Green Car Advisor
Volvo
October 13, 2009
Volvo officials didn't have much to say about U.S. plans when they showed off their new C30-based electric car concept and a prototype plug-in, diesel-electric hybrid (right) in Sweden last month.
But the head of the automaker's U.S. operation confirmed in a recent interview what we've long suspected, that Volvo does plan to bring plug-in hybrids and diesels to this market at some point.
The big questions are when, and what about that EV? Both went unanswered in Volvo Cars North America CEO Doug Speck's interview with Automotive News.
Fuel prices, consumer interest and government support of the various advanced automotive technologies will drive Volvo's efforts, Speck said.
He repeated what Volvo told us last month - that the company's first pug-in hybrid would hit the market in Europe in 2012. He added that it will come to the U.S. sometime after that, and that Volvo diesels also would be sold here at some point.
It all makes sense - as does our suspicion that a Volvo EV won't be withheld from this market for too long once the company gives the go-ahead to a production project.
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Volvo showed off this C30 hatchback-based battery-electric prototype in Sweden last month.
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The U.S., after all, accounts for nearly a quarter of Volvo's sales and the company can't afford to withhold its newest and most advanced vehicles for very long.
Add to that the demands of the new U.S. CAFE rules which require average fleet fuel efficiency to hit 35 mph by 2020 and you can build a pretty good case for Volvo hybrids, diesels and EVs being sold here.
John O'Dell, Senior Editor
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- John O'Dell October 13, 2009, 11:30 AM
- Categories:
- Diesel, Hybrid, Plug-ins and Electric, Surveys, Volvo
- Technorati Tags:
- Diesel
, Electric Car, EV, Plug In Hybrid, Volvo
September 23, 2009
Volvo cars and trucks have always been designed to withstand the rigors of Sweden's rough roads and cold temperatures, with particular emphasis on surviving a collision.
This is why Volvo has invented so many safety features since the making its first car in 1927.
Those features include a safety cage for occupants, laminated windshield, three-point safety belts, padded instrument panel, crumple zones, anti-locking brakes, inflatable curtain and lane-departure warning. The full list of Volvo safety innovations is quite long.
Now the Swedish automaker is applying some of those inventions to protecting the batteries that propel electric vehicles.
In a statement released today, Volvo said it conducting "extremely wide-ranging and thorough analysis of a variety of safety scenarios for cars with electric power.
"Through advanced automatic monitoring of battery status and by encapsulating the battery and protecting it effectively in a collision, the result is a comprehensive safety package of the very highest class."
Volvo's safety tests take place in several different stages. First at component level, then for whole systems and finally the complete car is safety-tested -- both virtually in the computer, and physically in Volvo's technically advanced crash-test center.
At present Volvo is conducting tests at component level to see how the electric-vehicle's battery is affected by harsh braking and the subsequent collision.
"We are also carrying out, for the first time, advanced crash tests in full scale to evaluate the technology in electrically powered cars," Volvo Cars' safety expert, Thomas Broberg, said.
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- Scott Doggett September 23, 2009, 12:35 PM
- Categories:
- Batteries, Plug-ins and Electric, Volvo
- Technorati Tags:
- EV
, Safety Features, Volvo Electric Car, Volvo Electric Vehicle
September 17, 2009
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
GOTHENBURG, Sweden - Volvo Cars unveiled its new C30-based prototype electric car today and said that Indianapolis-based battery maker EnerDel is supplying the lithium-ion battery pack for the vehicles, which will be used in a series of on-road test programs in Europe over the next year.
The deal is EnerDel's second with Volvo, following this summer's announcement that the subsidiary of New York-based Ener1 Corp. was teaming with the Swedish automaker to supply batteries for a pair of plug-in diesel-electric hybrids.
The C30 BEV, or battery-electric vehicle, uses a 24 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack with 22 kilowatt-hours of usable energy and a predicted range of 75 to 93 miles depending on driving conditions.
Test Track Trial
Green Car Advisor got a chance to take one of the two existing C30 BEVs on a short spin around Volvo's demonstration track outside Gothenburg in southwest Sweden earlier today and found the four-seater - based on Volvo's smallest car - to be a sprightly, well-mannered package.
