Ask a Tesla Roadster owner why he drives one and invariably you'll be told it's for the environment.
Mother Nature, you think. Climate change. Polar bears.
And that's half true. Maybe even three-quarters true. But drive a Tesla Roadster - especially the 2010 Tesla Roadster Sport - and you soon learn about the other environment, the one few motorists know. Here are a few examples of what that environment looks like:
In the next lane, at a stoplight on a road that skirts Stanford University, a smirking Corvette ZR1 owner revs his otherworldly 638-horsepower 7.0-liter V8. You twist the key in your ignition forward an eighth of a turn, which instantly switches the drive mode from Standard to Performance. The traffic signal changes, you and the 'Vette driver floor it. Three seconds later the powerful Chevrolet is occupying space in your rear-view mirror. Traction-control limitations. The Chevy salesman probably forgot to mention them to the now-frowning ZR1 owner.
Then there's the blue Infiniti G37 Sport 6MT with the close-ratio six-speed manual transmission and the short-throw shifter, one lane over on the 101 Freeway approaching San Francisco, Candlestick Park on the right. He's playful, as are you, and just like the Corvette driver soon he, too, is a shrinking part of the landscape behind you despite his best efforts to outpace and then just keep up.
And then there's the Miata owner, poor thing, taking a sweeping onramp as quickly as possible, white-knuckling it all the way and hoping his newer baby dressed in stormy blue mica paint doesn't lose traction and become roadkill. While he struggles, you race up behind him, drop back, race up behind him again, raise a hand to your mouth as if to cover a yawn.
People who own Roadsters absolutely buy them for the environment: Mother Nature on the one hand, and it's-amazing-how-truly-awesome-the-environment-is-as-seen-from-a-Tesla-cruise-missile on the other.
The fleet of new cars and trucks sold to U.S. consumers averaged 21 miles per gallon in the 2008 model year, a modest increase over the previous year, with Honda and Hyundai having the most fuel-efficient fleets in America, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported Friday.
New vehicle fuel efficiency improved 2 percent in 2008 from 20.6 mpg for the 2007 model year. The government projected it will improve slightly to 21.1 mpg in the 2009 model year.
The EPA figures are based on real-world estimates for city and highway mileage found on window stickers at dealer showrooms, instead of mileage values developed through laboratory testing.
Honda Motor Co. led the industry in 2008 with 23.9 mpg, followed by Hyundai Motor Co. and its affiliate Kia Motors Corp. with 23.7 mpg, and Toyota Motor Corp. with 22.8 mpg.
Volkswagen AG's fleet averaged 22.3 mpg, followed by Nissan Motor Co. with 21.9 and BMW AG with 21.2.
General Motors Co. led U.S. automakers with 19.7 mpg, followed by Ford Motor Co. with 19.4 and Chrysler Group LLC with 19.3. The EPA projects Ford will increase its fuel efficiency by more than 1 mpg in the 2009 model year and overtake GM.
BMW's announcement this week that its ActiveHybrid X6 crossover utility vehicle will carry a U.S. sticker price of nearly $90,000 was disappointing, but even more disappointing is the fact that the model isn't alone among hybrids priced well out of reach of most people.
Toyota offers a Lexus LS 600h L for $107,300. The 7-Series Hybrid from BMW will surely be a six-figure car when it becomes available this spring. The Cadillac Escalade Hybrid starts at $73,425. The list is frustratingly long.
Our hawk-eyed colleagues at Edmunds' AutoObserver.com picked up on the trend and wrote about it in a piece that's as well written as it is informative. We encourage you to use your turn signal, pull to the side of the road and give it a read.
The California agency that sets the American standard for automotive emissions today unveiled a much-improved Website that helps consumers choose the least polluting cars on the market.
---------- Click on art to enlarge. ----------
The California Air Resources Board Website, using information collected for vehicle certification in the golden state, offers a practical and easy to use system that ranks vehicles according to their emission characteristics and provides tools to compare models.
The site allows visitors to view models by technology/fuel type, smog score, global-warming score and engine family. And there's a very smart tool that, with a click of your mouse, allows you to view all the tax incentives available for a particular model.
Last year, the agency adopted a state regulation requiring automakers to affix the Environmental Performance Label to California showroom models that convey the vehicle's smog and greenhouse-gas emissions. The simply illustrated graphic has two rankings, from one to 10, that depict vehicle emissions. The higher the score, the less polluting it is.
Driveclean.ca.gov puts these same rankings in an online format, making them practical for web research. The Website also provides information about clean-car technology and guides users to consider the emissions of the models they are evaluating.
We salute CARB, once again, for taking another significant step to make the world we live in a healthier place.
Idea Also Is Kicking Around in U.S, at State and Federal Levels
It's been tested in Oregon, pondered in California, Florida, Maine and several other states, applauded in D.C. by the House Transportation Committee, and now pay-per-mile vehicle taxing is becoming a national reality - in the Netherlands.
Yup, the Dutch government has approved a plan to drop vehicle sales and registration taxes and replace them with a tax on every mile - or kilometer, in this case - a car or truck is driven.
The tax also would be variable, based on a vehicle's fuel efficiency and even the time of day the driving takes place.
The variations can be significant - basic tax for a small Renault Twingo will be 1.4 euro-cents per kilometer - that would be 1.4 euros for 100 kilometers ($2.09 for 62 miles), while a powerful Audi A8 would be taxed at about 16.6 euros ($24.76) for the same trip.
That's on top of the Netherlands' $3.50 per gallon gasoline tax and 19 percent value added tax on the total gas purchase.
Boost for EVs?
It is aimed at raising revenue while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and oil consumption by making it more economical to buy the most efficient vehicles and then drive them less often, especially during the morning and evening rush hours.
We're no fan of such taxes - we drive a lot, as do most in the U.S., where average annual passenger car mileage is around 25 percent greater than in Europe - but one benefit for the green movement is that if rates are based on fuel economy as in the Netherlands, they should encourage use of pubic transit and the purchase and use of electric vehicles, which are likely to be taxed at the lowest rates.
The Dutch government expects to see a 15 percent drop in traffic volume, a 7 percent dip in traffic fatalities and the same level of income as today, when it is charging a 40 percent sales tax on new car purchases.
BMW announced today that its U.S.-bound 2010 ActiveHybrid X6 crossover utility vehicle will carry a base price of $89,725 and reach American showrooms early next month on the heels of its North American debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show.
The maker-described "one-of-a-kind Sports Active Coupe" (yes, BMW calls its X6 hybrid a SAC) features two-model hybrid technology mated to a 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8.
The price includes a number of standard features that are optional on the X6 xDrive50i, among them a 7-speed automatic transmission, leather interior, 20-inch Aero Wheels with mixed-sized performance tires and a rearview camera.
And, BMW reps pridefully point out that the ActiveHybrid X6 is the world's most powerful hybrid vehicle and that it's roughly 20 percent more fuel efficient than the standard X6, and that it's just one of many hybrid vehicles the automaker has planned.
While we applaud BMW for coming out with a hybrid version of the X6, its fuel economy leaves a lot to be desired. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates it at 17 miles per gallon in the city and 19 mpg on the highway, for 18 mpg combined.
While that is impressive for a 5,688-pound vehicle with sub-6-second zero-to-60 quickness, we would have preferred to see the German carmaker come out with a lighter X6 hybrid - the ActiveHybrid actually weighs 400 more than the standard X6 - and one priced closer to $70,000 than $100,000.
Concern among some taxpayer and environmental groups that Chrysler's recent decision to downplay development of fuel-efficient electric vehicles violated a pledge used to gain federal bailout funds are unfounded, an administration official says.
----------
Chrysler, which based part of its federal bailout on promised development of electric vehicles such as this "EcoVoyager" concept, has pulled way back on electrification plans since emerging from bankruptcy.
---------
"We obviously would be very happy if Chrysler and GM were making lots and lots of high mileage cars [but] it's not a prerequisite. It's not an obligation" of the bankruptcy bailout funding, auto industry restructuring task force chief Ron Bloom said in an interview with Reuters news service.
"We're completely separating policy from ownership," Bloom said of Chrysler's decision. "We trust that the [Chrysler] board has carefully thought out the various options ... and made judgments on the electric program based on that."
The federal government has extended $30 billion in capital to General Motors and $8.5 billion to Chrysler, representing a 60 percent share of GM and a 10 percent stake in Chrysler.
GM is pushing ahead with its Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid program as well as with a number of conventional hybrid models, and is expected to expand the Volt's extended-range, gas-electric system to other models as well.
Chrysler, now controlled by Italy's Fiat, has slowed its previosuly announced vehicle electrification plans and now intends to meet federal fuel-efficiency standards by utilizing Fiat-develped gasoline engine efficiency technologies and adding more small cars to its lineup.
Chrysler and GM both have applied for federal guaranteed loans under the $25-billion Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loans Program, but their applications have not been approved to date.
Bloom said that the federal autos task force doesn't intend to dip into matters involving the automakers and the Energy Department-managed loan program.
We think Chrysler is financially constrained right now from aggressively pushing an expensive electrification program and can probably do what it needs on the fuel efficiency front under its new product plan - which includes introducing the dual mode hybrid Ram pickup next year, an all-electric commercial van early in 2012 and a pair of plug-in hybrids for limited test fleet use in 2011.
But we also think the company is playing the expediency game and could wind up surviving for the short term under the Fiat-designed plan only to fall into a deep hole in later years as more and more of its competitors bring well-develped electric vehicle programs into play.
The game, after all,isn't just about improving fuel economy.
Perhaps more important in the long run is reducing dependency on petroleum fuels and slashing emissions - things electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles can do far better than the best gas and diesel internal combustion engines the industry can develop.
Mazda Motor Corp. will showcase the subcompact Mazda2, scheduled to be sold in the U.S. and Canada beginning late next year, at next month's 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show.
The model has been a brisk seller for Mazda since it first went on sale in 2003 in Europe. The second-generation Mazda2 commenced sales in Japan in July 2007.
The five-door hatchback coming to North America will share a platform with the Ford Fiesta, which is scheduled to launch on this side of the Atlantic next summer. In addition to the Fiesta, the Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris and Chevrolet Aveo will offer the Mazda2 some stiff competition.
In Europe, the Mazda2 is offered with several gasoline and diesel engines. The U.S. edition will feature only a gasoline-powered, 1.5-liter four-cylinder.
Mazda has provided few specs for the North American Mazda2, but the gasoline-powered, 1.5-liter four-banger sold in Europe delivers 103 horsepower and 101 pounds-feet of torque.
That engine also propels the Mazda2 from 0 to 62 miles per hour in 10.4 seconds while delivering 41 miles per gallon in Europe's combined driving cycle test; in the more real-world American combined driving cycle test, fuel economy should be in the 35-38 mpg range.
Perhaps fretting that the public had forgotten about their hydrogen ambitions, Japan's Big 3 automakers last week took to the streets with their most advanced hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles.
Over two days, driving teams steered a Toyota Highlander FCHV-adv, a Nissan X-Trail FCV, and a Honda FCX Clarity 707 miles from Tokyo to Fukuoka, with an overnight stop in Osaka.
Combined, the vehicles consumed 28.8 kilograms of hydrogen during their demonstration run. That equates to roughly 70 miles per gallon for those of you wondering how efficient these vehicles stack up when compared to gasoline-powered vehicles.
But given that none of the advanced-fuel vehicles seen here are available for purchase, mileage/fuel comparisons right now are strictly academic.
That said, although all three automakers are working on electric vehicles, Honda and Toyota continue to say that hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles offer the best long-term solution to today's climate-changing oil-burning street machines.
(Updated at 7 p.m. Pacific time, 11/16/09, to add details throughout.)
By Robert E. Calem, Contributor
Top executives from more than a dozen companies announced today that they had formed a coalition supporting plug-in electric vehicles, and they unveiled a plan calling for 120 million EVs on U.S. roads by 2030 - an ambitious proposal bearing a federal price tag of more than $120 billion over the next eight years.
Speaking at a press conference in Washington, D.C., members of the newly formed Electricifcation Coalition said plug-in electric vehicles hold the key to solving America's dependence on oil and its associated "economic, environmental and national security vulnerabilities."
High penetration rates of grid-enabled vehicles, or GEVs - vehicles propelled in whole or in part by electricity drawn from the grid and stored onboard in a battery - could radically minimize the importance of oil to the U.S., strengthening the country's economy, improving its national security, and providing much-needed flexibility to American foreign policy, the business leaders said.
Simultaneously, such a system would clear a path to dramatically reduced economy-wide emissions of greenhouse gases, they said.
The conference showcased 13 business leaders and several influential politicians, including Carlos Ghosn, CEO of the Nissan Motor Co.; David W. Crane, CEO of electric utility NRG Energy; David P. Vieau, CEO of battery maker A123 Systems; Frederick W. Smith, CEO of Federal Express; Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota; and Nancy Sutley, chairperson of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
Their presentations at the event were optimistic and filled with statistics about the prevalence of cheap electric energy and the benefits of proliferating GEVs.
Among their arguments: that electricity prices are stable and the supply of electricity is abundant, with lots of spare capacity; that electricity is a domestic resource; and, that the infrastructure is already in place to generate, transmit and distribute the electrical supply to homes - with their GEV-filled garages - nationwide.
But the coalition's vision and its goals - spelled out in a 170-page document released today titled the Electrification Roadmap - are a complex assortment of policy recommendations and business initiatives that will face a lot of challenges, even its backers concede.
Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Corp. has unveiled its first self-developed electric vehicle, joining domestic rivals to tap potential demand for clean-energy cars.
The zero-emissions model, known as the BE701, is capable of going 120 miles between charges and has a top speed of 100 miles an hour, BAIC said in a statement over the weekend.
The company did not provide a timetable for mass production of the plug-in BE701.
BAIC reps disclosed details of a new clean-energy-vehicle development and manufacturing facility it had just set up, involving total investment of $334 million. The funding would come from the government and other sources, the statement said without elaborating.
The facility, just outside Beijing, will be able to make 50,000 electric vehicles and 100,000 hybrid models, it said but did not specify the timetable.
BAIC, a partner of Daimler AG, meanwhile, has set up a company focused on clean-energy vehicles only. It has said it expects to make 20,000-40,000 vehicles a year starting in 2011.
Other domestic automakers, such as Chery Automobile and BYD Co., are also investing in "green" cars.
Chery unveiled in February its self-made electric car, the S19, which it said was capable of going 75 miles between charges and has a top speed of 75 mph.
BYD Auto, a subsidiary of the Hong Kong-listed rechargeable battery maker, launched its plug-in hybrid car, the F3DM, in China late last year.
Additionally, BYD has announced plans to ship the e6, an all-electric crossover, to the United States next year. That vehicle go reportedly go 250 miles per charge.
A few weeks ago, the marketing reps behind the Chevrolet Volt asked the public to submit names for the exterior paint color of the hybrid. Some 13,000 names were submitted.
We think "greenish silver" pretty much describes the paint job you see here, but the Volt folks wanted - and got - more thoughtful entries. Among them: Joule of the Nile, High Ohm Silver!, Kermit the Fog and Bye Bye Foreign Oil Blue!
Well, today the list was narrowed down to three. Yes, one of the following three names will be the name General Motors gives the original Volt exterior paint:
Viridian Joule, submitted by David Thomas of Sanford, Florida.
environMINT, submitted by Matthew Valbuena of Rancho Santa Margarita, California.
EV-ergreen, submitted by Devin McQuarrie of San Jose, California.
If you feel strongly (or even if you don't) about this, you can vote on one of these names. GM promises that the name that receives the most votes will be the name assigned to the paint. The deadline to vote is 8 a.m. Eastern time, Dec. 1.
And what, ask you, will David, Matthew or Devin receive? GM will be sending all three to the Los Angeles Auto Show, where the winner will be announced on Dec. 1. And "the winner will have the chance to drive a pre-production Volt."
Yeah, we think the winner deserves more than that, but hey, GM just posted a $1.2-billion loss. At least the winner will have a chance to turn the motor over. Electricity isn't free, you know.
A recent study evaluating the effectiveness of this summer's cash-for-clunkers program concluded that cost U.S. taxpayers $3 billion and did more to help Japan's three largest automakers than it did the Detroit 3 of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler.
The Japanese companies accounted for only 8 percent of trade-ins but 41 percent of new-car purchases, according to the new study by the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute.
By contrast, 85 percent of the trade-ins were manufactured by the Detroit 3 while only 39 percent of the new purchases were GM, Ford or Chrysler vehicles.
Sixty-eight percent of consumers who traded in a Toyota, Honda or Nissan bought another from one of the same from one of the three Japanese automakers.
Specifically, those owners who traded in Hondas bought another Honda 30 percent of the time. Nissan owners bought new Nissans under the clunker program did so 19 percent of the time and motorists unloading Toyotas turned around and bought another Toyota 44 percent of the time.
By contrast, 43 percent of consumers who traded in a Detroit 3 vehicle bought another Detroit 3 vehicle. Chrysler owners bought new Chryslers in 11 percent of the cases, Ford in 24 percent and GM in 32 percent.
As for those who switched, Japan's Big 3 got 38 percent of consumers who traded in a Detroit Big 3 vehicle. Toyota did best, with 18 percent. The Detroit Big 3 got only 12 percent of consumers who traded in a Japan Big 3 vehicle. GM did best with 5.3 percent.
The study made no attempt to determine how much of the money stayed in the United States and how much went to Japan. It should, of course, be noted that many of the Japanese cars purchased as a result of the clunker program were undoubtedly made in the USA.
Pricing has not been set yet on Nissan's Leaf electric car (pictured), which will see limited distribution starting late next year, but the automaker's top marketing executive for North America told us today that the monthly cost to the consumer should be equivalent to the monthly cost of a fully loaded Honda Civic plus its fuel.
(Article updated 11/13/09 to correct pricing.)
That means the purchase price (about $28,000) or comparable monthly payment for a high-end Civic plus the cost of the gasoline it would need to cover 1,200 miles (at 30 MPG and $3/gallon, about $120), said Brian Carolin, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Nissan North America.
Although Nissan's global plan is to sell the zero-emissions car without battery and to lease the battery to car buyers at a cost roughly equal to the $120 calculated above, both Carolin and Mark Perry, Nissan's director of product planning and advanced technology strategy for North America, told GreenCarAdvisor that Nissan has not yet decided how to price the package in the U.S.
"We may sell the car and battery together, we may lease it as a package, or we may sell the car and lease the battery," Carolin said. "We just haven't decided yet."
Far more customers are choosing Ford vehicles packing fuel-efficient EcoBoost engines than the automaker expected, according to an analysis of sales data.
