
California-based AutoPacific, for instance, is projecting that compact sales volume will grow much faster than mid-size volume through 2010 and then maintain an annual lead of 250,000 or so sales over midsized cars well into the next decade.
Edmunds.com analyst Jessica Caldwell agrees, adding that while fuel economy and lower purchase prices are a big reason for the growth in the segment, today's compacts also come loaded with standard equipment and options packages that were unheard of in the segment a few years ago.
Redefining Small
But wait!
There's a complication in the small car vs midsized car analysis, and a reason other than economy that American car buyers have begun favoring compacts.
"Today's compacts are as big as yesterday's midsized cars," says Dan Hall, AutoPacific's marketing vice president.
"While today's Honda Civic is definitely smaller than an Accord, it is about the same size as a mid-'90s Honda Accord," says Ed Kim, AutoPacific's industry analysis director.
The wheelbase of the present-generation Civic - the area in which the passenger cabin fits - is less than half-an-inch smaller than the 1997 Accord. Overall lengths of today's compacts are shorter than previous-generation mid-sized cars, but that's mainly because design changes have made engine compartments and trunk overhangs much shorter.
It's not so much that we've overcome our national preference for mid-sized cars and begun gravitation to the small car, Kim says, its just that the nomenclature has changed.
We've never been enamored of the California legislation that opened its carpool lanes to solo drivers of certain high fuel-economy hybrids and clean-burning natural gas vehicles.
(Not that our principled stand is enough to stop Green Car Advisor's senior editor from driving solo in the HOV lanes when he's in Edmunds.com's state-credentialed, natural-gas burning Honda Civic GX.)
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States with carpool lanes usually require vehicles to have two or more occupants, unless vehicle is a 45-mpg hybrid or a specially designated clean-air vehicle.
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So we were planning a modest celebration for New Year's Day in 2011 when the special dispensation was set to expire and carpool lanes were to be handed back to carpoolers. Something along the lines of a mass chuckle as solo greenies sadly rejoined drivers of fuel-guzzling sedans, sport utilities and pick-up trucks that never escaped the hoi polloi lanes.
Imagine our disappointment then upon learning that California Assemblyman Ted Lieu (D, Torrance) has introduced legislation to extend the HOV Lane special dispensation to 2016. His bill, AB 1500 could surface in a committee hearing as early as March 30.
We think it's a bad idea to breathe new life into a bad idea.
General Motors, fighting to persuade federal watchdogs that it can survive with a lot of help from taxpayers, is hoping to repay some of the debt it owes us by launching the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid on time and following up that achievement with a few more extended-range EVs.
That was the word Wednesday from a phone-in press conference held by GM's top battery and plug-in hybrid gurus.
There was no big news in the 75-minute event, but GM did release some crash-test photos to reassure us that the Volt's batteries would survive a 35-mph frontal crash, and provided some additional info about the battery pack for the 4-seat car.
Bob Kruse, GM's executive director for global hybrid, electric vehicle and battery engineering programs, assured reporters that the Volt was on schedule for a November 2010 launch - as a genuine retail vehicle, not a limited-production, test-program car.
GM crash test photos show little damage to orange-colored Volt battery pack after a 35 mph frontal collision.
Kruse also said that while the economy is in the trashcan and car sales are slower than they've been in decades, GM remains confident that, helped by the $7,500 federal tax credit the car is supposed to qualify for, Volt sales will meet the first year-goal of 50,000.
He also repeated earlier comments that GM is working on next generation versions of the Volt (or similar vehicles using the newly named Voltec powertrain). And not just Generation 2 vehicles, but Generation 3 as well.
Sales of hybrid cars and SUVs continued falling in February but their plunge was slowed somewhat by a strong updraft of incentives.
---------- Camry hybrid sales were down 50 percent from February '08 but with incentive spending rose 82 percent from January ----------
While new car sales overall were down 41 percent from a year earlier, hybrid sales were off just 28.5 percent with 16,020 vehicles sold, down from 22,411 in February 2008.
The gas-electric cars cost more than their conventional counterparts and haven't been doing well as the economy tanks and gas prices remain relatively low.
Sales also have been slowed as interested consumers hold off in anticipation of the new Honda insight compact 5-passenger hybrid and the redesigned 2010 Toyota Prius, both due to hit showroom floors soon.
One Gainer
February saw only one gain - the Lexus RX400 hybrid crossover SUV was up 31 percent from a year earlier - but several models posted smaller declines than the segment as a whole.
The Lexus RX400 hybrid was helped by significant incentive spending, as Toyota's luxury division poured an average of $6,338 into each vehicle, according to Edmunds.com's True Cost of Incentives data. That was up from just $503 per vehicle incentive spending on the RX400 hybrid a year earlier and was $1,300 more than Lexus was spending on RX400 incentives in January.
Both the Ford Escape hybrid and the Toyota Camry posted big gains for the month. The Escape, with 1,172 sales, climbed 55.6 percent from January and the Camry, with 2,080 sales, was up 82.3 percent.
Camry sales really show the power of incentives: the car was among the worst performers in comparing February '08 and '09 sales, down almost 50 percent.To get the big January to February improvement, Toyota pumped up incentive spending on the model to $1,495 per vehicle from "virtually nothing in January," said Edmunds.com industry analyst Jessica Caldwell.
Our recent article on GM's new dual-mode hybrid full-size pickups didn't explain the extent of the differences in standard features between the conventionally powered Chevrolet Silverado 1500 LT crew cab and the Silverado (right) and GMC Sierra hybrids when questioning the economic justification for the pricier hybrids.
In addition to standard equipment they have in common with the LT 1500, the hybrids come with 18-inch wheels, a towing package, side-curtain airbags, a soft tonneau cover and GM's "EZ lift tailgate," as well as the automatic climate control and Bluetooth features mentioned in the article.
A Silverado 1500 LT with the base 4.8-liter V8 engine and all of these options checks in at a shade over $33,000 (before destination charge.)
That compares more favorably with the hybrid's approximate base price of $38,000 that the $31,000 unadorned LT 1500 were used in our original comparison.
Throw in the hybrids' $2,200 federal tax credit, and their $5,000 premium over the comparably equipped conventional 4.8-liter LT 1500 shrinks to less than $3,000.
The typical conventional full-size truck buyer probably wouldn't require all of the add-ons, but even if the options are limited to significant functional upgrades - towing package, side-curtain airbags and special tailgate - the 1500 LT comes in at over $32,000, narrowing the pre-tax-credit gap to about $6,000.
The Devil's in the Dollars With '09 Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra Dual-Mode Hybrids
GM's hybrid pickups can tow and turn in good mileage -- for trucks -- but cost thousands more than conventional models.
(Note: Please see updated cost-comparison information, here.)
ByJosh Sadlier, Associate Editor
There's something undeniably impressive about a 5,341-pound pickup that can accelerate to 29 mph solely on electric power. That's just one of the neat tricks packed into GM's new-for-2009 two-mode hybrid trucks, the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Hybrid and the GMC Sierra 1500 Hybrid.
Equally impressive are EPA fuel-economy estimates of 21 miles per gallon in the city, 22 on the highway and 21 mpg combined for the two-wheel-drive models, a 4-6-mpg improvement over their conventionally powered GM brethren and an unprecedented achievement for full-size trucks.
That's the good news.
The bad news is the bottom line. These crew-cab-only hybrids start at $38,000 and change, although a $2,200 federal tax credit will help -- a little.
Big Price Spread
Their closest non-hybrid relative, the Silverado 1500 Crew Cab LT with a 4.8-liter V8, goes for just over $31,000, and if you miss the hybrids' standard dual-zone climate control and Bluetooth, they can be added to the LT for a pittance.
In other words, unless gas prices get really high and stay there, there's no economic argument to be made in the hybrid trucks' favor.
The $7,000 price difference (before tax credits) would take 12.5 years to earn back if gas stayed at $2 a gallon, and 7.8 years to recoup with gas at $4 a gallon. Payback periods for trucks purchased with the hybrid tax credit would be 8.6 years with $2.50-a-gallon gas and 5.4 years with gas at $4 a gallon.
What's more, the conventional LT's 10,600-pound towing capacity dwarfs the hybrids' 6,100-pound rating.
Dull Interior
You can't argue that the hybrids are more pleasant inside, either, unless you're talking about the absence of engine noise in electric mode.
General Motors unveiled the European version of its Chevrolet Volt at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show today and all we can say is how come they get the best-looking sibling!
The two extended-range, plug-in hybrids are the same under the skin, but the Opel Ampera, well, a picture really can be worth a thousand words. Take a look at both (that's the Volt below) and we'll bet most of you agree with us that, from the front at least, the Opel is by far the better-looking car.
It will be sold in most of Europe starting in 2011 while Vauxhall, GM's British unit, will build and market a right-hand-drive version for the U.K. starting in 2012 (providing GM and its European marques are still a team and still around then). The Volt is slated to launch at the end of 2010.
Weight, Price Penalty for 40 Miles of All-Electric Range Is Prohibitive, Researchers Say
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
In a report sure to be a blow to GM's hopes for its upcoming plug-in hybrid, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have found that the extra cost and weight of the
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Researchers say vehicles like the the Chevy Volt may be too much of a good thing.
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batteries a vehicle such as the Chevrolet Volt must carry to achieve its targeted 40 miles of all-electric range make it too expensive to be cost-effective transportation for most people.
The report, to be published in a future issue of the journal "Energy Policy," doesn't identify the Volt by name but compares a plug-in hybrid with its basic characteristics to conventional hybrids, other plug-ins with less electric range, and even conventional vehicles.
"Large-capacity PHEVs sized for 40 or more miles of electric-only travel are not cost-effective in any scenario," the report's authors insist.
Bloomberg News issued the first report on the study today.
Fuel Savings Not There
General Motors Corp. has designed the Volt to travel up to 40 miles on a fully charged battery pack before its auxiliary gasoline engine-generator kicks in.
The automaker says that because the average American drives less the 40 miles a day when commuting or using the vehicle for normal household errands, the Volt will be highly fuel-efficient and will run as a zero-emissions vehicle for much of its time on the road.
That may be true, the Carnegie Mellon researchers say in their study of plug-in hybrid cost-effectiveness, but if an owner hopes to recoup ownership costs from fuel savings, a rechargeable hybrid vehicle capable of that much all-electric range isn't the answer.
"Forty miles might be a sweet spot for making sure a lot of people get to work without using gasoline, but you're doing it at a cost that will never be repaid in fuel savings," Jeremy Michalek, an engineering professor who led the study, told Bloomberg News in an interview.
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.
The all-new Chevrolet Spark, which will make its world premiere at the Geneva Auto Show in March, will launch in Europe featuring 1.0- and 1.2-liter, 16-valve four-cylinder double-overhead-camshaft gasoline engines, the automaker announced today.
Chevy would not discuss the vehicle's fuel economy, other than to say that both engines deliver "excellent fuel efficiency and low emissions."
Spark will be available in European dealerships in early 2010, followed by the United States and other countries.
The car was inspired by the Chevrolet Beat Concept, the most popular of a trio of mini-car concepts that has toured international auto shows since 2007. Chevy said a clear majority of the 1.9 million Internet voters said it was the car they wanted produced.
Safety equipment will include driver and passenger front air bags, front side airbags, roof rail head curtain airbags, antilock brakes and electronic stability control. Other safety features will include pre-tensioners for front seat belts and three-point belts in the rear.
The crisp lines of the five-door hatchback provide the wedge-like profile common to so many small cars these days. Below the two-tier grille and pointy headlamps, the shape of the fog-lamp housings and the "floating" lower air intake are intended to convey the sense of forward movement.
An uncommon feature is the motorcycle-inspired instrument cluster. Mounted on the steering column, it provides easy-to-read information to the driver utilizing a combination of analog and digital displays.
Price, mileage and emissions information will hopefully be forthcoming in Geneva next month.
No surprise, hybrid sales in January went down the drain along with the rest of the industry.
The gas-electric cars, pricier than their conventional counterparts, typically don't do well when gas prices are cheapish, as they are these days.
---------- Lexus RX 400h was one of only two hybrids to post a gain over January '08 sales. ----------
Add in a recession teetering on the edge of depression and the picture is grimmer.
Piling on, Toyota and Honda -- the industry's hybrid sales leaders -- have new models coming out in a few months, a situation that doesn't do much to promote sales of models that are soon to be outdated.
The only good news is that, as a percentage of an overall abysmal market, hybrids gained in January, rising to a 2.33 percent market share from 1.97 percent in December and 2.14 percent a year earlier.
In terms of market share, January was the seventh-best month for hybrids since the first model went on sale in the U.S. in 1999.
Good market share in a bad market isn't much to cheer about, though. In terms of sales volume, January was the worst month for hybrids in almost three years.
Total sales of 15,393 hybrid cars and SUVs were down 12.8 percent from December and plunged 31.2 percent from a year earlier.
The last time sales were lower was February 2006, when only 14,957 hybrids were sold.
Gains
As usual, Toyota's Prius was the month's volume leader with 8,121 sales -- almost 53 percent of the total.
The Prius also was one of only five hybrid models of the 16 tracked by Edmunds.com to post a gain from December, up 3.3 percent. Prius sales were down 28.6 percent from a year earlier, though.
The other January gainers were:
The Lexus 400h crossover hybrid, up 6.3 percent with 1,556 sales;
Toyota's Highlander hybrid SUV, up 10.6 percent with 984 sales;
Honda's Civic Hybrid, up 3.8 percent with 1,076 sales; and
The Mercury Mariner Hybrid SUV from Ford Motor Co., up 19.8 percent with 127 sales.