The nearly 700-pound (estimated) battery pack, made of hundreds of flat lithium-ion cells for easier cooling, is tucked beneath the C30's sporty body, fitted between the frame stiffeners to give the small car a low center of gravity and to protect the battery from damage in an accident.
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- John O'Dell September 17, 2009, 4:16 PM
- Categories:
- Batteries, Plug-ins and Electric, Volvo
- Technorati Tags:
- Electric Cars
, Ener Del, Ener1, EnerDel, Lithium Ion Batteries, Volvo, Volvo C30 Electric Car
June 3, 2009
Sales of hybrid cars and trucks outperformed the market in May, giving lie to the belief, popular among mainstream industry analysts and pundits, that Americans are only interested in the gas-electric vehicles when fuel prices are stratospheric.
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2009 Prius was top hybrid with best sales in 7 months.
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In a month when sales of non-hybrid vehicles rose 12.9 percent from the prior month, hybrid sales were up 18.2 percent. Incentives were applied liberally to hybrids and conventional vehicles alike during May, reducing the likelihood that cash-back offers or cheap interest rates unfairly boosted hybrid sales.
And while sales of both hybrids and conventional vehicles fell far short of matching year-earlier tallies, hybrid sales were off only 26.7 percent from May, 20008, compared to a 33.5 percent decline for non-hybrids.
At the same time, conventional small car sales fell short of overall market performance, indicating that shoppers had more than just fuel economy on their minds. The hybrid market may be benefiting from increased concern that fuel prices, which have been below $3 a gallon for nearly a year after approaching the $4-per-gallon mark last summer, are on the rise again and may be heading for new highs.
In all, dealers sold 25,693 hybrids last month, up from 21,735 in April but down from 35,042 in May 2008.
With the exception of Toyota's Camry hybrid, the top-selling Prius - which continues to dominate the U.S. hybrid market - and Honda's Civic hybrid, sales of individual models are low enough that it doesn't take much to cause a large jump in percent of increase or decline.
That said, Ford's new Fusion sedan hybrid scored an impressive 75 percent gain from April while sales of the Ford Escape SUV hybrid were up 62.2 percent for the same period.
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- John O'Dell June 3, 2009, 5:00 AM
- Categories:
- Cadillac, Chevrolet, Ford, General Motors, Lexus, Mercury, Nissan, Saturn, Toyota, Volkswagen, Volvo
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- Hybrid Sales
, May Hybrid Sales
June 1, 2009
Volvo today presented a new concept car that combines a plug-in charged lithium battery with a diesel engine, technology the Swedish automaker aims to have on the market in 2012.
"This is a significant leap compared to our earlier plans of offering a regular full-hybrid on the market by 2012," Volvo CEO Stephen Odell said at a press conference in Stockholm.
The plug-in hybrid car, developed in partnership with Nordic power utility Vattenfall, can run on battery power for up to 50 kilometers (31 miles), Odell said.
He said emissions would be below 50 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer (about half the emissions of the best hybrids currently on the market), and he called for politicians to offer consumers incentives to make the new technology affordable.
"We do of course expect that the purchasing price will be higher," he said. "In this area we are keen to see further subsidies and incentives from the political arena to promote green choice among customers."
In a press release issued today, Volvo said the car could be fueled with electricity from a 220-volt wall socket.
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- Scott Doggett June 1, 2009, 9:04 AM
- Categories:
- Batteries, Diesel, Emissions, Fuel Economy, Plug-ins and Electric, Volvo
- Technorati Tags:
- Carbon Dioxide
, Emissions, Plug In Electric Hybrid, Plug In Hybrids, Volvo
May 5, 2009
Today's diesel-powered automobiles aren't your father's diesel-powered automobiles.
That's one of the core messages Volkswagen Group of America Inc. hopes to deliver in a new (and sufficiently quirky, given the company's advertising heritage) marking effort that includes a website where light-footed VW owners are boasting about extreme mileage accomplishments.
The pro-diesel push comes at the same time as a new "Meet the Volkswagens" ad campaign that pairs Max, the restored black VW Beetle that speaks with a German accent, with "Bus," an immaculately restored white and red 1968 Microbus (whose voice is supplied by actor Thomas Haden Church).