As a result, the company is hurrying to put the V-6 version of the motor in new vehicles, including the F-150 pickup in the United States and the Ford Falcon sedan in Australia. Next year, the company intends to roll out new four-cylinder models in the U.S. and in Europe.
"It clearly was part of our plan to distinguish us in a very crowded marketplace," said Derrick Kuzak, Ford's global head of product development. "It's doing that very well."
EcoBoost customers pay $5,000 to $10,000 more for their vehicles than those who buy the same products without it. This has been one of the leading factors for the automaker's $3.8 billion net pricing gain since the beginning of the year, analyst Erich Merkle of Autoconomy.com told The Detroit News.
"It's EcoBoost, plus everything Ford is doing on the quality side, the design side and safety side as well," Merkle said. "They're hitting on multiple fronts. EcoBoost is an important piece of their competitive strategy. It will become a bigger competitive advantage for them as they start to expand it down into their higher-volume vehicles."
Younger Buyers
EcoBoost engine technology is driving younger, more affluent customers to Ford showrooms, the company said in a statement today, adding that "many of these buyers are hot to trade in their competitive-make vehicles to get their hands on one equipped with the fuel-efficient direct-injection turbocharged EcoBoost engine."
The European public-private consortium behind Platform for Aerodynamic Road Transport has come up with a way to improve the fuel efficiency of semi-trucks: the "boat tail."
PART says the six-foot-long tapered rear end can improve fuel efficiency up to 7.5 percent.
The group says it has been testing the tails for two years -- as well as number of other fuel-saving device it's come up with. These include aerodynamic side mirrors and mud flaps, as well as side panel.
Combined, the devices can give a trucker a 20 percent improvement in his or her fuel economy.
Daimler AG is considering launching a series of small Mercedes-Benz cars in the U.S. in a bid to tap Americans' growing interest in downsized models that offer upscale features and finishes, the German automaker's chief executive said.
---------- The Mercedes-Benz A-Class, right, gets 50 MPG but isn't available in the U.S. ----------
Under its tentative plan, Mercedes would import by 2012 at least one of four next-generation compact models it will start selling in Europe in late 2011, Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal (subscription required).
These diminutive Mercedes would go head to head with an expanding field of premium small cars in the U.S., including the A3 from Volkswagen AG's Audi unit and BMW AG's 1 series and Mini Cooper.
Unlike traditional compacts these cars can be costly; the Mini goes for as much as $34,000 depending on options.
Daimler's tentative move comes as buyers in Europe and the U.S. are increasingly redefining what they want in a luxury car. The severe economic downturn has driven even affluent consumers toward smaller and more understated models with higher fuel efficiency.
U.S. sales of large sport-utility vehicles such as the Chevrolet Suburban have plunged, while sales of tiny but stylish subcompacts such as the Honda Motor Co. Fit have grown, the Journal reported.
(Updated 11/13/09 to correct Chevy Aveo monthly fuel figure.)
"Miles per gallon" made sense when all cars drank gas, or diesel, and that was that.
But with the advent of rechargeable electric vehicles, whether all-electric or plug-in hybrid, the fuel-use scene gets quickly blurred.
How many miles per gallon do you assign to a Nissan Leaf, with a lithium-ion battery and no fuel tank or internal combustion engine?
---------- Edmunds.com proposes the EPA scrap its mileage-based fuel-economy guide, right, for one built on fuel costs. ----------
And how does a car shopper compare the Leaf, or any of the other all-electric cars heading our way in the next decade, to a gasoline-burning Honda Fit or a Ford Fusion hybrid or, to complicate things even more, compare any of those cars to a Chevrolet Volt or other extended-range plug-in hybrid that uses gasoline and electricity from the commercial power grid.?
Can't be done - unless the consumer's an electrical engineer with a minor in math.
To make it easier and more accurate for consumers to get honest comparative information, Edmunds.com is proposing to the EPA that it replace the mileage-based fuel-economy stickers it's been putting on new cars since 1975 with stickers that display monthly fuel costs.
That's right, replace MPG with MFC.
Then consumers could see that at 1,250 miles a month, a 2010 Toyota Prius would cost, on a national average, $67 a month at the pump, while an electric Mini E would cost $49 a month to "fill" from a 220-volt charger in the consumer's garage; the monthly gasoline bill for a four-cylinder Chevrolet Aveo would be $11 $111, and a 2011 Chevrolet Volt - running on gas and electricity - would cost $54.
That's information people can use to make informed decisions.
Edmunds.com - our parent - is submitting its recommendation and rationale in a letter being sent Friday morning to the agency and to the Department of Transportation.
A study by the U.S. Department of Transportation has determined that hybrid electric vehicles have a higher rate of driving into bicyclists and pedestrians than automobiles packing conventional internal combustion engines.
The study, which was conducted by DOT's National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, found that pedestrian and bicyclist crashes involving both HEVs and ICE vehicles commonly occurred on roadways, in zones with low speed limits, during daytime and in clear weather, with higher incidence rates across the board for HEVs.
The study said a variety of crash factors were examined to determine the relative incidence rates of HEVs versus ICE vehicles in a range of crash scenarios. For one group of scenarios -- those in which a vehicle was slowing or stopping, backing up, or entering or leaving a parking space -- the HEV was twice as likely to strike a pedestrian or bicyclist than a convention vehicle.
The study concluded that the different incident rates could be attributed to the different sound levels produced by the vehicle types. In other words, the lack of noise produced by the near-silent electric motor of an HEV accounted for higher collision rate; the biped or cyclist didn't hear what was coming.
Given that more people are killed in car-versus-pedestrian collisions than car-versus-car collisions, you might think the study would result in legislation requiring HEVs to be louder. But that's not going to happen -- not now, anyway.
Instead, the NHTSA "will continue monitoring the incidence of pedestrian and bicyclist crashes involving HEVs. In future, a larger sample size would allow us to perform a more detailed analysis such as limiting the entire analysis to low-speed crashes, analyzing different vehicle maneuvers individually, etc."
Peugeot has begun pre-bookings for the i0n (pictured), its i-MiEV-derived electric car developed in partnership with Mitsubishi and scheduled for production next year.
The company says that it has already signed letters of intent with nine companies and various government agencies for car sharing and large fleets in Europe.
For individual customers, pre-bookings are open on the websites of Peugeot Germany, Great Britain, Spain, France and Italy.
Like the Citroen C-Zero, which like the iOn will basically be an i-MiEV with a different badge, the four-seat, zero-emissions iOn will contain a lithium-ion battery pack that can be charged in six hours from a standard 220-volt outlet or get a charge to 80 percent capacity in 30 minutes at special rapid-charge stations.
Peugeot has said the EV will develop a maximum power output of 64 base horsepower and top out at 81 miles per hour. That's good enough for European cities and Europe's increasingly speed-restricted autobahns, which currently have an "advisory speed limit" (or richtgeschwindigkeit) of 80 mph.
The iOn will also incorporate a number of innovative services, in particular through its "location and communications" box.
The box will not only handle liaison with an emergency call service, for which Peugeot is a leader throughout Europe, but will also provide feedback of technical data (including state of the battery, distance covered and kilometers before maintenance) for the professional management of vehicle fleets.
Although talk of fuel cell electric vehicles from the water cooler to, say, the biggest office at the U.S. Department of Energy generally revolves around how far off the technology really is, the head of General Motors' fuel-cell program has just come out and said the Chevy Equinox FCEV is well on its way to production.
Writing in GM's Fast Lane blog Tuesday, Charles Freese said the "fuel cell program left R&D about a year ago and became part of Powertrain, where it is treated like any pre-production program when it comes to seeking efficiency, cost reduction, design for manufacturability, and other elements of a production program."
He hastened to add that the cost of Equinox "is still expensive, but the costs are coming down dramatically. Our next-generation fuel cell architecture is 220 pounds lighter, uses about half the parts and roughly a third of the precious metals, compared to the still-impressive Equinox demonstration vehicles."
Freese pointed out that the technology that went into the Equinox is only four years ago, and during that time GM deployed Project Driveway -- a fleet of more than 100 Equinox FCEVs that today has more than 1 million miles of accumulated driving by real consumers.
"In some ways, we are a victim our own success," he wrote. "The Chevy Equinox fuel cell is a great car, but it is a demonstration vehicle with aging technology and high cost. The next-generation fuel cell system is much less expensive but is not yet to the point where we have vehicles on the road."
The graphic below shows the significant physical differences and the tale of the tape between the Project Driveway propulsion system and the next-generation system.
From the innovation folder comes a proposal by EU-financed researchers to group cars, buses and trucks in short "road trains" on Europe's motorways to conserve fuel.
The EU hopes to cut fuel consumption, journey times and congestion by linking up to eight vehicles together.
Early work on the idea suggests that fuel savings in the neighborhood of 20 percent could be achieved among those cars and trucks traveling behind a larger lead vehicle.
That vehicle would be operated by a professional driver who would monitor the status of the road train. Those in following vehicles could take their hands off the wheel, read a book or watch TV, while they travel along the motorway. Their vehicle would be controlled by the lead vehicle.
Funded under the European Commission's Framework 7 research plan, SARTRE (Safe Road Trains for the Environment) is aimed at commuters in cars who travel long distances to work every day but will also look at ways to involve commercial vehicles.
Dispelling rumors to the contrary, Honda Motor Co. won't be making a low-cost and presumably fuel-efficient minicar in India to compete with products released by Tata Motors Ltd. and the alliance of Renault SA and Nissan Motor Co.
Instead, Japan's second-biggest carmaker is developing a small car that will cost less than its existing Jazz hatchback model, CEO Takanobu Ito told a news conference today.
The starting price of Jazz is 698,000 rupees (about $15,000) at showrooms in New Delhi.
Ito said the new car will be targeted at countries in Asia, with India as a key market.
"We would like to offer to as many customers as possible, a product at their price expectation level," he said, but didn't give any time frame for launching the new car or a likely price range.
Tata Motors, which controls Jaguar and Land Rover luxury brands, currently sells the Nano minicar (pictured), the world's cheapest car, with starting prices of about 115,000 rupees (roughly $2,500) at showrooms in New Delhi.
The popularity of the car amid rising demand for fuel-efficient, affordable vehicles has prompted other automakers such as Renualt-Nissan, General Motors Co. and Hyundai Motor Co. to announce plans to develop their own low-cost cars.
Renault-Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said Tuesday that a new minicar, to be designed and manufactured by Indian motorcycle maker Bajaj Auto Ltd. and distributed by Renault-Nissan, will be the cheapest car in India when introduced in 2012.
As we've previously reported, the U.S. military is buying advanced biofuels for testing in jet aircraft.
That's because while green electrons will increasingly replace gasoline as the fuel propelling automobiles, the conventional wisdom is that aviation has nowhere to go but biofuels.
Since our last report on biofuels for jet aircraft -- a subject that interests us because biofuel development for the aircraft industry will likely generate better biofuels for automobiles -- there have been some newsworthy events in the biomass and biograss arenas that may be of interest to you.
In California, Ceres recently announced that it plans to expand an advanced trait development project to increase biomass yields of several energy grasses by as much as 40 percent in coming years, while simultaneously decreasing the use of inputs such as nitrogen fertilizers.
Projections indicate that the Ceres traits alone could displace 1.3 billion barrels of oil and 58 million tons of coal over a 10-year period. And depending on cropping practices, 1.2 million tons of nitrogen fertilizer could be eliminated (about the amount of nitrogen needed for 24 million acres of cotton), among other benefits.
The three-year project is expected to begin next month. Ceres researchers will test its advanced traits in a variety of energy grasses such as switchgrass, sorghum and miscanthus.
Also in California, ViaSpace announced it has applied to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to trademark "Giant King" as a unique brand of grass. The company claims the grass has unique characteristics that give it enormous potential as a leading source of low-carbon renewable energy.
Nevermind the fact that major automakers are racing to bring hybrid and electric vehicles to market.
Sales of low-priced muscle cars such as the Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro (pictured) and Dodge Challenger jumped 68 percent in October, compared with the same month last year.
Sales of muscle cars for 2009 are up 7.2 percent, while most segments have posted double-digit declines.
From an environmental perspective, it doesn't help that the price of gasoline remains less than $3 a gallon in most of the U.S. As recent history has shown us, the typical American isn't particularly interested in fuel-efficient cars until the price of gas tops $4/gallon.
It helps, of course, that muscle cars tend to be fairly inexpensive. And some even have decent fuel economy, so fuel-conscious buyers can more easily rationalize their purchases.
The muscle-car boom, if it continues, won't be enough to lift the auto industry out of its doldrums: It accounted for only 2 percent of overall passenger car and truck sales in October, which have declined 25 percent this year.
In fact, sales of muscle cars may be cannibalizing sales of other types of cars. Industry researcher IHS Global Insight says some of their buyers would have previously bought large pickup trucks --- more for image than for their intended use.
Despite a solid launch of the new Ka subcompact car in Europe earlier this year, Ford Motor Co. has reconsidered its plan to bring the subcompact to the U.S. and has decided that the car is too small for American tastes.
In an interview with Automotive News (subscription required) published Monday, Ford CEO Alan Mulally said "our view is that Fiesta is about the smallest vehicle that we think will be a real success in the United States."
The Ka, which Ford developed with Fiat, is at 142.5 inches a full 25 inches shorter than the Fiesta, which will go on sale in the U.S. early next year.
However, the Ka is more than 3 feet longer than the popular Smart ForTwo, which measures 106.1 inches from bumper to bumper. Both likely would have been priced the same, starting around $12,000 for the base model.
The Ka is also a few inches longer than its sister vehicle, the Fiat 500, which Chrysler Group plans to sell in America in 2011.
We're disappointed with Ford's decision, because the Ka European motorists can purchase can be had with either of two low-emission engines: a 1.2-liter, 69-horsepower gas-burner or a 1.3-liter, 75-hp turbodiesel.
While the EPA never got a chance to provide a fuel-efficiency rating for the Ka, the gasoline version is said to get about 40 miles per gallon in combined city and highway driving, while the diesel version is said to be capable of more than 60 mpg.
The European Ka is produced in Tychy, Poland, while a version sold in Latin America is built in Brazil and Argentina. The model has been produced since 1996 and entered its second generation earlier this year.
Automaker Alliance Jumps On Board, EV-Makers Could Reap Huge Benefits
Let the horse-trading begin.
The Obama Administration, seeking to boost development of all-electric and plug-in hybrid-electric cars, is suggesting that automakers be given CAFE credits that would let low and zero-emission vehicles count for up to two cars when annual fleet fuel efficiency averages are calculated.
That standard would mean that an automaker seeking to meet the 35.5 MPG fleet average required by 2016 could use a single battery-electric car rated at, say, 100 miles per gasoline-gallon equivalent, to offset seven 12 MPG pickups and SUVs, as the average fuel economy of the eight vehicles - with the ZEV's rating doubled - would be 35.5 miles per gallon.
---------- Green Cars could be worth their weight in cash if proposed national fuel-economy credit trading program takes off. ----------
The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which represents the domestic industry as well as several of the large foreign brands, has jumped on board the idea of emissions-based fuel economy credits.
"The ability to earn, bank and trade credits," Alliance spokesman Charles Territo told the Wall Street Journal, "is essential to meeting the goals of the national [CAFE] program.
A credit program that enables automakers to bank and trade excess fuel economy credits also could be a huge boon to companies such as Tesla Motors, Coda Automotive and Fisker Automotive, which have -or will have, in the case of Fisker and Coda - nothing but zero- and extremely low-emissions vehicles in their fleets.
But Language Permitting Such Trades Was In the Legislation Almost From the Start
The feds have published a detailed list of trade-ins and purchases under the summer's Cash for Clunkers program and some media have picked up on an item we cautioned about before the program became law.
It allowed owners of some older pickups and vans to trade them in for new trucks with lower fuel economy.
We don't know the details of every one of the 150 or so "worse gas mileage' trades that were made (according to an Associated Press analysis), and some may have been approved in error or even through outright fraud, but they really shouldn't have taken anyone by surprise.
It specified that owners of pre-2002 work trucks could trade them in and get a $3,500 voucher for new trucks in the same or lighter weight classes, with no requirement for improved fuel economy.
The federal Energy Department said it will give up to $5.5 million to the X-Prize Foundation to support the non-profit organization's ongoing $10-million Progressive Automotive X-Prize contest.
Think of it as a sort of government insurance to guarantee smooth operation of a fuel-efficiency contest that's funded by a private insurance company. At least there's no public health care program involved.
The grant to the X Prize Foundation, which describes itself as an educational nonprofit prize institute, will be used in part to provide funding for technical experts who can properly judge the contest to develop a marketable passenger vehicle that delivers fuel economy of at least 100 miles per gallon or the alternative-fuel equivalent.
Federal funding, from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also will pay for on-board computer systems that will be able to accurately measure and display real-time fuel economy as the finalist vehicles go through their paces, and for consultants who can do safety and emissions testing on the entrants' vehicles.
With more fuel-efficient vehicles being pitched as key to a better future - at least from an environmental standpoint - two major green enterprises are launching student contests in an effort to breed awareness of the need to improve the efficiency of both cars and the electric-charging systems that may help propel them.
---------- Better Place, which plans to market this elaborate battery swap station, is challenging graduate design students to come up with a hands-free EV charger that costs less than $1,000. ----------
Better Place, the closely held electric-vehicle charging services provider, is awarding 65,000 euros ($96,000) in prizes in a global contest for graduate level design-school teams to come up with what the company deems to be the best hands-free electric-charging systems whose materials costs less than $1,000.
---------- High school students are asked to put on their thinking caps and design a dashboard instrument that helps drivers get better mileage. Ford's professional engineers came up with this "smart gauge' system in its Fusion hybrid. ----------
(The company apparently doesn't think that the highly touted multi-information display panels in the new Toyota Prius' and the Ford Fusion hybrid do the trick.)
Both contests represent efforts to look beyond professional engineers to see what new generations of thinkers will come up with in the arenas of EV charging and gasoline and diesel fuel economy.
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.)
Automakers, Green Groups Debate Standards, California's Role at Los Angeles Hearing By Danny King, Contributor
California's efforts to continue imposing more stringent greenhouse gas standards than federal rules require continued coming under fire from industry groups Tuesday as the Environmental Protection Agency held the last of three hearings on implementing proposed national standards for average passenger vehicle fuel economy.
Federal officials are trying to determine how best to reach gas mileage and tailpipe-emissions standards within the next seven years that are about 30% more stringent than they are now.