Despite the one-month gains, the Civic Hybrid was down 38.3 percent from January '07, the Mariner was off 28.7 percent from a year earlier, and the Highlander was down 54.1 percent.
Potential buyers holding back in anticipation of the improved 2010 Prius and Honda's new 2010 Insight Hybrid, both due later this year, didn't help any of the January-over-January sales comparisons, said Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds.com's manager of industry analysis.
"Hefty price tags combined with the promise of newer, more-efficient models to come within the next few months have really hindered hybrid sales in January," she said.
Two hybrid models did post gains from their year-ago, marks, though.
---------- Nissan Altima Hybrid joined Lexus in winner's circle with an increase from January '08 sales. ----------
The Lexus 400h was up 28.3 percent from 1,211 sales a year earlier -- the only model to gain for the month and the year -- while Nissan's Altima Hybrid, with 644 sales last month, was up 36.1 percent from 473 sales in January '07.
Big Losses
The rest of the pack lost ground, although most are such low-volume sellers that the losses didn't make much impression on January's total sales picture.
General Motors Corp.'s hybrid cars and crossovers were the biggest losers, percentagewise, all but one falling more than 50 percent from December (none were in the market a year ago, so there are no January '07 numbers to compare to).
The Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid SUV was hit hardest, down 69.5 percent with 299 sold versus 981 in December.
The Chevy Malibu Hybrid sedan was a close second in the loser column, its 145 sales a 68.1 percent decline from 454 sales a month earlier.
The GMC Yukon Hybrid SUV (a twin to the Tahoe) was down 62 percent to 168 sales from 442 in December; Cadillac Escalade Hybrid SUV sales fell 56.8 percent to 132 from 306; the Saturn Vue Greenline Hybrid crossover was off 54.7 percent with 153 sales, down from 338; and the Saturn Aura Hybrid sedan was down 44.1 percent to 19 sales from 34 in December.
Sales of Ford's Escape Hybrid SUV fell 27.9 percent from December, to 753, and were off 41.9 percent from January '07, and Toyota's Camry Hybrid sedan dropped 39.6 percent from December, to 1,141 sales, and was down 49.7 percent from a year earlier.
In Toyota's luxury stable, the Lexus LS 600h L hybrid sedan posted 33 sales, down 34 percent from December and 68.6 percent below January '07 sales, and the Lexus GS 450h crossover hybrid dropped 19.6 percent from December, to 41 sales, and was off 35.9 percent from a year earlier.
Although the new models from Toyota and Honda could pump a little excitement into the hybrid market later this year, Caldwell and other analysts don't expect much improvement before the latter part of the year.
It's no big secret that GM needs to score a hit with its Chevrolet Volt right out of the gate, so it is no surprise that the financially ailing automaker is using a launch strategy of "wealthy coastal areas first" for its much-hyped plug-in hybrid (left).
While details are lacking, the strategy became clear this week as General Motors executives attending the Washington Auto Show said they are working with key players in cities such as San Francisco and Washington to set the state for the Volt roll-out.
No on-sale date has been disclosed for the Volt, which is supposed to be capable of traveling up to 40 miles on its grid-charged batteries before a gasoline-fueled engine kicks in to serve as a generator to provide a continued flow of electrons for the car's electric drive motor.
But GM has vowed, repeatedly, to launch the Volt by the end of 2010, so we're anticipating that at least one retail model will be sold somewhere in the U.S. between November 30 and Dec.31 of that year.
GM says that it is working with government and public utility officials in select cities such as San Fransisco (we're betting that oh-so-green Portland, Or., is in the mix, too), as well as with various state and federal agencies, to make sure that when the Volt is ready, so are things like consumer incentives, public and workplace charging systems, "consumer-friendly electricity rates and renewable electricity options" and government and corporate vehicle purchase programs.
The automaker also would like to see states offer carpool lane access to single-occupancy Volts.
The car already qualifies - if GM's performance claims are true - for a $7,500 federal tax credit, which will help mitigate what is expected to be a pretty steep $40,000-plus retail price.
In San Francisco, which recently helped form a coalition of Bay Area cities intent on becoming ground-zero for encouraging use of electric vehicles, Mayor Gavin Newsom said his city already is working to make sure that it has electric vehicle charging infrastructure up and running when the vVolt and cars like it are ready for market.
The auto industry gets a great opportunity to lobby some key congressional and administration officials this week as the Washington auto show gets underway, and by all accounts industry executives aren't missing a step.
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Rep. Ed Markey sits in Chevrolet Volt display at Washington auto show as Tony Posawatz, the GM executive in charge of the car, fields his questions.
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The theme of the show is "Driven by the Environment," which is a great political promise even if the evidence doesn't always point that way, and there are a host of floor displays pointing out the things automakers are doing to green up their product lines.
Officialdom is using the show's proximity to the Capitol to see first-hand what's up (although, political reality being what it is, the political types will be shown around by auto industry execs and will hear - and see - things through an industry-provided filter).
So far, Rep. Ed Markey, the Massachusetts Democrat who chairs the select committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming , and Carol Browner, director of the White House Office on Energy and Climate Change both have visited the show and been wooed, especially by General Motors.
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Carol Browner, the administration's energy and climate change guru, listens as GM global design chief Ed Welburn (right) talks about the Chevrolet Spark economy car.
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GM, which soon has to validate its eligibility for billions in federal bailout loans (as will Chrysler) is showing off the upcoming Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid - for the ten-gazillionth time - and the fuel-efficient Chevy Spark subcompact that made its debut at the Detroit Auto Show.
Also scheduled to walk the show floor this week are Ray LaHood, the new Transportation Secretary, and Lisa Jackson, just confirmed as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.
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.
Opel will unveil a vehicle at the Geneva Auto Show in March that uses the same powertrain as the upcoming Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid, parent company General Motors announced this week, and that the car will be named Ampera.
The Ampera (pictured) will enter production in 2011, one year after the Volt is scheduled to do so, GM said. Vauxhall, Opel's sister brand in the U.K., will get its own version in 2012 or sometime thereafter.
All three cars will share the Voltec powertrain, which will use an electric motor for propulsion. A battery pack will supply electricity to the motor for the initial 40 or so miles of driving. After that, an onboard gasoline generator will come on to juice the battery pack for roughly 200 more miles of travel.
Once out of gasoline, the Ampera's lithium-ion battery can be recharged via a standard 230-volt outlet. GM will release more data on the European-specification Ampera at the Geneva show.
"With the Ampera, Opel will be the first European automobile manufacturer to provide customers several hundred kilometers of non-stop electric driving," said Alain Visser, a spokesman for GM Europe's chief marketing office.
The European variant of the Volt is a key model for GM Europe's future model plans and the reinvention of Opel as an upper mid-market brand.
The Ampera is not expected to have any major styling changes in comparison to the Volt and is set to rival the new generation Toyota Prius and Honda Insight that will go on sale in Europe this year.
GM will be hoping that the Ampera's groundbreaking plug-in hybrid powertrain technology will give the model an edge over the Prius and Insight - conventional hybrids that rely on less-desirable nickel-metal hydride battery technology.
China's BYD Auto brought its Chevy Volt-like plug-in hybrid electric vehicle to the Detroit Auto Show, beating the local automakers to market by a year or more.
Fortunately for the Detroit 3, BYD's market right now is limited to China, and after the company unveiled its F3DM PHEV to North America today, it announced that it doesn't intend to export the vehicle to America until 2011.
Is that to give Detroit automakers a chance to catch up? Don't bet on it.
Other than announcing its targeted U.S. launch date, BYD did not divulge any information today that we didn't include in a report last month.
However, Reuters reported today that BYD's chairman said in an interview Sunday that BYD is open to licensing the low-cost ferrous-iron battery in the F3DM. Chairman Wang Chuan-Fu was quoted as saying that BYD has had interest in the battery from Japanese, European and U.S. carmakers.
BYD Auto was founded in 2003 by the BYD Group, which was founded in 1995 to produce batteries. Since then BYD Group has grown from a small factory of 20 employees to a leading global battery-maker employing 130,000 people.
Chrysler held the spotlight at the Detroit Auto Show for more than a solid half an hour Sunday with the unveiling of its 200C EV plug-in hybrid electric concept vehicle.
The "performance sedan" is capable of traveling up to 40 miles on battery-only power, company spokesmen said, producing zero tailpipe emissions in the process.
After that distance, an onboard gasoline generator fires up and supplies electricity to the battery, extending the fuel-efficient vehicle's driving range to 400 miles between charges and refills. An electric motor provides all of the vehicle's propulsion.
Frank Klegon, the company's executive vice president of product development, as well as other Chrysler executives and spokespeople, did not go into detail describing the concept's powertrain. Instead, they focused on the vehicle's lovely design.
Given that General Motors doesn't expect to profit from the similarly propelled Chevrolet Volt for at a couple of years after launch, and given Chrysler's worse financial shape, we'd be a little surprised if the 200C EV makes it to market, but we hope it does.
As is often the case with concepts, no price, estimated mileage or launch date was provided.
General Motors Corp., signaling that it has learned its lesson, said it plans to build its own advanced battery-pack manufacturing lab, establish a battery research facility, partner with the University of Michigan to develop an advanced battery engineering curriculum at the school and add hundreds of battery technology specialists to its own R&D staff.
---------- GM engineers work on early Volt battery pack. ----------
The automaker also announced the expected - that it has selected South Korea's LG Chem to supply the lithium-ion battery cells that will be used for the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid.
The announcements were made by GM chairman Rick Wagoner, who said that GM, which launched the modern auto industry's first electric vehicle, the EV1, in 1996 and then killed it in 2003 after declaring that people weren't interested in electric cars, is now firmly committed to electrification.
The company has spent more than $1 billion developing the Volt and will continue investing huge sums in battery technology for future electric vehicles, he said.
The kicky, fuel-efficient Chevy Beat subcompact that General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said last summer wouldn't be coming to the U.S. will be here in 2011, GM announced today.
It will be called the Spark, though - same name as it has in Europe and Latin America, where the model that will come here in two years will be introduced next year.
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Spark concept, cheered by a GM-sponsored crowd, arrives on Chevrolet stage at Detroit Auto Show.
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To be fair to Lutz, what he said back in July was that GM hadn't had the foresight to engineer the tiny hatchback to meet U.S. safety rules, and it would take too long - about two years - and too much money to do it after the fact.
Well, times change, GM has caught the small-and-fuel-efficient bug and we get the Chevy Spark if the cash-strapped automaker can hang on long enough.
GM offered no info about the car that will go on sale, but it did show us a concept, called the Chevy Beat, at the LA auto show back in November 2007 that had a fuel-sipping, turbocharged, 1.2-liter gas engine and was a full foot shorter than anything GM was selling in the U.S.
The Spark, the General now says,will be based on that concept.
We're adding it to our list of cars we hate to have to be kept waiting for.
The Cadillac Converj Concept plug-in hybrid electric vehicle made its worldwide debut today at the Detroit Auto Show.
The four-passenger grand touring coupe contains the same electric-propulsion technology found in the Chevrolet Volt PHEV, which also permits a claimed 40 miles of gasoline- and emissions-free electric driving and a gas-fueled extended-range capability of hundreds of miles.
GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz is pictured here introducing the vehicle. Its propulsion system is made up of a 16-kilowatt T-shaped lithium-ion battery pack containing 220 lithium-ion cells, an electric motor that turns the front wheels, and a four-cylinder gasoline engine-generator that feeds the battery pack.
The battery is integrated into the Converj's chassis and stores electricity from the utility grid when the vehicle is plugged in. GM claims it takes less than three hours to recharge the battery at 240 volts, or about eight hours from a 120-volt outlet.
When the battery's energy is low, the gas engine-generator comes on and provides electricity to the battery pack. In this way, the vehicle can go hundreds of miles before recharging and refueling.
Will the vehicle ever enter mass production? No one can say for sure.
(Note: Article updated after initial posting to include Lexus hybrid)
The upcoming North American International Auto Show in snowy Detroit - media preview days begin Sunday and the show opens to the public on Jan. 17 - is likely to be a pretty glum affair, what with the auto industry imploding and the prospect of many people really being interested in buying a new car right now ranking right up there with being interested in having wisdom teeth pulled sans anesthesia.
But carmakers are trying, and what most are trying hardest with is fuel efficiency and alternatives to the thirsty, greenhouse-gas spewing cars and trucks of the past.
Oh, there will be speedsters and factory-built hot rods on display at the show - Ford Motor Co., for example, will unveil the 540-horsepower 2010 Shelby GT500 Mustang and Audi will be showing a 525-horsepower, V10-version of its exotic R8 sports car.
But most attention will be focused on advanced technology cars such as the 2010 Prius hybrid (right)
and the battery-electric city car concept that Toyota will show, Honda's Prius-fighting 2009 Insight hybrid and concepts such as the all-electric, plug-in hybrid and fuel -cell electric trio, collectively called Concept Zero, that Mercedes-Benz will unveil.
Beyond the cars, the show's media preview will spotlight industry executives who will be delivering news about their companies' green futures.
Most notably, Toyota is expected to outline its hybrid and electric-vehicle strategies for the next few years and Ford is expected to discuss its plans for a stable of future EVs, starting with a commercial truck it plans to launch in 2010.
Green Car Advsior, along with Edmunds Auto Observer, Edmunds Inside Line and Edmunds.com, will be covering the show 's media days and bringing you timely reports, but we thought we'd also offer a preview today of the major green vehicles that will be displayed and discussed.