VW has a simple message in each instance: its autos are fuel-efficient, green and safe vehicles that won't break the household budget. And, to ensure that the message has a chance of being heard, VW plans to keep its 2009 advertising budget at the same level it was in 2008.
That is a serious commitment given that VW reportedly raised last year's spend by 45.7 percent over the 2007 level. The Nielsen Company reports that the overall automotive sector cut overall 2008 advertising spending by 15.5 percent to just over $10 billion.
VW's U.S. marketing chief, Tim Ellis, told USAToday that "When we invest in marketing, things happen. We think it's important to stick to our roots and stick to our value message. We're getting a higher percentage of the dwindling marketplace. And when this crazy situation comes straight side up again, we'll be positioned to increase our share even further."
VW isn't escaping the auto industry carnage. The Herndon, Va.-based company saw April sales tumble by 16.1 percent to 16,289 vehicles. Full year sales for 2008 declined by 3.2 percent to 223,128.
The automobile industry's global slump underscores the bold nature of VW's American gambit. Last year it announced plans for a $1 billion production plant in Chattanooga, Tenn. that will produce 150,000 vehicles annually - 30 percent of which will be powered by VW's TDI (turbo direct injection) engines.
On top of that, VW has boldly set a U.S. sales goal of one million vehicles by 2018.
To reach its lofty sales goal VW knows that it must persuade Americans (the emphasis is on younger consumers) that diesels aren't the clunky, smoky and noisy engines of yesteryear.
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- Greg Johnson May 5, 2009, 1:21 PM
- Categories:
- Daimler, Diesel, Emissions, Ford, Fuel Economy, General Motors, Honda, Plug-ins and Electric, Transportation Alternatives, Volkswagen, Volvo
- Technorati Tags:
- BMW
, Diesel Cars, Honda Insight, Mercedes Benz Diesel, Prius, Tax Incentives, Toyota Prius, Volkswagen Diesels, Volkswagon Group Of America
April 27, 2009
As the once-favored hydrogen highway becomes a mere side road on the route to oil independence with the Obama administration's push for rechargeable hybrid powertrains as the new favored alternative to the conventional gasoline engine, hydrogen pioneer Honda Motor Co. says it, too, will begin to pursue the way of the plug.
In an interview with Bloomberg news last week, Honda Motor Co. President Takeo Fukui said his company still sees hydrogen as the best long-term replacement for gasoline in the effort to slash automotive emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases tied to global arming.
Fukui, who is stepping down in June as part of Honda's regular executive shuffle, has in the past has been outspoken in his disdain for plug-in technology, calling it an unnecessary intermediate step form gasoline to pure electric power.
Honda has developed a hydrogen fuel-cell sedan, the FCX Clarity, that it leases to select customers in a Los Angeles-area test program, and isn't planning to abandon the effort.
But, Fukui said in a Bloomberg news wire article published this morning, the automaker also will accommodate the perceived preference of the U.S. government for plug-in hybrid-electric cars and trucks.
Unlike a conventional gas-electric hybrid that charges its batteries from on-board power sources such as regenerative braking, a plug-in hybrid gets its initial charge from the commercial grid, by "plugging in" to a wall socket or a special rapid-charging station
Plug-ins use larger battery pack than a conventional hybrids. They store enough power to permit the vehicle to be driven for an extended amount of time on all-electric drive before the grid charge is depleted and the gas engine kicks in.
Although others, including General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai and Volkswagen are developing fuel-cell vehicles, Honda has been the only major automaker championing hydrogen above other technologies and so far has stayed out of the rapidly developing race to bring plug-ins to market.
While federal support of hydrogen development has all-but evaporated in the U.S., the government is providing billions of dollars for battery development programs and for federal tax credits of up to $7,500 for purchasers of plug-ins.
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- John O'Dell April 27, 2009, 2:01 AM
- Categories:
- Alternative Fuels, Batteries, Emissions, Fisker, Ford, Fuel Cell, General Motors, Honda, Hybrid, Hydrogen, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Plug-ins and Electric, Subaru, Tesla, Toyota, Volvo
- Technorati Tags:
- FCX Clarity
, Honda Fuel Cell, Honda Motor Co., Honda Plug In Hybrid
April 6, 2009
Ford's SmartGauge features a multitude of displays to help people become more fuel-efficient drivers.
