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.
While waiting for final government approval of its sale of the ailing Hummer brand to China's Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Corp., GM is hoping to give it a sales boost with the introduction next month of a flex-fuel engine for the 2010 H3 and H3T models.
Adding E85 (ethanol) capability is part of the GM calls the brand's "evolution to offer responsible ... more efficient" models that don't sacrifice any of the big trucks' all-terrain capabilities.
The 5.3-liter, 300 horsepower flex fuel V8 is a new engine that, GM says, will be a standard offering across the entire 2010 Hummer Alpha series performance lineup.
GM no longer lists Hummer as one of its models - anticipating completion of the brand's sale early next year - but a slightly higher horsepower version of the same engine in the Chevrolet Tahoe is rated at 14 MPG in the city and 19 MPG on the highway - 16 MPG combined - using gasoline. You can figure a 25 percent drop in fuel economy - but lower CO2 emissions - when using E85.
The larger H2 Hummers got their flex-fuel engines with the '09 model launch and fuel economy for the 6.2-liter V8 got a combined city-highway rating of 14 MPG on gasoline, dropping to 10 MPG on E85.
We're not sure the new H3 powerplant will help that much - if Hummer's got a good market anywhere in this country it's Southern California, and there are only 10 ethanol stations in the entire region.
With sales down more than 60 percent this year after falling 50 percent last year and 20 percent the year before that, adding a biofuel-capable, high-performance engine to the Hummer H3 lineup is sort of like trying to patch the Titanic's hull with bandages from the infirmary.
Oh, wait - there also are three new exterior colors for 2010. That ought to help.
Batteries, solar roofs and engine-driven generators aren't the only places tomorrow's cars and tucks may be getting some of the electrical energy they need to keep running.
GM, which has been working on energy recovery from exhaust heat for decades, has just received a small federal grant to develop a prototype exhaust-hear generator using a class of material called Shape Memory Alloy.
SMA, as it is called, is a metal that shrinks when heated and returns to its original shape when cooled. That activity is motion and motion is energy.
---------- GM illustration of an SMA generator. Click on picture to enlarge. ----------
A loop of wire made from SMA could use its shrink-and-stretch cycles to drive a generator, said Jan Aase, director of GM's Vehicle Development Research Laboratory.
The idea of an SMA "heat engine" has been around for 30 years, said Aase, "but the few devices that have been built were too large and too inefficient to make it worthwhile."
It used metal plates that were welded in a multi-sided collar around an exhaust pipe and created electricity when electrons on the exhaust side of the metal plates were heated and began vibrating, flowing through to the cooler outside of the plates where they were collected by electrodes.
The $2.7 million grant SMA from the Energy Department will enable GM and several partners to develop a working prototype of an exhaust-generator that can provide power for air conditioners, heaters, power windows, stereo systems and other electrical devices on board a vehicle that now drain valuable juice from the battery.
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.)
Deal Could Open Employment Door For UAW Workers Laid Off When Plant Closed
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
As just about the whole world was predicting all weekend, Fisker Automotive and the GM assets liquidator, Motors Liquidation Co., have done a deal in which start-up Fisker will buy the idled Boxwood Road assembly plant near Newport and Wilmington, Del., for production of a new plug-in hybrid.
Fisker, based in Southern California, received a $528.7million federal loan last month to help pay for a production plant and plant refurbishing costs, among other things.
Fisker said the letter of intent calls for it to pay $18 million for the plant if its evaluation of the 52-year-old facility doesn't uncover insurmountable problems. The deal is scheduled to close in four months and Fisker then would spend an additional $175 million refurbishing and outfitting the plant to produce the new plug-in starting in late 2012.
Other details of the deal weren't immediately available, although it sounds as though Fisker apparently will use at least some of the UAW workers laid off by General Motors when the Boxwood Road factory - also called the Wilmington Assembly plant - was idled earlier this year as part of GM's short-lived bankruptcy reorganization, in which underutilized facilities were closed and turned over to the newly created liquidation company for disposal.
It's unclear whether the plant would be unionized - a costly move for a nascent car maker - but in a statement released just before the formal announcement this morning, UAW director Gary Casteel said that the deal gives "UAW local 435 workers the opportunity to partner with Fisker Automotive to create a greener America by building a plug-in hybrid car that will compete globally."
Fisker Automotive appears ready to announce a deal this week to lease or buy a shuttered GM factory in Delaware to use for production of the plug-in hybrid family sedan the company has said will follow its Fisker Karma extended-range PHEV.
Vice President Joe Biden and state and local officials in Delaware are slated to attend an announcement at 10 a.m.Tuesday at the former GM Boxwood Road plant, near Newport, Del., and a spokesman for Fisker said Friday that a plant-location announcement was being scheduled for that day.
The new car, expected to be smaller and less costly that than exotic Karma, has been code-named "Project NINA" by the company, homage to the ship in Christopher Columbus' tiny fleet and signifying, company founder and chief executive Henrik Fisker has said, a "new world" for the auto industry.
The car, as previously described by Fisker, is to be a $48,000 (estimated) extended-range hybrid marketed to upscale families in 2012. The Karma, an $88,000 performance car, is just beginning production by a contractor in Finland, with deliveries to U.S. customers to begin in the summer. Both prices are before any applicable federal and local tax credits or other incentives.
Southern California-based Fisker Automotive received a $528 milllion federal loan last month from the Department of Energy to finance Project NINA and to fund additional U.S.-based engineering and development work on the Karma.
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.
For years - and years, and years -automakers in the U.S. insisted that their studies showed that Americans didn't value fuel economy and preferred those fuel-swilling (and profitable) SUVs and pickups over gas-sipping compacts.
But that's not so, says former General Motors economist Walter McManus, now a professor and head of the Automotive Analysis division of the Transportation Research Institute at the University of Michigan.
GM often received outside data in the 1990s showing that people wanted fuel economy, McManus said in an interview with subscription-only Energy & Environment News.
McManus just as routinely dismissed them.
Disbelief
"The survey would estimate that people would estimate fuel economy fairly highly," said McManus. "Being a good economist, I said, 'No, they don't,' and I changed the results."
He said he did not believe the surveys because the preference for fuel economy they were showing was out of line with industry beliefs about consumers' preferences.
(Alert: CalCars tells us this morning that GM has rescheduled the starting time for the Webcast. It's now 3:30 p.m. Eastern, not 12:30. We're sorry or any inconvenience.)
We're not sure if it will be a full and frank discussion of the issues, or a GM promo for the Chevy Volt, but if you have questions we haven't answered already - about plug-ins in general or the Volt specifically - here's a chance to get 'em answered.
The hour-long Webcast begins today at 12:30 3:30 p.m. Eastern, 9:30 a.m. 12:30 p.m. Pacific (and you know what time it will be if you live in one of the other time zones).
The session will be conducted by GM's Tony Posawatz, manager of the Chevrolet Volt project, and Felix Kramer, founder of the California Cars Project (CalCars).
Even as questions about ethanol's role in the energy supply chain continue roiling the industry, cellulosic ethanol pioneer Coskata Inc. unveiled and fired up its 50,000-gallon-a-year "semi-commercial" plant in Madison, Pa., today, pushing itself toward the forefront of fledgling second-generation ethanol producers.
Towering over the surrounding countryside, the 65-ft. structure with an 8,000-degree torch that blasts the wood chips serving as a raw material, the plant is the $50-million result of research and development efforts going back several years.
It moves the Warrendale, Ill.-based start-up closer to the 55-million-gallon plant Coskata anticipates opening by the end of 2012.
"We now have verification of everything that we'd earlier expected, and a tuned message that we can deliver about the costs associated with the build-out of a commercial-scale plant, and eventual operating costs," Bill Roe, Coskata's chief executive officer, told Green Car Advisor.
"This gives us a proof statement and demonstrated capabilities."
Volume Questioned
Coskata already has been delivering small quantities of cellulosic ethanol to General Motors Corp. for use in its test fleet in Milford, Mich.