California, which has authority to set its own standards, is in agreement with the federal proposals through 2016 but already has started working on tougher state standards for 2017 and beyond - a move that automakers oppose, claiming that separate state and federal rules will impose severe economic hardships on an already beleaguered industry.
Looking Forward
So while Tuesday's hearing ostensibly was about present regulations, many in the audience were more concerned with what happens eight years from now.
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.
Argonne National Laboratory researcher Thomas Wallner explains the R&D center's omnivore engine project.
The nice thing about flex-fuel engines is that if one type of fuel isn't available, the other probably will be.
The not-so-nice thing that automakers with flex-fuels in their lineups don't like to talk about is that they mostly are turned for gasoline, so performance diminishes when ethanol, natural gas or other fuels are used.
The answer maybe the so-called omnivorous engine, set up to burn all kinds of fuels and overseen by a smart engine control unit that changes valve and injection timing and other variables to minimize emissions and maximize performance, and fuel economy, from whatever is exploding down there in the cylinders.
From Gas to Electric, 3-Wheelers to Exotics, Contestants Vie to Build 100 MPG Vehicles
Students from West Philadelphia High School are youngest competitors, but no slouches when it comes to design or performance, as shown by their Alternative category entry, the biodiesel-electric EVX-GT hybrid sports car. The school also has a diesel-electric hybrid Ford Focus in the Conventional class.
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
Judges for the Progressive Automotive X Prize contest have winnowed the field in the race for $10 million in prize money for building the best 100 MPG MPH car to the final 43 teams.
The teams will enter a total of 53 vehicles (there are different categories, so multiple entries are possible) in a competition pitting them against one another in a variety of road and safety tests.
All the finalists already have survived two design judging rounds that pared the number of entries from the original 111 teams with 135 vehicles.
----------
The Progressive Automotive X Prize was launched at last year's New York Auto Show.
----------
The contest, aimed at inspiring green-car development, was announced more than 18 months ago. It challenges contestants to design, build and operate a commercially viable vehicles that can deliver fuel economy of at least 100 miles per gallon - or the equivalent.
Part of the competition involves presenting a marketing plan to the judges, who will decide if the vehicle has real-world possibilities.
Among them, the final entrants use 14 different fuels including gasoline and electricity, with battery-electric and hybrid-electric the most popular types of powertrains.
In the hybrid-electric category, teams are entering vehicles whose internal combustion engines run on gasoline, diesel biodiesel, ethanol, butanol and compressed natural gas.
There are even three entries that use plain old gasoline as their sole fuel.
National Laboratories Team Up to Tackle the 'PHEV Conundrum,' Devise Realistic MPG
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
You might have noticed that we have a hard time swallowing GM's claim that its upcoming Chevrolet Volt extended-range plug-in hybrid will be rated at 230-miles per gallon in city driving.
---------- Plug-in Prius conversion being tested on Argonne National Laboratory dynamometer. ----------
Actually, it is possible that the car can be rated at that phenomenal level of fuel efficiency - what we have trouble with is the idea that it will actually deliver.
The problem is in determining how to handle blended power-source vehicles such as the Volt when determining fuel efficiency.
It's easy with conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles and standard hybrid-electric vehicles (HEVs) - they use only one fuel, so however much is used over however many miles are driven is the fuel economy, or MPG.
And battery-electric cars (EVs) are -relatively - easy as well. Variables Galore
One method is to compute the BTU value of the electricity they consume, adjust for energy loses in the charging process, and compare the resulting total BTU consumption with the BTUs in a comparable amount of gas (1 gallon equals 33.44 kilowatt hours of electricity) and you can come up with an MPG equivalent (there are other wrinkles, but this isn't a science class so we're just giving you the short-and-sweet version).
But plug-ins (PHEVs), especially those with extended all-electric range, bring so many variables to the table that finding a meaningful MPG-equivalent figure is daunting.
If the Volt's claimed 40 miles of all-electric travel holds up in the real world, then a person who owns one and never drives more than 40 miles before recharging could claim infinite MPG - plus the value of the electricity used.
But GM says the Volt's range extender consumes a gallon of gas every 30 miles after the battery is depleted, so a driver with a 50-mile commute would get 75 MPG on gasoline, plus the electrical consumption, while someone driving 100 miles a day would be getting around 50 MPG from the gas engine-generator, pus the energy value of the electricity used for the first 40 miles.
Borrowing from Fifties-era dream machines like GM's Firebird - with a nod to George Jetson's flying car - a Dutch engineering firm is rolling out a jet turbine technology it says will provide a much needed boost for tomorrow's electric vehicles.
The company, Micro Turbine Technology (MTT), is developing extremely small gas turbines to be used as for things as mundane as generating auxiliary cabin power for big-rig trucks and exciting as extending the travel range of electric cars.
An 'electric jet-car' brings up images of wildly futuristic machinery, but cars powered with this technology would have more in common with real-world hybrids such as the Toyota Prius or upcoming Chevrolet Volt.
----------
Chrysler experimented with turbine power in the early 1960s.
----------
MTT's powertrain would use the micro-turbine as an on-board generator to supply the cars' batteries with extra energy when needed. The turbine, like the gas-powered engine-generator in a Chevy Volt, would never provide power directly to the driven wheels.
MTT claims its micro-turbine is ideal as a range extender, more efficient than a traditional internal combustion engine-generator thanks to its small volume, low weight and simple design using few moving parts.
One plus is that, unlike failed past attempts at turbine-powered cars and racing machines, the micro turbine being developed by MTT is meant only to complement an electric powertrain.
Study Says Fleet Conversions Quickest Way for U.S. to Make Dent in Carbon Footprint
By Danny King, Contributor
Corporations could be significant players in improving air quality and reducing carbon emissions by converting their fleets of gasoline and diesel vehicles to hybrids and compressed natural gas-powered cars and trucks, according to a study by the nonprofit Center for Automotive Research.
If just one-fourth of all major corporations were to convert their vehicle fleets, a new CAR study found, the resulting reduction of CO2 emissions would be the equivalent of removing 600,000 vehicles from the streets.
---------- AT&T is converting 8,000 trucks and vans, such as this, to compressed natural gas. ----------
The move would cut U.S. gasoline use by 750 million gallons a year and be the fastest way the nation could achieve significantly improved fuel efficiency, the Ann Arbor, Mich., think-tank said in its report.
Replacing 25 percent of all corporate vehicles with hybrid or CNG vehicles also would support 10,000 vehicle-assembly jobs, the report said.
CAR used AT&T's vehicle fleet for its case study, extrapolating the findings to other corporate fleets.
"If the country is serious about increasing the number of fuel-efficient vehicles on the road in the near future, the fleets of America, with their rapid turnover of vehicles, represent the best opportunity in the shortest time frame," said Kim Hill, director of CAR's sustainable transportation and communities group.
Audi's A3 TDI diesel and Mercury's Milan Hybrid are two of the contenders in LA Auto Show's green car face-off.
It will be diesel vs. hybrid and luxe models vs.standards in Green Car of the Year judging for December's 2009 Los Angeles International Auto Show. The five finalists in the annual competition, announced today, are the Toyota Prius (left), Honda Insight (below, right) and Mercury Milan hybrids on the gas-electric side and the Audi A3 TDI and Volkswagen Golf TDI (below, left) on the diesel side.
Judges picked the VW Jetta TDI last year, so if either the Golf or A3 win it will be two-in a-row for the fuel that most Americans still equate with big-rigs and giant bulldozers. There could be sentiment of the small luxury-performance car, which would help the Audi, but the engine in both the A3 and the Golf is the same that won it for the Jetta TDI in 2008.
Our handicapper at Inside Line's Straightline blog seems to be betting on the redesigned 2010 Prius, reasoning that the Milan Hybrid doesn't stand much of a chance because its twin, the Ford Fusion Hybrid, was nominated but didn't win last year, and that the judges will be loathe to salute diesel for a second consecutive year.
That leaves the Honda Insight and Toyota Prius, and the Pruis is the greener of the two by dint of its greater fuel economy.
Daimler chief Dieter Zetsche says he's still is betting on a hydrogen future for the automobile.
----------
Mercedes B-Class fuel cell cars are being used in long-term road tests in Europe and U.S.
----------
But in a round-table interview with reporters form a variety of media including (subscription only) Automotive News during the recent Frankfurt Auto Show, Zetsche said that hybrids and battery-electric cars will be long-term interim technologies until hydrogen fuel cell cars and hydrogen fueling technology are ready for market.
Daimler is investing heavily in both electric and fuel cell technologies, he said, and has banded together with other German automakers to boost hydrogen fueling technology.
Asked if Daimler would consider four-cylinder engines for its Mercedes-Benz cars as U.S. fuel economy regulations tighten, Zetsche said that he wouldn't rule out the option .
He also said, according to an interview transcript posted today by Automotive News, that he sees a continued weak U.S. market for luxury cars for several years and that the Chinese market is likely to step in to gill the void.
Fuel efficiency for luxury cars is becoming a necessity rather than an afterthought, Zetsche said, adding that he is convinced that many customers continue to want a comfortable and spacious car but "would not like to be called callous by their neighbor because the fuel consumption is astronomic."
Daimler - indeed, the entire auto industry,- is at the "tipping point now" for electric cars, he said, pointing out that hydrogen fuel cell cars use all-electric drivetrains.
Aptera Motors, Elio Motors and other companies developing fuel-efficient three-wheeled vehicles got a boost from Congress this week in their quest for federal funding.
Legislation to make three-wheeled vehicles eligible for Energy Department loans passed a conference committee of House and Senate leaders Wednesday and then got approval from the full House on Thursday.
It is part of an energy spending bill likely to go before the Senate by next week for final congressional passage, a Senate aide said.
"Obsolete bureaucratic definitions should not create roadblocks and stifle innovation," said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who co-sponsored the legislation.
If the Senate passes the bill, it would have to be signed by President Barack Obama to become law.
General Motors Co. has been critical of the bill.
The Department of Energy's Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Incentive Program is intended for large automakers that make many cars and that have the potential for large gasoline savings, the company has said.
GM spokesman Greg Martin declined comment on the latest development.
GM has applied for three department loans totaling more than $10 billion.
The 2010 Golf TDI, which will feature the 2.0-liter 140-horsepower four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine already selling out in the Jetta TDI, will carry an MSRP of $22,690 with a six-speed manual transmission. Fuel economy with this pairing is 30/41 miles per gallon city/highway.
For an additional $1,100, you can get the same vehicle with the six-speed DSG transmission. With it, fuel economy nudges up to 30/42 MPG.
If your 2010 Golf must have four doors and a manual transmission, Volkswagen offers a six-speed manual on the four-door TDI.
Acceleration is comparable for both models. Golf TDIs make the 0-60 mph sprint in 8.6 seconds, or four-tenths of a second slower than the pricier Jetta TDI.
Standard equipment on all Golfs include a trip computer, eight-way manual-adjustment front sport seats, dual-exhaust tips, heated exterior mirrors and an auxiliary input jack. The Golf TDI adds a leather steering wheel, 6 months of Sirius, a touch-screen sound system, fog lights, 17-inch alloy wheels (above the standard 15-inch steel ones on the five-cylinder Golf), a sport suspension that lowers the car, and an armrest.
Bluetooth is a $199 option, though curiously, a chart in Volkswagen's press release says it is "forced on all TDI's [sic] by Corporate." Xenon headlights are $700 and a navigation system with a 6.5-inch screen and 30-gigabyte hard drive $1,750, and can be ordered only on the Golf TDI. The same is true for the 300W Dynaudio premium sound system.
Nissan North America has announced that the 2010 Altima Hybrid, which goes on sale in nine U.S. states on Monday, will have an MSRP of $26,780.
A statement distributed by Nissan on Wednesday and posted verbatim on many blogs and Websites erroneously reported that the model will be available nationwide.
In fact, it will only be available in the same nine states that the 2009 Altima Hybrid was sold in (California, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont).
The Altima Hybrid powertrain mates a specialized version of Nissan's QR25 2.5-liter 4-cylinder engine and standard electronically controlled CVT with an advanced electric drive motor/generator. The 198-horsepower hybrid has been EPA rated at 35 miles per gallon in the city and 33 mpg highway.
Combined with Altima's standard 20-gallon fuel tank, the model has a projected driving range of more than 600 miles between fill-ups.
Among the many changes for the 2010 Altima Hybrid is a restyled hood, grille and front bumper, new wheel designs, standard Vehicle Dynamic Control on all models, revised interior fabric and finishers, new exterior colors and revised option package content.
Balqon Corp., an emerging developer of heavy-duty electric vehicles, today announced the release of its battery-powered Mule M150, a pure-electric truck designed for use in on-highway short-haul applications.
The Harbor City, California, company expects the plug-in delivery vehicle with a 7-ton capacity to appeal to businesses and agencies seeking a zero-emissions cargo solution for inner-city routes, port facilities and airports.
Powering its fully integrated heavy-duty electric drive system are lithium-ion batteries capable of propelling the truck up to a claimed 150 miles on a single charge without cargo and 90 miles fully loaded at speeds up to 55 miles per hour.
Features include: a 6-speed automatic transmission, a quick-change battery module, a high-efficiency AC-induction motor, liquid-cooled traction controls, and wireless performance monitoring.
Balqon said the Mule M150 will go on sale the third quarter of next year. Visit the company's Website for further details.
Despite reports that Toyota intends to spread its Prius nameplate across multiple models, including a Subaru, the Japanese automaker announced today that its only other dedicated hybrid will debut at the Tokyo Auto Show later this month without the P word anywhere on it.
As we reported previously, the SAI (an artist's rendition of which is shown here) is a medium-size sedan based on the Lexus HS250h hybrid.
The SAI's starting price will likely fall between the HS250h's $41,751 and the new Prius hatchback's $21,668. The sedan will reportedly go on sale in Japan later this month.
The Lexus has a 2.4-liter gasoline engine, more powerful than the Prius's 1.8-liter power plant. It is less efficient, too. The EPA rates the HS250h's fuel economy at 35 mpg in combined city-highway driving, compared with 50 mpg for the new 2010 Prius.
There's no word yet on the SIA's fuel efficiency, nor is Toyota saying where it intends to offer the vehicle, although we assume it will be available in the U.S., which is the world's largest automotive market behind China.
Not even a near-apocalyptic recession could kill off factory incentives, which dropped a bit over the summer but seem to be rising again as the economy perks up.
---------- Small cars, such as Honda's Fit, have lower profit margins and some are in high demand, so manufacturer's small-car incentives are low. ----------
But don't look for much help from the automakers if you are shopping for the smallest, most fuel efficient cars they make.
Compacts and subcompacts carried the lowest average incentives in the market in September, according to an Edmunds.com analysis of the numbers.
Although the market-wide average for manufacturer incentives last month was was $2,557, subcompact cars as a class had the lowest average per vehicle sold at just $1,309, followed by compact cars at $1,477.
That compares to a record-shattering average of $10,128 for high-end sports cars.
Honda announced today that it will display at the Tokyo Motor Show next month a near-production version of the CR-Z (right), which will likely be the world's first hybrid sports car to employ a six-speed transmission when it goes on sale next year.
Alongside the CR-Z Concept 2009 will be the EV-N (below left), a small, four-seat battery-electric vehicle inspired by the N360, the twin-cylinder, air-cooled 360cc micro car launched with a plastic trunk lid in the 1960s. The revival vehicle has solar panels on the roof that could be used to charge the battery. Honda said the EV-N is "purely a design study and there are no plans for production."
The show will also see the debut of the Skydeck Concept (below right), a six-seat hybrid MPV/minivan, similar to the Ford S-Max. Honda said this design study is a great example of how hybrid technology can be placed in a range of different cars for different needs.
"To give the Skydeck the practicality of a conventional MPV, many of the hybrid system components, including the high-power battery, are housed in the car's center tunnel (rather than behind the rear seats or under the floor, as with previous production hybrids). This allows for greater cabin space, and the room for three rows of two seats. It also gives a lower center of gravity."
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 upcoming 209 Tokyo motor Show is going to be the slimmest in decades, with no US or major European automakers slated to attend - casualties of the recession.
---------- Mazda says its Kiyora city car concept will be updated with newest technologies for the Tokyo Show next month. ----------
That may, however, work to the advantage of hometown automakers such as Mazda.
The company said late Monday that it will use the show to spotlight the world premiers of two new fuel-efficient engines - a clean diesel and a direct-injected gasoline model, as well as a new high-efficiency automatic transmission,
Mazda also will stage the Japanese introduction of its Kiyora concept car that showcases the car makers' next-generation environmental and safety advances.
Originally unveiled at the 2008 Paris Auto Show, the Kiyora is a flame-shaped, glass-roofed. 4-seat city car concept that foreshadows the replacement for the Mazda 2 city car.
With its 2010 S400 Hybrid, Mercedes-Benz has taken some significant steps to redefine the premium hybrid sedan market - in part by minimizing the premium.
The price premium, that is.
Despite cutting-edge technology that includes what the automaker says is the world's first lithium-ion battery designed specifically for automotive use, Mercedes-Benz new entry-level U.S. is priced staring at $88,825, nearly $4,000 less than the S550 that previously was the entry-level S-Class in the U.S.
Of course, being an S-Class model, the S400 Hybrid still offers a high level of luxury and a cavernous interior, along with the same refreshed body styling as the rest of the 2010 model line. Passengers and passersby would be hard-pressed to distinguish it if there weren't Hybrid badges on the trunk lid and the center stack, and BlueEfficiency badges on the front quarter panels.
But the S400 Hybrid's difference is unmistakable from the driver's seat - where we logged hundreds of miles over two days last weekend, with decidedly mixed emotions.
Innovative Battery The leading innovation in the S400 Hybrid is the aforementioned 120-volt, 0.9 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery that's small enough to fit into the engine compartment - like an ordinary car battery - rather than beneath or behind the seats, as in other hybrid vehicles.
There's no compromise in terms of people room or trunk space. And even with a high-strength steel housing, its own separate cooling circuit and cells that sit in a vibration- and jolt-dampening gel, the battery still weighs less than most others, and also has a higher energy density, according to Mercedes-Benz.
It's a so-called mild hybrid because the system doesn't propel the S400 on electricity alone, but there's still plenty of power and a decent fuel economy bump other gasoline-fueled S-Class models, including the the European market S350 on which it is based.
A 20-horsepower magneto-electric motor mounted in the torque converter housing between the engine and the transmission produces 118 pound-feet of torque, and kicks in during acceleration, to assist the 275 horsepower, 3.5-liter V6 gasoline engine (which generates 258 lb.-ft. of torque) in driving the rear wheels. The usual stop-start scheme turns the engine off when the car isn't moving.