By Robert E. Calem, Contributor
Regardless of the kind of car you drive, one of the keys to improving fuel economy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions is to drive smarter - don't hammer the accelerator pedal, don't brake harshly and do steadily maintain just enough speed to keep up with the flow of traffic without passing everyone in sight.
These often are not easy tasks.
To help, automakers have begun rolling out new features and technologies that call attention to uneconomical driving behavior and offer "rewards" for fuel-efficient driving.
Some of these features are passive, like instrument panels that change color as fuel economy improves.
Others more actively engage with the driver, such as an accelerator pedal that pushes back when pressed too aggressively.
Some automakers are even working on technologies that will be able to take the driver out of the fuel economy equation by allowing the car to practically drive itself with best mileage in mind.
Read on to learn more about the driver training features and technologies in cars you can buy today, and be able to buy tomorrow.
Smart Gauges Make Smarter Drivers
"The whole idea is coaching the driver, but as a good coach you don't want to preach," says Sonya Nematollahi, driver information engineering supervisor at Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn, Mich., while describing the "SmartGauge with EcoGuide" instrument cluster in the 2010 Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan hybrids.
Conceived by Ford in collaboration with IDEO, the design and innovation consultancy that also devised the Swivel 'n Go seating in Chrysler minivans, SmartGauge consists of two 4.3-inch, high-resolution color LCD screens - one on either side of the analog speedometer - that display a collection of digitally rendered gauges accessed through multi-layered menus.
SmartGauge with EcoGuide, fashioned by Ford Design Studio with features input from the industrial design firm Smart Design, uses the menus and gauges to offer increasingly detailed information in four modes: Inform, Enlighten, Engage and Empower.
"Like a good coach, we designed modes into SmartGauge to engage drivers at their experience levels and then guide them to new energy-efficient behavior," says Steve Bishop, global lead for sustainability at IDEO in Palo Alto, Calif.
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Green leaves 'grow' on fusion instrument panel as visual reward when fuel economy improves.
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"Video games engage their users in a similar fashion with levels. In fact, when we observed hybrid drivers, we found they were going for high scores, a gaming behavior that has never existed in cars before. We designed to accommodate it."
Steering-wheel mounted directional buttons are used to navigate through the modes, and the driver can customize the displays in each mode by adding or removing gauges.
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- John O'Dell April 6, 2009, 4:10 AM
- Categories:
- Audi, Chevrolet, Emissions, Fiat, Ford, Fuel Economy, Fuels & Technologies, General Motors, Honda, Mercury, Nissan, Tesla, Volvo
- Technorati Tags:
- Eco Driving
, Fuel Efficiency
March 11, 2009
Carrots and sticks usually come into play when governments want citizens and corporations to change their behavior.
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Swedish government wants to tax motor vehicles such as these on a Stockholm highway based on their carbon emissions.
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Most governments these days are scrambling to hand out carrots (in the form of tax breaks) for motor vehicle manufacturers whose sales have plummeted during the global economic recession. But Sweden has fashioned a big stick -- a carbon emissions tax that would noticeably increase the cost of most vehicles that burn fossil fuels.
The Swedish Association of Green Motorists estimates the average annual cost to owners with vehicles subject to the tax at $180. Oh to have been in the corporate boardrooms of already struggling Saab and Volvo when word of this plan hit.
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- John O'Dell March 11, 2009, 5:00 AM
- Categories:
- Emissions, Fuel Economy, Saab, Volvo
- Technorati Tags:
- CarbonTax
, Greenhouse Gas, Sweden
December 17, 2008
Volvo today released photos of the S60 Concept sedan the Swedish automaker will unveil next month at the Detroit auto show.
While the press release that accompanied the photos focused on the car's sleek look, it's what's under the hood that leaves a lasting impression.
At its heart is a 1.6-liter gasoline turbocharged direct injection engine achieving a proclaimed 47 miles per gallon. Yes, 1.6 liters is small displacement and the 180 horsepower it puts out isn't going to impress NASCAR fans. But 47 MPG? That's sweet!
The gas-powered engine is expected to make it into production next year and, hopefully, the production-model S60 -- at least as an option.