GM was an initial investor in the company and continues to support its aims, but the volume of ethanol needed in the future is uncertain. Automakers are among the parties raising concerns over a proposal that the federal government increase the ethanol "blend wall" to as high as 15 percent of a gasoline-ethanol mixture from the current limit of 10 percent.
U.S. Trails Asia, Europe in Providing Hydrogen Fueling Infrastructure, Automakers Warn
Automakers aiming to meet California's revised Zero Emission Vehicles mandate requirements have pushed the fuel-cell electric car much closer to reality than many realize, according to a report by Bloomberg news service.
----------
Rendering of advanced fuel station near Los Angeles International Airport touts hydrogen as the fuel of tomorrow. Automakers say that without more such stations, that vision won't be realized. ----------
Not only is the technology almost ready for prime time, reporter Alan Ohnsman found that automakers such as Toyota, Daimler, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Renault, Nissan and General Motors now believe they can bring fuel cell vehicles to market by 2015 with price premium of just $3,600 over the average price of a comparable midsized gasoline model.
But the technology and price breakthroughs won't mean much if the U.S. government's infrastructure priorities aren't altered to include encouragement of a hydrogen fueling system
If the U.S. doesn't get moving, it will fall behind Europe and Asia - where governments are actively promoting hydrogen fueling - in the race to replace oil as a motor vehicle fuel, GM and others warn.
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.
Researchers at Brigham Young University claim to have developed a fuel cell that harvests electricity from glucose and other sugars known as carbohydrates using a common weed killer as a catalyst.
Lead researcher and BYU chemistry professor Gerald Watt (pictured) said in an article published in the August issue of the Journal of the Electrochemical Society that carbohydrates are very energy rich and that he and his colleagues sought a catalyst that would extract the electrons from the carbs and transfer them to an electrode.
Watt said he and his colleagues discovered a solution in the form of a cheap and abundant weed killer. He described the effectiveness of the herbicide as a boon to carbohydrate-based fuel cells.
By contrast, hydrogen-based fuel cells such as those developed by General Motors require costly platinum as a catalyst.
The study conducted experiments that yielded a 29 percent conversion rate, or the transfer of 7 of the 24 available electrons per glucose molecule, Watt reported.
"We showed you can get a lot more out of glucose than other people have done before," said Dean Wheeler, who was part of the research team. "Now we're trying to get the power density higher so the technology will be more commercially attractive."
This isn't the first time that a glucose-based fuel cell has been reported. In 2007, Japanese scientists announced they had invented a device that used sunlight to convert glucose into hydrogen to power a fuel cell.
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.
Lithium-ion car battery maker A123 Systems Inc. increased the number of shares in its initial public offering and priced them for $13.50 apiece, above the estimate range.
The upsized deal helped the Watertown, Massachusetts, company raise $380.4 million, far above what it had expected. On Tuesday, facing strong demand, A123 had raised the price estimate range of the IPO to between $10 and $11.50 apiece, up from the original range of $8 to $9.50.
A123 sold 28.1 million shares, 9.3 percent more than expected.
A123, which was founded by scientists linked to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, develops batteries and battery systems for hybrid electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, and all-electric vehicles and works with such carmakers as BMW, Chrysler and General Motors.
"The fact that they have received several hundred million dollars from the government and have strong venture backers and corporate partners like Motorola and Qualcomm clearly reveals the confidence in this intriguing cleantech story," said Scott Sweet, senior managing partner with advisory firm IPO Boutique.
A123 won a $249.1 million grant in August from the U.S. Department of Energy as part of a competition for $1.5 billion in federal stimulus funds for companies that make advanced automotive batteries.
The IPO's underwriters, led by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, have the option to buy another 4.2 million shares, which could bring the deal's total proceeds to $437.5 million.
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.
Silicon Valley's venture capitalists believe the Detroit 3 automakers cannot become competitive again unless they scrap their traditional business model and embrace new, innovative ways of doing business.
Speaking of the Detroit 3, Ray Lane, a managing partner at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Buyers, said that "for years they have been led by accountants and lawyers, not engineers and entrepreneurs. That's OK if the industry isn't changing."
So what do Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group need to do to regain marketplace dominance?
"Start over," said Marc van den Berg, managing director of VantagePoint Venture Partners, which backs upstart electric carmaker Tesla Motors and electric-vehicle infrastructure firm Better Place.
The only way the Detroit 3 can succeed is by completely overhauling the business model, moving beyond just designing attractive cars, Silicon Valley venture capitalists say.
"There is room for business model innovation and technology innovation," said Vinod Khosla, managing general partner of Khosla Ventures.
Khosla said U.S. automakers need to embrace innovation at all levels. He pointed to Better Place, which is building charging infrastructure and battery-swapping stations for electric vehicles.
"Better Place is saying,'Don't let the consumer buy the batteries,' " Khosla said. "That's a business model innovation."
Toshiyuki Tabata spent 30 years as a Nissan Motor Co. engineer trying to make gasoline-powered cars quieter. Now he's consulting music composers to make electric cars noisier -- and safer.
An article published by Bloomberg news service today addresses the efforts Tabata in particular and automakers in general are making to make electric and hybrid cars, with little or no engine noise, safer for pedestrians.
Some of the automakers are simply seeking sounds that resemble conventional engine noises. But as we learn from Tabata, Nissan is doing something completely different.
The company consulted Japanese composers of film scores. What Tabata and his six-member team came up with is a high- pitched sound reminiscent of the flying cars in "Blade Runner" (pictured), the 1982 film directed by Ridley Scott portraying his dystopian vision of 2019.
"We wanted something a bit different, something closer to the world of art," Tabata said.
The article is well worth the time it takes to read it.
Targeting more federal money to support the auto industry, the House on Wednesday approved an expansion of government-led research into making cars and trucks more fuel-efficient.
The House plan would allow the Energy Department to spend up to $200 million more each year on research and development for advanced-technology vehicles and auto parts.
Lawmakers' aides said the additional $200 million would boost government-supported research in this area to around $550 million if Congress, as expected, funds the request later this year.
The measure passed on a 312-114 vote, attracting dozens of Republican votes, even though some GOP lawmakers questioned its cost.
Wednesday's House action represented the latest move by Congress and the Obama administration to aid the auto industry. The White House stepped in with billions of dollars to rescue General Motors and Chrysler and led the companies through bankruptcy, and Congress approved $25 billion last year to help the industry retool assembly plants to meet tougher fuel economy standards.
Congress also created a $3 billion Cash for Clunkers program of incentives that successfully spurred new car sales over the summer.
Fuel-efficient technology is in great demand because of higher gasoline prices and the expectation of tightening auto regulations. Administration officials on Tuesday released plans to raise the gas mileage standards to 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016 and link greenhouse-gas emissions and fuel-economy requirements.
Democratic Representative Gary Peters of Michigan, who sponsored the green vehicle technology bill, said "there is no doubt that in the years ahead more Americans will be driving hybrids, plug-in hybrids, battery electric vehicles, and cars and trucks powered by hydrogen fuel cells."
"The only question is whether these new technologies will be researched, developed and manufactured here in the United States, creating American jobs, or whether this technology will be built overseas," Peters said.
Mercedes-Benz officially unveiled a new B-class hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicle at the Frankfurt Motor Show this week, but it is by no means the German automaker's first.
More than 4 years ago, at the March 2005 Geneva Motor Show, DaimlerChrysler debuted a B-Class F-Cell that looks almost identical to the one pictured here.
Back then, the zero-emissions model featured an electric motor powered by a fuel cell that put out more than 100 kilowatts -- or 35 kilowatts more than its predecessor.
The last-generation B-Class F-Cell had a range of nearly 250 miles, due to reduced fuel consumption and greater hydrogen storage capacity. Earlier versions had a range of around 150 miles.
If you're thinking Mercedes is spending years improving this technology, you'd be right.