Green Preview
So, by manufacturer, here they are:
Audi
Volkswagen's upscale stablemate is expected to announce plans for its upcoming U.S. diesel lineup. So far, the company has said it will launch a 3-liter diesel version of its Q7 SUV (right)
later this year and has broached the possibility of a diesel A4. We'll know more after Audi's Sunday afternoon press conference.
BMW The pride of Bavaria will discuss the X5 and 3-Series diesels it plans to bring to the U.S., perhaps supplying us with some performance and fuel economy numbers as well as a marketing time-line.
Chevrolet
Nothing big here, unless the General decides to announce the upcoming Volt plug-in hybrid's pricing and/or the battery suppliers.
The Chevy vehicle that gets officially introduced at the show is the redesigned 2010 Equinox crossover (right), which will come with a new six-speed automatic and a fuel-efficient, direct-injection four-banger expected to deliver 182 horsepower (almost as much as the '08 model's base V6) and highway fuel economy of 30 miles per gallon.
Chrysler The company has three brands that it has tied together for car show purposes with a trio of concept electric vehicles.
Those to be displayed in Detroit are further refined versions of the Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep EVs originally unveiled last September and first shown publicly at the Los Angeles International Auto Show in November.
By brand, they are the Chrysler EV, an extended-range electric version of the town and Country minivan; the Jeep EV, a gas-electric Wrangler; and the Dodge EV, a Lotus-based, bumblebee-striped battery-electric sports car that would look great in the garage next to an electric Tesla Roadster.
Chrysler has said that it will bring one of the cars to market in 2010, but hasn't said which or in what kind of numbers. Maybe that's what we'll hear at the show.
Fisker
The nascent plug-in-hybrid company headed by, and named for, noted auto designer Henrik Fisker (BMW, Aston Martin, Fisker Coachbuild), will show the production version of it first proposed vehicle, the Fisker Karma sports sedan (right)
that it unveiled to great interest at last year's Detroit show. Fisker also will unveil a new version - a convertible, we suspect - caled the Karma S.
Like the Chevy Volt, the Karma uses an on-board internal combustion engine to generate power to keep its electric motors turning the wheels.
Ford We expect a discussion of the company's electric vehicle strategy, perhaps with a teaser glimpse or two of potential future offerings and a look at the commercial truck the company has said it will launch in 2010.
Honda
The news here will be the unveiling of the production version 2009 Insight hybrid (right)
, a sub $20,000, five-seater Honda hopes will finally, finally, pump its hybrid sales up into Prius territory.
We're expected to hear a lot of technical detail and, perhaps, even a firmer price for the car, which looks in pictures a bit like the Prius it's designed to battle.
Lexus Toyota's luxury unit will reveal its first stand-alone hybrid model, a small car that is based off the upcoming 2010 Prius.
Although it is not unusual - its pretty common, even - for photos of new models to leak out before their official unveiling, the best we've been able to come up with for the new Lexus hybrid is this rendering (left) published in a Japanese auto magazine a few months ago.
Mercedes-Benz The covers will come off a trio of EV concepts from Daimler's luxe brand. All use the same swoopy, sport wagon-ish body (below right) - a design that also shows where Mercedes is heading with the compact B-Class replacement due in 2010 and, perhaps, headed for the U.S.
The so-called Concept Zero family consists of the E-Cell, a battery-electric with a range of about 60 miles; the E-Cell Plus, a plug-in hybrid that uses a 3-cylinder gas engine-generator to extend the range of its batteries when the initial charge is depleted (think Chevy Volt), and the F-Cell, which uses a hydrogen fuel-cell to produce electricity on-board by combining hydrogen and oxygen in the fuel-cell stack. Range is about 125 miles. Mercedes says the E-Cell Plus can go almost 400 miles on an overnight battery charge and a tank of gas.
Toyota The company whose name has become synonymous with 'hybrid" is introducing the redesigned 2010 Prius at the show, but photos of the car leaked out weeks ago and you've got to believe that anyone who's interested has already seen it. What will be news, of course, are the specifications and performance numbers.
The other biggie on the product front from Toyota will be the unveiling of a concept electric vehicle, probably called the FT-EV if the company's previous auto show naming practices prevail (that would stand for "future technology-electric vehicle").
The car, believed to be built on a current Toyota subcompact chassis, is the company's effort to give us a look at what a Toyota-built battery-electric EV for short-range urban driving might look like if the company does, as it has said it would, put an EV into its retail fleet in 2012.
Not The End
And, of course - Detroit being Detroit - there likely will be a surprise or two. So consider this list a starter, not a definitive catalog.
China's BYD, for instance, will be there with the plug-in-hybrid (left)
it launched in its home market a few weeks ago, beating the big boys like GM and Toyota to the punch by a matter of, oh, a year or two. Who knows what the company - whose name is an acronym for Build Your Dreams and whose future is being backed by investment whiz Warren Buffett - will do next? We might find out as the Detroit show rolls along.
We'll be back when media days begin on Sunday to keep you up-to-date.
December's gas-electric car and SUV sales plunged almost 43 percent from the final month of 2007 as the year wound up on a discouraging note for the only alternative technology vehicles to so far make a dent in the auto market.
It was a near repeat of a stupendously disastrous November, when sales of fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles fell 50 percent from a year earlier.
For all of 2008, hybrid sales tumbled 10.3 percent with 310,724 models sold. While nothing to boast about, the hybrid segment bested the overall market's performance of an 18.2 percent drop for the year, according to Edmunds.com statistics.
The only bright spots were that hybrid sales in December actually rose a bit from November, and that 2008 hybrid sales were the second-best on record in the decade since 1999, when Honda introduced the first model, the now-discontinued two-seat Insight. The year's sales trailed only 2007, when 346,431 hybrids were sold.
Incentives Made the Difference
The 6.8 percent rise in sales volume from November to December was due to hefty incentives and discounting by most automakers and to an especially effective financing program that General Motors' financing arm provided for almost all of the company's lineup.
Industrywide, the same pricing and financing incentives led to a one-month sales gain of 20 percent.
In the hybrid segment, December's total of 17,652 sales was the second lowest of the year, trailing only November's dismal 16,536.
After that, you'd have to go back to January 2007, when only 17,591 gas-electric cars and sport-utes were sold, to find a worse month for hybrids.
Although it applied early for the honor, Plug In America, the support group for plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles, didn't make the cut when organizers of the Presidential Inaugural Parade were picking participants.
So the organization, whose motto ought to be "never say die" (a good one for backers of battery-electric cars, dontcha think?) , is staging its own, pre-inaugural parade to pull in some publicity for EVs and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs).
The event, dubbed "Inaugural Parade West: Plug In America," will be staged on Jan. 17 - three days before the real parade honoring the swearing-in of the 44th president - in Santa Monica, reports Zan Dubin Scott, who helped start the advocacy group.
Scott said that the parade so far has booked 32 40 electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids for the event, which is scheduled to begin about 9:30 a.m. (at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, in case you are interested in attending, and no, it won't be televised although a clip or two may well show up here and there and the evening news).
Parade "participants" will include Tesla Roadsters, Toyota RAV4 EVs, Vectrix electric motorbikes, Chevy S10 EVs and a variety of Prius plug-in conversions.
During weeks leading up to today's bailout decision, Detroit's automakers insisted that short of a complete collapse they were continuing with their major green initiatives because they finally understand that increased fuel efficiency, clean emissions and sustainability are critical to their long-term survival.
However, General Motors and Chrysler -- both of which today received approval for federal bridge loans, while Ford continues to await a decision on a request for a line of credit -- have delayed specific programs as they prepare to battle for survival during the global economic slump.
For GM, that included delaying construction of a factory in Flint, Michigan, where the engine for the upcoming Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid sedan is to be made.
And Chrysler, which has promised to field a battery-electric car in 2010 and says it is also developing plug-in hybrids, was close to financial meltdown, putting those plans in jeopardy.
General Motors announced today that it plans to add two new fuel-efficient, direct-injected engines to its lineup.
---------- GM's new 2.4-liter direct-injection engine. ----------
Purchasers of the 2010 Chevrolet Equinox crossover utility vehicle will get to choose which of the engines they want: a 2.4-liter four-cylinder or a 3.0-liter V6.
The 2.4-liter engine delivers an estimated 180 horsepower and 172 pound-feet of torque at 4,900 revolutions per minute. It uses technology based on GM's other four-cylinder direct-injection engines, but has several unique features. They include an 11.4:1 compression ratio that helps build power, slightly dished pistons that increase combustion efficiency and injectors with an application-specific flow rate.
GM claims the engine delivers an estimated 30 miles per gallon in highway driving.
The 3.0-liter engine is a variant of GM's family of DOHC (double overhead camshaft) V6 engines that also includes GM's 3.6-liter direct-injection engine in the Cadillac CTS. That engine recently made Ward's 2009 Ten Best Engines list for North America for the second consecutive year.
It's rated at 255 horsepower and 214 pound-feet of torque. The engine features an isolated fuel injector system that reduces the direct injection high-pressure fuel system pulses for quieter operation. Rubber isolators are used with the fuel rail to eliminate metal-to-metal contact that would otherwise transmit noise and vibration from the high-pressure fuel system.
Fourteen U.S. technology companies are joining forces and seeking $1 billion in federal aid to build a plant to make advanced batteries for electric cars, in a bid to catch up to Asian rivals that are far ahead of the U.S., The Wall Street Journal reported today
(subscription required).
---------- GM engineers work on the lithium-ion battery pack for the Chevrolet Volt. ----------
The effort, the latest pitch from corporate America to inject federal dollars into a project, is similar to an alliance that two decades ago helped the U.S. computer-chip industry restore its competitiveness. Participants include 3M Corp. and Johnson Controls Inc.
Many experts believe battery technology and manufacturing capacity could become as strategically important as oil is today. Automakers, including General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., say they plan to roll out plug-in electric cars by 2010.
But the United States has limited capacity to make the lithium-ion batteries those cars will need. Asian producers such as Panasonic Corp. dominate the car-battery field.
Financially strapped General Motors Corp. has quietly deferred construction of the Flint engine plant
it announced with great fanfare earlier this year as the home of the new four-cylinder engines it would be using in the upcoming Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid.
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GM's new 1.4-liter engine is displayed at vacant lot slated to be site for now-delayed Flint,Mi., engine plant.
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GM insists that the construction delay won't throw the Volt off schedule and that start of production is still slated for late 2010.
The turbocharged 1.4-liter engines to be built at the $359 million plant and installed in the Volt (below) wouldn't be used to propel the car but would serve instead as onboard generators to provide power to the Volt's electric motor. the plant also was to make engines for the upcoming Chevrolet Cruze compact.
Although GM isn't saying when it might restore funding for the plant's construction, powertrain division spokeswoman Sharon Basel said the automaker "still has plenty of time" to get the factory up and running without delaying the Volt's rollout (unless, of course, GM ends up in bankruptcy
, in which case all bets are off).
"We still have some activities, like site surveying and engineering, that are going on," Basel said.
What was canceled as GM struggles to pare spending to the bone while it waits for a controversial federal auto industry bailout to be authorized by the Bush administration was "spending for materials for the new plant, things like structural steel," Basel said.
It's difficult to build a factory without structural steel.
The construction delay wasn't on GM's recent list of plants and projects affected by its financial meltdown. It came to light when the local paper in Flint -- a city that has suffered tremendous economic pain at the hands of GM over the years -- asked the automaker for a weekly progress update on the project.
Small cars fare better in crashes than they used to, but they still lag behind larger vehicles in protecting passengers. Their disadvantages are especially clear in side-impact crashes.
---------- Chrysler's PT Cruiser did poorly in the side-impact test. ----------
Of the nine small cars recently tested by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, all received the group's top rating of "good" in frontal crashes, but only two got good ratings when broadsided.
The Insurance Institute tested nine small cars for the 2009 model year in front, side and rear collisions. The group included the BMW Mini Cooper, Chevrolet HHR, Chrysler PT Cruiser, Ford Focus, Hyundai Elantra, Saturn Astra, Suzuki SX4, as well as the Toyota Matrix and Pontiac Vibe, which are essentially the same vehicle sold under two brand names.
Only the SX4 and Matrix, and its twin the Vibe, received good ratings for protection in side crashes. The Ford and Chevrolet were judged acceptable in side-impact protection, while the Hyundai and Saturn were marginal and the Chrysler was poor.
Only the Ford Focus was top-rated in rear-impact crashes that test how well the vehicles' seats and head restraints protect passengers. The Chrysler PT Cruiser was the worst performer, with poor ratings for side and rear protection.
Despite financial woes that threaten the automaker's survival, General Motors is continuing research on a fuel-cell electric vehicle, announcing that sometime this week one of the 100 Chevy Equinox FCEVs being driven in Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C., as part of Chevrolet's Project Driveway will drive the 500,000th zero-emissions mile of the real-world test program.
"This is a huge accomplishment, because we learn something about our vehicles, the hydrogen infrastructure and consumer acceptance of fuel-cell vehicles with every mile driven," Mary Beth Stanek, director of GM Fuel Cell Commercialization, said in a statement.
Fuel-cell cars and SUVs convert hydrogen and oxygen to electricity through an onboard electro-chemical reaction. The electricity is then used to power the vehicles' drive motors.
Stanek said candid feedback on "everything from the way the vehicle looks to technical input on brake 'feel' and performance to fueling experiences" has led to the resolution of several hundred customer issues.
The program has also provided Stanek and others associated with the Equinox with insight into how these vehicles are being used under real-world driving conditions, she said.