Volvo is withholding further performance details so as to not spoil the concept's debut.
One feature the automaker is discussing and promising to include in the all-new S60 is a ground-breaking safety innovation that, among other things, can detect a pedestrian who steps into the path of the car.
If the driver doesn't respond to the pedestrian quick enough, "the car's full braking power is automatically activated." We're not sure we like the sound of the car slamming on its own brakes, but the mileage, the mileage!
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- Scott Doggett December 17, 2008, 2:01 PM
- Categories:
- Auto Shows, Fuel Economy, Volvo
- Technorati Tags:
- Fuel Efficient
, Gasoline Turbocharged Direct Injection, Mileage, Volvo S60 Concept
October 6, 2008
There's been a lot of electric car and hybrid news out of France in the past week as automakers hosted the media at a preview of the Paris Auto Show.
Most of the cars, though, are unlikely to see these shores as they are derivatives of European models that wouldn't meet U.S. safety standards (and, some auto executives and marketing gurus insist, consumer demands for spacious interiors) without so much added weight that their alternative powertrains would no longer be practical.
One potential exception comes from Volvo, which has been working on conventional, diesel-electric and plug-in hybrids for years now and late last week announced that it will be bringing all of the above to market.
The first to come, a micro-hybrid in 2011, isn't likely to be sold outside of Europe. But for 2012 Volvo plans a diesel-electric hybrid that will combine the company's front-wheel drive D5 turbodiesel with an electric motor to drive the rear wheels.
And then, in an as-yet unannounced year sometime after the diesel hybrid, Volvo plans to launch a plug-in hybrid rooted in the California-designed ReCharge concept (above) it showed at the 2007 Frankfurt Auto Show.
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- John O'Dell October 6, 2008, 1:37 PM
- Categories:
- Auto Shows, Diesel, Fuel Cell, Hybrid, Plug-ins and Electric, Volvo
- Technorati Tags:
- Paris Auto Show
, Volvo Hybrids
September 3, 2008
By
Scott Doggett, Contributor
and John O'Dell, Senior Editor
General Motors has reaped a ton of publicity from its Chevrolet Volt, a car with a grid-charged battery pack that will power an electric motor and an on-board gasoline engine that will generate electricity to keep the electric motor running and recharge the batteries when the initial plug-in charge is depleted.
Often missed in all the high-voltage buzz is that Ford Motor Co. showed a concept car with essentially the same system during the same January 2007 Detroit Auto Show at which the Volt took its bows.
Now comes word that Ford's Japanese subsidiary, Mazda, is putting its zoom into development of a Volt competitor of its own.
The British blog autocar says it has "learned that Mazda engineers are hard at work trying to develop a rival to the Chevrolet Volt -- a car which uses a petrol engine to charge a battery pack which powers the wheels via an electric motor."
High-ranking sources at Mazda, autocar reports, "say that trials are currently underway in Japan, with a prototype that uses a rotary engine to charge the battery pack. The tests are sufficiently advanced that Mazda has a working prototype in a Mazda 5 MPV bodyshell. Company bosses are said to be keen to put this system into production but no firm decisions will be made until the cost of batteries is reduced.
"In the meantime the company will concentrate on simpler green technologies. The first stop-start Mazda will go on sale in Japan next year and the system is expected to be rolled out globally on a variety of models."
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- Scott Doggett September 3, 2008, 3:01 AM
- Categories:
- Auto Shows, Batteries, Chevrolet, Diesel, Flex-Fuel, Ford, Fuel Cell, Fuel Economy, General Motors, Hybrid, Hydrogen, Mazda, Plug-ins and Electric, Volvo
- Technorati Tags:
- Chevrolet Volt
, E-Flex, Electric Vehicles, Ford, Fuel Cell, General Motors, GM, Hydrogen, HySeries Drive, Mazda, PHEV, plug-in hybrid
July 22, 2008
Soy foam in the seats the Ford F-150 pickups and Lincoln Navigator SUVs. Locally farmed hemp
, "ethically produced" woolen fabric and floor mats made of sisal in the Lotus Eco Elise.
Some automakers are increasingly going to great lengths to make the interiors of some of their models if not environmentally friendly, at least a bit wholesome.