As we reported last month, Mercedes is now sufficiently satisfied with the current version that the automaker will be launching a small fleet of them for real-world testing in the U.S. and Europe.
The cars use an on-board fuel cell stack to convert hydrogen and oxygen to electricity that powers an electric drive system. The cars in the small fleet will deliver a range of up to 250 miles with a top speed of 105 mph.
Fuel consumption is the equivalent of 3.3 liters of diesel per 100 kilometers on the European drive cycle.
In U.S. terms, that would be around 71 miles per gallon of diesel or about 64 miles per kilogram of hydrogen.
As we previously reported, the F-Cell's electric system delivers the equivalent of 136 horsepower and 214 pound-feet of torque. Mercedes says it has performance characteristics equal to and "in some cases far better than" those of a B-Class with a 2.0-liter gas engine.
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.
Hyundai Motors' ix-Metro Hybrid city car is one of several dozen 'green' cars and concepts debuting at Frankfurt show.
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
This week's Frankfurt Auto Show promises to be the greenest major auto show to date - a showcase for fuel efficiency improvements and alternative powertrains that are coming to the forefront as the mainstream auto industry finally begins coming to grips with the need to begin weaning itself - and us - from petroleum.
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.
If it already seems to you that China is positioning itself to exercise substantial control over the green-car market through its natural resources -- and you don't like it -- you're not likely going to like this story one bit.
That's because Bloomberg news service is reporting, and we are relaying, that Alcoa Inc., the largest U.S. producer of aluminum, is speaking with unidentified automakers to develop and supply metal for lightweight, energy-efficient vehicles in China as passenger-car sales in that country surge.
"The automobile sector is a strong consumer of aluminum and I believe it will become more so if you combine lightweight and energy efficiency" needs in the future, Chief Executive Officer Klaus Kleinfeld said today. "There are some companies we're talking to, and that's an area we're seeking to build activities," he said, without giving details.
Passenger-car sales in China soared a record 90 percent last month as tax cuts and subsidies spurred demand, bringing the nation closer to overtaking the U.S. as the world's largest automobile market. Rising vehicle sales in China, as well as building demand, will drive aluminum consumption, Kleinfeld said.
"China is ahead of the curve, and I'm positive of things that are going on," Kleinfeld said while attending the World Economic Forum in Dalian, China.
The Asian nation consumes about seven kilograms of aluminum per capita, compared with 35 kilograms in the U.S., he said, according to Bloomberg. Kleinfeld on Sept. 3 raised Alcoa's forecast for global aluminum consumption because of demand from China.
China's demand will rise 4 percent this year, compared with a previous prediction of no growth, Kleinfeld had said. That changes the company's outlook for global demand to a decline of 5.5 percent from a previous forecast of minus 7 percent.
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.
Perhaps motivated by U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu's proposal last May to slash more than $100 million in federal funding for hydrogen-vehicle research, nine major automakers today issued a joint statement announcing that they had signed a letter of understanding to develop and launch fuel-cell electric vehicles.
---------- A trio of Ford FCEVs get pumped up. ----------
FCEVs use an on-board fuel cell stack to convert hydrogen and oxygen to electricity that powers an electric drive system.
Today's announcement came one day after Chu said in an interview that he will no longer seek to eliminate federal funding for the R&D of hydrogen cars, but instead will work with lawmakers to ensure the money is "invested wisely."
The automakers' announcement states that they "strongly anticipate that from 2015 onwards a quite significant number of electric vehicles with fuel cell could be commercialized. This number is aimed at a few hundred thousand units over life cycle on a worldwide basis."
It continued: "As every vehicle manufacturer will implement its own specific production and commercial strategies as well as timelines, commercialization of electric vehicles with fuel cells may occur earlier than in the above-mentioned expected year."
Beyond those statements, the announcement -- signed by Daimler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Renault, Nissan and Toyota -- offered little more information regarding the automakers' plans.
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.
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.
Opel announced today that it will debut at next month's Frankfurt auto show the completely updated Astra small family car that will launch later this year.
---------- Right, the Astra in red and Ampera. ----------
The model, which the European subsidiary of General Motors has produced since 1991, will be offered with a choice of eight engines, ranging from 95 horsepower to 180 horsepower, that are 12 percent lower in fuel consumption and greenhouse-gas emissions that the current line-up of Astra engines.
The new Astra has grown slightly to provide a roomier interior and, at the same time, it has benefited from engineering enhancements that allow it to improve fuel efficiency and performance.
Also sharing the stage in Frankfurt with the new Astra will be the Ampera, the European version of its Chevrolet Volt, which Opel unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in March of this year.
The two extended-range, plug-in hybrids are the same under the skin. The Ampera 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 then).
The Obama administration plans to cut off dealer funding for the cash-for-clunkers program on Monday night after finding that the $3 billion fund is nearing depletion, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said.
---------- CARS' original timeframe had the program ending November 1. ----------
"This program has been a lifeline to the automobile industry," LaHood said in a statement today.
The Transportation Department said today that dealers had applied for $1.9 billion in rebates for voucher payments made to customers.
Government surveys have also sought to determine how large a stockpile of transactions remain unclaimed by dealers.
In a related development, President Obama said today that there have not been "extraordinary delays" in the processing of dealers' cash-for-clunkers claims and that the government has to be scrupulous in reviewing them to avoid fraud.
"This is actually a high-class problem to have -- that we're selling too many cars too quickly, and there's some backlog in the application process," Obama said in a radio interview released by the White House.
Many dealers have complained that they're not getting paid on claims filed as far back as July 27, when the program formally began.
Some have said they're owed government rebates that stretch into the millions of dollars for payments to customers, and that the delays are causing cash-flow problems.
Meanwhile, General Motors Co. announced that will help cash-strapped dealers waiting for clunker rebates by advancing them a 30-day interest-free loan in the amount of rebates that are being processed.
GM said it is providing the money so dealerships will have the liquidity to run their businesses and continue to deliver vehicles to GM customers.
"Our sales performance in the past two months has exceeded our internal forecast by over 60,000 vehicles, largely driven by the CARS stimulus program," Mark LaNeve, GM vice president of U.S. sales, said in a statement.
"We want to do all we can to provide customers with timely new-vehicle deliveries and dealers the liquidity they need to run their businesses," he added.
The New York Times is reporting today something we've been saying for months: That Toyota, maker of the mighty Prius hybrid and the No. 1 automaker worldwide by volume of units sold, is falling behind in the race to bring all-electric vehicles to market.
---------- Right, Toyota sold the RAV4 EV sport ute from 1997-2203. ----------
The article notes that Mitsubishi Motors has begun leasing its i-MiEV and that Nissan is set to leave its EV next year. But when oh when is Toyota's? 2012 is the answer the automaker gives.
The article quotes Masatami Takimoto, Toyota's executive vice president, as saying earlier this year that the electric car's "time is not here."
Electric cars "face many challenges," he said, adding that "to commercialize pure EV's, we need a battery that far exceeds the current technology."
Predictably, the Times reporter turned to EV proponents and analysts who have no experience running an automaker, let alone one that manufactured and sold an all-electric SUV from 1997-2003; that would be Toyota's RAV4 EV, many of which are still going strong and enjoy great popularity with their owners.
Which isn't to say the analysts weren't good for some interesting speculation.
"In a world where vehicles run on electrons rather than hydrocarbons, the automakers will have to reinvent their businesses," Russell Hensley, an analyst at the consulting company McKinsey, told clients in a recent report, the Times reported.
The newspaper also quoted analysts as saying that Toyota would like to profit all it can from the current technology before shifting to a new one - which makes sense, doesn't it? - especially because the company is facing a second down year after a loss last year of about $4.4 billion.
The Washington Post published an interesting electric-vehicle story on August 8 that nearly escaped our radar detection. Nearly but not quite. Here's how it starts:
Coda Automotive employs 41 people. It has a headquarters in Santa Monica, California, but it doesn't have its own factory. It doesn't have its own dealer network. It doesn't have a coterie of designers. Its chief executive, Kevin Czinger, a one-time college football star and former assistant U.S. attorney, has spent most of his career working in finance.