"We've been able to use these experiences to extend fuel-cell stack life and improve the regenerative braking system, which has already benefited our two-mode hybrid vehicles since it's the same brake system used on the Saturn Vue, Chevy Tahoe and GMC Yukon two-mode hybrids," she said.
No automaker is saying that it expects to make FCEVs available for purchase this side of 2020, but without programs such as Project Driveway they likely would never appear in a showroom.
Chinese automaker BYD Co. today unveiled the world's first mass-produced plug-in gas-electric hybrid, with domestic sales to begin this month -- at least a full year before rivals such as Toyota and General Motors bring electric-powered vehicles to market.
The F3DM, which was unveiled to reporters at BYD's headquarters in Shenzhen, can travel 62 miles using only batteries, BYD said in a statement. Though essentially an electric car, the F3DM also has a small gasoline engine that is used to generate electricity if the battery runs dry.
The company, which is China's largest battery maker, said the car will be priced at less than 150,000 yuan, or about $22,000. That's toward the low end of the price range for a typical midsize sedan in China.
The F3DM's batteries can be fully recharged from a regular household outlet in as little as seven hours and 50 percent powered via a quick charge at a specialist station in 10 minutes, BYD said. The car also has a gasoline engine as a backup power source.
BYD began marketing the F3DM to cab operators and other potential fleet customers earlier this month and plans to have the car in showrooms by the end of the year. The company, which expects to sell as many as 10,000 F3DMs in China next year, plans to bring the F3DM to the U.S. market as early as the second half of 2010.
In yet another example of how hard it is to come from behind, beleaguered General Motors lost a chance to sell a bunch of its Malibu Hybrids to the Indianapolis police department when the department instead opted to buy 85 Toyota Camry Hybrids because they get better gas mileage.
The cars are to be used by the city's police detectives and administrators but not as patrol and pursuit cars (imagine being chased down a long stretch of Indiana highway by a "speeding" Camry Hybrid!).
The city paid a local Toyota dealer $25,770 each for the cars, which were built at Toyota's Kentucky plant.
The local Penske Chevrolet dealership complained, according to the Indianapolis Star, saying that it had offered to sell the department Malibu Hybrids, also built in Kentucky, for $24,070, or 6.6 percent less, but was shut out of the deal.
Poor Loser
The dealership's manager, the newspaper reported, asked city officials to investigate the matter for possible collusion.
But the city dismissed the complaint as sour grapes by a disappointed loser, pointing out that the Camry Hybrids are EPA rated at 33 miles per gallon around town - where most of the cars' miles will be piled on - while the Malibu Hybrids are rated at just 26 mpg in city driving.
"When you do the calculations, it pays for itself within five years," City Controller David Reynolds said of the Camry Hybrid. "We'll own them for seven or eight years."
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.
In all their talk of Detroit's need to make fuel-efficient vehicles, members of Congress managed to overlook a simple fact: General Motors and Ford already make popular, high-quality, high-mileage automobiles.
---------- The 2009 diesel-powered Ford Ka, available in Europe but not the U.S., gets 60 miles per gallon. ----------
The trouble is, those very desirable vehicles are sold only in Europe because of regulatory differences between the U.S. and the European Union. So says an article published in The New York Times.
The automakers' reluctance to sell those cars domestically is not as simple as the vehicles' inability to meet U.S. standards for equipment, safety and exhaust emissions; there's also the cost involved in the certification process. Changing the law to allow the U.S. sale of cars compliant with European emissions and crash standards, even for just a few years, would allow GM and Ford to quickly add some of their popular, high-mileage European models to their lineups in America.
It's reasonable to think that within a year, the Times reported, GM could import the tiny Opel Agila, the sporty Chevy Spark, and the midsize Opel Insignia, which won the 2009 European Car of the Year award. Ford's improved lineup could include the Ka subcompact, the universally praised Fiesta and the S-Max minivan, which blows the sliding doors off any current domestic competition.
Crash testing for new cars, often referred to as New Car Assessment Programs, varies by geographic region, though a 10-year plan is in place to define a global standard. The NCAP test results, summarized in the United States in easy-to-grasp star ratings (five is best, one is worst), provides useful information for consumers, though it is not the same as the federal tests conducted by automakers to certify new models before they can go on sale.
Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski's recent sweep through China and Japan appears to have paid dividends for his bold bid to make his state America's primary launching pad for electric cars, according to an article published today by Climate Wire
(subscription required).
Kulongoski (pictured), a two-term Democrat, went to Asia last month with the express purpose of attracting Asian carmakers to Oregon. He returned with a deal in hand from Nissan Motor Co. to provide electric vehicles to the state fleet starting in 2010 and a tentative commitment from a fledgling Chinese company to start a pilot program in Oregon.
And while the deal with Nissan and related talks with Toyota Motor Co. may have won the governor the most press, the meetings with BYD Auto Co., a Chinese battery manufacturer turned electric-car outfit, may ultimately do more to position Oregon as a leader in the low-emission vehicle market.
"We want Oregon to be the launch site for electric cars," Jillian Schoene, a Kulongoski aide who traveled with the governor through Asia and took part in meetings with BYD, told Climate Wire. "These car companies knew that about us before we walked into their door."
BYD, which stands for "Build Your Dreams," is shopping for a U.S. pilot site to roll out its hybrid plug-in sedan, the F3DM, which goes on the market in China in less than two weeks. Oregon could emerge as the ideal test market, given Kulongoski's vision of charging stations every 60 miles on the highway, not to mention Pacific Power's direct connection to the Chinese battery maker.
The utility, based in Redmond, Oregon, is owned by a subsidiary of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, MidAmerican Energy Holdings, which bought a 10 percent stake in BYD this fall for $230 million. That relationship could propel the Portland area past Los Angeles, the other U.S. city in the running for the project.
As she watched the chief executives of the Big Three American automakers drive to Washington to plead for a bailout last week, Libby Rosenthal could not help noticing the gas mileage of the "fuel-efficient" vehicles they used to make the trip from Detroit to demonstrate their green goodwill weren't all that fuel-efficient.
In a short piece published in The New York Times today, the regular contributor noticed that Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli chose to ride in a Chrysler Aspen Hybrid (pictured). That model, she correctly stated, gets 20 miles per gallon in the city and 22 mpg on the highway (and, though it launched only months ago, has already been discontinued due to low demand).
Alan Mulally of Ford arrived in an Escape Hybrid SUV (34/31 mpg city/highway), and General Motors' Rick Wagoner arrived in a Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid sedan (26/34 mpg city/high).
"What's wrong with this picture?" she asked. "For starters, although these vehicles may be hybrids, by any real-world standard they are not particularly fuel-efficient. Hybrid technology can only do so much to improve the gas mileage of a huge, heavy, overpowered car."
Ouch. She offers a reality check for those who would like to compare: The Toyota Prius -- a hybrid -- 48/45 mpg city/highway.
And she alludes to a claim by Bob Lutz, GM's vice chairman for global product development, that meeting the federal fuel-economy standards included in the 2007 energy bill would cost the consumer an additional $6,000 per car, on average. Seems like a lot of money, given the plethora of cars on the global market right now that best the fuel-economy mandate.
Traveling by not-so-efficient automobiles instead of a corporate jet -- the mode of transportation the three CEOs chose last month when they first came to Washington to plead for taxpayer dollars -- was a change for the better. But, she writes, it still shows how far American automakers have to go to match what's being done elsewhere around the globe.
Sales of hybrid cars and SUVs took a worse beating than the industry as a whole in November, plummeting 50 percent from a year earlier and off 24.8 percent from October.
---------- Industry leading Prius hybrid sales in November were off 50 percent from a year earlier. ----------
Industrywide sales of all new cars and light trucks were down 37 percent from a year ago.
The hbrid segment was hit with the triple whammy of falling gasoline prices, high sticker prices in a recessionary economy and tight credit that cut many potential buyers out of the market.
"The environment is taking a back seat to the macroeconomic situation," said Edmunds.com market analyst Jessica Caldwell.
With gasoline falling below $2 a gallon, many hybrid models just didn't pencil out for consumers when their premium prices were compared with prices for other fuel efficient vehicles with conventional powertrains, she said.
Altogether, automakers sold 16,536 gas-electric hybrids last month, down from 21,979 in October.
To make matter worse, consumers purchased twice as many hybrids - 33,063 of them - in November 2007, when there were several fewer models available.
Hybrids' market share dropped to 2.21 percent in November, down from 2.62 percent in October and 2.82 percent in November 2007.
An Arizona startup that grew out of an auto shop specializing in natural gas vehicle repair said it has received federal EPA certification for a kit that converts the 2008 Chevrolet Impala from gasoline to cleaner, cheaper compressed natural gas.
Prices to convert the car -- kit plus labor -- should run from $11,500 to $13,000, said John Mitton, managing partner of Phoenix-based Natural Drive LLC.
The system works on the LS, LT and LTZ "civilian" models and the 9C1 and 9C3 police models and on both the 3.5-liter and 3.9-liter V6 engines.
The conversion system for the '08 Impala is available through a network of independent installers in states where it meets applicable emissions equipment rules. That rules out California and 10 other states that use California's emissions standards and require such equipment to be certified by the California Air Resources Board as well as the EPA.
Mitton said he expects to have CARB certification for the 2009 Impala conversion system, but not until about the middle of next year. It can cost up to $250,000 to pay for the various test procedures that must be done to obtain the state's stamp of approval, he said.
The system, which includes high-pressure fuel tanks, fuel lines and fuel injectors as well as a reprogrammed powertrain control module, is aimed primarily at government and private business fleet operators but also is available to individuals who can foot the bill.
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A 2008 Chevrolet Impala converted to run on natural gas displays a CNG logo.
----------
It qualifies for a $2,500 federal income tax credit, which helps cut the total cost, and various states also offer incentives (click here for a list) for CNG conversions: Oklahoma and Colorado are at the top of the list, providing a state income tax credit of half the total cost.
Many members of Congress believe they know what the car company of the future should look like.
"A business model based on gas--a gas-guzzling past--is unacceptable," Democratic Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York said last week. "We need a business model based on cars of the future, and we already know what that future is: the plug-in hybrid electric car."
But the car company Schumer and other lawmakers envision for the future could turn out to be a money-losing operation, not part of a "sustainable U.S. auto industry" that President-elect Barack Obama and most members of Congress say they want to create, so says The Washington Post in story published today.
That's because car manufacturers still haven't figured out how to produce hybrid and plug-in vehicles cheaply enough to make money on them. After a decade of relative success with its hybrid Prius, Toyota has sold about a million of the cars and is still widely believed by analysts to be losing money on each one sold. General Motors has touted plans for a plug-in hybrid vehicle called the Volt, but the costly battery will prevent it from turning a profit on the vehicle for several years, at least.
"In 10 years are they (at GM) going to solve the technological problems with respect to the Volt? Sure," Maryann Keller, an automotive analyst and author of a book on GM, told the Post. "But are they going to be able to stake their survival, which is really more of a now to five-year proposition, on it? I'd say they can't. They have to stake their future on Malibus, the Chevy Cruze, and much more conventional technologies."
U.S. automakers faced a barrage of demands last week that they provide evidence and assurance that they would use federal bailout money to transform their companies to produce automobiles of the future, using advanced technologies and featuring hybrid or plug-in vehicles. And in his "60 Minutes" interview on Nov. 16, Obama said that before backing a big loan package he wanted to be sure "that we are creating a bridge loan to somewhere as opposed to a bridge loan to nowhere."
Aiming to save fuel and advance alternative-energy plans, the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force intend to buy thousands of battery-powered, 35-mile-an-hour electric cars and light trucks to provide on-base transport.
---------- The Columbia ParCar Mega is one of the EVs the military is looking to buy. ----------
The Army plans to order the street-legal neighborhood electric vehicles from E-Z-Go, Native American Biofuels International and other electric-car makers, the Army Times reported today. E-Z-Go, which is a subsidiary of defense giant Textron, makes golf carts that are listed online at about $1,300 each.
Paul Bollinger, deputy assistant Army secretary for energy and partnerships, said that the first NEV will be delivered to Fort Belvoir, Virginia, by Dec. 15.
Eight hundred of the zero-emissions vehicles will be delivered next year and 4,000 over the next three years, Bollinger said, adding that ultimately the Army will purchase "at least 10,000 vehicles overall."
Each electric vehicle will use an average of about $400 in electricity per year, compared to the roughly $2,400 in fuel needed to run a gas-powered car, Bollinger said, citing General Services Administration figures. The initial 4,000 EVs will save 11.5 million gallons of fuel per year, he said.
The Army's plan has persuaded its sister services to place orders, but no figures for them were immediately available, the Army Times reported.
The Army hopes to inspire a broader market for electric cars and has been telling automakers about its plans, Bollinger said.
"Chevy is looking at making the Volt... We don't need something that big or expensive, but we might need something that powerful. So in the future, if they are able to make it, that is great," he said.
Chevrolet announced today that pricing for the 2009 Silverado Hybrid--the only full-size hybrid pickup on the market--will starts at $38,995 for 2-wheel-drive models with the 1HY package.
That price includes a $975 destination charge. The 1HY models come with popular equipment options such as the heavy-duty towing package, locking rear differential, EZ Lift tailgate and lock, and 18-inch wheels.
Also included are automatic climate control, steering wheel audio controls and Bluetooth phone capability.
The manufacturer's suggested retail price does not reflect a $2,200 federal tax credit that applies to American customers who purchase the low-emissions, fuel-efficient Silverado Hybrid.
The Silverado Hybrid uses General Motors' patented two-mode hybrid system and a 6.0-liter gas V-8 to deliver highly efficient performance, including all-electric driving up to 30 miles per hour. That allows fuel savings to be realized even when the truck is fully loaded or towing a trailer. It has a 6,100-pound towing capacity.