But others, well...
Early today the Ecology Center of Ann Arbor, Michigan, posted its second-annual consumer guide to toxic chemicals in cars and children's car seats at www.HealthyCar.org.
More than two hundred 2008- and 2009-model-year vehicles and more than 60 children's car seats were tested for unhealthy chemicals that seep in gaseous form from the steering wheel, dashboard, armrests, seats and carpet.
The "new-car smell," as the gases are commonly called, mingle with the air occupants breathe and have been linked to allergies, birth defects, impaired learning, liver toxicity and cancer.
The Ecology Center reported that Mazda, General Motors and Nissan improved since last year's findings, with GM showing the greatest gains of the domestic automakers, with an average vehicle ranking improvement of 27 percent.
The list of the 10 best and 10 worst vehicles as picked by the Center appears in the chart above.
Average child-car-seat scores improved 28 percent overall. The list of 10 best and worst car seats for 2008 as picked by the Center appears at left. Click on the chart for a better look.
For more information, go to www.HealthyCar.org.
Below are the three worst 2008-model-year vehicles by interior pollution, according to the Center (click on each to enlarge). From left to right: Mitsubishi Eclipse, Suzuki Reno and Volkswagen New Beetle.
Below are are the three best vehicles by interior pollution, according to the Center (click on each to enlarge). From left to right: Acura RXD, Chevrolet Cobalt and Smart Passion Cabriolet.
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- Scott Doggett July 22, 2008, 12:21 AM
- Categories:
- Acura, Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Daimler, Dodge, Emissions, Fiat, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hummer, Hyundai, Jeep, Kia, Lexus, MINI, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Opel, Pontiac, Porsche, Renault, Saab, Smart, Subaru, Suzuki, Think, Toyota, Volkswagen, Volvo
July 17, 2008
By Scott Doggett, Contributor
That's our sensational headline for 2008, but there's more than a smidgen of truth in it.
Last year Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Ecology Center released the first-ever consumer guide to toxic chemicals in cars and child car seats -- and what they reported was sickening.
The odor you inhale when you slide into a new car? It might very well be bromine, chlorine, lead, other harmful chemicals or a witches' brew of them. They've been linked to birth defects, impaired learning, liver toxicity, premature births and, no doubt, cancer.
If you think the government protects you against such things, think again. Some of the vehicles on the road today are veritable toxic dumps on wheels. And many drivers are exposed to these chemicals through inhalation and contact with dust every day.
In case you missed last year's report, Ecology Center found the most toxic vehicles were the Nissan Versa, Chevy Aveo, Scion xB 5dr and the Kia Rio. The least toxic vehicles were the Chevy Cobalt, Chrysler PT Cruiser, Honda Odyssey and the Volvo V50.
Next Tuesday -- July 22 -- Ecology Center will release its second annual consumer guide to toxic chemicals in cars and child car seats, and if you're thinking of buying a new car anytime soon, you'll want to check it out. The guide will be posted at www.healthycar.org a little after midnight on the 22nd.
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- Scott Doggett July 17, 2008, 1:39 PM
- Categories:
- Acura, Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Daimler, Dodge, Emissions, Fiat, Ford, Fuel Economy, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Jeep, Kia, Legislation, Lexus, MINI, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Opinion, Pontiac, Porsche, Renault, Saab, Smart, Subaru, Toyota, Volkswagen, Volvo
May 1, 2008
Plug-in hybrids are seen by many, including Magna, as the next great frontier.
By
John O'Dell, Senior Editor
Another entry in the plug-in hybrid race, this time from a competitor with really powerful potential.
Magna International
, the top-tier Canadian auto parts maker, says it will roll out a plug-in car late next year or in 2010.
So as not to foul relationships with the major automakers that it already supplies with scores of parts, Magna says it won't sell a competing plug-in but will sell them the bits and pieces needed to make their own.
In markets where its customers don't sell cars, though, Magna intends to field a complete plug-in under its own brand.
The company, which reported $26.1 billion in sales and a $663 million net profit last year, is serious about becoming a car maker.