Yet Coda claims it will beat General Motors and other companies to market with an affordable, all-electric automobile built for the average American. This may not be a completely wild-eyed idea. Czinger was recently driving one of the prototypes - a plain-looking but smooth-running sedan [pictured] - around the streets of Washington.
Inspired by the prospect of a new market for electric cars, Coda and other small entrepreneurial companies are tapping into the expertise of others in bids to launch new vehicle brands featuring technology they say will leapfrog the major manufacturers.
The end-around premise of the story isn't something all of us haven't thought of on our own. But if that lead doesn't inspire you to click on the link above, we encourage you to check your pulse, place a 911 call if necessary, and then click on the link to read the rest of the story.
General Motors announced today that the all-new Buick plug-in gasoline-electric compact crossover it was going to bring to market in 2011 won't be entering the marketplace after all.
The most any of us will likely see of that vehicle is the teaser photo (above) that it supplied with a statement announcing development of the plug-in electric hybrid on Aug. 6.
If you read that statement, you read this:
"Buick has always been at the forefront of new technology, so it is only fitting that the brand should debut our new plug-in hybrid technology in a beautiful new crossover," said Stephens. "This will firmly put Buick, and GM, front and center in the advanced technology game."
That would be Tom Stephens, GM vice chairman of product development.
Well, a funny thing happened to the Buick on the way to market: A bunch of people saw it, said it stunk, and GM killed it before too many more people saw it. Or as Stephens put it in the statement GM issued today:
"We were all struck by the consistency of the criticism of the compact crossover. And what we decided to do in response is a good example of the essence of the new General Motors...acting quickly, and boldly, and listening to feedback from customers, employees, dealers, media and just about anyone else with an opinion."
That's 100 percent quality spin. But wait. There's more:
GM Daewoo today announced that its all-new global mini-car, the Matiz Creative, will begin appearing in showrooms worldwide on September first.
The vehicle, which took 27 months to develop at a cost of $236 million, gets a company-claimed 40 miles per gallon. It has yet to receive a fuel-economy rating from the U.S. government.
Following its launch in South Korea, the global mini will be sold in more than 150 markets around the world, including those in Europe, Asia and North America, the automaker said GM Daewoo, which was established in 2002 and has five manufacturing facilities in South Korea as well as an assembly facility in Vietnam, said it put the Matiz Creative through more than 300,000 miles of weather, durability and crash testing.
The car is equipped with a newly developed 4-cylinder, 16-valve DOHC engine with a displacement of 995 cc that delivers 69 horsepower and maximum torque of 698 pound feet.
The engine features a system that ensures high exhaust gas recirculation, resulting in combustion stability at low speeds and optimal performance at high speeds together with impressive fuel efficiency and ultra-low emissions.
Another first-in-segment application is an automatic temperature controller inside the engine that helps improve fuel efficiency by reducing unnecessary heat loss. A dome-type long-skirt cylinder block narrows the space between intake valves while the application of four resonators reduces engine noise.
Mated with the engine is a 4-speed automatic transmission.
The body of the Matiz Creative is the stiffest in the mini segment: 66.5 percent of it is constructed of high-strength steel, while more than 16 percent uses ultra-high-strength steel. GM Daewoo claims this ensures the highest level of protection in the segment. It has yet to be crash tested in the U.S.
Tesla Motors announced today that Tesla Motors will develop and manufacture electric vehicle components in a renovated building (pictured) in the Stanford Research Park in Palo Alto, California.Tesla, the only automaker that is producing and selling highway-capable electric vehicles in North America, will lease an 350,000-square-foot building on a 23-acre parcel less than 3 miles from Stanford University. The automaker said the new facility will supply all-electric powertrains to Tesla and to other automakers, greatly accelerating the availability of mass-market EVs.
Tesla will also move its corporate headquarters from nearby San Carlos to the site later this year. Roughly 350 employees will work in Palo Alto initially, with space for up to 650 people at the facility.
In an interview with Green Car Advisor, Tesla Chief Technology Officer JB Straubel (left) said selection of the site was based on various factors, among the most important being convenience for existing employees and access to future ones.
He said the location "will give us great access to top engineering and technical talent, and it's also a very central location for all of our existing employees so that we don't have to risk losing some employees just because of moving our headquarters and our operations."
He said the new site will be where Tesla performs powertrain research and development, not automobile assembly. He clarified some reports that suggested Tesla's next model - the Model S sedan - would be built there, stating "We're not going to built the sedan vehicle here. That'll be a separate facility."
"This is more focused on electrical engineering and mechanical engineering rather than something you would traditionally think of as industrial processes," said Straubel, who earned a bachelor's degree in energy systems engineering and a master's in energy engineering from Stanford.
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.
High-performance engine design is all about extracting as much power as possible within rigid confines.
So we weren't shocked to learn today that Ilmore Engineering, a British company that has designed and made racing engines for General Motors, Mercedes-Benz and Honda for Formula 1 and IndyCar competitions, had developed a 5-stroke concept engine (pictured) that it says has the power of a diesel engine and the fuel efficiency and low emissions of a stingy gas sipper.
The engine, which displaces only 700cc and yet puts out 130 horsepower and 122 pound-feet of torque, is turbocharged and equipped with a fifth stroke. Yes, a fifth stroke.
Two of the engine's cylinders, running with a conventional four-stroke design, fire and expend their exhaust gases into a third low-pressure expansion cylinder. A fifth stroke then allows those gases to expand, boosting thermodynamic efficiency.
The result: Ilmore estimates a 5 percent improvement in overall efficiency versus a conventional direct-injected engine of similar displacement.
Ilmore is seeking support for a next generation of the concept offering up 150 horsepower and weiging 20-percent less than current engine.
Specifically, Ilmore engineering manager Steve O'Connor says the company is "looking for a manufacturer to back the idea, and the interest centers on its use in a hybrid application, as they tend to need sudden bursts of energy, and that is what this engine does well."
True. We wish O'Connor and the rest of the Ilmore Engineering gang the best of luck in their five-stroke endeavors.
Two of GM's top environmentalists have departed now, while cigar-chomping, horsepower-loving Bob Lutz remains - and in charge of getting out the company's message as it tries to shift into a new era of fuel efficiency and electrification.
Beth Lowery, General Motors Corp.'s vice president for environment, energy and safety, is the most recent to go, announcing her Oct. 1 departure today under an early-out incentive program being offered to thin the automaker's top management herd.
She is following Larry Burns, the General's longtime head of advanced product R&D and one of the domestic auto industry's most vocal supporters of hydrogen fuel-cell technology.
An attorney, Lowery joined GM in 1989 as North American general counsel.
She was named v.p. for environmental and energy policy in 2001 and safety policy was added to her responsibilities in 2007.
It wasn't just a job for her. She believed. Lowery's retirement, like Burns', can only hurt GM, no matter how much money it saves in executive payroll costs.
I can still remember the excitement in her voice as she described the possibilities of GM's then-new "skateboard" platform for fuel cell vehicles to me the first time we met.
Burns, Lowery...
Two don't make a trend. Let's hope no more environmental advocates - a smallish group at most any automaker - are preparing to follow in their footsteps.
Confirming a report
we brought you last month, General Motors Corp. says that its Buick lineup will, indeed, get a new plug-in hybrid crossover in 2011.
---------- "Teaser" photo from GM provides a taste of Buick Plug-In's styling. (Clck to enlarge.) ----------
Speaking at a gathering this morning of auto industry executives, suppliers, analysts and� and media in upstate Michigan, GM product development chief Tom Stephans said the crossover will follow the Chevrolet Volt extended range plug-in due out at the end of 2010 and will use a modified version of the dial-mode hybrid system in us on the Silverado and Sierra hybrid pickups.