EPA-estimated fuel economy for the 2-wheel-drive models is 21 miles per gallon in the city and 22 on the highway. The 4-wheel-drive models are estimated at 20 mpg in city and highway driving.
That mileage, combined with a 26-gallon fuel tank, delivers a cruising range of more than 500 miles with 2-wheel-drive models and more than 470 miles with 4-wheel-drive models.
Production begins next month, with delivery to dealers expected in early 2009. The Silverado Hybrid come with an eight-year/100,000-mile hybrid component warranty, low rolling resistance tires and head curtain side air bags.
Find the Volt. GM parked the Chevy "extended-range EV" show car in front of the Edmunds building and it was immediately engulfed by curious staff members.
----------
A picture, the old saw goes, is worth a thousand words.
In the case of the Chevrolet Volt, the pictures that we've seen previously are worth a thousand words of apology.
GM dropped by Edmunds.com headquarters Monday to show the staff the Volt show car that will be on the stand at the Los Angeles Auto Show starting with a media preview Wednesday and we were both impressed and abashed.
Impressed by how good looking the car (left)
is in person, abashed at how we joined lots of others in bad-mouthing it
when all we had to look at were pictures (below, bottom)
that just didn't do it justice.
The production-version Volt still isn't the low-slung, knife-edged, machine the original concept car made it out to be. But that car, according to GM Vice Chairman and produce guru Bob Lutz, turned out to have the aerodynamics of a brick.
After massive surgery to make air flow over and around the car smoothly instead of slamming into it like a block wall and then setting up enough turbulence to rival a Mix-Master dialed up to "blend" (sorry, I was helping the wife bake last night), the result is one nice-looking, sporty compact.
Especially striking in the flesh and hard to show properly in a photo (click on photos for larger sizes)
is the rear-end styling. It isn't as soft and squooshy as it appeared in those initial photos from GM, boasting instead a lot of the original concept's sharp creases and blunt musculature.
The roofline, which appeared a bit hump-backed over the rear of the cabin in the original GM photos, is smoother and lower on the show car we saw -a car that, Volt vehicle line director Tony Posawatz insists, looks just like the 2011 model year production car slated to hit Chevy dealers' showrooms near the end of 2010.
John O'Dell, Senior Editor
Studies in contrast: Volt line manager Tony Posawatz poses with production model mock-up in first official GM photo (left) and GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz poses with orignal Volt concept (right). ----------
Four children in Utah were hospitalized last week after inhaling natural gas inside a Chevrolet Suburban, police reported.
The incident occurred in Orem on Nov. 11 while the children's father refueled the Suburban, a gasoline-powered vehicle that he converted to run on compressed natural gas.
The father had done much of the conversion work himself and the CNG fuel tank, which was improperly installed inside the SUV's passenger compartment, had apparently leaked, police said.
Natural gas is not poisonous, but it does displace normal air, including oxygen necessary for human survival. The children were taken to a hospital and released after a short stay.
Do-it-yourself CNG conversions are very popular in Utah, where demand for the gaseous fossil fuel is the cheapest in the country at less than 90 cents per gasoline gallon equivalent.
By an odd confluence of public policy and private initiative, Utah has become the first state in the country to experience broad consumer interest in the idea of running cars on natural gas.
State government controls the price of natural gas in Utah, and private industry has created an fairly decent infrastructure of CNG fueling stations throuhgout the state.
Questar Gas, the public utility, estimates the number of CNG vehicles on Utah roads at 6,000 and growing by several hundred a month.
It's easy to forget amid the chatter surrounding General Motors' probable bailout that its forthcoming star car--the Chevy Volt--has already been granted subsidies from American taxpayers.
That would be the $7,500 tax handout every American Volt buyer will receive, assuming GM survives long enough to sell the much-hyped plug-in hybrid to American taxpayers.
Another subsidy is in the works, in the form of a mileage rating of 100 mpg that would allow GM to make and sell that many more low-mileage vehicles under the fleet-average mileage rules, the Wall Street Journal reminds in an opinion piece published today (subscription required).
Even as GM teeters toward bankruptcy and wheedles for billions in public aid, the Volt continues to absorb a big chunk of the company's product development budget.
This is a car that, by GM's own admission, won't make money, the Journal notes. It's a $40,000 car that will be unsalable without multiple handouts from government.
GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz (pictured with Volt) has said it a thousand time if he said it once that Volt owners won't ever have to use the vehicle's small gas generator to recharge the battery powering the car's electric drivetrain if the car is recharged every 40 miles or less.
But as the Journal reports, hardly mentioned is the fact that gasoline goes bad after a few months. So if the Volt is used as intended, for daily trips of 40 miles or less, its tank will have to be drained periodically and the gas disposed of.
In Washington's infinite wisdom, the tax incentives that have bolstered U.S. sales of the most fuel-efficient hybrids are gone or soon will be at a time when experts agree the vehicles could play an important role in reducing America's addiction to foreign oil and in stopping global warming.
---------- Honda's 42-mpg 2008 Civic Hybrid; its tax break ends next month. ----------
Tax incentives tied to Toyota's 2005-2008 model-year Prius, which gets a phenomenal EPA-rated 48 miles per gallon in the city, 45 mpg on the highway and 46 combined, expired in October 2007.
That same month saw the tax credit for the 2007-2008 Toyota Camry Hybrid vanish, despite the fact that model gets an EPA-rated 34 mpg combined.
And soon we'll witness another mystery: In the final minutes of next month, as people around the world usher out the old year and celebrate the new, the U.S. tax incentive for the 2006-2008 Honda Civic Hybrid (42 mpg combined!) will dissolve at the stroke of midnight.
But the strangeness won't end there.
Beginning next spring, Honda will offer a hybrid achieving a claimed 60 mpg. What tax break will Uncle Sam provide buyers of this gas-sipper, the 2010 Honda Insight? None whatsoever.
None, as in the 2,200 fewer taxpayer dollars than he's offering buyers of the 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid right now, despite the fact that big ol' honkin' SUV achieves only 21 mpg combined.
About the only thing sinking faster than new car sales these days is consumer interest in hybrids.
As the economy continues to tank and gas prices continue to fall, the number of consumers using the various Edmunds.com information channels to gather data on hybrid models has plummeted.
Hybrid consideration -- tallied by tracking the number of visitors to Edmunds' sites who spend time looking at model specifications and pricing data and cross-shopping hybrids with other hybrids and with conventional models -- is off 86 percent from its peak in mid-June.
By comparison, considerations of all new car and truck models are down 35 percent from the peak in May, according to data compiled for Green Car Advisor by Dr. David Tompkins, Edmunds.com's executive director of business solutions.
Consideration doesn't necessarily predict sales -- it could be that we're seeing the casual shoppers being knocked out of the box with only hard-core, determined buyers left looking.
Indeed, hybrid sales in October, while down 45 percent from their peak in April, were off only 9.4 percent from a year earlier. If seven models that weren't sold a year ago are omitted, the drop is sharper, at 16 percent. By comparison, total sales for the month were off 39 percent from the year's high in May and were down 32 percent from October 2007. Subtracting the 1,551 extra hybrids sold this year makes almost no difference in drop in total sales.
The sales figures show that hybrids continue to be popular among a significant slice of the public that's still buying cars -- they accounted for 2.6 percent of total October sales, their highest market share since July.
But Edmunds' hybrid consideration numbers may portend a bigger drop as the year progresses.
---------- Hydrid consideration (green) grew as gas prices rose but since summer has fallen faster than has consideration of all vehicles (red), according to Edmunds.com data.(Click on chart for expanded view.) ----------
With the nation in a recession that's been building since summer, you'd expect the numbers of people shopping for new cars, on-line and in dealerships, to decline, said Daniel Hall, vice president and data analyst at global auto industry consulting firm AutoPacific.
That the rate of decline for hybrid consideration is so much sharper, said Edmunds analyst Tompkins, shows that shoppers are being far more cautious about expenses than when gas prices were at their peak this summer and the line for hybrids at any price stretched around the block.
Back then, shoppers were enamored of the fuel economy a hybrid model could deliver in comparison to a conventionally powered model of the same vehicle.
Now, shoppers are looking not only at fuel economy -- which is less important to many as gas prices fall -- but at the so-called hybrid premium automakers charge to cover the extra cost of the battery packs and advanced powertrain components a hybrid requires.
Additionally, the nation's economic woes have made it more difficult for people to obtain loans, especially for big-ticket items such as homes and cars. When credit is already tight, a hybrid's premium price thins the herd, said Edmunds.com pricing and sales analyst Jessica Caldwell.
Full-size pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles were among the best-selling vehicles in America when gas was cheap, because people who bought them liked them.
The share of owners of full-size pickup trucks trading for other large pickups slumped to as low as 49.8 percent in May as gas prices and interest in fuel-efficient vehicles took off, according to an article in today's Wall Street Journal (subscription required), citing data from the Power Information Network.
Now, the collapse in gasoline prices -- down about 35 percent since July to a nationwide average of about $2.65 a gallon -- has allowed at least some truck buyers to recalculate once again the economics of driving the vehicles they like or need.
By September, this measure of loyalty among truck owners had rebounded to 74.5 percent -- the highest level in 13 months -- and was running just under 72 percent in early October.
"The last two weeks, our truck activity has picked up," Mark Frost, the general manager for Jim Ellis Chevrolet in Atlanta, told the Journal. The dealership is promoting big discounts -- as much $12,000 off a 2008 Chevy Tahoe (pictured) -- and telling business owners that they may qualify for big tax breaks on vehicles purchased for commercial use.
Sales haven't rebounded to the level they were before $4 a gallon gas and the credit crunch slammed the market, Frost said. But selling 30 or 40 trucks a month beats selling just 15.
Richard S. Chang, a blogger for The New York Times
who attended the press walk-around of the Chevrolet Volt this week in Manhattan, notes
that the hybrid sedan is inspiring a new language.
---------- Frank Weber, chief engineer of the Volt. ----------
"Frank Weber, chief engineer on the project, mentioned something he called 'range anxiety,' " Chang wrote for the newspaper's "Wheels" blog.
Range anxiety, as he described, is the nagging worry that the electric vehicle you are driving is running out of battery charge.
The Volt, which has a range of 40 miles -- when all power equipment has been turned off, including air-conditioner, stereo and headlights -- is an "extended-range electric vehicle," Weber said, and is equipped with a gasoline engine to create electricity when the lithium-ion battery is empty.
A few moments later, Weber explained what most people in the room already knew: battery development is the biggest challenge to the Volt's development. "We call the battery 'the Diva,' because of the way it has to be treated," he said. In other words, the battery was, um, in charge.
Range anxiety, extended-range electric vehicle, diva: these concepts reinforce the idea that as we enter the age of alternative-energy vehicles, we are faced with a new set of parameters and lingo, Chang wrote.
Building upon fuel-consumption displays found in the Toyota Prius and other vehicles, Ford announced today that its 2010 Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan hybrids will be equipped with an instrument cluster that will provide real-time information and verbal coaching to help drivers maximize fuel efficiency.
The SmartGauge with EcoGuide (pictured) will give drivers current fuel-economy data and, unique to the Ford and Mercury hybrid sedans, offer verbal encouragement to help them become mileage-maximizing motorists.
The interactive system provides four levels of information display, from a basic "Journey" mode to the content-rich "Empower" level that will present the most detail on engine performance as well as the most feedback on how to improve fuel efficiency.
The graduated levels of information are offered to appease motorists who just want the basics, others who can't get enough fuel-economy feedback, and everyone in between.
Jeff Greenberg, Ford's senior technical leader, said the main question hybrid drivers have is, "How do I know I'm getting the most out of my hybrid?" Ford's response is SmartGauge, which the automaker developed in collaboration with IDEO and Smart Design, he said.
General Motors is postponing nearly all of its spending on product development in 2009 and 2010--a cost-cutting move that could delay the introduction of key fuel-efficient vehicles such as the Chevrolet Cruze, although the much-anticipated Volt plug-in hybrid is still on schedule.
The automaker also is cutting spending on engineering, design, and research and development, Automotive Newsreported today
(subscription required), citing unnamed sources. So far, nothing has been officially canceled, but nearly everything is delayed, the sources say.
"The 2009 stuff that's too late to cancel is coming out, then everything else gets pushed out anywhere between three months and up to a year," said one of the sources. "It's not just capital budget; it's also engineering, design ... everything that would cause money to flow out in 2009."
The automaker is taking drastic action to avoid running out of money sometime next year, the publication reported. With its product delays, GM hopes to save as much as $1.5 billion, said the source.
GM spokesman Dee Allen declined to comment on plans for individual products. "There have been all kinds of speculation," he said. "We've said we're reviewing our portfolio, and we do that as a regular course of business."
Two high-profile vehicles--the Chevrolet Camaro and the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid--are protected from the cutbacks, said one source close to GM. Likewise, the restyled Buick LaCrosse and possibly the Cadillac CTS wagon are still due to market as planned.
An article in Sunday's New York Times did a nice job of recapping the boom and bust of the sport-utility-vehicle market, particularly as it applies to General Motors.
---------- Right, the 2008 Chevy Tahoe Hybrid. ----------
The reporting high up in the article about GM putting the brakes on plans to overhaul the next generation of large SUVs and full-size trucks was particularly newsworthy; our regular readers will recall that we reported the development four months ago.
The decision came amid plummeting sales of full-size trucks and increasing demand for fuel-efficient cars. But as bad as things were for the auto industry in general and the Detroit Three in particular at the start of summer, they pale in comparison to the ugliness that followed.