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- John O'Dell May 1, 2008, 12:22 PM
- Categories:
- Chrysler, Daimler, Fisker, Ford, General Motors, Hybrid, Plug-ins and Electric, Saab, Tesla, Toyota, Volvo
March 17, 2008
Ah, those pragmatic Swedes. While other governments and automakers are studying the idea of perhaps developing plug-in hybrids, the folks in Stockholm got together with auto executives at Volvo and Saab and said, "Hey, let's get radical and actually do something."
That something is a program to speed development of plug-in technology with an eye toward having real vehicles ready to roll for both companies within a few years.
Also participating in the program are Sweden's energy agency, Swedish power company Vattenfall and ETC Batteries and FuelCells Sweden, a private company whose name speaks for itself.
Goal of the $10 million project is to have a fleet of 10 plug-ins on the road for testing by early 2010, with retail models to follow.
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- John O'Dell March 17, 2008, 12:08 PM
- Categories:
- Alternative Fuels, Batteries, Hybrid, Plug-ins and Electric, Volvo
- Technorati Tags:
- Paris
January 3, 2008
Mercedes-Benz is counting on its new clean diesel engines to help boost sales in a U.S. market suddenly consumed by fuel economy concerns.
But the German luxury carmaker could get another big benefit from diesel sales here: the increased mileage diesel cars and trucks deliver could save it millions of dollars a year in the fines it regularly pays for exceeding the federal CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) standard.
For 2006, the most recent figures available, Mercedes – through its then-parent DaimlerChrysler -- paid a record $30.3 million in CAFE fines, according to data posted recently by the National Highway Traffic Safety Agency.
As we reported previously, the record for the highest annual fine had been held by BWW of North America, which paid $27.9 million in 2001 (breaking its own record of $27.3 million set in 2000).
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- John O'Dell January 3, 2008, 6:40 AM
- Categories:
- BMW, Chrysler, Daimler, Legislation, Porsche, Volkswagen, Volvo
November 13, 2007
Production version of Honda FCX concept (above) will be unveiled at the LA Show
Although environmental transportation isn't a central theme of this year's Los Angeles auto show, there's still a touch of green to be found among the displays at the LA Convention Center.
Green used to be a big thing for the West Coast's premier auto show, but that was before environmental issues became part of just about every auto show on the calendar.
From Detroit to Tokyo, these days they all have a green component, ranging from the unveiling of concepts that explore things like plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and the hydrogen future to the introduction of production models that give us the newest in gas-electric hybrids and alternative fuels such as diesel and ethanol.
In LA this year, events will include an announcement Thursday morning of the Green Car of the Year award winner. Nominees for the award, sponsored by the Green Car Journal magazine, all are hybrids this year, and three are from General Motors: The Chevrolet Malibu sedan, Saturn Aura sedan and Tahoe SUV hybrids. The other finalists are the Mazda Tribute SUV hybrid and the Nissan Altima sedan hybrid.
As the 2007 show prepares to open its doors this week, for a two-day media preview Wednesday and Thursday and to the general public Friday evening for a 10-day run, here's a look at what to expect.
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- John O'Dell November 13, 2007, 2:54 PM
- Categories:
- Auto Shows, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Daimler, Diesel, Ford, Fuel Cell, General Motors, Honda, Hybrid, Hydrogen, Nissan, Plug-ins and Electric, Porsche, Toyota, Volkswagen, Volvo
September 10, 2007
Although there's plenty of development work on alternative fuels and power plants going on in U.S. automakers’ R&D labs, the industry is consumed these days with fixing its collective financial woes and there's not much noise being made about advancing green technology. Not in the U.S., anyhow.
We likely won't hear too much about what's close to being market ready until the carmakers and the UAW complete their ongoing master contract negotiations and possibly not until the hype around January's Detroit auto show begins.
But Asian and European car companies, including European subsidiaries of both Ford and GM, are stepping in to fill the environmental void, with a spate of clean diesels and gas-electric hybrids in the works. A lot of green goodies will be shown off at the 2007 Frankfurt Auto Show, which begins a two-day press preview on Tuesday.
Here's a look at what's on tap.
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- John O'Dell September 10, 2007, 8:00 AM
- Categories:
- Alternative Fuels, Audi, BMW, Diesel, Hybrid, Hyundai, Nissan, Opel, Porsche, Volvo