The yet-to-be-named 5-seat crossover will be smaller than the present Buick Enclave SUV, Stephans said, and will have a regular gasoline model, powered by a 2,.4-liter, four-cylinder Ecotec engine with a 3.0-liter V6 as an option.
The plug-in model will be positioned a top-of-the-line with a 3.6-liter V6 mated to the hybrid electric drive.
The hybrid will get gets the same lithium-ion battery cells as the Volt but in a package with only have as much energy storage - 8 kilowatt-hours vs. the Volt's 16 kwh battery pack.
---------- GM technician works on Buick plug-in battery. ----------
Because� it has a standard gas-electric hybrid system rather than the Volt's all-electric drive, the Buick plug-in will have only about 10 miles of all-electric range before its gas engine kicks in.
Power stored in the battery pack will be used to augment the gas engine when accelerating, towing or otherwise placing heavy demands on the gas engine.
Although Toyota Motor Corp.. will have a plug-in hybrid in test fleets next year and Ford Motor Co. is presently testing plug-in version of its Escape hybrid, GM said the Buick would be "the first commercially available plug-in hybrid" by a major automaker.
President Obama announced the winners today of $2.4 billion in stimulus grants aimed at spurring the development of electric vehicles and the advanced batteries they need - with Detroit's Big Three securing more than $400 million for plug-in projects.
The cash was divvied up among 48 projects in 25 states, with General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC together grabbing some of the biggest grants. Still, the Big Three's tally was less than the combined haul of battery makers Johnson Controls Inc. and A123 Systems Inc., who together took home nearly $550 million.
"If we want to reduce our dependence on oil, put Americans back to work and reassert our manufacturing sector as one of the greatest in the world, we must produce the advanced, efficient vehicles of the future," Obama said at an event in Elkhart, Indiana, the hard-hit town he visited six months ago to drum up support for the $787 billion economic stimulus package.
The announcement comes as the administration continues its push to convince the public that the stimulus package has been a success, despite poor employment figures and other economic data showing a less than robust economic revival. As part of the grant rollout, Vice President Joe Biden was scheduled to speak in Michigan and Energy Secretary Steven Chu in Charlotte, N.C., later today.
The $2.4 billion is divided into three separate programs aimed at enticing U.S. manufacturers to produce more plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and the components and infrastructure that will support them. The first $1.5 billion is to help companies produce highly efficient batteries for plug-in hybrids and all-electric cars and trucks; $500 million is for the production of other necessary components, such as electric motors; and the final $400 million is for demonstration projects that evaluate electric infrastructure concepts.
Unlike the separate $25 billion Energy Department loan program aimed at helping retool U.S. manufacturing plants to produce more fuel-efficient vehicles, the stimulus grants do not need to be repaid. The winners do, however, have to match the federal cash with their own investments, mostly on a one-to-one basis.
GM received the largest haul of the major carmakers, receiving three separate grants totaling $241.4 million, most of which was earmarked for the high-volume production of battery packs for the company's plug-in Chevy Volt and for the deployment of a 600 strong demonstration fleet.
Ford received two separate grants, totaling $92.7 million, a third of which will go toward a commercialization project with 15 electric utility companies. Chrysler received one grant for $70 million to develop and deploy 220 advanced plug-in pickups and minivans.
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.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said the Cash for Clunkers program that's become the most visible of the Obama administration's economic-stimulus efforts would come to an end possibly as early as this week unless the U.S. Senate approves $2 billion in additional funding for the program.
"If we don't get the $2 billion from the Senate...we would have to suspend the program next week," LaHood (pictured) said in an interview with C-SPAN's "Newsmakers" show on Sunday.
The 10-day-old program has helped reduced inventories of unsold vehicles at many dealerships to their lowest levels in years, giving Ford, Chrysler and General Motors much-needed cash injections.
Senate Democratic leaders said today that they hoped to bring a $2 billion extension to the Senate floor this week as the program's original $1 billion in funding runs low.
But the additional funding is no slam dunk. At least one senator wants to see evidence the program is reducing automotive emissions -- that and boosting the economy are two of its goals.
And some senators have said they are opposed to extending the program unless it is changed to compel consumers to buy more fuel-efficient cars than is currently required. Those senators include Republican Susan Collins of Maine and Democrat Dianne Feinstein of California.
LaHood expressed support for the program just as it is, but he made clear that if the Senate doesn't approve the funding extension, the administration won't rescue the program.
The program offers government vouchers toward a new car to consumers who surrender for scrapping an older vehicle rated at 18 miles per gallon or less. To get a $3,500 voucher, the new car must be at least 4 mpg more efficient; a 10-mpg improvement is required for a $4,500 voucher.
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.
German luxury automakers including BMW and Mercedes-Benz are close to benefiting from a U.S. concession that will allow them and a few other foreign makers to keep selling cars that emit more greenhouse gases than those made by mass-market rivals such as Ford, General Motors and Toyota.
So reports the Wall Street Journal today in an article (subscription required) that points out better than most how recent U.S. legislation benefits foreign automakers and harms domestic ones.
Under a provision of a plan to curb greenhouse-gas emissions, the Obama administration has proposed to set less stringent standards for carmakers that sell fewer than 400,000 vehicles a year in the U.S. That target defines the major German brands as well as a few smaller Asian manufacturers such as Suzuki Motor Corp. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp.
The easier targets are expected to apply to a limited portion of a carmaker's sales volume, and last for about four years -- unless the government grants an extension.
In effect, the "German provision" would make it easier for Mercedes to keep selling cars like its $147,000, 12-cylinder S600 sedan (pictured), rated at 13 miles per gallon, while GM or Toyota would be required to meet tougher mileage standards with smaller, more efficient cars, the Journal notes.
The rules are expected to be formally proposed later this year by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation to enforce the administration's mandate that makers boost the average fuel efficiency of their fleets to 35.5 miles mpg by 2016.
A spokesman for GM -- now majority-owned by the federal government -- said the Obama administration's proposal "creates fewer concerns" than California's policy because it is expected to exempt only a quarter of each qualifying auto maker's fleet, rather than all vehicles sold by those companies. It also would be in effect for only four years, compared with seven under the California program.
Other industry experts and some former government policymakers take a more critical view of the administration's plan.
David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research at the University of Michigan, said the provision would hand "a distinct competitive advantage" to German and other exempted companies that compete with the major U.S. and Japanese brands in the U.S.
Daniel Becker, director of the Washington-based Safe Climate Campaign, which advocates tougher regulation of automotive fuel economy and greenhouse-gas emissions, said BMW and Mercedes "should be required to meet the same standards as General Motors and Ford."
Also: Illinois, Colorado, Austria announce plans to invest heavily in plug-in infrastructures.
By Scott Doggett, Contributor
When it rains, it often pours. That's certainly the case now, as the U.S. Department of Energy, the states of Illinois and Colorado, and an Austrian utility all announced in recent days that they will invest many millions of dollars to create recharging networks for electric vehicles.
That's wonderful news, because it brings electric-vehicle makers and potential EV makers a step closer to solving one of the two major problems they face: That being a lack of infrastructure to support pure EVs and plug-in gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles.
The other problem remains development of inexpensive, safe, reliable, lightweight and energy-rich batteries to power the vehicles. Many companies and governments are working on a solution to that problem.
The Energy Department on Monday awarded $47 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to eight ongoing smart-grid demonstration projects. The $47 million investment will add to the $17 million in funds DOE had awarded these eight projects last year, thereby accelerating the timelines for the projects.
Most of the projects relate to technologies to help transmission and distribution systems operate better, but a few are directly related to clean energy. For example, the city of Fort Collins, Colorado, will research, develop and demonstrate a coordinated and integrated system of mixed clean energy technologies and distributed energy resources, allowing the city to reduce its peak electrical demand by at least 15 percent.