The result is a fuel economy rating of 19 miles per gallon in the city and 26 mpg on the highway, a 30 percent improvement over the S550's mileage rating.
Compared with the V6-powered S350 sold in Europe, Mercedes-Benz says the S400 Hybrid also produces 21 percent less CO2 emissions.
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."
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.
Tesla Motors' forthcoming all-electric Model S sedan (pictured) has been designed so that its battery pack can be switched with a fresh battery pack in five minutes or less, the company's outgoing director of vehicle engineering and manufacturing said in an interview today.
Speaking with Green Car Advisor shortly after his resignation was announced, Michael Donoughe said the plug-in electric vehicle has been designed in such a way that its lithium-ion battery pack can be removed and replaced with another one in the amount of time it takes to fill the gas tank of a standard automobile.
"When you install the battery pack for vehicle assembly and when you're running at line speed, you have to do it in a fairly quick fashion," Donoughe said. "So you design for manufacturing and assembly, and as long as you're designing for manufacturing and assembly you can also design for manufacturing, assembly and swap. That's basically what we're looking to do."
Telsa, he said, is looking to ramp up quickly once the zero-emissions Model S enters production, which is still on target for late 2011. Six months from assembly of the first Model S, Tesla expects to be producing 400 a week, or roughly 20,000 annually, he said.
Tesla spokeswoman Rachel Konrad said today that the company has already received more than 1,600 reservations for the Model S, including one from Donoughe.
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."
California took the pulse of the zero-emissions vehicle industry this week and found plug-in electric vehicle manufacturers worried about charging infrastructure and public expectations.
The California Air Resources Board is hearing from fuel cell and EV manufacturers in preparation for releasing regulations for its Zero-Emissions Vehicle Program. Targets for 2015 and thereafter are due out by Nov. 10, with final targets due by early next year.
In its fifth major revision of the program since 1990, it voted last year to reduce the 2014 sales target from 25,000 to 7,500 vehicles.
A philosophical difference emerged between conventional car manufacturers and electric-only car companies.
Nissan, which is shooting for a 100-mile range for its Leaf EV, is playing down its perks. When asked to compare gasoline-powered and EV batteries, a company executive said not to expect comparable performance.
"Since the battery's not part of the emissions, it's not required to last 10 years and 150,000 miles," said Brian Verprauskus, senior manager of corporate planning for Nissan North America. "The issue's going to be the degradation. If the customer is OK with reduced range after 10 years, it'll definitely last that long, but after 10 years, we think there'll be more advanced batteries and the customer's going to want to swap it out with a next-generation battery."
Tesla Motors, on the other hand, is emphasizing the ways EVs differ from conventional cars. "We're trying to market cars based on the new attributes of EVs themselves," said J.B. Straubel, Tesla's chief technical officer. "It's an offensive technology shift. We can offer some new competitive advantages to customers."
EV manufacturers said the installation of charging infrastructure remained the biggest bottleneck to widespread implementation. BMW, which ran into charging issues with its MINI E pilot program, said the industry needed to agree on a standard for in-home charging infrastructure.
Land Rover announced today that a production version of its Range Rover LRX Concept SUV (pictured) will be built, with sales to begin in 2011.
Designed and engineered at Land Rover's Gaydon facility, the new Range Rover will be the smallest, lightest and most fuel-efficient vehicle the company has ever produced.
The three-door SUV will be built in Halewood, near Liverpool, England, subject to quality and productivity agreements, and will be sold in more than 100 countries around the world, the company said in a statement.
In an interview with Edmunds.com's Michelle Krebs this morning, Jaguar Land Rover spokesman Stuart Schorr said the LRX will be the first of four new segment offerings from the company, with Jaguar and Land Rover to receive two each.
He stressed the four will be premium brands, meaning they won't come cheap. Schorr also said that Jaguar Land Rover is committed to hybrids and electrics, but he refused to provide further details.
The LRX Concept debuted at the Detroit Auto Show last year and featured a 2.0-liter diesel-hybrid powertrain, which when running on biodiesel achieved a claimed fuel economy of 60 miles per gallon.
Jaguar or Land Rover Plant to Close
In a related development, India's Tata Motors Ltd. said today it will close one of the three Jaguar Land Rover assembly plants in England by 2014 in a bid to move its money-losing British unit into profitability.
A British publication reported today that luxury-car crafter Rolls Royce is thinking about producing an all-electric Phantom similar in appearance to the gasoline-powered Phantom pictured here.
Auto Express News, citing an unidentified RR spokesman, said that of the brand's entire lineup a battery-powered Phantom made the most sense because, at more than 5,600 pounds with a heavy 6.75-liter V12 under the hood, replacing the engine with an electric motor and a lithium-ion battery shouldn't create a major weight issue.
The greatest problem RR engineers anticipate is coming up with an electric Phantom that gives the vehicle a respectable travel range between charges. But then, there'd be nothing preventing the engineers from adding a small range-extending gasoline- and diesel-powered engine to serve as a generator to keep the juice flowing.
With the base price of the 2009 Phantom set at $350,000, an additional EV or plug-in hybrid EV premium wouldn't likely be an issue for prospective customers. And there's something awfully cool about being able to prowl the nights in a silent Phantom.
After years of avoiding the competition that exists in the premium small-car market, Buick has decided to take another look at it -- and some of the innovations the brand's designers have come up with are very impressive.
The vehicle pictured here is the Buick Action Avant, and as best we can tell it exists principally in artists' renderings. No problem, because it's very clear to see a designer's work this way, especially when it's conveyed in a publicly accessible video.
We strongly encourage you to check it out. If you do, you'll be able to see some of the nifty innovations Buick designers have come up with recently. They include:
A luggage porter that consists of automated trays or arms that extend luggage to you, rather than requiring you to reach into the vehicle to get it.
A "smart door" that recognizes when you've pulled into a tight parking space and automatically slides forward to facilitate exiting.
And, seats and other components that move sideways (inward and outward) to maximize occupant space depending on how many people are in the vehicle.
The video's narrator says "this is a small, very premium vehicle, somewhat coupe-like, for city driving." That it is. But it's also a showcase of GM innovation and a Buick a normal person could easily get excited about.
If the Action Avant is an indication of what Buick intends to take to the premium small-car market, we would not be surprised if it thrived there -- if the brand's reliability and fuel economy are on par with the attention this concept gives to customer needs.
Ford Motor Co. President and CEO Alan Mulally today revealed the American automaker's intent to produce a small, fuel-efficient car in India.
Called the Ford Figo, the car was unveiled at a press event in Delhi as a major addition to the Ford India brand portfolio.
Mulally's visit underscored the strategic importance of India in Ford's future plans. He stated the Figo is designed and engineered to compete in the heart of the domestic India car market.
In a statement issued today, Ford said the Figo will be manufactured at Ford's manufacturing facility near Chennai, which is undergoing a $500 million transformation to double to 200,000 the number of small cars that can be made at the plant annually.
"Our exciting new Ford Figo shows how serious we are about India," Mulally said. "It reflects our commitment to compete with great products in all segments of this car market. We are confident the Ford Figo will be a product that Indian consumers really want and value."
Those are bold words, coming as they did only months after Indian automaker Tata began selling the four-seat, $2,000, 47-miles-per-gallon Nano in India.
Ford is hoping the Figo will be competitive in India's small-car segment, which accounts for more than 70 percent of the new vehicle market. The automaker intends to leverage Ford's small-car platform architecture, sharing underlying technology with the Ford Fiesta, which is already familiar to Indian drivers.
If you're wondering about the name, Figo is colloquial Italian for "cool." If you're wondering about Figo's fuel economy, acceleration and other performance characteristics, you'll have to wait. Ford is discussing them now.
One week after Volkswagen made a splash at the Frankfurt Motor Show with the world debut of its E-Up! electric vehicle (pictured), the German automaker has announced that it will likely sell a larger version of the cute compact in the U.S.
"The reason we are working on an electric vehicle is the American market," Ulrich Hackenberg, board member in charge of product development at Volkswagen AG, said today.
Hackenberg said a production version of the plug-in battery-electric zero-emissions E-Up! will go on sale in Europe in 2013. He said U.S. sales would start later.
The E-Up! is based on VW's new modular small-car family, scheduled to debut in 2011. The four-seat E-Up!, which measures 125 inches long (or 19 inches longer than the tiny Smart ForTwo), has a range of up to 80 miles on lithium-ion battery power.
For the United States, Hackenberg said, he envisions a front-drive model about 146 inches long (the 2009 MINI Cooper is 145.6 inches long). Electric versions of the Smart ForTwo and MINI Cooper are planned for the U.S.
VW will launch its first hybrid vehicle next year -- a version of the Touareg SUV. Hackenberg said the Touareg hybrid will debut at the 2010 Detroit auto show in January.
To date, very few details have been released regarding this vehicle.
Maxwell Technologies Says It Also Is Working on Ultracapacitors for Hybrids, EVs
Much of the EV discussion these days - when not focused on which companies are building what cars - is about batteries, but there's another electrical energy storage device out there that's making inroads.
---------- Maxwell Technologies' "Boostcap" ultracapacitors will be used in Continental stop-start system component. ----------
It's the ultracapacitor, a device that is quickly charged from an engine generator or regenerative braking system and has a very high energy density that is rapidly discharged.
That makes them less than optimal as the main energy source for an electric vehicle, but ideal as a sort of supercharger good for quick bursts of energy. And that makes them ideal for engine start-stop systems - also called micro hybrid systems - that shut down an internal combustion engine instead of letting it waste fuel and pump out emissions while idling.
Start-stops require a big energy boost to instantaneously restart the engine when its time to go again, and that's prime territory for ultracapacitors.
That's been the belief of Maxwell Technologies, a San Diego-based energy storage systems developer that has just announced a deal to supply its proprietary "Boostcap" ultracapacitors for a critical piece of stop-start system componentry manufactured by global auto supply giant Continental AG.
Maxwell said its ultracapacitors are to be used starting next year as the energy storage element of a Continental voltage stabilization system (VSS) for start-stop systems in new cars.
We recently reported that Ford Motor Co. was seeing brisk sales of its 2010 Transit Connect compact vans, and today we discover the fuel-efficient Turkish vehicles must first undergo a strange ritual before they are sent to showrooms.
---------- Right, a Ford Transit Connect "wagon." ----------
At least, we think it strange that some of the perfectly fine seats and windows of every Transit Connect that enters the U.S. must be ripped out before the vehicles can be sold or Ford would be in violation of a law that arose during a trade spat 46 years ago.
The "chicken law" takes its name from the high tariffs Europe put on imported chickens during the early 1960 in response to rising U.S. sales of poultry to West Germany.
President Johnson retaliated by targeting German-made Volkswagens with a tax on imports of foreign-made trucks and commercial vans.
As the story in today's Wall Street Journal (subscription required) goes, Europe still has a tariff on imports of U.S. chicken and the U.S. still hits delivery vans imported from overseas with a 25 percent tariff.
American companies have to pay, too, which puts Ford in the weird position of circumventing U.S. trade rules that for years have protected U.S. automakers' market for trucks.
You can read all about Ford's wiggle room, or by using knowing this clue and allowing your imagination to run wild: Just how do customs officials define a "delivery van"?
In an article published today, Biofuels Digest takes a look at the creative financing sources being used to fund biofuel research and development today.
---------- Right, mining for coal in Wyoming. ----------
It notes, for example, that many strategies have been mooted, but one perennial is still popular: Have the cheapest way to make a load of sugar. Simple sugars are the new gold, Biofuels Digest points out. If you can make it fast enough and cheap enough, "customers and their own financing backers will beat a path to your door."
Sometimes, though, you can just be the biggest, baddest sugar project in a local market, even if your technology is not quite ready for the 22nd century. The article goes on to describe a Philippine project that went down just such a road, obtaining $30 million in equity from the Japanese firm Itochu and others.
But nothing is getting funded in bioenergy this year quite as fast and furiously as algae-related ventures. These young companies, the "baby bloomers" as Biofuels Digest calls them, have been landing scads of venture capital and public funding, leaving their brethren in advanced bioenergy scratching their heads in wonder, disbelief, and occasionally a bit of spite.
The publication describes how a government-funded project in Arizona landed $70.5 million based on stimulating green jobs in a depressed region, and as a carbon strategy. Not to mention the promise of fuel, and biochar that can be converted into energy at a higher clip than simply burning biomass.
And then there's the funding source we all know only too well: public-private partnerships. They have been a hallmark of bioenergy projects for quite a while, but perhaps never more importantly than now, when local authorities despair over rising costs of landfills, and bioenergy developers are hard-pressed to raise the benjamins for their projects.
A Canadian partnership between the city of Edmonton, the province of Alberta (home province of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper) and Enerkem shows how it can get done, Biofuels Digest reports, not only for a waste-to-energy project, but an R&D center to boot.
Automakers addressing California air-quality regulators in Sacramento this week said work on hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) is progressing faster than most people predicted.
Craig Louie, of Canada's Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation Corp., said cost was still an issue but that vehicles should hit showrooms in "2015ish, not 2020," as a majority of people in the automotive industry have been predicting.
Performance benchmarks are hovering around U.S. Energy Department targets for most metrics, including energy efficiency, power density and start-up and shut-down energy, Louie said. High costs still persist, though.
"If the goal is $30 per kilowatt-hour and everyone's in the $70, $80, $90 range, the goal is really to get the cost down and become competitive with incumbent technologies like advanced diesel powertrain," he said.
Louie made the remarks before the California Air Resources Board (CARB) as it prepares to release proposed regulations for its zero-emissions vehicle program for 2015 and beyond, with final regulations due by early next year.
Hydrogen FCEVs use an on-board fuel cell stack to convert hydrogen and oxygen to electricity that powers an electric drive system. The only emissions FCEVs give off is a small amount of water and heat.
In its fifth major revision of the program since 1990, CARB voted last year to reduce the 2014 sales target from 25,000 to 7,500 vehicles.
Monday in Sacramento, CARB officials heard from fuel cell manufacturers, trade groups and car companies on the state of technology and barriers to commercialization.
Several manufacturers cited the bipolar plates that conduct electricity away from the cells as a kink in the process. Another component ripe for improvement is the hydrogen storage tank, which is currently made of stainless steel and impregnated with fibers for durability, a time-consuming process.
But just because fuel-cell systems are still too expensive doesn't mean federal and private investors should pull the plug, said Jack Gatzuras, business development manager at UTC Power. Indeed, as a zero-emissions fuel source, it must be pursued, he said.
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.
From the isn't-it-obvious file: A university study has concluded that a cash-for-clunkers program ought to use fuel economy rather than vehicle age in determining a car or truck's eligibility for the scrappage program if its goal is reduced greenhouse-gas emissions.
Well, duh. Your Green Car Advisor has said that on a number of occasions, including a posting way back in June.
But the study conducted by the University of California at Davis, which is home to a highly respected electric-vehicle research program, contains findings that will surprise many well-informed people.
For instance, the study concluded that because the greenhouse-gas emissions associated with vehicle manufacturing, materials production, and scrapping equal roughly 10 to 15 percent of a vehicle's lifecycle emissions, any program that seeks to reduce GHG emissions through scrappage should seek to save more GHG emissions than this amount.
The study also found that the majority of cash-for-clunkers programs -- there have been many worldwide over the past 30 years -- last on the order of months rather than years, attempting to quickly and efficiently remove a set of target vehicles. For example, the recently ended U.S. program was originally scheduled to end after four months or after $1 billion funding was spent, whichever came first.
The short timeline prompted vehicle owners to act so quickly that the funding was spent after four days. However, the study's authors concluded, a long-term scrappage program may be more suitable to GHG reductions because with such a program policymakers could "send a clear, long-term signal" to automakers to produce more fuel-efficient vehicles.
The study recommends that policymakers, when proposing a clunkers program, consider 4- to 6-year vehicle product planning, design and introduction cycles where major retooling of automobile plants is needed.
"Such longer-term programs could actually induce technology changes," the study found.
The federal government has awarded $100 million in grants to 43 metropolitan transit agencies that had submitted plans to cut emissions and create so-called "green" jobs.
The grants mark the Obama Administration's continued investment in reducing the environmental impact of transportation vehicles by using technologies that boost fuel efficiency and cut pollution.
Many of the green grants are for agencies to replace diesel transit buses with diesel-electric hybrid and battery-electric buses, but a number also involve increased use of solar energy.
California-based transportation agencies such as the Bay Area's AC Transit and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority will be given more than $17 million for projects such as boosting solar energy capacity to make hydrogen with clean electricity, installing photovoltaic panels to offset electricity use at maintenance yards, and installing a flywheel energy storage system, the U.S. Transportation Department said in a statement announcing the grants.
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."
Embittered former Tesla Motors CEO Martin Eberhard has settled his defamation lawsuit against the electric-car company and its current chief executive, Elon Musk.
The terms of the settlement are confidential, but in a joint statement released today it would appear that Eberhard and Musk have ended their public display of animus -- as well as come to an understanding regarding who founded Tesla Motors, maker of the Tesla Roadster (pictured) and Model S zero-emissions plug-in electric vehicles.
"Elon Musk and Martin Eberhard, two of the co-founders of Tesla, announced today that they have resolved their dispute," the statement reads.
In his defamation suit, Eberhard claimed that Musk was stealing his thunder by declaring himself the founder of Tesla in interviews. Eberhard even tried (unsuccessfully) to have a judge declare that he founded the company.
The suit, filed last May, also accused Musk of wrongfully blaming Eberhard for production delays, failing to pay Eberhard's severance and many other misdeeds. Eberhard went so far as to have accused Musk of lying on his resume about his education and employment history.
But today the men sang each other praises, with Eberhard saying, "As co-founder of the company, Elon's contributions to Tesla have been extraordinary," and Musk stating that "without Martin's indispensable efforts, Tesla motors would not be here today."
Eberhard's lawyer, Yosef Peretz, said he could not discuss the terms of the settlement. But, he said his client was "very pleased" with the result.
It's amazing what a pile of money can do to improve one's mood. Of course, we can only assume a pile of money was involved, because both parties are prohibited from discussing it.
Unlike many men, Dr. Debbie Mielewski (right) has no love or nostalgia for that "high school woodshop" smell. And that's a good thing.
The soy-based material that Mielewski, the technical leader of Ford Motor Co.'s Biomaterials and Plastics Research team, helped develop a few years ago as a supplement to the petroleum-based polyurethane was strong and pliable enough to be used in components such as car seats but also emitted what she described as a "woodshop" smell after being processed.