Back in June, GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson said "we think the higher fuel prices are here to stay and they'll have a significant -- essentially permanent -- impact on the truck market."
Although gas prices have since fallen, financial markets the world over have crashed and talk about America's major automakers possibly going belly-up is on the rise.
With this backdrop, we decided to call Wilkinson again to see where things stand now with regard to the GM's plans for full-size SUVS, the most profitable products in the General's hundred-year history.
The coveted Chevy Volt battery contract appears to be going to a unit of South Korea's biggest battery maker.
Reuters news service and the independent Volt fan site, GM-Volt.com, both reported today that GM has decided to select Compact Power Inc., a Detroit-based subsidiary of LG Chem, to be supplier of the advanced lithium-ion batteries for the Volt (right), which is scheduled to begin production in late 2010.
Reuters said two unidentified but knowledgeable sources confirmed the deal and said it will be formally announced next month, providing terms of the supply contract are worked out with Compact Power.
The company was competing for the pact with a joint venture of German's Continental AG and Boston-based A123 Systems.
The Volt contract is important because the batteries are the most important element of the car and their reliability will make or break GM's gamble to be the first company to put a plug-in -- or grid-rechargeable -- hybrid into the market.
Electric cars are the hot topic at this year's Paris auto show, with General Motors, Renault, Nissan, Smart and many lesser-known car manufacturers showing off a huge variety of EVs.
They range from wildly exotic supercars to tiny commuter cars that look ready to park in your driveway. Some are strictly concepts. Others could go on sale - even here in the U.S. -- much sooner than you think.
Green Car Advisor's man in Paris, contributor Nick Kurczewski, was at the show last week and offers some thoughts on the biggest electric-car newsmakers there.
Chevrolet Volt
- Yes, we've written a ton about it and you've read even more, but we still can't ignore it. There it was, sitting on the GM stand in Paris, bowtie gleaming in the spotlights.
Chevy's Volt is often called a plug-in hybrid, and it is a hybrid by definition. But it also is an electric car, using only an electric motor for propulsion.
Its small 1.4-liter gasoline engine cranks over only to recharge the batteries and never sends its power directly to the Volt's wheels.
Whether you consider it an EV or a hybrid, chances are the bigger factor in consumer acceptance of the four-door sedan will be its escalating price tag.
A new bill just signed by the White House makes the Volt eligible for a $7,500 federal income tax credit, but before applying that, the sticker price - which determines the size of down payments and monthly lease or purchase costs - is likely to be at or above $40,000 when it goes on sale in late 2010 in the U.S.
That's awfully steep sticker-price, especially considering that new Honda Insight hybrid will cost less than $20,000 when it arrives next year.
Renault Z.E. Concept
- Renault and its sister company, Nissan, are busy co-developing electric vehicles that will go on sale as early as 2010. The Z.E. Concept is the first indication as to where Renault is taking its version.
The design of the Z.E. - for Zero Emissions -- looks like a shortened version of the humble Renault Kangoo, a tall and boxy utility van currently sold throughout Europe. The green glass in the concept model adds a bizarre touch of show-car drama.
Other details include the use of rear-view cameras instead of side mirrors - to smooth out the aerodynamics and improve range - along with solar panels built into the roof, to aid battery recharging.
The Z.E. concept car uses double-walled insulating bodywork, which keeps the cabin cozy whether it is hot or cold outside and requires less energy from the ventilation system.
Its lithium-ion batteries provide a driving range between 60 to 90 miles.
Renault does not currently sell cars in America, which makes it unlikely the French manufacturer will ever bring its EV stateside.
But it's Japanese partner has other plans.
Nissan Nuvu
- Don't worry if you love the idea of an electric-powered Nissan but hate the blobby looks of the Nuvu concept car.
The 2+1 seat Nuvu is important chiefly because it offers a glimpse of the lithium-ion powered drivetrain of the electric vehicle Nissan says it will start selling in the U.S. in 2010.
The Japanese company reassures us that the quirky Nuvu is not a totally faithful indication of what this production car will eventually look like.
Under its skin, the Nuvu's battery pack provides a range of 75 miles and a top-speed of 78 miles per hour. Range will likely be improved, and the wacky looks toned down a bit when Nissan unveils a more accurate glimpse of its upcoming EV during next year's Tokyo motor show.
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.
General Motors will keep its sole U.S. compact-car factory running on overtime throught the rest of this year in an effort to meet demand for its fuel-efficient Chevrolet Cobalt, GM said today.
GM is running short on Cobalts despite adding a third shift this summer at its Lordstown, Ohio, assembly plant.
Cobalt sales fell 17 percent last month from a year earlier, a drop GM attributed to short supply.
Still, Cobalt sales for the year are up 6 percent, while GM's sales overall have fallen 18 percent in a weak U.S. auto market.
In case you've been in a deep, dank cave with no wireless connection for the past few hours, the news du jour
is that the House has approved the Wall Street rescue measure that includes the original $700-billion in bail-out bucks plus wads of cash for renewable energy, biofuels and energy-efficiency programs.
The $17 billion energy package also includes a plug-in hybrids tax credit plan
with an estimated price tag of $1 billion. It won't expire until the auto industry has, collectively, sold 250,000 plug-in cars and trucks that run at least part of the time on all-electric drive from energy stored in rechargeable, on-board batteries.
While none of the major automakers has yet to offer a plug-in, just about all (Honda Motor Co. is a notable exception) are working on them, with General Motor Corp.'s Chevrolet Volt perhaps the best known of the bunch.
Reporters walking the floor of the Paris Auto Show this week, however, are seeing a lot more as European car makers seem to have embraced the idea
of electric cars and gas- and diesel-electric hybrids with a fervor usually associated with revival meeting preachers.
It's been pretty well established that there wasn't much of an auto market in the U.S. last month.
"Catastrophe" and "disaster" are applicable adjectives; "It sucked" is how some wags have described it.
---------- Sales of new GM hybrid SUVs like this Chevrolet Tahoe helped hybrid market. ----------
We've had Edmunds' crack number crunchers parsing the data for us, looking for any glimmer of hope that might be found in the "green" and fuel-efficiency parts of the market and, so, far, have to say that they haven't come up with much.
The first pass through Wednesday's raw sales data provides at look at how hybrids did in comparison to the market as a whole.
And depending on how you do the comparison - to the previous month or to the same month a year ago - we found a mixed message for September hybrid sales.
Hybrid Segment Outpaces Market
The market as a whole was down 26.5 percent from September 2007 and was off 22.5 percent from August '08. It was the first month since the late 1990s that sales dropped below the 1-million mark.
Volkswagen reportedly is running a 20-strong test fleet of plug-in Golf/Rabbit hybrids in and around Berlin with the expectation of bringing the model to market in 2011.
The current test models are using diesel engines to extend the vehicles' 30-mile electric range, Motor Trend reports, but the production versions are likely to get gasoline engines to keep costs down in the face of increasingly pricey diesel-emissions regulations.
Unlike the extended-range Chevrolet Volt gas-electric hybrid, which employs an electric powertrain and a gasoline generator that only energizes the battery pack, the VW's wheels will receive power directly from both the gasoline engine and the electric motor.
In a clever bit of engineering, that feat will be accomplished without a conventional gearbox, which will offset some of the weight of the motor and the 12 kilowatt-hour Sanyo lithium-ion battery pack.
The gearbox is limited to a single-gear ratio equivalent to the top gear in a conventional car. The electric motor is needed to supply low-end torque to get the car rolling to about 30 miles per hour, at which point the combustion engine will automatically clutch in and fire up. According to Motor Trend
, the electric assist then quickly fades but can be tapped for a power boost.
Other compelling features include 40 horsepower of regeneration braking and an "e-mode" button that can be pressed to keep the gas engine still. The latter feature would be useful in areas where access is limited to zero-emissions vehicles.
The system controller is linked to the vehicle's navigation system so it can calculate when best to use up the available battery charge (for example, if the system knows an urban area is ahead, it will run longer on the gasoline engine).
The controller can also ensure that the car arrives at its destination with depleted batteries, ready to take on cheap electricity rather than expensive gasoline.
A major business news service is reporting today that an unidentified General Motors Corp. insider says the carmaker has negotiated a preliminary agreement with federal regulators to certify the Chevrolet Volt electric car as the nation's first 100-mile-per-gallon car when it goes on sale.
But the official word from GM, says spokesman Dave Darovitz, is that while "we have an ongoing, robust discussion with the EPA, we are still months away from establishing" mileage test protocol.
California regulators may have helped GM, though, as Darovitz says the California Air Resources board has agreed to create a special classification for the Volt that treats it as an electric vehicle in the complex formula for figuring out who has to do what to meet the state's much-edited Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate.
The automaker has time to gnaw things over with the feds: The launch date goal for the Volt is now set for November, 2010.
GM and the Environmental Protection Agency have been arguing over the methodology
to be used to rate the car, which would be capable of running for as much as 40 miles a day on grid-charged batteries before its gasoline-burning generator would kick in.
In short commutes, a Volt would rarely use any gasoline, while the car would average about 50 miles a gallon - all of it used to keep the on-board generator producing electricity to power the vehicle - on a long trip with no time-outs to recharge the batteries.
The EPA reportedly wants to use a test method that assumes the car's batteries will be recharged by the gas generator - which would give it a mileage rating of somewhere around 50 mpg,
GM wants the test method to allow the batteries to be depleted, which would keep the car running in all-electric mode longer and boost average fuel efficiency to 100 mpg.
General Motors Corp. has confirmed reports
that it will build a plant in impoverished Flint, Mich., for a new generation of fuel-efficient, four-cylinder engines for use in the Chevrolet Cruze compact car and the Chevrolet Volt extended-range, plug-in electric hybrid.
---------- New GM 4-cylinder engine is displayed in lot when new engine factory will be built. ----------
Like all automakers, GM is under increasing pressure from consumers to field more economical vehicles that stress fuel economy at least as much as power and performance.
And like most it is under pressure from government to build new cars, and factories, that are greener and less polluting that previous vehicles and facilities.
GM said Thursday it will spend $359 million on the new Flint engine plant, which will create about 300 jobs in a city where GM has laid off thousands of workers over the years.
The 552,000-square-foot factory will turn out 1.4-liter turbocharged engines for the two new cars, and, likely, for other GM models as well.
City officials in Flint, where the unemployment rate is more than 33 percent and 35 percent of the residents live at or below the federal poverty level, gave GM a 20-year break from property taxes on the new plant in order to secure the deal for the carmaker to build it there.
The plant is scheduled to begin operating early in 2010, with the Cruze slated for introduction abut the same time and the Volt to follow at the end of the year.
Green Car Advisor was a bit early with our report Tuesday of Chrysler's unexpected but oh-so-welcome electric vehicle announcement, posting the bare bones of the story hours before the company held a press conference to lay out more detail.
We were in Portland covering a Toyota seminar on sustainable mobility when that happened and weren't able to make it to Chrysler HQ in Michigan for the show.
But colleague Michelle Krebs, senior editor of Edmunds Auto Observer, did attend and agreed to file an update to keep you all up to date.
Without further ado, heeeeere's Michelle's take on Chrysler's electric vehicles:
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- Chrysler unveiled a trio of battery-electric and extended-range series hybrid electric cars Tuesday and said it would eventually offer some type of electric version of every model in its line.
The first will hit showrooms in the U.S. sometime in 2010. European consumers will get one shortly thereafter.
Chrysler would not say which of the three models unveiled this week - one for each of its marques -- would go into production, and executives said that work continues on all of them.
The Dodge EV is two-seat, rear-drive sports car based on the Lotus Europa, a stretched version of the Elise sold only in Europe.
Chrysler revealed that it now has a partnership with the British sports car maker, though details remain under wraps.
The Dodge EV coupe is equipped with a 200-kilowatt motor that produces an estimated 268 horsepower and 480 pound-feet of torque, for a zero to 60 mile per hour time of less than five seconds and quarter mile of about 13 seconds.
Portland, Or. - Usually when a carmaker invites a bunch of journalists to a seminar, they get wined and dined and stuffed with all sorts of fun facts about how well the company's doing and what great new products it is working on.
Toyota turned things upside down this week with a day-long session it called the Toyota Sustainable Mobility Seminar.
We were wined and dined, but only after listening to a parade of top scientists and researchers tell us, in unsparing detail, how the planet is running out of oil and water; how the biofuels we look to as potential replacements for oil aren't worth the power and water it takes to make 'em, and how we now are consuming 40 percent more resources each year than the planet can sustain.
It was not, as you can tell, a particularly spirit-lifting session.
Bill Reinert, Toyota's North American advanced technology vehicles manager, took to the podium after the morning's sessions, held out his left wrist and, with a downward slashing motion of his right hand told us that after hearing all that had just been said he wanted us to know that the proper way to slit it was vertically, not horizontally.
Highlights - or low lights - included:
From Scripps Institute (San Diego) hydrologist Tim Barnett the cheery news that there's a 50 percent probability that the American West, where much of the next few decades' population growth will be centered, is likely to run out of water in the next 20-40 years.
PORTLAND, Or. - In a move that could give a big boost to proponents of natural gas as an automotive fuel, hybrid car leader Toyota Motor Corp. says it will show off a "concept" CNG Camry Hybrid at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November.
Bill Reinert, Toyota's North American advanced technology vehicles manager, said the automaker hasn't decided to put the car into production and wants to use its showing at the heavily visited LA show to gather consumer feedback on the idea of a hybrid that used compressed national gas to power its internal combustion engine.