Meanwhile, the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago will focus on implementing distributed energy resources and creating demand-responsive microgrids, which are small power networks that can operate independently of the utility power grid. In addition, the University of Hawaii will explore the management of its electrical distribution system to better accommodate wind power.
The Energy Department also just released the first Smart Grid System Report, which examines smart-grid deployments nationwide. The findings show that while many smart-grid capabilities are just beginning to emerge, the adoption of various technologies such as smart metering, automated substation controls and distributed generation are growing significantly.
The report also notes that smart-grid capabilities are socially transformational. As with the Internet or cell phone communications, smart-grid technologies have the potential to dramatically change how we experience electricity in the country, but improvements in physical and cyber security and information privacy will require consumers, manufacturers and utilities to closely follow a range of best practices for the smart grid.
Additionally, the Energy Department has begun the development of a Smart Grid Information Clearinghouse, tapping Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University for the $1.3 million initiative to develop and maintain the clearinghouse Website, which will provide information to the public about smart-grid initiatives happening nationwide. The Smart Grid Information Clearinghouse was mandated by the Recovery Act.
Above, a slide in a Ford presentation Tuesday spells out the new importance the automaker gives green cars.
By Scott Doggett, Contributor
In its bid to survive myriad threats in a volatile automotive industry, Ford Motor Co. is pulling out all the stops.
Perhaps that has never been more evident than it was Tuesday, when the century-old automaker hosted a 2010 model-year news conference and driving event at its sprawling Dearborn Development Center.
Led by Derrick Kuzak (left
), Ford's global product development chief, and Barb Samardzich (below
), head of Ford's global powertrain R&D efforts, the event offered a deep look into the verdant future of Detroit's healthiest automaker less than a month after it unveiled plans to spend $14 billion on advanced-technology vehicles.
The company's recently released EcoBoost engine forms the core of Ford's survival strategy, they said. The engine uses gasoline turbocharged direct-injection technology for, the company claims, up to 20 percent better fuel economy and 15 percent fewer greenhouse-gas emissions than like-sized regularly aspirated engines of similar horsepower.
EcoBoost V6 engines will debut in the 2010 model-year Ford Flex, Taurus SHO, Lincoln MKS and MKT; as we reported, the company provided details Tuesday regarding a four-cylinder version slated to appear in Fords starting next calendar year.
By 2012, Kuzak and Samardzich said, the company will produce a combined 750,000 EcoBoost V6 and I4 engines annually in the U.S. and 1.3 million globally.
The executives also said Ford will offer EcoBoost engines in 90 percent of its vehicles by 2013. It's clear from the figures that EcoBoost engines won't be an option, but rather will constitute the stock engines found in most of Ford's lineup less than five years from now.
And Hybrids!
But there's more to the green 2010 MY offerings from Ford than vehicles fitted with EcoBoost engines. Ford is also offering two new hybrids: the Ford Fusion Hybrid ($27,270 base) and the Mercury Milan Hybrid ($27,500 base), both of which impressed us with their acceleration and handling Tuesday on the development center's high-speed track.
Both hybrids average an EPA-rated 41 miles per gallon in the city - that's 8 mpg more than the 2010 Toyota Camry Hybrid, which starts at $26,150 - making them the most fuel-efficient midsize sedans currently available in America.
Speaking of Toyota: For the first time in the 28-year history of the Global Quality Research System, a study conducted quarterly by the independent RDA Group of Bloomfield, Michigan, Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles recently obtained customer-satisfaction levels on par with the Japanese car maker's.
That's important, because it's one of a spate of recent internal and external studies that show a positive trend in the percentage of consumers with favorable opinions about Ford and growing numbers of consumers who are willing to consider purchasing a Ford product, thanks in no small part to improved fuel economy.
Avoided Bankruptcy
Of course, it also helps that Ford didn't just emerge from bankruptcy, as did Chrysler and General Motors. Those companies now have to win back consumer confidence, while Ford - though driving to improve its ratings - is starting form a much higher level.
The studies also show that vehicles such as the Fusion Hybrid (left, at Ford's Dearborn Development Center on Tuesday
) are bringing new customers to Ford: 54 percent of the hybrid's buyers thus far did not previously own Fords and 66 percent of those buyers are coming out of foreign vehicles, company spokesmen said.
That's crucial as Ford tries to win back some of the market share it's lost to Japanese and European automakers in recent years.
On that chord, it's worth noting that before he assumed his current position as Ford's head of global car development, Kuzak ran the automaker's European small-car operation for five years. People within and outside Ford who are familiar with Kuzak's European efforts say the man knows what Ford needs to do to compete with fuel-efficient subcompacts produced by Old World automakers.
That knowledge includes designing vehicles that not only get excellent mileage, but that are also a blast to drive. Quickness and major fun factor are characteristics Kuzak is constantly stressing to Ford engineers, they say.
EcoBoost Just a Start
But there's more to Ford's fuel-efficiency efforts than EcoBoost.
When you factor in the incremental fuel-saving gains Ford's made with electric power-assist steering (which reduces the load on the engine since a belt-driven power steering pump is no longer required), aerodynamic modifications, six-speed transmissions, reductions in electric-system loads via electric air-conditioners, minute transmission tweaks that reduce friction - and a host of other mileage-enhancers - the fuel-economy benefits of vehicles the automaker has in the works for the short term approach 40 percent.
"We are absolutely committed to delivering new products with the best fuel economy in every segment in which we compete," Samardzich said.
We look forward to posting more Ford green-car news from Tuesday's event later today.
Larry Burns, one of the auto industry's most outspoken backers of hydrogen technology, is retiring in the wake of the company's bankruptcy and announced intent to thin top executive ranks.
----------
Larry Burns introduces the Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell vehicle.
----------
Burns, who joined GM in 1969, said in a brief statement that he believes much of the technology he's worked on as head of R&D "is ready for commercialization."This is a good time for me to pass the baton to others who are very qualified to drive technology leadership."
No word yet on his plans for life after GM, but with his credentials, Burns ought to be able to write his own ticket in a number of arenas.
We here at Green Car Advisor hope that he'll wind up in the hydrogen fuel -cell industry, where he could serve as a most eloquent advocate for a technology that ought to be getting as much support from the government as battery-electric, or plug-in, transportation.
Burns (right)
shepherded the Chevrolet Equinox fuel cell electric vehicle into existence - that's the FCEV that GM has been leasing to hundreds of people around the country in a 30-month program slated to end in mid-2010 - and has helped lead the charge for development of a national hydrogen fueling system to support widespread use of zero-emissions vehicles .
Although a proponent of hydrogen, Burns was not a foe of batter-electric technology, and often said -in public and in private -that the two should exist side-by-side as part of the effort to free the country of its dependence on oil.
His department was heavily involved in development of the Chevrolet Volt, GM's plug-in, extended-range electric hybrid.
There wasn't a lot of detail in General Motors Corp. CEO Fritz Henderson's press conference this morning, but he did vow that fuel economy and energy independence will be among the automaker's prime goals as it emerges from bankruptcy.
The company will make advanced battery technology - for hybrids and all-electric vehicles - a core competency, with several announcements about its battery work expected for later this summer, GM said in a statement issued after the press conference.
In his opening remarks in a conference devoted largely to structural changes, Henderson (right) reiterated the the Chevrolet Volt is still on schedule to launch late next year - it will be the first mass-produced "extended range electric vehicle," capable of up to 40 miles of all electric travel. A small gas engine will generate power for the electric drive system once the batteries, charged from the commercial power grid, are depleted.
GM also has promised to build a new small car in the U.S. - we're still speculating in the absence of an announcement by the company - that it will be based on the Spark subcompact initially designed for Latin America and Europe.
Henderson said green initiatives already underway, including the company's work on hydrogen fuel cells, hybrids, biofuels and cleaner and more effcient internal combustion engines, will continue.
And he put to rest,fr now a least, speculation tat the General, hankering for a new image, was planning to change the background color of ts corporate logo from blue to green.
The logo he said, "is not on my desk to change, and I don't have any plans to change it."