Still, the five-member Biomaterials team, which Mielewski started in 2001, eventually figured out a way to strip away the smell in time for the soy-based foam to be used in Ford Mustangs starting in August 2007.
"Our objective is to pass every requirement that exists for traditional material," Mielewski told Green Car Advisor. "We will either meet or beat that standard."
Since the first soy-foam installation two years ago, Ford has installed soy-based foam components in about 1.5 million vehicles, including Mustangs, Ford Focuses, Lincoln Navigators and Mercury Mariners. With soy-based material making up about 40 percent of the foam used in such items as head restraints and armrests, Ford saves about a pound of petroleum for each car.
The installations are the first stage of what appears to be a broader effort by Ford, the only major U.S. carmaker to avoid bankruptcy, to make its cars with less environmentally harmful materials such as petroleum and glass, carry less weight in plastics to improve fuel economy and take less time to decompose in landfill once the car's usable life is through.
German model-car maker Herpa Miniaturmodelle, which announced last month that it would debut an all-electric version of the Trabant compact car at this week's Frankfurt Motor Show, kept its word and unveiled a baby-blue electric vehicle concept it calls the Trabant nT (right).
Company officials said a single 64-horsepower motor turns the front wheels and a lithium-ion battery pack supplies the juice. The plug-in EV can go approximately 155 miles between charges and has a top speed of 80 miles an hour, the officials said.
The company is hoping to bring the vehicle to market in 2012. No further details were available.
The old Trabant was a smog-spewing, two-stroke icon of communist East Germany. Exactly 3,096,099 of them were built between 1957 and 1991.
The photo at left shows the very last of the original Trabants being assembled. When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, thousands of the smoky, boxy four-seaters streamed into West Germany.
Despite its mediocre performance and dreadful emissions, the car is regarded in Germany today with derisive affection as a symbol of the failed former East Germany.
After wavering awhile, Mazda has decided to jump into America's rapidly growing small-car segment with the company's fuel-efficient Mazda2 model.
----------
Right, the current Mazda2. The U.S. version will debut in L.A. in December. ----------
The five-door hatchback, which is currently sold in Europe, will begin appearing in U.S. showrooms during the fall of 2010, company officials told Mazda dealers at the automaker's annual meeting this week.
The vehicle will share a platform as the Ford Fiesta, which is scheduled to launch in America next summer. In addition to the Fiesta, the Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris and Chevrolet Aveo will provide the Mazda2 with some stiff competition.
The U.S.-spec Mazda2 will be unveiled at the Los Angeles auto show in December. The current version of the Mazda2 has been on sale in Europe and Japan since 2007. In Japan, it is known as the Demio.
In Europe, the Mazda2 is offered with several gasoline and diesel engines. The U.S. edition will feature only a gasoline-powered, 1.5-liter four-cylinder.
That version in Europe delivers 103 horsepower and 101 pounds-feet of torque. It propels the Mazda2 from 0 to 62 miles per hour in 10.4 seconds while delivering 41 miles per gallon in Europe's combined driving cycle test; in the more real-world American combined driving cycle test, fuel economy should be 35-38 mpg.
The Mazda2 is offered as both a three- and five-door in Europe, but only the five-door will be available in the U.S. It comes only with a five-speed manual transmission in Europe, but the U.S. version will be available with a five-speed automatic.
Mazda would not disclose U.S. pricing, but in the U.K. it's priced around $16,750 not including taxes and fees. A Mazda source said the U.S. version will be priced somewhat lower.
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.
Shakespeare wrote that for Juliet in his lyrical tale of star-crossed lovers, but Toyota dealers are -- in their own words -- saying the very same today.
That's because the Prius name possesses magical sales powers for the Japanese automaker. As a result, it has decided to sprinkle the name across more hybrid models in its U.S. lineup to boost their sales.
At a meeting in Las Vegas earlier this week of the 60 largest Toyota dealers in the U.S., Toyota executives announced the name Prius would be attached to "a family of models" using similar hybrid powertrains, veteran Toyota dealer Earl Stewart said.
"The Highlander hybrid and Camry hybrid do OK, but calling it 'Synergy Drive' never resonated with consumers," Stewart sad. "But they can make hay on the Prius name. It's a magic name. If somebody says 'I drive a Prius,' everybody knows what he means."
Romeo couldn't have said it better.
Toyota will have a range of Prius hybrid models "but Prius won't be a separate sub-brand like Scion," Stewart said.
A Thorny Issue
Separately, Toyota is launching a $1 billion fourth-quarter marketing campaign, its biggest ever for that period, to boost weak U.S. sales.
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.
Toyota today continued to release a slow trickle of information concerning its all-new Auris HSD Full Hybrid Concept, which debuted this week at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
In addition to details about the car that we've previously reported, now know this concept vehicle with an absurdly long name uses the same Hybrid Synergy Drive technology that can be found in the new Prius.
In other words, it's also equipped with a 1.8-liter gasoline engine working with an electric motor and an engine stop-start system to help cut emissions and improve fuel economy.
The Auris HSD produces 97 horsepower, accelerates from 0-62 miles per hour in about 10 seconds, and has carbon dioxide emissions of less than 100 grams per kilometer.
The Auris HSD differentiate itself from the standard Auris in many ways. Its front end styling is entirely fresh, headlights, hood, bumper and grille. Various aerodynamic tweaks and special badging also set it apart from the regular Auris.
Although Toyota has included "Concept" in the car's name, a new Auris hybrid looking identical or nearly identical to the one shown here is scheduled to enter production next summer and begin shipping toward the end of the year.
Audi CEO Rupert Stadler says American consumers will get more clean diesels -- but they will pay a premium for them.
----------
Right, the 2010 Audi Q7 TDI starts at $50,900. ----------
"I think the problem is that we don't really have an honest discussion," Stadler said in a press roundtable at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
"There is a very, very high level of investment, and nobody today knows if the return will come," he said.
Johan de Nysschen, president of Audi of America, says that ultimately Audi sees itself as selling 20 to 25 percent of its vehicles in the United States with diesel powertrains.
For the Audi Q7 crossover, Audi's first diesel in the United States, diesel penetration is 35 percent, he said, and the brand ran short of diesels during model-year changeover.
The share is even higher for the A3 TDI subcompact, he added.
But, de Nysschen said, Audi is supporting the technology financially: "There certainly is a price premium, which we are partially recovering, but not totally."
An article in the current issue of The Economist asks: "After many false starts, battery-powered cars seem here to stay. Are they just an interesting niche product, or will they turn motoring upside down?"
As the smart British weekly is wont to do, it hints at an answer. For that, you will need to read the article -- or at least the last two paragraphs of it. In fairness to the publication, we won't provide them. But the article is just a click away.
That said, here's a brilliantly crafted teaser -- the first four graphs of the article -- which provides a feast for thought:
In 1995 Joseph Bower and Clayton Christensen, two researchers at the Harvard Business School, invented a new term: "disruptive technology." This is an innovation that fulfills the requirements of some, but not most, consumers better than the incumbent does. That gives it a toehold, which allows room for improvement and, eventually, dominance. The risk for incumbent firms is that of the proverbial boiling frog. They may not know when to switch from old to new until it is too late.
The example Dr. Bower and Dr. Christensen used was a nerdy one: computer hard-drives. But unbeknown to them a more familiar one was in the making. The first digital cameras were coming on sale. These were more expensive than film cameras and had lower resolution. But they brought two advantages. A user could look at a picture immediately after he had taken it. And he could download it onto his computer and send it to his friends.
Ford of Europe has chosen the Frankfurt Motor Show as the venue to introduce the first in a fleet of battery-electric-vehicle prototypes based on the European Ford Focus and specially developed to participate in a study of super-clean cars sponsored by the British government.
Ford of Europe says the study will help the automaker decide whether to use the technology in their European passenger-car lineup.
A consortium of Ford, utility and university employees will use the fleet of 15 prototype zero-emissions Focus BEVs and a charging infrastructure in and around the London borough of Hillingdon starting early next year.
The prototype features a new all-electric powertrain provided the Canadian parts supplier Magna International. Ford says the technology is based on technology being developed for Ford's new-generation C-sized global vehicle architecture and which will be launched in North America in 2011.
Under the skin of the prototype is a state-of-the-art lithium-ion battery pack with the capacity of 23 kilowatt hours, and a 100-kilowatt (134-horsepower) permanent-magnet electric traction motor.
Ford officials say the BEVs will have a range of up to 75 miles and a top speed of 85 mph. Charging the batteries will take between 6-8 hours using 230-volt outlets.
The prototype incorporates key components from Ford's proven North American hybrid technology, including the electric climate control system. The high-voltage air-conditioning compressor is a key feature of the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid, recently introduced in the North American market.
Mazda celebrated 20 years of the Miata sports car with the unveiling this week of the MX-5 Superlight Concept at the Frankfurt Motor Show, and oh what a wonderful thing the Japanese automaker has done.
Like a sculptor working a clump of clay -- and we're NOT referring to any Miata as a clump of clay -- Mazda's engineers took a third-generation face-lifted 2010 MX-5 and pared it back to create a sports car weighing only 2,189 pounds; the regular MX-5 weighs more than 3,000 pounds.
In other words, they took a two-seater an Edmunds.com's Inside Line writer referred to as a "feisty little roadster" in a glowing review earlier this year and made it even nimbler and punchier. Who wouldn't love that?
Said project lead designer Hasip Girgin, the challenge was "to evolve the MX-5, developed to perfection during the last 20 years, to a higher and extreme level."
Girgin and his team responded to the challenge by removing the windscreen and roof, replacing the standard hood with a longer one made of carbon fiber, substituting carbon-fiber bucket seats for the standard, removing the air-conditioner, using an aluminum gearshift and handbrake...
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.
The FBI has joined the investigation to find those responsible for vandalizing 15 Hummers over the weekend at a Portland, Oregon, dealership.
The obvious suspects, members of the Earth Liberation Front, are not claiming responsibility for the act, and posted this on their Website:
"Acid was poured over fifteen Hummers at Vic Alfonso Cadillac in Portland, OR, USA. As of yet there has been no claim of responsibility. However, it is evident from the sabotage that this act was conducted in response to the environmental devastation caused by SUVs and Hummers in particular."
The ELF may be a familiar name to you. The group of militant environmentalists claimed responsibility for setting a fire at West Covina, California, dealership in 2003 that destroyed 20 Hummers.
Another 20 of the gas-guzzling vehicles and several Chevrolet Tahoe SUVs were badly damaged by fire and spray paint. Words such as "ELF," "Fat, Lazy Americans" and "I (heart) pollution" were painted on the SUVs.
ELF member William Cottrell was convicted of conspiracy to commit arson after the attacks and sentenced to eight years in prison and ordered to pay $3.5 million in restitution.
That wasn't the last attack on a Hummer prior to this past weekend's acid-dousing. Indeed, a Hummer parked in an apartment carport in Fresno, California, was set on fire in July. The vehicle was destroyed and the carport roof damaged. No arrests have been made to date.
Kleiner Perkins investor, and former president of Oracle, Ray Lane, said that electric vehicle maker startup Fisker is gearing up to make a major announcement about a $39,000 plug-in hybrid vehicle later this week or next week.
That tidbit from earth2tech.com, which reported today that the venture capitalist, whose firm funded Fisker, let the news slip at the AlwaysOn Going Green conference in Sausalito, California, earlier in the day.
Fisker has already developed its inaugural plug-in car the Karma (pictured), which will be sold for $87,900, but as Lane put it on the panel "who would not want to buy a Fisker Karma if you could afford it."
Does that mean that Fisker has received a Department of Energy loan?
In March, Henrik Fisker, founder and CEO of the Irvine, California-based company, said that Fisker plans to refurbish a factory in the U.S. and develop a lower-cost plug-in hybrid car than its $87,900 Fisker Karma if DOE loans come through.
Back then Fisker did not specify how much money the company requested, but said, "If we get the DOE loan we will start the project this year... It could be in the market in as little as 26 months from when we start."
Tesla Motors Inc., maker of a plug-in electric sports car that can accelerate to 60 miles per hour in 3.9 seconds, received an $82.5 million equity investment from a group led by Fjord Capital Management.
"It was an opportunistic investment," Elon Musk, chief executive officer of San Carlos, California-based Tesla, said today at the Frankfurt Motor Show. "We were not looking for money."
Daimler AG, which invested $50 million in Tesla this year along with Aabar Investments PJSC, the Abu Dhabi fund that's the German carmaker's biggest shareholder, contributed to the offering to keep its stake at just under 10 percent, Musk said.
The money may be used to fund Tesla's establishment of retail stores globally. The company, which introduced its all- electric roadster in February 2008, was profitable in the second quarter, Musk said.
No. 700 Goes to Student
Tesla Motors delivered its 700th Roadster today at the Frankfurt Motor Show, where the chief executive of the EV maker was on hand to present the vehicle.
CEO Elon Musk handed the keys of an electric-blue Roadster Sport like the one shown above to Lennart Hennig, a German law student in Bonn. Tesla has previously delivered cars to customers in England, Switzerland, France, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Spain, Monaco and Sweden .
"I am a socially responsible consumer who considers the environmental impact of my purchases," said Hennig, 24. "I plan to drive this car every day so that people can see for themselves that the future of mobility is electric."
The 700th delivery of the zero-emissions Roadster came less than a week after Tesla opened a store in Munich -- its first regional sales and service center in continental Europe. Tesla opened its flagship London store in June and will open a store in Monaco later this year.
The much-anticipated MINI Roadster Concept (above left) emerged today at the Frankfurt motor show, and the two-seat soft-top is expected to join its recently revealed Coupe counterpart (above right) in production.
The Roadster borrows the 1.6-liter twin-scroll turbocharged engine from the MINI Cooper S, and it makes 175 horsepower and 177 pound-feet of torque. The overboost function pushes output to 192 pound-feet.
Fuel-economy estimates were not provided, and probably for good reason: The engine in the MINI Cooper S only achieves EPA fuel-efficiency ratings of 26 miles per gallon in the city and 32 MPG on the highway, or 29 mpg combined.
That's with the model packing a manual 6-speed transmission. Mileage drops to 23 mpg in the city and 32 mpg on the highway for the MINI Cooper S fitted with a 6-speed automatic transmission.
The front end is similar to that of the MINI convertible up to the A-pillars, where the windshield is raked low and at a sharper angle, making for a chopped look. There is a small luggage compartment in the back, with room for 8.8 cubic-feet of storage.
Ian Robertson, a member of MINI's board, who led a marching band and cheerleaders onto the stand to introduce the Roadster and the Coupe, which also debuted today, said the two-seaters are based on the platform of the original BMW MINI introduced in 2001, with some modifications.
"Up to the waistline the Roadster and Coupe are virtually the same," Robertson said at the press conference. "Above the waistline, the first striking feature on the Coupe is the strongly inclined windscreen merging gently into the aluminum roof. The windscreen has been raked back a further 16 degrees than that of a regular MINI."
BMW plans to offer four-cylinder gasoline engines in the United States in an effort to meet stricter fuel economy rules, a company executive said today.
Introduction of the powerplants, equipped with the automaker's next-generation twin turbochargers, "is the goal and we will do it," Jim O'Donnell (pictured), chairman and CEO of BMW of North America, said on the sidelines of the Frankfurt Motor Show, subscription-based Automotive News reported.
O'Donnell said the engines will allow the automaker to reach U.S. fuel-economy targets before 2015. Under federal guidelines proposed today, automakers will have to improve the fuel economy of their fleets by 5 percent annually before a national standard of 35.5 mpg takes effect in the 2016 model year.
BMW will add a four-cylinder variant for its next 3 series in the United States by spring 2012, O'Donnell said. The automaker already equips its European 3 series with four-cylinder gasoline and diesel engines.
BMW also is considering adding four-cylinder gasoline engines to its X1 and X3 crossovers and 1-series model in the United States.
In Europe, the X1 will be available with a four-cylinder, twin-turbo diesel engine when it launches this fall. The X3 and 1 series also are offered with four-cylinder gasoline and diesel engines in Europe.
"We see potentially a significant market that could get to 100,000 four-cylinder engines" in the United States, O'Donnell said.
Renault SA today introduced a lineup of electric cars at the Frankfurt Motor Show and committed to making at least 100,000 of them by 2016.
---------- Right, the Fluence Z.E. Concept. ----------
Declaring a break with the long dominance of the gasoline engine, Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn presented four electric cars that he said would go on sale in 2011 or 2012.
They "will bring environmental soundness at a price everyone can afford," he told an audience at the auto show.
The move is a gamble by Ghosn to carve out a big future market for the two companies he leads, Renault and Japan's Nissan Motor Co., which own large parts of each other and share technology. Most other automakers are proceeding more cautiously with electric vehicles.
Underlining Ghosn's remarks were the world debut of four electric vehicles at the Renault display area: the Fluence Z.E. Concept, the Kangoo Z.E. Concept, the Zoe Z.E. Concept and the Twizy Z.E. Concept.
Renault spokesmen said the four electric concept cars provide a preview of Renault's range of vehicles due to be released from 2011. To underscore that statement, they announced that the French automaker and EV-charging-solutions proponent Better Place signed an agreement today whereby Better Place will start importing and distributing Renault's first passenger electric vehicle -- the Fluence ZE, a five-seat sedan -- in the first half of 2011 in Israel and will offer recharging services to customers buying this car from the Renault network in Denmark.
Both companies committed to a volume of at least 100,000 vehicles for both countries by 2016.
The Obama administration today released its proposed regulations to require higher efficiency standards for cars and trucks and decrease greenhouse-gas emissions, following up on the president's initial announcement of this in May.
---------- Right, President Obama meeting with UAW workers at a GM plant in Ohio today. ----------
The plan calls for a new average fuel efficiency standard of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016 for new vehicles, which EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said would reduce oil consumption by an estimated 1.8 billion barrels and save consumers more than $3,000 in fuel costs.
"The program we're proposing today would bring our nation a step closer to a future where the vehicles we drive actually help us to solve our energy and environmental challenges," Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood said at the White House today.
President Obama said at a General Motors plant in Ohio today that the plan "creates an even playing field" for the automobile industry, which he said "faced uncertain and conflicting fuel economy standards."
"It's an action that is long overdue," he said in Lordstown, Ohio. "It will give our auto companies clarity and stability and predictability."
The National Resources Defense Council applauded the proposed regulations, calling it "unprecedented" and a "historic proposal moves America further down the road to cleaner, more fuel-efficient vehicles."
Jack Gillis, representing the Consumer Federation of America, a non-profit association of more than 280 pro-consumer groups, said in a statement that the new rules "are not only a victory for the consumer; they are also a win for the overall economy, national security, and the environment."