For consumers where CNG is available - there are only 1,000 pumps nationwide and half aren't open to the public - the idea has merit.
----------
2009 Camry Hybrid uses gasoline enging, electric motgor. Is a natural gas-electric version soon to follow?
----------
CNG delivers the same fuel economy as gasoline and is considerably less expensive.
It also is far cleaner-burning that gasoline, with fewer smog-causing emissions and less carbon dioxide.
For Toyota, and other automakers, use of CNG helps overcome growing concerns about the impacts on their businesses of global oil depletion and the drive for U.S. energy independence.
The announcement was made Tuesday in Portland during a day-long Toyota Sustainable Mobility Conference at which one keynote speaker pointed out that of all the alternative fuels on the table today, natural gas is perhaps the easiest to put into widespread use, and also is the most plentiful.
"It lasts a lot longer than crude oil," noted oil industry consultant Peter Wells said of the global supply of natural gas.
Toyota's concept marries its Hybrid Synergy Drive system to a CNG-fueled four-cylinder engine that likely would be modified for high compression to optimize natural gas' high octane level.
It would be the only CNG-electric hybrid on the road if put into production, and only one of two factory-built CNG vehicles.
More than a couple of bloggers that apparently didn't read the bill have incorrectly reported how the legislation, which still must go before the Senate and the president, would benefit initial buyers of the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid.
Here are the facts, ma'am:
First, the amount of the tax credit is not limited to Volt buyers. It would apply to "any new qualified plug-in electric drive motor vehicle."
The proposed tax credit consists of a base amount and a battery-capacity amount. The base amount is a flat $3,000.
The battery-capacity amount varies. In the case of a vehicle that draws propulsion energy from a battery with not less than 5 kilowatt hours (kWh) of capacity, add $200 to the base amount.
Next, add $200 for each kilowatt hour of capacity in excess of 5 kWh. However, the battery-capacity amount is limited to $2,000.
At the heart of the Volt is a 16-kWh battery pack, which means the Volt owner would qualify for all $2,000 of the battery-capacity amount. Add that to the $3,000 base amount and the Volt owner earns a federal tax credit of five grand.
Will the upcoming Chevy Volt's plug-in, extended-range electric vehicle technology make it a sales hit in these times of concern about energy security and fuel prices and availability?
Or will its just-revealed design -- so different from the cutting-edge but admittedly un-aerodynamic design of the original Volt show car -- blunt the public's appetite for the car?
---------- The Chevrolet Volt Concept (top) unveiled at the 20007 Detroit Auto Show was lower, sleeker and, unfortunately, far less aerodynamic, than the 2010 production version (bottom) unveiled this week. ----------
We hope not, but we have to admit that we
weren't all that wowed by the looks of the production version of the Volt unveiled earlier this week.
Some already are seeking an answer to the Volt design vs. tech question, and one of the first out of the gate is CNW Research.
That's the iconoclastic Oregon-based auto market research and analysis firm that last year opined that a Hummer was more environmentally friendly than a Prius when the impact of elements such as nickel mining (for battery material) and transpacific shipping was added to the Prius' account.
In a teaser announcement advancing a full report to be issued Friday in its regular Retail Automotive Summary (subscription only), CNW says that it found in a series of focus groups this week that almost three-quarters of participants, who viewed photos of the concept and production Volts, think the production version's design "common or uninspired."
A week after leaking shots of the Chevrolet Volt with project principals posing in front of it, General Motors Corp. today rolled out its plug-in hybrid vehicle to a standing ovation from hundreds of employees inside GM's Renaissance Center in Detroit.
The unveiling was the highlight in a string of events scheduled for today to celebrate the automaker's centennial.
The Volt is expected to allow drivers to travel up to 40 miles on electric power alone. After that, a small gasoline-fueled engine comes on to generate electricity for a battery pack that feeds the sedan's electric motor. The motor in turn provides power to the wheels.
Seated behind the wheel at its unveiling was GM's chief product man, Bob Lutz, who said the hybrid vehicle will help reestablish GM as a leader in technology and fuel-efficiency.
"With one fell swoop, the Volt will erase that misconception," Lutz said, adding the vehicle should be available to consumers in November 2010.
GM President Fritz Henderson seemed to disagree. He said no single vehicle will change the fortunes of the cash-strapped automaker.
"I'm not sure there is a single game-changer," he said. "My view is you change the game one step at a time. We're excited about this, but it's not the only step."
Both Henderson and CEO and Chairman Rick Wagoner pointed to the automaker's other research -- among them developing biofuel, plug-in and fuel-cell technologies -- as part of a broader effort to change the game.
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.
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.
GM's European chief has reiterated that the company plans to launch both Chevrolet and Opel versions of the Volt plug-in hybrid for the European market around the middle of 2011.
----------
GM executive Tony Posawatz stands with a pre-production Volt.
----------
Carl-Peter Forster, president of GM Europe, told Automotive News Europe that the company is "investing an enormous amount" and willl launch the cars "in around three years."
GM has vowed to begin producing retail models of the car, which runs on electric power and uses a small gasoline engine as an on-board generator, by the end of 2010 for the U.S. market.
An Opel concept called the Flextreme (right)
that was shown at last year's Frankfurt auto show used a diesel generator in place of the gasoline engine, but Forster didn't indicate which type of internal combustion engine/generator would be used for European Volt production models.
Forster also said that GM intends to build as many as 50 prototype models of the Chevrolet Volt by the end of this year for testing in the U.S. They would serve as rolling test-beds for the hardware intended for the production model.
Plug-in hybrid developer Fisker Automotive Inc.
said this morning that it has raised $65 million in capital in a new financing round led by an affiliate of the Qatar Investment Authority
, an arm of the oil-rich emirate of Qatar.
The year-old company said the funding, completed on Sept. 4, will be used to help develop its first car, the Fisker Karma (left)
.
The $80,000, four-door, plug-in hybrid sports coupe was designed by company chief executive and co-founder Henrik Fisker (left)
, chairman of Fisker Coachbuild
and a leading Aston Martin and BMW designer before striking out on his own.
It initially was shown as a production concept
at the Detroit Auto Show in January.
Fisker, who declined to reveal the totals of two previous financing rounds, said previous Fisker Automotive's investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
and Palo Alto Investors
also participated in the just-completed round.
Both are known as backers of "green" technologies.
The Karma's rechargeable hybrid-electric drive system was designed by company co-founder Quantum Fuel System Technologies Worldwide
, which claims it has been field tested for more than three years in development trials for the U.S. military.
Fisker Automotive maintains that the Karma will be a series hybrid, the same type of system employed in Chevrolet's upcoming Volt.
It will be capable of a top speed of 125 miles an hour and of up to 50 miles of all-electric travel at legal highway speeds on an initial battery charge from the commercial grid, the company has said.
After that, a gasoline engine/generator would kick in to continue powering the electric drive motor while recharging the lithium-ion batteries for another 50-mile round of all-electric drive. Repeating the cycle could keep the car traveling for several hundred miles on a single tank of fuel.
Henrik Fisker has said that initial deliveries of the Karma are expected to commence in the fourth quarter of 2009 and today said he expected annual production to grow to 15,000 vehicles a year.
The company recently announced
that the car is to be built by Finland's Valmet Automotive, which also produces Porsche's Boxer and Cayman models.
Someone within General Motors has leaked studio shots of the production Chevy Volt with executives tasked with developing the hybrid posing beside their star car.
Shown are GM product chief Bob Lutz, vehicle line executive Tony Posawatz, chief engineers Frank Weber and Andrew Farah, and design lead Bob Boniface. You can see who is who by placing your cursor atop each photograph.
The Volt will officially debut next Tuesday during GM's centennial celebrations in Detroit.
General Motors and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are in a tug of war over whether the Chevy Volt should be designated an electric car or a hybrid, Motor Trend reports
.
How the Volt is defined is important because it will dictate how the agency calculates the car's fuel economy numbers.
The problem for GM is that if the Volt goes to market with an EPA rating that is not much better than can be achieved by conventional hybrids, diesels, or other small cars, consumers may not see the value in the car's expected $40,000 price.
Strictly speaking, the Volt is a hybrid, because while only an electric motor is used to propel the vehicle, an onboard gasoline-powered internal combustion engine is connected to a generator, acting as a range extender when the Volt's lithium-ion battery pack runs low on power.
Without the gas engine, the pack would run out of juice after about 40 miles and the car would come to a stop. With it, the car can go hundreds of miles before the gas tank would need more fuel.
This setup differs from the most popular hybrid on the market today, the Toyota Prius. The Prius uses an electric motor, gas engine or a combination of both to turn the wheels. The Volt's wheels are turned only by its electric-drive unit.
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."
So here's what it comes down to: two global automotive giants jousting over who has the better technology for future hybrids.
In this corner, if somewhat reluctantly, it's Toyota Motor Corp. and the "plug-in" hybrid-electric vehicle
(PHEV), an extension of its renowned Hybrid Synergy Drive system popularized the world over by the standard-setting Prius.
And in that corner, simultaneously playing underdog and catch-up, is General Motors Corp. and its heavy-duty green hype-machine, the Chevrolet Volt - a vehicle that, just as with Toyota's plug-in Prius, doesn't yet exist in retail form.
The Volt, still being tested and prototyped, is the high-fashion showcase for GM's potentially game-changing but unproven "extend-range" electric vehicle (E-REV) technology.
GM says that a Volt vs. plug-in Prius match-up isn't really an apples-to-apples comparison because the Volt isn't really a hybrid.
The company insists that it is an electric vehicle - albeit one fitted with a "range-extender" combustion engine that can recharge its lithium-ion batteries in the event the vehicle needs to be driven beyond the planned 40 miles of electric-only propulsion.
Truth is, the Volt is an EV, but it also fits the classic definition of a series hybrid, in which one powerplant produces electricity to feed the electric motor that propels the vehicle.
The Prius, plug-in or otherwise, is a hybrid of another stripe; a parallel hybrid, so called because its two power plants (gas and electric) can work separately or be harnessed together- operating in parallel - to provide propulsion.
The two systems are going to end up head-to-head in the race to win the hearts and minds of an expanding population of environmentally concerned buyers and head-to-head in the struggle to determine whether one design prevails in a high-efficiency future nobody can yet fully forecast.
Oh, and one final bit of fun and intrigue: neither company has been immune to a little trash-talking about the other's technology.
Five years after putting the kabosh on its rechargeable RAV4 all-electric SUV, Toyota Motor Corp. announced today that it's back in the EV game, developing a plug-in electric-powered commuter car.
Japan's largest automaker also said that it intends to speed up testing of plug-in Prius hybrids, which will contain the latest advances in battery technology.
The all-electric car will be "mass-produced'' in the early 2010s, President Katsuaki Watanabe said today in Tokyo without elaborating. Tests of rechargeable Priuses, previously set for 2010, were moved up to late 2009. Currently available Priuses can operate on electricity and gasoline but cannot be plugged in.
The move to develop an electric vehicle now reflects rising demand for fuel-efficient cars amid high gas prices. It also means Toyota will bring its plug-in EV to market in late 2010, which is just about the time General Motors intends to begin shipping its plug-in Chevrolet Volt to dealers.
Plug-in hybrids can be recharged using a household outlet. Current hybrids capture power from braking when the vehicles are in motion and rely on an onboard gasoline engine to generate electricity for the battery pack and electric motor or to supply power directly to the wheels as needed, but their batteries cannot be recharged from an outlet.
Toyota's rechargeable Prius will use lithium-ion batteries, an advance over the nickel-metal hydride versions in existing hybrids.
Rechargeable Priuses with extra nickel-metal batteries are now being tested in California and Japan, with a range of about 7 miles on battery power alone. Toyota estimates the new plug-ins will be able to travel 10 miles on a charge.
"We'll be studying the range, but think we'll need more than that for a consumer version,'' Toyota spokesman John Hanson told Bloomberg news service today in an interview from Tokyo. "Non-consumer fleets'' such as utilities will use the vehicles, Hanson said.
GM wants the Volt to have at least 40 miles of all-electric range before relying on a gasoline engine to generate electricity for the Volt's electric motor.
Toyota is building on its own experiments with all-electric vehicles, including testing fleets of E-Com electric minicars in Japan. To meet California air-quality regulations, it leased electric versions of its RAV4 small SUV (above, left) about a year ending in early 2003. Many of the vehicles can still be seen on roads in the Golden State.
Spy video
of a Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric car (or plug-in series hybrid, take your pick) posted on Green Car Advisor
and other sites in the past two days shows a car that General Motors says was built especially for the movie "Transformers 2" that is now being filmed.
While the purple-blue car in the video "does share some of the design direction" of the production Volt due in late 2010, "it is not representative of the final production version," said GM spokesman David Darovitz.
GM, he added, didn't have anything to do with release of the video.
We asked because the company has "leaked" its own spy shots of some Volt details in recent weeks, but was always up front about being the originator.
"The 'Transformer' concept looks great," Darovitz wrote in an e-mail this morning, "but wait until you see the real Volt!"
No sooner were the words out (see previous post
) than we were proven wrong: you won't have to piece spy pix together to get a look at the 2010 Chevy Volt - it appears to have a role in the upcoming action flick "Transformers 2," as evidenced by a spy video
posted on the Modern Mythology
comics fan blog Thursday and later picked up by the Transformers Live Action Movie Blog
.
The purple-blue car, clearly bearing the Chevrolet Bow Tie emblem, has "VOLT" emblazoned across its rear fascia, as the screen capture above makes clear.