We hope though that the company, with the same old logo and much of the same management (although many managemet change annnouncemenmnts are exected in coming week), still will be a "new" GM with a new emphasis on greening its cars and trucks.
For more news and opinion about GM's management and product outlook, check the continuing coverage at our sister blogs, Auto Observer, Inslde Line news and Straightline.
Job Cuts, Bob Lutz, Future Plans, all at 9 AM Eastern Time; Watch It Here
General Motors Corp. has won court approval to begin the process of emerging from bankruptcy reorganization by selling most of its assets to a "new" GM, leaving its problems with a "bad" GM that will liquidate them over time.
To introduce the "new" GM and explain 4,000 white collar departures, including hundreds of top executives - although not 77-year-old Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, whose earlier retirement apparently has been rescinded - and outline the plan to profit by stressing quality and fuel economy, company CEO Fritz Henderson is hosting a press conference at 9 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time this morning, and GM is streaming it live.
We'll be presenting the GM press conference on the video screen above, so come back at 9 a.m. EDT to see and hear how the General plans to move forward, funded with tens of billion in loans and grants from the federal government.
It's your money - your company, so to speak - so don't miss the action.
Just as someone seeking an image do-over might head to a hair stylist to discuss a change of color, General Motors apparently has turned to its chief designer for advice on the image-altering possibilities of a new hue for its logo.
The automaker, which is switching its emphases from gas guzzlers like the Silverado to sippers like the Volt and from maxicars like the Hummer to minicars like the Spark, reportedly thinks changing its familiar blue logo to a green one will signify to consumers that it is a more environmentally conscious company than the one that filed for bankruptcy under pressure from the federal government late last month .
That's what GM's board of directors is considering, according to an Associated Press report.
The news service, citing sources identified only as "people briefed on its plans," said corporate design chief Ed Welburn is leading a group studying possible color changes.
No decision has been made, but we could know what's being planned as soon as the end of the week, the AP story says.
Wonder if offering all cars and trucks only in shades of green is also on the table?
Sale of Saturn Brand, Which Was To Get the New Hybrid, Won't Delay Its Launch
Following up on last month's report
of a possible Buick dual-mode plug-in hybrid in 2011 to replace the Saturn plug-in that was dropped when GM sold the brand:
GM's product development chief has told Reuters news service that the company is on track to bring out a plug-in crossover SUV by 2011.
----------
This Buick mock-up could be the new GM plug-in hybrid.
----------
"I can tell you that I won't lose one day in terms of customers being able to walk into dealerships and actually purchase a plug-in," GM Vice Chairman Tom Stephens said in an interview with the news service.
Stephens also said GM isn't ignoring the idea of a battery-electric city car: "I think there's pent-up demand for the technology," he said of GM's work on electric-drive vehicles. "My job is to get it out there and get it right the first time but then get it cost-effective so that we can do a huge number."
Stephens has been head of GM product development since April, just in time for the Obama administration auto industry task force's examination of GM's business plan -- a review that wound up with the administration pushing GM into bankruptcy last month.
The company's turnaround plan -- submitted to secure operating loans from the federal government -- calls for GM to introduce at least 14 hybrid and other advanced technology vehicles in the next three years.
The Ford Fusion (above) and Toyota Prius help propel hybrid sales gains despite weak economy and credit woes.
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
Led by strong showings from both third-generation Prius and the gas-electric version of Ford's Fusion, hybrid car sales in June were up 9 percent from a year earlier and rose 2 percent form May's tally to mark the sixth consecutive monthly increase in sales volume for the segment.
Hybrids, which gained traction from the June introduction of the new 2010 Prius and continued consumer interest in the well-reviewed Fusion hybrid that was introduced in March, outperformed the new-car market as a whole - which was down 28 percent from June of 2008 and off 7 percent from May.
It's too early to declare a recovery in the segment, but rising gasoline prices and renewed public awareness of the importance of improved fuel economy in addressing climate change issues seem to be underlying a gradual strengthening of market performance.
"The most important thing is that there have been a couple of new models that are putting some excitement into the segment, said Edmunds.com industry analyst Jessica Caldwell.
"Then there's all the news of government fuel efficiency and emissions initiatives, and some pretty generous incentives in a segment that really hasn't seen many incentives in the past."
Caldwell doesn't think gas prices were a significant factor in June's hybrid market, but says "they certainly are on people's radar, with a broad expectation that they'll keep going up."
California's air-quality authorities are an innovative bunch, and this month they took an unprecedented step toward making the Golden State less hazy by requiring automakers to place a reflective coating on the windshields of cars and trucks purchased in California.
The requirement is one of several that the California Air Resources Board has considered under its Cool Cars program, which is designed, as you likely guessed, to keep vehicles in the sunny state cooler.
By doing that, they reason, Californians won't need to use their vehicles' air conditioners as much, which will reduce the strain on automotive engines, which will decrease the speed with which we gobble up fossil fuels, which in turn will reduce the amount of greenhouse gases we release into the atmosphere.
Green Car Advisor first reported on the program in February, when CARB was focusing on having paint-makers tweak their automotive paints so they'd be more light reflective - as opposed to more light absorbing.
Light-absorbing paints, the king of which is black, contribute significantly to a vehicle's cabin temperature when parked in direct sunlight. Hot parked cars tend to cause their owners to reach for A-C controls the moment they enter their vehicles. Running the air conditioners adds to the workload of the vehicles, which in turn results in higher fuel consumption - you know the story.
The same is true with regard to windshields. When you consider at how much of the surface area of a car's sunny side consists of windshields, you can appreciate how important it is for the glass to be sunlight-reflective to help keep a vehicle's interior cool when parked in sunlight.
The technology used by glass manufacturers to make more reflective car windows has been around for nearly 20 years, said Mukesh Rustagi, director of strategic product management at Pittsburgh Glass Works, the largest automotive glass supplier in North America.
The technology exists and it's not particularly costly compared to, say, wiping out entire species and watching the world's glaciers - water sources for more than a billion people - melt away.
With that in mind, California's air regulators voted unanimously last week for a mandate requiring automakers to include sun-reflecting windshields on all vehicles sold within the state by 2014.
General Motors has announced its intention to abandon its 25-year-old California joint venture with Toyota -- a move the Japanese automaker said would add to its own financial woes -- and Bloomberg has reported that Toyota may produce a hybrid for GM.
Only two weeks ago, Bloomberg reported that GM and Toyota were considering possibly of building Prius hybrids together at an existing plant in Fremont, California.
But in a statement released Monday, GM said it will place its 50 percent ownership stake in New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. -- or NUMMI, the GM-Toyota joint venture that consists chiefly of the Fremont factory -- in the "old GM."
The "old GM" will contain parts of the company that will remain in bankruptcy after a "new GM" exits court protection.
GM filed for Chapter 11 protection on June 1 and plans for its profitable assets to emerge, possibly by the end of summer, as a "new GM" with about $50 billion in financing from the U.S. Treasury.
"After extensive analysis, GM and Toyota could not reach an agreement on a future product plan that made sense for all parties," Troy Clarke, GM's president of North American operations, said in statement.
"Accordingly, NUMMI will end production of vehicles for GM in August, and there are no future GM vehicles planned for the joint venture at this time."
Earlier this month, GM said that production of the Pontiac Vibe at the NUMMI plant would end in August as the Pontiac brand is being eliminated. Toyota builds the Corolla small car and the Tacoma pickup truck at the plant.
In a statement released Monday, Toyota said it was sorry GM was withdrawing from NUMMI, "ending a long, successful partnership spanning 25 years."
"Our hope was for the 50/50 joint venture to continue," the statement said. "While we respect this decision by GM, the economic and business environment surrounding Toyota is also extremely severe, and so this decision by GM makes the situation even more difficult for Toyota. We will consider alternatives by taking into account various factors."
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.
General Motors is reportedly seeking from Chrysler full payment of development and production costs related to the two-mode hybrid powertrain that the two automakers co-developed with other partners.