Ford Motor Co. will introduce its smallest turbocharged engine yet next year, and on the horizon are even tinier engines -- including two- and three-cylinder versions, the automaker's powertrain chief said Monday.
---------- Ford's EcoBoost engine in action: The spray pattern, which comes from six pinhole-like openings in the injector, is carefully calibrated to optimize fuel burn. The cleaner combustion results in faster starts and lower emissions. ----------
Barb Samardzich, Ford vice president of powertrain engineering, said two- and three-cylinder engines and engines with displacements of 1.0 liter or below are possible.
"I think you'll see all of those things roll out," Samardzich said. "It's more than experimental."
Samardzich wouldn't talk about a timetable for such small engines or specify in what markets or vehicles they would first appear. But it makes sense that engines of that size would first be introduced in developing markets or in Europe, where small vehicles dominate.
Meanwhile, in 2010 Ford will introduce a new 1.6-liter, four-cylinder engine with its EcoBoost turbocharging and direct-injection technology. The engine will go on sale late next year on the next-generation Ford C-Max, a family of Focus-derived small minivans.
Ford will sell the seven-seat Grand C-Max, the larger of the two body styles, in North America beginning around late 2011. But executives aren't saying whether the 1.6-liter EcoBoost engine will power the Grand C-Max in North America.
With the premature appearance of some photos of the current L1 Concept in the German media over the weekend, Volkswagen today distributed information and multiple images of the ultra-high-mileage carbon-fiber two-seat diesel runabout ahead of its scheduled debut at the Frankfurt Auto Show.
The German automaker announced that the L1 Concept is powered by a new two-cylinder 0.8-liter turbocharged direct-injection engine -- the smallest diesel engine intended for production applications ever built by Volkswagen.
That engine is mated to a 10-kilowatt/14 horsepower electric motor and a 7-speed direct-shift gearbox (or DSG, an electronically controlled multiple-shaft dual-clutch manual gearbox without a conventional clutch pedal) -- all situated at the back of the car. Together, the three components create the "most fuel-efficient road-legal car hybrid drive in the world," according to Volkswagen.
The L1 -- which takes its name from 1 liter of diesel will provide 100 kilometers of driving, although in reality 1.38 liters are required to go that distance -- is operated in two different modes depending on the load conditions.
In the standard "ECO mode," the TDI engine develops a power of 20 kilowatts/27 horsepower at 4,000 revolutions per minute. In sport mode, the car's power rises to 29 kilowatts/39 hp at 4,000 rpm. The TDI's maximum torque is 73.7 pound-feet at 1,900 rpm. A stop-start system automatically shuts down the engine when vehicle has stopped and restarts when the accelerator or "E-pedal" is pressed.
A Little History
This isn't the first L1 VW has come up with. Seven years ago, Dr. Ferdinand Piech, at that time chairman of the board of management at VW Group, drove a prototype L1 from Wolfsburg to Hamburg "that was unlike any other car before it: the Volkswagen 1-Litre car -- the world's first car with fuel consumption of one litre fuel per 100 kilometers," as VW tells it.
Mitsubishi Motors Corp. has received pre-orders for all of the 1,400 electric i-MiEV plug-in electric vehicles scheduled to be made this model year, according to someone close to the matter.
The urban electric, zero-emissions i-MiEV launched in Japan in July of this year with the delivery of about 50 i-MiEV four-seaters, running on newly developed lithium-ion batteries, to government, utility offices and companies around Tokyo.
They represent the first of 1,400 of the eye-catching EVs that Mitsubishi expects the sell through the end of this year, when it will ramp up for sales to the general public, first in Japan and then globally. Mitsubishi has said it expects to sell 5,000 i-MiEVs in Japan and export 1,000 in 2010.
Mitsubishi began taking pre-orders for the i-MiEV through its dealer network on July 31 and within one month had received 900 pre-orders, the source said.
The company has said it wants to start selling the i-MiEV in the U.S. sometime in 2011. The automaker sees an opportunity to gain major traction in the zero-emissions-vehicle, or ZEV, arena at a time when many other car companies are focusing on hybrids or fuel-cell vehicles.
Toyota Motor Corp. is sticking with nickel as the preferred battery material for most of its hybrid vehicles after three years of secretly testing Prius hatchbacks with lithium-ion packs, Bloomberg reported today.
Toyota last month ended road tests of 126 Priuses in the U.S., Japan and Europe that began in 2006, Jana Hartline, a company spokeswoman said in an interview with the news service. Details of the program, in which the cars' nickel metal hydride batteries were replaced with more expensive lithium models, weren't released.
Automakers are introducing models all or partly powered by lithium-ion batteries holding twice the energy of nickel packs. While Toyota's lithium version performed well and gave "small" fuel-economy gains because of lighter weight, nickel is favored for conventional, mass-market hybrids for its cost, said Kazuo Tojima, the carmaker's senior staff engineer for batteries.
Lithium's "durability, stability and safety are assured," the company's tests showed, Tojima told Bloomberg.
The tests appear to be among the most thorough done by companies planning to introduce the batteries, said Menahem Anderman, president of consulting firm Advanced Automotive Batteries in Oregon House, California.
"We now know that a lithium-ion battery can work; that's not really the question," he said. "Cost is critical, and we still don't know enough about long-term durability."
The maker of the all-electric three-wheeled vehicle called the 2e (right), which is slated to enter production in coming weeks, wants Washington will view the vehicle as an automobile for the purposes of federal funding.
However, Aptera also wants the federal government to continue to classify the 2e as a motorcycle for the purposes of crash testing. That's because the government does not require motorcycles to pass vigorous crash tests as it does vehicles classified as automobiles.
The 3-year-old closely held company located in Vista, California, wants to borrow $75 million from a Department of Energy program created by Congress in 2007 to speed development of fuel-efficient cars.
But the DOE ruled last year that the plug-in electric 2e didn't qualify under the $25 billion loan program. A three-wheeled vehicle doesn't meet the definition of an automobile under federal law as being "any 4-wheeled vehicle," according to a letter to Aptera last December from Lachlan Seward, the loan program's director.
"We were dismayed," Paul Wilbur, Aptera's chief executive, told The Wall Street Journal in an article published today. Wilbur said the absence of a fourth wheel was critical to maximizing the vehicle's aerodynamics.
Aptera's backers include some big-money donors to the Democratic Party, and its quest for help has received a boost from a group of mostly California lawmakers who want to help a home-state enterprise. Allies of Detroit's big automakers are lined up against them.
Researchers at the University of Michigan say the American cash-for-clunkers program improved the average fuel economy of all vehicles purchased in the U.S. by 0.6 miles per gallon in July and 0.7 mpg in August of this year.
As you'll recall, from July 27 through August 24, the government-sponsored a vehicle-scrappage program officially called the Car Allowance Rebate System and informally referred to as the cash-for-clunkers program gave buyers a rebate when they traded in a vehicle while purchasing a new one.
Generally, the trade-in vehicles must have had fuel economy of 18 mpg or less and be less than 25 years old. The rebate was either $3,500 or $4,500, depending on the difference between the fuel economy of the new and the trade-in vehicles.
Overall, about 690,000 vehicles were purchased (and traded in) under the program, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. This compares to a total of about 2,260,000 vehicles sold in July and August 2009.
To estimate the benefits of the program on the overall fuel economy of the light-duty vehicles purchased, Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle of the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute calculated the expected fuel economy of purchased new vehicles without the program.
To do this, they used the relationships between economic indicators and the fuel economy of purchased vehicles that they obtained during research they did earlier research. In that study, the fuel economy of purchased new vehicles in a given month was reasonably well predicted by knowing the corresponding unemployment rate and the price of gasoline.
In the just-concluded study, they used the same approach to predict the fuel economy for July and August of 2009 without the program, and compared this baseline prediction with actual fuel economy observed for the same months. A step-by-step account of their work, complete with tables and charts, can be viewed at a University of Michigan Website.
Neither of the study's authors discussed whether the slight improvement in average fuel economy that resulted from the clunkers program justified its cost to American taxpayers.
However, another study concluded the program was a very expensive way to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions. Sivak and Schoettle's work seems to support the earlier study.
Freightliner Custom Chassis Corp. and Enova Systems announced today via a video posted on YouTube that they have jointly executed a letter of intent to enter into an all-electric commercial chassis development program.
The development program will involve the integration of Enova's 120-kilowatt and 90-kilowatt all-electric drive system technologies into Freightliner's chassis platforms, including the MT-45 walk-in van chassis shown in the image at right.
Freightliner's highest volume MT-45 chassis offers a gross vehicle weight rating between 14,140 and 19,000 pounds and maximum payloads of 10,000 pounds. The MT-45 chassis is used by a range of customers including UPS and Federal Express.
The strategic agreement consists of four phases that include the development of at least four vehicles and placement into national fleets. Design, engineering, integration and testing activities will be conducted at the Freightliner Custom Chassis plant in Gaffney, South Carolina, and the Enova facility in Torrance, California.
The companies have already begun showcasing their capabilities to potential customers and say they expect positive results from these initial demonstrations. Many national fleet operators currently served by the two companies have stated their desire to deploy all-electric commercial vehicles in 2010, a spokesman for Enova said.
Renault today distributed this teaser drawings and an accompanying press release to whet our appetites in anticipation of the Renault Zero Emission line-up of four electric vehicle concepts the French automaker has announced it will unveil during the Frankfurt Motor Show next week.
Judging from the images, it would appear that Renault will debut the following, from left to right:
A one-seat hyper-urban runabout, a three-door vehicle with capacity for four normally sized people, and then either another three-door car or two four-doors. Renault went to a good bit of trouble to cloak the occupant compartments of the last two vehicles.
In any event, here's the short statement the automaker put out today, which will have to do for a few more days:
RENAULT - THE SPARK OF IMAGINATION AT FRANKFURT MOTOR SHOW 2009
* Renault set to shock in Frankfurt with four electric vehicle concepts previewing new Renault Zero Emission product range.
* Renault Press conference 11:45-12:00 (CET) on Tuesday 15th September, Hall 3.1.
Following a raft of unveilings at European motor shows in recent years, Renault's range expansion shows no signs of abating with news today that it will preview the launch of the new Renault Zero Emission product range by taking the covers off of four electric concepts at next week's Frankfurt Motor Show.
The Renault Press conference, hosted by CEO, Carlos Ghosn, will be aired live on its global media site, www.media.renault.com at 10:45 (GMT), with edited video highlights available to view later the same day. Full information on each of the new concepts will be available on www.press.renault.co.uk immediately after the Press conference. Unregistered users for both sites are invited to sign-up now in advance.
Toyota today provided more details regarding the Auris HSD Full Hybrid Concept it will debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show next week, including word that the vehicle marks a milestone in Toyota's plan to deploy full hybrid technology across the automaker's entire European model line-up.
"Full hybrid" means the car can be propelled by gasoline engine alone, electric motor alone or a combination of both. Most hybrids cannot do this.
Earlier this month we reported that, according to Toyota, the Auris hybrid uses 19 percent less fuel and emits 17 percent less climate-changing carbon dioxide than the standard Auris. We can now report that the five-door hatchback is slated to go on sale in Europe starting the second half of 2010, but there's no word on plans to send the car to North America.
In a statement, Toyota reported that the hybrid "marks a significant milestone in Toyota's plan to equip its mainstream European models with full hybrid technology. Toyota is committed to making the environmental benefits of its Hybrid Synergy Drive (HSD) accessible to a wider customer base and it is on track to offer a hybrid version of every model in its range by the early 2020s."
A five-door hatchback is the best selling type of car in Europe and consequently the installation of HSD in Auris is the logical first step in deploying full hybrid technology across Toyota's entire European model line-up.
By introducing the Auris concept, Toyota also aims to shift customer perceptions of hybrid technology. The obvious advantages are improved fuel efficiency and low CO2 emissions, but the automaker said customers will also experience smooth and sophisticated driving unlike any other family hatchback, thanks to the everyday usability, comfort and quietness of the Toyota full hybrid powertrain.
The Auris concept will be built by Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK at the Burnaston factory, near Derby. The manufacturer's suggested price for the vehicle has not been revealed.
In addition to changes to the Auris's powertrain for the concept car, Toyota says subtle changes have been made to Auris's styling to improve aerodynamic efficiency. The front end is designed to optimize airflow and so help maximize fuel efficiency. The front and rear bumper corners have flat surfaces, a feature that not only accentuates the car's wide and solid stance, but also smooths the flow of air over the vehicle's flanks, minimizing turbulence and drag.
When Jon Favreau, director of the Marvel superhero film Iron Man, needed a corporate executive for actor Robert Downey Jr. to use as a role model for the flick's hero Tony Stark, he sought out Elon Musk.
Like the fictional Stark, an engineering genius who runs a weaponry company and designs many of its armaments, the 38-year-old Musk is the CEO and top technologist for electric-vehicle maker Tesla Motors and rocketmaker SpaceX.
The two tech execs even tool around in flashy cars: Stark in a superpowered Audi, Musk in a $109,000 zero-emissions battery-electric sports car that was the first vehicle off the assembly line at Tesla Motors, one of his two companies.
Musk appropriately got a smallish role as a scientist in Iron Man. In fact, throw in Musk's one-third interest in SolarCity, a company started by two cousins that has become a leader in solar panels for homes and business, and you have a guy who is probably as close to an industrialist as the Internet has ever spawned.
The son of an electrical engineer, the South African-born Musk holds both economics and physics degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. By the time he was 31, Musk had started and sold off two tech companies -- the second being PayPal, which was snapped up by eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion.
That made Musk worth about $350 million, but over lunch recently he was very cagey about what he's worth now. "I have a very thin net worth outside my companies, maybe 5 percent of that."
That's because Musk has decided to plow much of his fortune into the areas he figures will most transform mankind over the next few years -- and perhaps not so incidentally make him another fortune. The areas are the Internet, space travel, and improving the environment, he says, "and I've already done the Internet."
If you find any of this interesting, go to Business Week. It's where all the above and much more can be found about the always compelling and often controversial Elon Musk.
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.
We love the idea of using existing infrastructure to serve as a basis for electric-vehicle charging stations.
---------- Right, a phone booth n Madrid. ----------
You may recall that Coulomb Technologies last year began experimenting with using existing light poles in San Jose, California, as power sources and props for some of its charging stations.
Now we're delighted to report that Spain is looking at dozens of telephone booths in Madrid, long left dormant by the rise of cell phones, as possibly having a second life as recharging stations for electric vehicles.
That proposal can be found in the Spanish government's plan to establish 546 charging points in Madrid, Barcelona and Seville to serve some 2,000 EVs Spanish officials hope to see cruising the cities' streets within two years.
The telephone booths are often located close to curbs and already have their own electricity supply, making them relatively easy to adapt. According to Madrid's city council, some 30 phone booths could be converted to chargers with little difficulty.
The government has committed $2.2 million to subsidize electric-car charging points over the next two years. Barcelona plans to install 191 points, many of which will be attached to "intelligent lampposts" in the street following the lead of Coulomb Technologies.
Coulomb Technologies, which is headquartered in Campbell, California, near the throbbing heart of Silicon Valley, just this week installed its first ChargePoint networked charging station for plug-in EVs in Germany.
In Madrid, electric-car owners will not only be able to charge for free (at least initially), but they will be able to park for free and have their auto taxes cut by 75 percent. Those would be carrots. The mayor of Madrid recently said thought has been given to limiting access to city centers, including Madrid's, to EVs. That would be a stick if you drive an ICE vehicle.
Daimler AG has added a pair of BlueEFFICIENCY AMG models fitted with four-cyliner diesel engines to its growing family of Mercedes-Benz GLK sport utility vehicles, and the automaker hints one or both may come to the U.S.
The greener of the two is the rear-wheel-drive 2010 GLK 220 CDI with the familiar 170-horsepower four-banger achieving between 36.8 and 39.2 miles per gallon depending on options, the automaker said in a statement today. That model's claimed carbon-emission figures range from 158 to 168 grams per kilometer.
The all-wheel-drive 2010 GLK 250 CDI 4MATIC features a 204-hp engine producing 368 pound-feet of torque. Daimler claims it is the most powerful four-cylinder diesel engine in the SUV world. It achieves a claimed 35.1 mpg and emits 176 grams of CO2 per kilometer.
As far as acceleration, the RWD GLK 220 reportedly reaches 60 miles an hour in 8.5 seconds and has a top speed of 122 mph, while the AWD GLK 250 completes the sprint in 7.9 seconds and can reach 129 mph.
While not discussing whether it intends to export either model to North America, Daimler made the point of stating that in addition to meeting the EU5 emissions standard, both models have "the potential to fulfil the EU6 limits as well as the BIN 5 requirements in the USA."
We hope the German automaker will provide additional details at the Frankfurt Motor Show, which takes place next week.
The 2010 Honda CR-V went on sale in North America today, with improvements to its 2.4-liter 4-cylinder engine over the 2009 model boosting fueling economy 1 mile per gallon while increasing power output 14 horsepower to 180 hp.
Honda said in a statement that the EPA-estimated city/highway fuel economy ratings increased to 21/28 miles per gallon on 2WD models and 21/27 mpg on models equipped with 4WD -- "an increase of 1 mpg in both city and highway driving on all models."
While we don't question Honda's claimed EPA mileage estimates, it should be noted that they don't appear on the EPA's fuel-economy site and we were unable to ascertain the reason quickly.
Edmunds.com's fuel economy figures for the 2009 CR-V, which is the average combined number of miles a vehicle is able to travel using one gallon of fuel according to EPA simulated laboratory tests that consist of 45 percent highway and 55 percent city driving conditions, put that model at 22-23 mpg, so the combined FE rating for the 2010 model ought to be 23-24.
We wish we could report that the 2010 model had a starting price equal to or less than the starting price of the 2009 CR-V, but we can't. The newer model starts at $21,545 for 2-wheel drive, or $300 more than the current model year. Add $200 for 4WD.
People who consider the CR-V often look at the Subaru Forester and Toyota RAV4. The EPA posts fuel-economy figures for the 2010 RAV4 with 4WD (19/26, 6 cylinder, 3.5 liter, automatic 5-speed transmission; 21/27, 4 cylinder, 2.5 liter, automatic 4-speed) and for the 2010 Forester 4WD (19/24, 4 cylinder, 2.5 liter, automatic 4-speed; 20/27, 2.5 liter, manual 5-speed).
The RAV4 in 4WD starts at $22,900 and Forester, which is only available in 4WD, starts $20,295.
The game in fuel economy these days is all about thinking small.