The action, apparently in or near Long Beach, Calif., where the movie is being filmed, was shot from an elevated position, so the car is somewhat foreshortened in the video, but its resemblance to the Volt concept and the production design details that have been leaked previously by General Motors is unmistakable.
Unclear from the video is whether the car is running with the Volt's extended-range electric powerplant and advanced lithium-ion battery pack or with a conventional gasoline engine jammed in to make it ready for the movie.
If the leaks keep on coming, people with the patience to piece a pile of spy photos together will know what the Chevrolet Volt looks like long before General Motors pulls the tarp off the production model.
So far, GM has allowed us to see bits and pieces of the front left corner, side-view mirror, grille and tail end of the Volt--- just enough to understand that the exterior won't look quite like the knife-edged cncept that was unveiled at last year's Detroit Auto Show, but probably won't come to life looking like the next-gen Malibu, either.
Now we're going inside the plug-in hybrid that GM believes will change the automotive landscape.
A view of a small slice of the interior -- the center stack -- seems to have leaked out from behind closed doors at some sort of a design review.
While not an official GM photo this time (previous "spy" shots
were issued by the automaker to keep the buzz going), the pictures shows a center stack the looks a lot like the one in a very fuzzy photo (right)
of the stack in a Volt designer's sketchbook that showed up on the web back in April.
The new photo, which first appeared Thursday in a readers forum
on the website of Motive Magazine
, shows a stack, clad in shiny white plastic a la
an iMac computer. It houses all the climate, entertainment and various other controls plus the screen for a driver communication center (and, possibly, navigation system).
The comkmunication screes shows a schematic of the Volt's front-mounted, internal combustion engine/generator and the lithium-ion battery pack it feeds.
The white center stack is surrounded by a matte black dash pierced by louvered air vents, and the image on the left edge of the photo shows a bit of what appears to be a hooded instrument cluster.
There are few visible buttons or switches on the stack, controls seem mainly to be soft-touch switchgear hidden beneath the unbroken plastic surface.
We can't be sure the photo represents the final version of the Volt's center stack, but it seems pretty certain that it is, indeed, a picture of what it looks like right now. A GM spokesman all but acknowledged the authenticity of the shot in a late Thursday e-mail exchange with Green Car Advisor:
"Can't really dispute the beauty that is inherent in the photo highlighting the technological prowess that is the Chevrolet Volt," wrote GM's Dave Darovitz, adding that he believed the photo "is representative of the Volt in general..."
General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said Thursday that GM will have production versions of the Chevrolet Volt working in a large test fleet by late 2009.
Until now the General -- the automaker, not "Maximum Bob" -- has stated that the Volt would not enter production until 2010.
It's possible GM announced its accelerated Volt production schedule in response to Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe's statement earlier Thursday that Toyota will advance delivery of its plug-in hybrid to fourth quarter 2009 from 2010. The Volt is due in showrooms in late 2010.
But Lutz, speaking at an event in Illinois, told reporters he expects Toyota's plug-in will debut in controlled fleets only and in small numbers. He said GM will have production versions of the Volt working in a large test fleet before the end of next year.
Lutz said the Volt's lithium-ion batteries can take it 40 to 50 miles on a single charge. If a driver stays within that range, the car would never use gasoline. To go farther, the gas engine would come on to recharge the batteries.
Toyota has not released an electric-only range for its plug-in hybrid, which operates similar to its current Prius model by using both gasoline and electricity to propel the vehicle.
Lutz said such hybrids generally have a short electric-only range.
"After eight or 11 miles it reverts to being a completely normal gasoline-electric hybrid, which means you get about a 25-30 percent fuel savings, but the point is they do burn fuel," he said.
Lutz played down the fact that the Volt will also be dependent on gasoline once its batteries have been discharged. Although Chevy and Toyota's plug-ins have distinctly different architectures, it will be possible to compare the amount of gasoline displaced by electricity in each vehicle once Toyota provides mileage data for its plug-in.
Flint, Michigan -- the city made famous by a Michael Moore documentary
about the devastating financial and emotional hits the city suffered as General Motors laid off thousands of workers there while reaping record profits -- has agreed to give GM millions of dollars in tax incentives if the automaker builds an engine plant for the Chevrolet Volt in the poverty-sticken community.
GM asked for the tax breaks to help support its $359 million investment in a new plant where workers will build 1.4-liter turbo engines for the Volt plug-in hybrid, as well as GM's new compact car, the Chevy Cruze. The proposed 500,000-square-foot facility, which would be built near Flint Engine South and Flint Truck, would retain about 300 jobs.
The automaker plans to begin production of the Volt in late 2010.
GM's request for incentives, approved Monday by the Flint City Council, stirred unease among some residents in GM's birthplace, where thousands of jobs have been eliminated over the years.
"A lot of people still feel ... General Motors owes us more than just a couple hundred jobs," Councilman Jim Ananich said the other day, according to an article in The Detroit News. "But as competitive as the market is and the trouble General Motors is having, we have to help them with whatever we can do to keep them competitive."
The city extended an existing abatement of 100 percent of the personal property taxes until 2033 and granted GM a 50-percent, 15-year abatement of real property taxes.
The City Council also approved a GM redevelopment plan for the proposed engine plant that makes GM eligible for state tax credits. The automaker is further seeking billions of dollars in low-interest loans from Congress to develop fuel-efficient vehicles such as the Volt, and GM is lobbying Congress for a $7,000 federal tax rebate for Volt buyers.
The Census Bureau reported Tuesday that a whopping 35.5 percent of Flint residents live in poverty, with more than one in every three Flint residents out of work.
General Motors announced late today that the company will invest more than $500 million in the United States to build the Chevrolet Cruze, an all-new fuel-efficient global compact car with a highway mileage target "in the forties."
Of the $500 million, America's largest automaker will spend approximately $350 million to prepare its Lordstown, Ohio, plant to build the Cruze (right) with production starting in the first half of 2010, GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson told Green Car Advisor.
Most of the $350 million will be used to consolidate the plant's two body shops into one, Tom Mock, communications manager for the plant, told us.
The rest of the investment will go into the plant's general assembly area, which will have added space when the body shops are consolidated. Mock said GM is determining what content it will put in that area to further improve efficiency.
General Motors today released the first photographs of Chevrolet's all-new Cruze with word that the fuel-efficient compact sedan will make its world premiere at the Paris Motor Show in October.
The vehicle, which will eventually replace the Cobalt in Chevy's lineup, will go on sale in Europe next March and in North America approximately a year later.
There's no word yet on what the Cruze will cost, but we expect the base model to retail for well under $20,000. There was also no word on the Cruze's fuel economy in the statement General Motors, Chevrolet's parent company, released today.
However, we spoke with Chevy spokeswoman Nancy Libby about the vehicle's mileage and this is what she said:
"We don't have any mileage estimates at this time. We're still two years away from launch. The one thing I can say is we expect a significant improvement from today's 2009 Cobalt XFE. We expect it to be segment-leading fuel economy when it's introduced."
If you've been following the price rumors swirling around the Chevy Volt, you've heard guestimates ranging from $25,000 to $50,000.
This week, General Motors Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner told talk-show host Charlie Rose that the plug-in gas-electric hybrid will likely sell for about $35,000 to $39,000.
Starting a little more than 32 minutes into the interview with Rose, Wagoner says:
"We initially hoped we could get it for a very, very good price, let's say below $30,000. It's going to be more expensive than that for the first couple of years. Haven't finalized it ... but it'll be in the mid- to high-thirties is my best guess."
Later on, Wagoner said that "for something like the Volt, we'd be looking for a significant subsidy" from the government on the demand side, meaning a tax credit for initial Volt buyers.
If by "significant" Wagoner is referring to the $7,000 tax credit GM has been lobbying Congress for, initial buyers who live in states without a sales tax might be able to get a Volt for less than $30,000.
But whether the base price for the Volt will fall in the mid- to high-thirties remains to be seen.
Many people if not most who buy a small or midsize sport utility vehicle do so because they believe it offers greater personal protection than a car. And for that extra measure of protection, they are willing to sacrifice fuel economy.
Today, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety announced that the 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid earned top ratings in recent crash-test evaluations, bringing to three the number of hybrid SUVs getting superior mileage without compromising safety.
The other hybrid SUVs earning top-safety-pick honors from the respected institute are the midsize 2008 Saturn Vue Hybrid and the 2008 Toyota Highlander Hybrid, which the institute had previously evaluated.
But the big winner announced today by the institute was the 2009 Volkswagen Tiguan, which outperformed the competition in recent front, side and rear crash test evaluations of eight small SUV models.
The 2009 Escape, including the hybrid version, 2008 Mitsubishi Outlander and 2008 Nissan Rogue joined the Tiguan in earning top ratings in all three of the institute's evaluations. All four models come equipped with electronic stability control and side airbags, which the institute considered very important.
The institute ratings of good, acceptable, marginal or poor are based on results of front and side crash tests, plus evaluations of seat/head restraints for protection against whiplash injury in rear crashes.
The 2008 Chevrolet Equinox, 2008 Jeep Patriot, 2008 Suzuki Grand Vitara and 2-door 2008 Jeep Wrangler all earned the second-lowest rating of marginal.
We hope GM doesn't release the Chevy Volt to dealers as slowly as it is dribbling out information about it.
The latest teaser, from GM battery guru Denise Gray, is that the lithium-ion battery pack for the extended range electric car (also called a plug-in hybrid, and both terms are correct) will weigh-in at about 400 pounds, have fewer than 300 cells and pack 16 kilowatt hours of energy.
Gray, director of hybrid energy systems for General Motors Corp., divulged the info during last weeks Management Briefing Seminars sessions in Traverse City, Mich.
She said the T-shaped pack will take six or seven hours to fully charge and is being designed so it can fit into a number of different compact models that GM offers worldwide.
In other Chevrolet Volt news, GM says that tweaks to the car's aerodynamics (it was a all angles and sharp edges in its concept phase, looking quick but delivering the aerodynamics of a refrigerator box) have added almost 7 miles to the distance it can travel on battery power alone.
The company has promised a car that can deliver 40 miles of all-electric driving before the on-board internal combustion generator kicks on.
In an apparent move designed to maintain public interest in the Chevrolet Volt, General Motors today released two -- and only two -- photos of the production-ready plug-in hybrid electric vehicle.
Until now, the public has been seeing photos of the Volt concept that debuted at the Detroit auto show last year. But with the photos of the production-ready front corner (right) and rear, we're getting glimpses of the car as it will appear in dealers' showrooms.
The photos indicate that the General has been smoothing out the concept's angular exterior in an attempt to make the production vehicle more aerodynamical while simultaneously adhering to its original design.
We're pleased GM decided to keep headlights and fog lights that emit cool-blue light. The color bespeaks the electric heart of the Volt, a car GM says will be able to go the first 40 miles after a charge on battery power alone.
The next 400 miles before a recharge is needed require gasoline to power an onboard generator that supplies electricity to the Volt's electric motor.
The rear shot (left) gives us our first look at the Volt's production-ready badge. Below are photos of the concept's front corner and rear for comparison purposes.
The hot air that escapes from a car's tailpipe could help us use less gas.
Researchers are competing to meet a challenge from the U.S. Department of Energy to improve fuel economy 10 percent by using wasted exhaust heat as energy to help power the vehicle, according to an Associated Press article.
General Motors is close to reaching the goal, as is a BMW supplier working with Ohio State University. Their research into thermoelectrics -- the science of using temperature differences to create electricity -- couldn't come at a better time, as high gas prices accelerate efforts to make vehicles as efficient as possible.
GM researcher Jihui Yang told the AP that a metal-plated device that surrounds an exhaust pipe could increase fuel economy in a Chevrolet Suburban by about 5 percent, a 1-mile-per-gallon improvement that would be even greater in a smaller vehicle.
The mileage improvement was achieved by using the generated electricity to reduce the load on the alternator. Because it takes mechanical power from the crankshaft to move a belt that runs the alternator that produces electricity to power headlights, ignition coils, the radio and other electrical components, the greater the load on the alternator, the greater the demand on the vehicle's fuel to turn the crankshaft.
Reaching the goal of a 10 percent improvement would save more than 100 million gallons of fuel per year in GM vehicles in the U.S. alone, the AP reported.
With established rent-a-car companies reporting that they are having trouble meeting customer demand for fuel-efficient vehicles, a Southern California company has begun renting nothing but hybrid vehicles.
Business has been brisk at Eqocar in Burbank since it opened its doors three months ago, General Manager Nick Hamed told Green Car Advisor today. Hamed said Eqocar, which rents only hybrid vehicles, is in talks to open four more rental-car centers, all in California.
Eventually, the company would like to expand nationwide, Hamed said.
Eqocar has a fleet of 45 hybrids, which include the Toyota Prius, Camry and Highlander hybrids, Ford Escape Hybrid, Lexus LS600h L, GMC Yukon and Chevrolet Tahoe hybrids, and the Nissan Altima hybrid. Daily rates range from $59 for the Prius to $650 for the LS600h L.
There are plans to add the extended-range plug-in electric Chevrolet Volt, hybrid versions of the Smart Fortwo, Chrysler Aspen, Cadillac Escalade, and Porsche Cayenne and Panamera, as well as the Tesla and Fisker plug-in sports cars and the bubbled-faced three-wheel Aptera to the rental fleet, Hamed said.
The Aptera is reminiscent of vehicles appearing in The Jetsons, a futuristic cartoon series produced during 1962 and '63.
BMW's announcement this week that its ActiveHybrid X6 crossover utility vehicle will carry a U.S. sticker price of nearly $90,000 was disappointing, but even more disappointing is the fact that the model isn't alone among hybrids priced well out of reach of most people. 
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