PickupTrucks.com reports that GM has filed court documents saying that Chrysler has promised $173,477 to settle $531,275 in costs associated with the development and manufacture of the Chrysler Aspen (pictured) and Dodge Durango Two-Mode Hybrid SUVs.
You might recall that both of the vehicles were killed after only two months of production.
Calls by Green Car Advisor to Julie Gibson, the GM spokeswoman authorized to discuss the matter, were not immediately returned.
Under Chapter 11, Chrysler's assets and liabilities were assigned to two entities: Old Chrysler and New Chrysler. Italian automaker Fiat, which recently merged with New Chrysler after that portion of the company emerged from bankruptcy, has not assumed the two-mode hybrid contract, leaving it with Old Chrysler.
According to a report by TheDetroitBureau.com, the court documents also state that New Chrysler has assigned all production-related contracts to Old Chrysler.
The Website reported that a source outside Chrysler said that Chrysler is hoping to renegotiate many of its pre-bankruptcy production contracts so they can be signed by New Chrysler under more favorable terms. The two-mode hybrid deal reportedly is one of those.
Ford, Nissan and upstart electric car maker Tesla Motors will be the first auto companies to receive factory retooling loans under the $25 billion federal program to speed production of fuel-efficient vehicles in the U.S., the Detroit Free Press reported
late Monday.
Ford, which had applied for $11 billion in loans under the program, is likely to receive the largest loan. The company wants to retool an SUV factory to use for a new electric vehicle it plans to launch in 2011.
Nissan has asked for $1.1 billion to help retool its Smyrna, Tenn. plant to build electric vehicles that it has said will go on sale in selected areas of the U.S. next year.
Tesla has asked for $350 million to refurbish a Southern California factory, believed to be a recently emptied aerospace plant, for production of its upcoming Model S electric sedan.
General Motors corp. and Chrysler are not eligible for loans from the program until they emerge from their Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. The loan program is only open to companies that can show they are "financially viable."
In all, 75 companies have asked for $38 billion in loans from the program, exceeding the available funds by 52 percent. A proposal to double the loan pool to $50 billion is pending in Congress.
But a spokesman for the automaker's production division denies the report.
By Scott Doggett, Contributor
Toyota is considering making Priuses at a California plant it shares with General Motors, not a factory in Mississippi where production of the popular hybrid had been planned, Bloomberg reported today, citing two unnamed sources.
But Mike Goss, external affairs manager with Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, or TEMA, said "we haven't changed our plans to build Prius in Mississippi. Nothing's changed."
TEMA is responsible for Toyota's engineering design, research, development and manufacturing activities in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. It operates 14 parts and vehicle manufacturing plants across North America.
The Bloomberg report stated that "given the time and cost to finish the half-built Mississippi facility, it may be easier to make the car at New United Motor Manufacturing," a 380-acre factory Toyota shares with GM in Fremont.
The news service attributed the information to "people who asked not to be identified because the discussions aren't public."
Goss denied that the $1.3 billion plant in Blue Springs, Mississippi, is half-built, stating instead that construction is completed.
"At this point, we've finished the building," he said.
Goss said "the Bloomberg story says something about 'unnamed sources,' but we have not changed our plans."
Volt Fan Site Says Buick Now Gets System Formerly Planned for Saturn Vue
The leading Chevrolet Volt fan site
, GM-Volt.com, which General Motors often uses to launch trial balloons and leak info, says it has learned that the General plans to migrate its plug-in dual-mode hybrid system from the Saturn Vue to a new Buick crossover (right)
expected to be launched in 2011.
Plans for the Vue two-mode plug-in went out the window when financially ailing GM agreed last week to sell its Saturn unit to Penske Automotive, which will use contract manufacturers to build cars after 2011.
Until then,GM has agreed to continue making the Vue, Aura and Outlook for Saturn, but only the conventional models -- there's been no deal yet on the Saturn mild-hybrids, and the changeover to (probably) overseas contract manufacturers under Penske would begin just as the rechargeable two-mode plug-in system comes on-line at GM.
The new Buick, shown when a camera picked up an image of the clay styling model during a recent CBS News interview with GM design chief Ed Welburn (warning, there's a 30-second commercial before the interview video begins), shares the Vue's platform, so is set up for easy installation of the dual-mode system.
Like every other alternative fuel, hydrogen has its fans and foes, its pluses and minuses, its ups and, recently, its downs.
After being the favored ground transportation fuel of the future for most of the last eight years as the Bush administration pushed development of hydrogen fuel cells for automotive use, nature's most abundant - albeit hard to isolate - element has been cast aside by the Obama administration.
The new president's Nobel-winning energy secretary, Steven Chu, has proposed in his 2010 departmental budget to eliminate funding for automotive hydrogen programs - that's $100 million - and instead to focus hydrogen research on fuel cells to generate power for homes, businesses and other stationary power users.
For transportation, his choice of fuel research programs to back is no surprise, he's long been a supporter of biofuels and electric cars.
----------- Honda says its FCX Clarity (below, right) is production-ready, lacking only a fueling infrastructure and lower-priced components that can only come with increased production of such cars. ----------
That's got the hydrogen car crowd - and we confess to a great fondness for fuel cell vehicles ourselves - up in arms and questioning the validity of Chu's apparent decision to "pick winners" by concentrating DOE research finding on biofuels and battery-electric, or plug-in, cars while announcing that his team doesn't see any short-term chance for hydrogen to emerge as a widely available and used fuel.
But Chu, powerful as he is sitting atop the nation's official energy policy agency and operating with the endorsement and backing of the president, isn't all-powerful. He has to answer to Congress, and Congress is subject to lobbying.
So the pressure politics have begun.
Short-Sighted?
With DOE budget hearings about to start, the chairman of the Senate's energy and Water Appropriations Committee - the committee that sits in judgment over the energy Department budget - has come out swinging.
A fan of hydrogen, Sen. Byron Dorgan recently called the DOE's budget recommendation to eliminate automotive hydrogen research funding "a very short-sighted recommendation." Hydrogen and fuel cells "are part of this country's future," said the North Dakota Democrat.
Backing Dorgan in support of restoring at lest some hydrogen programs funding for automotive research are automakers with huge investments in the technology.
They include Toyota and Honda, no slouches when it comes to making informed choices about technologies, as well as Daimler and our own General Motors Corp.
(We say "our own" because as part of the taxpaying public, we now share ownership of the faltering car company with the rest of America.)
Unlikely Allies
GM, in case you've been living in a cave or up in space for the past few weeks, is in bankruptcy now and the government, as its majority owner, has a rather big stake in the company's survival and future success.
Granted, GM hasn't been all that great at picking the proper trends and technologies as it looked to the future.
But this time the General is on the same team as Toyota and Honda rather than turning up its nose and sniffing that the Japanese car companies don't know what they are talking about.
Those fuel-efficient small cars that General Motors now says it can build profitably in the U.S. will be built at a plant the company already has shuttered or is about to close.
Three states with plants that could be recycled for the new small car are Michigan, Tennessee and Wisconsin and all three are top contenders.
----------
New small car GM will build in US could be Chevy Spark introduced at Detroit Auto Show in January. ----------
A decision will be made this month, the automaker said today.
A final decision on the GM small-car plant location will depend on incentives and other inducements the states and cities involved can offer.
GM officials are meeting in Washington this week with delegations from the states to discuss selection criteria.
Possible plant sites are in Orion Township, Mich., Spring Hill, Tenn., and Janesville, Wis.
The Michigan and Tennessee plants are set to end production this fall but will remain on standby, meaning workers can be called back if the company needs to increase production. The Wisconsin plant shut down in April.
GM, which was pushed into a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization by the federal government last week, originally planned to build a new small car in China.
It changed course last month and said it would build the unspecified car in the U.S. instead as a concession to get union leaders to sign-on to a reorganization plan that will reduce some benefits.
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.