That's because, on the ICE front, most all of the big stuff has been done and improvements in efficiency are being squeezed out of the tiniest elements - a pound shaved off a body panel here, an aerodynamics tweak there.
An announcement from auto parts and components giant TRW Automotive Holdings this morning drives home the point.
The company proudly unveiled a redesigned and enhanced power steering motor pump that it will supply to Mercedes-Benz to use on the electrically powered hydraulic steering systems on a number of its luxury models.
The system saves fuel by using an electronic brain to help determine the mount of hydraulic assist to feed into the steering effort so the parasitic hydraulic system is used only when needed. The newest motor pump dials in varying degrees of assist as conditions demand.
TRW says the system can be used on hybrids as well as conventionally powered cars.
Bottom line? TRW says it can save .29 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers by reducing hydraulic system drag on the engine.
In the U.S., that's the same as a savings of 1 gallon of gas per 800 miles, or just under a teaspoon per mile.
Mercedes-Benz is expected to debut a Vision S 500 plug-in hybrid concept at next week's Frankfurt Motor Show, looking much like the one pictured here.
Although company spokesmen won't discuss it publicly yet, we've been told the concept will feature a V6 gasoline engine connected to a lithium-ion battery that has a storage capacity of more than 10 kilowatt hours.
That's enough to enable the car to go about 19 miles on electricity only before an onboard gas-powered engine-generator kicks in to feed juice to the lithium battery.
Acceleration is said to be 5 and half seconds from a standstill to 60 miles an hour. Mileage is said to be 73.5 mph, but it wasn't at all clear how that number was reached.
We expect to learn a lot more about this concept next week.
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.
Lithium-ion cells provide the same power at half the weight of the current standard, nickel-metal hydride, so it's no surprise that automakers, battery manufacturers and automobile parts suppliers the world over are racing to develop Li-ion batteries for electric vehicles.
---------- The first production-intent Chevrolet Volt is fitted with a lithium-ion battery pack. ----------
But as The Wall Street Journalreports today (subscription required), with automakers already sensitive about costs, adoption of the advanced batteries might not be so quick.
Lithium-ion batteries cost three to four times as much as the existing nickel-metal-hydride variety. Moreover, the price of the older technology is dropping fast. In Honda's latest Insight model, for example, the nickel-metal-hydride battery is 40 percent cheaper than the one in the previous model, the Journal noted.
Increased supply should resolve that issue, but it brings a longer-term risk: That the rush to production will overwhelm demand -- driving prices so low that the batteries aren't a money-maker after all.
Unlike flat panels and semiconductors, lithium-ion batteries aren't standardized, which means they won't be commoditized right away. This'll break down soon enough, as the needs of one particularly large buyer, like Toyota Motor, eventually set a standard.
Stock traders aren't thinking that far ahead, the Journal reported. Japan's GS Yuasa, which has joint ventures to supply both Honda and Mitsubishi Motors, has seen its shares rise 62% so far this year. The stock trades at 87 times expected earnings.
Even shares of large companies, like South Korea's SK Energy and Samsung SDI, have surged recently amid hopes for their budding lithium-ion operations. Samsung SDI -- a flat panel maker at heart -- now trades at more than double its historic valuation.
There's no doubt that lithium-ion is a promising advance in battery technology. But at these prices, the Journal reports, investors are surely setting themselves up for a jolt.
They asked for it, now they're about to get it. Automakers opposed to the idea that individual states should be able to impose greenhouse gas standards on cars sold within their borders argued for several years that a uniform federal standard was needed.
The first draft of that standard - which effectively sets fuel economy levels because greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide are directly related to fuel consumption - are due out soon, possibly by the end of the week.
The draft of the rules for the 2016 model year and beyond will open up a public comment period that is sure to see a concerted effort by major automakers to erase a provision that reportedly would set up a dual standard that eases CO2 limits on car companies with lower U.S. sales volumes. That list includes luxury brands such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Porsche, as well as mainstream imports such as Mazda, Subaru, Suzuki, Volkswagen and Kia.
Ford Motor Co. will plug a specially made battery-electric vehicle as part of a running gag on comedian and car aficionado Jay Leno's new television program, the automaker announced Wednesday.
The plug-in Ford Focus will be driven by celebrity guests competing in a green-car challenge on NBC's new "The Jay Leno Show," which is set to debut on Monday. A different version of the Focus goes on sale to the public in 2011.
In a statement issued today, Ford said the battery electric vehicle foreshadows elements of the electric Focus that Ford will begin selling in North America in two years.
Basically, it's a high-profile PR move -- and a very smart one. As Lisa Drake, chief engineer of Ford's Hybrid and Battery Electric Vehicle Programs, put it:
"Having our Focus battery electric vehicle on the show is a great way to demonstrate how fun to drive these cars really can be. Beyond the immediate excitement of driving, it demonstrates that Ford is investing in this technology and that we're committed to electric vehicles."
Ford plans to put at least four electrified vehicles on the road in North America by 2012 -- including the Focus BEV in 2011 -- as well as new hybrids and a plug-in hybrid.
Ford's hybrid and BEV program team worked together with Ford Racing to develop the special Focus for Leno's show. It took three weeks to build the car and another couple of weeks to properly tune the suspension so it could be driven fast on a racetrack.
Developed at Ford's Michigan Proving Grounds in Romeo, Michigan, the Focus BEV built for the show has a split battery pack, with one battery in the cargo area and one underneath the car in the space normally occupied by a fuel tank. Because the car was built to race, it is equipped with a roll bar and five-point harness for the driver.
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.
Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles are one of the most highly anticipated new product categories of recent years, a research firm reported today, with 48 percent of the American consumers surveyed stating that they would be "extremely" or "very" interested in purchasing a PHEV with a 40-mile range on a single charge.
"Plug-in hybrids match the driving requirements of most consumers we surveyed," said Clint Wheelock, managing director of Pike Research, which conducted the Web-based survey of 1,041 U.S. consumers. "82 percent of respondents drive 40 miles or less per day, with an average daily driving distance of 27 miles."
The upcoming Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle and other EREVs under development promise the ability to travel 40 miles on electricity only. Thereafter, a small onboard internal combustion engine-generator, likely fueled by gasoline, would come on and supply electricity to the vehicle's battery, electric motor or both.
Other findings of the survey:
85 percent of consumers stated that improved fuel efficiency would be an important factor when choosing their next vehicle.
65 percent of survey respondents interested in PHEVs expressed a willingness to pay a premium price, over and above the price of a standard gasoline vehicle, with an average premium of 12 percent.
Consumers indicated that the availability of workplace, private, and public vehicle charging stations in their local area would be very important.
79 percent of consumers would be interested in investing in a fast-charging outlet for their home; however, willingness to pay is out of line with industry expectations.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu will no longer seek to kill Energy Department research and development of hydrogen-powered cars, a bid Congress has rebuffed, and instead will work with lawmakers to ensure the money is "invested wisely," he said today.
The fiscal 2010 spending bills approved in the House and Senate would continue funding for the programs. "Given the reality of that, I think it would be foolish if I next year said, 'No, I'm still going to insist.' They are going to stick it back again," Chu told the subscription service E&E News.
He spoke after addressing students at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia. "We will do the best we can to make sure the funds are invested wisely," Chu said.
DOE's fiscal 2010 budget request chopped $100 million of funding from hydrogen research and steered it away from vehicles. Chu, in rolling out the proposal, said vehicles face a number of barriers around storage, infrastructure and other issues. The plan would continue support for stationary fuel-cell applications.
"We asked ourselves, 'Is it likely in the next 10 or 15, 20 years that we will convert to a hydrogen car economy?' The answer, we felt, was 'no,'" Chu said in May, and instead emphasized other technologies to curb oil use like biofuels and electric vehicles.
But Chu today said there is also common ground with the lawmakers. "I still think -- in fact, many of the people who restored the funding agree with me -- that the first applications will be in stationary fuel cells," he said, according to E&E News.
"So we will do that, but then, if you want to have it [hydrogen] in automobiles, there is a hydrogen storage problem, there is a hydrogen production problem, as well as a fuel cell problem," he added.
"Fuel cells is actually the more mature, and so we will try to do our best to say, 'OK, if the goal is to try and get them into vehicles, let's design a program to actually try and do that as best we can,' rather than saying, 'I disagree with them.'"
Indian automaker REVA announced today that it will debut two plug-in electric vehicles next week at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
The REVA NXR is a four-seat, three-door hatchback family car suitable for urban driving that can be ordered at the show, with production scheduled to commence at the beginning of 2010.
The showcar, REVA's model for 2011, is the REVA NXG (pictured); a sporty two-seater with a targa roof that was designed by Dilip Chhabria of the internationally renowned automotive design company DC Design.
Another world-first for REVA will be the launch of REVive. The technology, which REVA claims has no equal, is intended to address the range-anxiety issue that troubles many an EV owner and prospective EV owner. That would be being stranded after your EV runs out of juice.
As REVA put it in a statement, the technology "acts like an invisible reserve fuel tank. The customer just has to telephone or SMS REVA for an instant remote recharge should they run out of charge."
We're not exactly sure what that means, and a REVA representative was not immediately available to explain; we expect answers next week at the very latest. But both the REVA NXR and the REVA NXG will feature "the REVive telematics technology."
The company said that further details and and pricing announcements will be made at the Frankfurt show. It also said its new Website, Revaglobal.com, will go live when the vehicles are unveiled in Frankfurt.
REVA is the brand of the Reva Electric Car Co., a Bangalore-based company formed as a joint venture between Maini Group of India and AEV LLC of California. It is backed by the U.S. investors Global Environment Fund and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.
REVA claims its vehicles are being sold or test-marketed in 24 countries worldwide. It says it is building a new ultra-low-carbon-vehicle assembly plant in Bangalore, with a capacity of 30,000 units per year.
The Fisker Karma will get 67.2 miles per gallon and emit just 83 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer using a respected methodology for measuring the emissions of plug-in extended-range electric vehicles, the automaker announced today.
Calculations developed by the Society of Automotive Engineers estimate the carbon-dioxide output of the four-door hybrid will be less than that of today's cleanest production cars and 75 percent less than that of competing vehicles, on average.
The society is an internationally recognized organization of experts that help drive government automotive policy.
That said, the fuel economy label the U.S Environmental Protection Agency ultimately slaps on the Karma might bear a different estimate than 67.2 MPG, because the EPA is still determining how it will label plug-in hybrids.
Fisker Automotive said the sale of 15,000 Karmas could save some 248 million gallons of gasoline and 2.5 million tons of CO2 per year compared to a convention car of comparable size and horsepower.
And, as Fisker wants everyone to know, the Karma can save all that gas and air pollution while achieving supercar-like torque and six-second 0-60 mile-per-hour acceleration.
Lotus Engineering announced today that it will unveil a range-extending engine-generator for series hybrid vehicles at the Frankfurt Motor Show, held later this month.
Attached to the hybrid's electric motor via the crankshaft, the Lotus Range Extender sustains vehicle operation beyond the range provided by the vehicle's batteries.
Lotus said in a statement that the 1.2-liter, three-cylinder engine-generator can use gasoline or alcohol-based fuels, was designed for maximum fuel efficiency and can recharge the batteries of a series hybrid as well as provide direct power to the electric motor that propels the vehicle.
The Range Extender features an innovative architecture comprising aluminium monoblock construction, integrating the cylinder block, cylinder head and exhaust manifold in one casting. Lotus said this results in reduced engine mass, assembly costs, package size and improved emissions and engine durability.
The engine-generator is optimized between two power generation points, giving 15 kilowatts of electrical power at 1,500 revolutions per minute and 35 kilowatts at 3,500 rpm via the integrated electrical generator.
Lotus said the Range Extender's low weight (123 pounds) makes it ideal for the series hybrid drivetrain configurations for which it is designed. The engine uses an optimized two-valve port-fuel injection combustion system to reduce cost and mass.
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.
The chief executives of Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and PSA Peugeot Citroen signed an agreement today in Paris that will allow Citroen to sell a version of an electric vehicle based on Mitsubishi's i-MiEV.
Mitsubishi launched the i-MiEV plug-in electric vehicle in Japan in June and will begin global sales of the right-hand-drive vehicle later this year.
The company plans to offer a left-hand-drive version of the i-MiEV next year.
Meanwhile, Mitsubishi and PSA Peugeot Citroen are collaborating on an EV that will be based on the i-MiEV. The agreement signed today permits both Peugeot and Citroen to sell versions of the collaboration, with sales to commence next year.
The move will allow Citroen to offer a low-emissions model ahead of its planned 2011 DS5 HYbrid4, a diesel-electric hybrid. More importantly, it will soon give Europeans another choice in an upcoming selection of zero-emissions vehicles.
Toyota Motor Europe announced today that cumulative hybrid sales in Europe have topped the 200,000 mark, with 50 percent of the sales recorded in the last 24 months.
TME has sold a total of 202,126 Toyota and Lexus hybrids since introducing Europe's first commercial hybrid in 2000, the company said in a statement.
"The breakthrough result coincides with news that Toyota has sold over 2 million hybrids globally since launching the world's first mass-produced hybrid, Prius, in 1997 to critical acclaim," the company said.
Moveoever, Edmunds.com data put Toyota hybrid sales in the U.S. through August of this year at 1,106,203 vehicles sold, accounting for a 73 percent share of the U.S. hybrid market and a 0.6 percent share of the overall U.S. passenger vehicle market (cars and trucks combined).
Prius accounted for 768,638 sales, or 69.5 percent, of Toyota's total U.S. hybrid sales. The popular model accounted for 50.8 percent of the overall U.S. hybrid market and 0.45 percent of the overall U.S. passenger car market.
Toyota has a global target of 1 million hybrid sales per year by the early 2010s, with European sales representing up to 10 percent of this target.
In July, TME announced that it would manufacture a hybrid version of its C-segment hatchback, Auris, in the United Kingdom from mid-2010. That would mark what Toyota referred to today as "a critical first step" in the company's plans to offer a hybrid version of every model in the early 2020s.
Now comes word from the South Korean automaker that it will be debuting two advanced fuel-efficient vehicles at the Frankfurt Motor Show - the ix Metro gasoline-electric concept CUV (right) and the i10 Electric (below).
The ix Metro smallish hybrid crossover is designed for the European sub-B segment and, according to Hyundai, achieves carbon-dioxide emissions of only 80 grams per kilometer.
The vehicle is powered by an inline three-cylinder, 1.0-liter gasoline engine cranking out an impressive 125 horsepower. It's mated to some kind of hybrid drive system Hyundai is unwilling to discuss publicly now.
The other Hyundai vehicle to make its world debut at Frankfurt is the i10 Electric, a plug-in all-electric urban commuter that, the automaker says, will see limited series production beginning in 2010 with the South Korean market.
The i10 Electric is powered by a 49 kilowatt motor and a 16 kilowatt per hour battery. Hyundai says the vehicle achieves a top speed of 81 miles an hour and a driving range of 99 miles.
The i10 Electric will be sold to government ministries, state corporations and utilities in the first stage. The retail sales date is not decided
Ford of Europe today released the first official images of the all-new C-MAX multi-purpose vehicle, which will be the first in a string of Ford vehicles packing an all-new 1.6-liter EcoBoost direct-injection gasoline engine.
The 2011 C-Max takes its handsome design from the iosis MAX concept car unveiled at this year's Geneva Motor Show. We like the coupe-resembling sweeping roofline, the aggressive stance and other design features, but it's the engine we like most.
This would be the same fuel-efficient, low-emissions, four-cylinder, turbo-charged engine Ford spent $109 million developing and which we described in October 2008.
In general, EcoBoost engines achieve 20 percent better fuel economy and 15 percent lower carbon-dioxide emissions than current larger displacement gasoline engines of similar power -- and they do all this without compromising driving performance.
However, Ford spokesmen today wouldn't comment on the C-Max's emissions or fuel economy; that, they said, will have to wait until the vehicle debuts at the Frankfurt Motor Show later this month.
Although stating that the C-Max will be available in Europe starting the second half of next year and will have a base price around $23,200, Ford spokesmen would not say if the vehicle would be sold in North America.
The C-Max is part of Ford's lineup of global vehicles being developed from Ford's new compact car platform, which also serves as the underpinnings for the European version of the Ford Focus. So it's possible it would come to the U.S.
If it did make its way to the New World, its price and features would put it in competition with the larger Dodge Grand Caravan minivan, which has a manufacturer's suggested starting price of $23,545.
But the C-Max would also compete with the Focus, Ford's fuel-efficient crossover slated to come from the Old World to the New next year -- and the Focus would likely prove tough competition for the C-Max.
In an interview earlier this week, Audi of America President Johan de Nysschen (right) dismissed the upcoming Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid as "a car for idiots."
He said that few consumers will be willing to pay $40,000 -- the Volt's estimated base price -- for a car that competes against $25,000 sedans and conventional hybrids. Nor, he noted, is the Volt a luxury car whose green-technology costs will be excused because it also delivers prestige or performance.
"No one is going to pay a $15,000 premium for a car that competes with a (Toyota) Corolla" in terms of prestige and performance, he said. "So there are not enough idiots who will buy it."
More than a few people at Chevrolet took offense. In an interview with Green Car Advisor, Volt spokesman Rob Peterson said:
"I'm pretty surprised somebody would make such a bold statement that challenges the intelligence of anybody in the EV movement, and especially those people who are anxiously awaiting the Volt. It just doesn't seem like a real bright statement."
It'll be interesting to see how well the Volt sells. The vehicle is slated to start appearing in showrooms in very limited numbers at the end of next year.
2010 VW Golf, Polo and Passat BlueMotion cars. The updated diesel-sippers will debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
Volkswagen revealed today that it will debut production versions of its fuel-efficient, diesel-powered Polo, Golf and Passat BlueMotion models at the Frankfurt Motor Show later this month.
The Polo BlueMotion was shown as a concept alongside the debut of the regular Polo editions at the last Geneva Auto Show. VW said the production-version Polo BlueMotion gets a combined fuel economy rating of 71.3 miles per gallon with carbon-dioxide emissions of just 87 grams per kilometer.
To put that CO2 figure in perspective, the Polo's recently developed 1.2-liter, 75-horsepower TDI engine produces the same amount of climate-changing emissions as the diesel Smart ForTwo, and yet the Polo is able to transport five people whereas the ForTwo is limited to two.
The new Polo BlueMotion is expected to arrive in the U.S. next year.
The Golf BlueMotion packs a 1.6-liter, 103-horsepower TDI engine and achieves an EPA-estimated fuel economy 61.9 miles per gallon in combined city and highway driving. It generates only 99 grams per kilometer.
VW says the Golf BlueMotion will appear in European showrooms later this year.
The mid-sized Passat manages 53.4 mpg combined; greenhouse-gas emissions are 114 grams per kilometers.
VW says the TDI engines in all three models are recalibrated compared to the conventional models and have a reduced idle speed.
Further minimizing the idle losses are an automatic start-stop system, low rolling resistance tires and reduced aerodynamic drag due to lower front air dams and rocker panel extensions.
According to the German Federal Bureau of Statistics, the average German motorist drives a total of 6,600 miles per year. For Polo BlueMotion drivers, this means that they can cruise the entire year on just eight tanks of diesel.
In addition to fuel-sipping engines, BlueMotion vehicles are equipped with start-stop technology, regenerative braking, low-rolling-resistance tires, lightweight low-drag wheels, and improved aerodynamics.
We're not sure which bothered us more: Watching Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk eat escargot, or watching someone in Northern California's Silicon Valley talk like a true "valley girl," which as we all know is a shallow creature that resides amid shopping mall and freeways in Southern California's San Fernando Valley.
The interviewer, Jesse Draper -- who attended UCLA, just down the freeway from San Fernando Valley -- does a decent job of getting Musk to explain what makes his all-electric cars special, during the Internet show's second episode of the season. There were several mildly interesting exchanges. Here's one:
Draper: "I have a hybrid. Why is (Tesla's all-electric Roadster and Model S cars) better than a hybrid?"
Musk: "When you say you have a hybrid, you have something that's really maybe 2 percent electric and 98 percent gasoline. And you need to say, OK, if all the world had your car, well, we'd still be 100 percent dependent on gasoline. The advantage to all-electric is that you can then generate your electricity from renewable means like solar, wind, geothermal, and that's a sustainable future."
Ford Motor Co. sold more than 2,000 of its model year 2010 Transit Connect compact vans during the first full month they were available in the U.S., the company announced today.
Ford said the new commercial vehicles are selling in under 10 days of arrival on dealer lots, significantly quicker than current industry norms.
The automaker is targeting small business operators and fleet customers for the fuel-efficient Turkish vans, which are smaller than comparably priced U.S.-made models.
The van has a suggested retail price of $20,780, comes in eight styles, and gets combined city/highway fuel economy of 23 miles per gallon, according to Edmunds.com.
Jody Slucker, commercial business manager in Ford's North Central region, said the Chicago market leads the nation for Transit Connect fleet and business sales, while Southern California has seen the highest number of sales to non-business users.
Dealers in Southern California have reported sales to a diverse range of hobbyists needing extra space to efficiently haul everything from show dogs to motor scooters.
Early commercial buyers represent a cross section of small businesses, Slucker said, including laundromats, caterers, door-and-lock companies, painters, electricians, restaurant suppliers, satellite dish installers, carpet installers and commercial carpet cleaners.
Ford said three recent surveys of small business owners showed entrepreneurs were "seeing positive marketplace signals."
"We see rising optimism among small business owners and strong demand for arriving Transit Connect vehicles among this group as reflections of an encouraging economic uptick," said Len Deluca, head of the automaker's commercial truck sales and marketing.
Excellent. May the battered U.S. economy continue to improve.
Chrysler announced today that it will be bringing the new Dodge Caliber to the Frankfurt Motor Show fitted with a new 2.2-liter, turbocharged, common-rail diesel engine that's Euro 5 compliant.
The engine, which is paired with a six-speed manual transmission, produces a claimed 163 horsepower and 236 pound-feet of torque. That's 16 percent more power, 3 percent more torque and 25 percent (3,300 pounds) more towing capability than the previous diesel engine.
But wait, there's more: Fuel consumption is improved by 5 percent (40.6 miles per gallon versus 38.6 mpg), and carbon dioxide emissions are improved by 3 percent (154 grams per kilometer compared to 159 grams per kilometer).
Chrysler says forged steel connecting rods, aluminum head and pistons, and fourth-generation direct-injection system with common-rail pressurized at 1800 bar provide durability, weight reduction and performance.
Passenger comfort also improves as dual balance shafts and sound-deadening materials reduce the diesel engine's vibration and harshness by 25 percent compared with the previous Dodge Caliber CRD.
Unfortunately, there are no plans to bring the new diesel engine to the U.S. Unless there's a change, Americans will only be offered Calibers equipped with Chrysler's gasoline-consuming World Engines.
The two World Engines (2.0- and 2.4-liter) in the Caliber are equipped with dual variable-valve timing and an intake manifold design with flow control valves. Combined, these features produce more power, better fuel economy and a smoother, quieter operation than engines without them.
The 2.0-liter World Engine replaces the 1.8-liter engine, delivering 4 percent more power (156 hp) and 13 percent more torque (140 pound-feet). For even greater performance, the 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine delivers 170 hp and 162 pound-feet of torque. But again, neither it nor the 2.4-liter will be offered to Americans as diesels.
The new Dodge Caliber will debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show in two weeks. It's interesting to note that the Dodge Caliber was the top-selling Chrysler Group LLC vehicle outside North America in 2008.
Lexus has already teased us with the "official sketch" of its upcoming compact concept for the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show, but today it released what it claims is the first "official photo" of the car.
That would be the image at right, which to us looks like an artist's rendering.
Along with the, uh, photo comes a name: the Lexus LF-Ch Concept. "LF" means it's a concept vehicle, borne from the L-Finesse design mantra. "C" indicates it's a C-segment car; competitors will include the Audi A3 and the BMW 1-series. And "h" is for hybrid.
The rear three-quarters photo/rendering of the low-emissions vehicle shows door handles that look too flush to be production-ready and windows that look surreal. Otherwise, the fuel-efficient vehicle could closely resemble a production model.
Lexus sources say the car will enter production by 2012. There's no word on whether it will be coming to the U.S., but with impressive fuel economy and all-electric performance under certain conditions would make it competitive with its American-offered Audi and BMW rivals.
Toyota will unveil a gasoline-electric hybrid concept of it Auris compact car as well as a Prius Plug-In Hybrid Concept at the Frankfurt Motor Show, the automaker announced today.
Toyota said the Auris HSD Full Hybrid Concept (right) is a step forward in the company's plan to expand its hybrid lineup. The world's largest automaker will begin production of the Auris hybrid at its factory near Derby, about 120 miles north of London, starting mid-2010.
Toyota said the Auris hybrid uses 19 percent less fuel and emits 17 percent less climate-changing carbon dioxide than the standard version.
The company builds most of its hybrid vehicles in Japan, but also produces a small number of Prius hybrids in China and the Camry hybrid in the United States.
In July, Toyota President Akio Toyoda said the carmaker would shift its focus in the diesel-heavy European market to hybrid vehicles as part of a new effort to use its resources more selectively.
Toyota Europe CEO Tadashi Arashima said making hybrids in Europe would help ensure that full hybrids "become more accessible to a wider range of customers."
Toyota has a goal of selling at least 1 million hybrid vehicles a year within the next few years.
Toyota also will give its Prius Plug-In Hybrid Concept a world debut in Frankfurt. The low-emissions car is based on the new, third-generation Prius.
An artist's rendering of the Prius Plug-In Hybrid Concept appears at left. A photo of the vehicle has yet to be released.
The carmaker said it will offer 150 of the fuel-efficient Prius Plug-In Hybrid Concepts to fleet customers to test next year.
The Toyota Prius hybrid automobile is popular for its fuel efficiency, but its electric motor and battery guzzle rare earth metals, a little-known class of elements found in a wide range of gadgets and consumer goods.
.......... Neodymium: A key component of EV motors. ..........
That makes Toyota's market-leading gasoline-electric hybrid car and other similar vehicles vulnerable to a supply crunch predicted by experts as China, the world's dominant rare earths producer, limits exports while global demand swells, Reuters news agency reported today.
Worldwide demand for rare earths, covering 15 entries on the periodic table of elements, is expected to exceed supply by some 40,000 tons annually in several years unless major new production sources are developed. One promising U.S. source is a rare earths mine slated to reopen in California by 2012.
Among the rare metals that would be most affected in a shortage is neodymium, the key component of an alloy used to make the high-power, lightweight magnets for electric motors of hybrid cars, such as the Prius, Honda Insight and Ford Fusion Focus, as well as in generators for wind turbines.
Close cousins terbium and dysprosium are added in smaller amounts to the alloy to preserve neodymium's magnetic properties at high temperatures, Reuters reported. Yet another rare earth metal, lanthanum, is a major ingredient for hybrid car batteries.
Toyota has 70 percent of the U.S. market for vehicles powered by a combination of an internal-combustion engine and electric motor. The Prius is its No. 1 hybrid seller.
Reuters reported that Jack Lifton, an independent commodities consultant and strategic metals expert, calls the Prius "the biggest user of rare earths of any object in the world."
Each electric Prius motor requires 2.2 pounds of neodymium, and each battery uses 22 to 33 pounds of lanthanum. That number will nearly double under Toyota's plans to boost the car's fuel economy, he said.
The final production version of the Range Rover LRX could be unveiled June 17, and will likely be offered with a hybrid drivetrain, the British magazine Autocar reported today, citing unnamed Land Rover sources.
"The premium compact SUV will finally be given the go-ahead for production by the end of the year, insiders have told Autocar. Production would probably begin in early 2011," the magazine reported.
The June date is being considered because it will mark exactly 40 years since the original Range Rover was first revealed to the public.
The LRX would be positioned as the new, more environmentally friendly face of Range Rover as part of the brand's 40th anniversary.
It is expected that the styling of the final version of the LRX will differ from the concept, the magazine reported. The car will also have the option of a hybrid drivetrain, which could be standard on more expensive versions.
The LRX is based on the same basic transverse engine platform as the Freelander and will be built at that model's home, the Halewood factory on Merseyside.
The hybrid version of the LRX will probably use an electrically driven rear axle, which will work in combination with the engine-driven front wheels, Autocar reported.
The LRX will arrive at a time when most industry analysts expect new car buyers in western Europe to embrace the concept of downsizing, with upmarket vehicles in the Golf class (B segment) becoming particularly popular.
As part of this, sales of the largest SUVs are expected to be hit hard in the EU, although they will remain popular in the Middle East and other developing markets.
MINI has unveiled a concept for a new coupe (pictured) that will expand the brand's lineup to five models and bring another powerful-yet-fuel-efficient small car to market.
MINI will show the coupe concept at the Frankfurt auto show next month. The BMW-owned brand aims to bring the coupe to market in two to three years as a rival to the Audi TT and Peugeot's new RCZ.
MINI, which this month celebrates the 50th anniversary of its foundation, says the two-seat concept is designed to be the most dynamic and agile MINI ever.
The coupe's roof is made of aluminum and the concept's sleek looks have been achieved by lowering the roofline compared with the standard MINI hatchback.
Because of its lighter roof, the coupe weighs about 220 pounds less than the standard MINI.
The front-wheel-drive concept is powered by MINI's most powerful engine, a 1.6-liter turbocharged powerplant found in the carmaker's high-performance models from tuning division John Cooper Works.
That engine achieves 39.8 miles per gallon and has CO2 emissions of 165 grams per kilometer.
The coupe will join the hatchback, convertible and Clubman wagon versions already on sale and a crossover model in the final stages of development.
Volkswagen has been producing Polos in Europe since 1975. The German automaker has offered Polos in various body styes over the years and now it says it will soon debut a production-version diesel Polo that gets 71 miles per gallon.
It's not clear from the statement issued by VW earlier today whether that Polo will be the three-door hatchback (pictured) or the five-door hatchback -- both will be available as BlueMotion (think fuel-efficient) models fitted with 1.2-liter, 75-horsepower diesel engines.
A concept version of the low-emissions Polo BlueMotion appeared at the Geneva auto show in March. VW said today that the vehicle will be available in Europe later this year. It is not expected to appear in American showrooms for at least another year.
In addition to the BlueMotion diesel engine, the Polo will initially be available in two other diesel and three gasoline powertrain choices, and some of which will be available with a fuel-saving seven-speed transmission.
The least expensive of the new group of Polos will start at 12,150 euros, or about $17,800.
Beijing is drawing up plans to prohibit or restrict exports of rare earth metals that are produced only in China and play a vital role in cutting edge technology, from hybrid cars and catalytic converters, to superconductors, and precision-guided weapons, according to a reputable British newspaper.
A draft report by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has called for a total ban on foreign shipments of terbium, dysprosium, yttrium, thulium, and lutetium. Other metals such as neodymium, europium, cerium and lanthanum will be restricted to a combined export quota of 35,000 tons a year, far below global needs, The Telegraph reported.
China mines over 95 percent of the world's rare earth minerals, mostly in Inner Mongolia. The move to hoard reserves is the clearest sign to date that the global struggle for diminishing resources is shifting into a new phase. Countries may find it hard to obtain key materials at any price.
Alistair Stephens, from Australia's rare metals group Arafura, told The Telegraph his contacts in China had been shown a copy of the draft -- "Rare Earths Industry Devlopment Plan 2009-2015." Any decision will be made by China's State Council.
"This isn't about the China holding the world to ransom. They are saying we need these resources to develop our own economy and achieve energy efficiency, so go find your own supplies," he said.
Stephens said China had put global competitors out of business in the early 1990s by flooding the market, leading to the closure of the biggest U.S. rare earth mine at Mountain Pass in California -- now being revived by Molycorp Minerals.
New technologies have since increased the value and strategic importance of these metals, but it will take years for fresh supply to come on stream from deposits in Australia, North America, and South Africa. The rare earth family are hard to find, and harder to extract.
Stephens told The Telegraph that Arafura's project in Western Australia produces terbium, which sells for $800,000 a ton. It is a key ingredient in low-energy lightbulbs. China needs all the terbium it produces as the country switches wholesale from tungsten bulbs to the latest low-wattage bulbs that cut power costs by 40 percent.
No replacement has been found for neodymium that enhances the power of magnets at high heat and is crucial for hard-disk drives, wind turbines, and the electric motors of hybrid cars. Each Toyota Prius uses 25 pounds of rare earth elements. Cerium and lanthanum are used in catalytic converters for diesel engines. Europium is used in lasers.
Better Place, the American-based electric-vehicle services provider, today announced that it has received an award from the Japanese government to conduct a pilot project in Tokyo for the world's first plug-in electric taxis with switchable batteries.
Better Place will partner with Tokyo's largest taxi operator, Nihon Kotsu. The project, which comes on the heels of the company's successful battery switch demonstration earlier this year in Yokohama, is slated to begin in January 2010.
Japanese taxis represent a mere 2 percent of all passenger vehicles on the road in Japan, yet they emit about 20 percent of all carbon dioxide from vehicles due to their average distance traveled in a given day.
In Tokyo alone, there are approximately 60,000 taxis, a far greater number than in New York, Paris and Hong Kong. Clearly, the outcome of the Tokyo pilot program for electric taxis could point to opportunities in other urban centers.
Additionally, success within the heavy-use taxi industry likely would help to ensure technology transfer to the mass market, where daily mileage is far less on average.
The electric-taxi pilot will showcase the everyday use applications of the Better Place model - switchable-battery stations, as opposed to battery-refueling stations - and will involve the construction of a Better Place battery switch site in central Tokyo.
Up to four newly modified and fully operational zero-emissions electric taxis will be operated from an existing taxi lane for environmentally-friendly vehicles near the switch site.
Perhaps building upon the popularity of the top-end BRABUS versions of the ForTwo, Smart announced today that is welcoming autumn with a decidedly upscale ForTwo characterised by high quality equipment, fine materials and a rich appearance.
The new Smart ForTwo Edition Highstyle features exclusive paintwork in trendy chocolate brown metallic and elegant 12-spoke, 15-inch alloy wheels. The exclusive interior of the special model boasts an especially tasteful mix of fabric and leather.
Or perhaps Smart just wants to communicate that the smallest and shortest car available for the mass market in North America doesn't have to look like a toy - or at least like a cheap toy. We can see it appealing to older people whose tastes are more refined than those of the teens and twentysomethings buying ForTwos.
The Edition Highstyle is available with 71- or 84-horsepower gasoline engines. The former is fitted with an automatic start/stop system as standard equipment - what Smart calls "micro hybrid drive" - which we all know shuts down the engine when the driver applies the brakes and the vehicle is moving slowly.
Smart reports that exclusive, gleaming metallic leather on the seats and in the doors contrasts with the light and dark fabric ensemble reserved for this special edition.
Decorative brown seams are a subtle reference to the exterior. The kneepad and instrument panel have a leather look. The 3-spoke sports steering wheel with gearshift is covered with leather, as is the gear knob. Trim parts that shimmer in matt silver round off the high quality yet dynamic impression of the interior.
This ForTwo starts at $23,000 for the 71-hp version and $800 more for the peppier version.
Hyundai Motor Co.'s all-new Tucson ix, a compact SUV that's more fuel efficient than its popular predecessor, went on sale in South Korea today following 36 months and $225 million in development.
The vehicle, which will be named the ix35 outside South Korea, comes with a choice of 2-liter engines: either the all-new 184-horsepower diesel R or the 166-horsepower gasoline Theta-II. Both are fitted with Hyundai's all-new six-speed automatic transmission for improved fuel economy.
Hyundai said the diesel engine meets the Euro-5 emissions standards and in the Tucson ix achieves 35 miles per gallon, while the version fitted with the gasoline engine achieves 26.5 mpg. The diesel version is offered in both front-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive configurations, while the gasoline variant is available only in front-wheel-drive.
Named after a city in Arizona, the Tucson has been one Hyundai's most popular models, with more than 1 million units sold worldwide since its launch in 2004.
The Korean-market Tucson ix is built in the Ulsan plant, while the European edition ix35 will be built in Europe with production and sales commencing in Europe early next year, the automaker said in a statement.
Full details about European powertrains, trim levels and option packages will be announced September 3rd on the eve of the 2009 Frankfurt auto show. North American specifications will be announced at the Los Angeles auto show later this year.
Hyundai said it is aiming for sales of 16,000 units of the new Tucson ix this year in the Korean market and 40,000 units annually starting next year. From 2011, Hyundai said it predicts the vehicle's sales to reach 300,000 units globally, with 260,000 units sold in the overseas market.
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).
In a positive development for American autoworkers, Toyota Motor Corp. has decided to shift more production of its fuel-efficient four-cylinder engines from Japan to Alabama.
---------- Right, the 4-cylinder engine that appears in the 2010 Camry. Below, an information box about that engine. Click on the box to enlarge it. ----------
The company announced that it will spend $147 million to add 216,000 four-bangers a year to engine production at Huntsville, where it already makes V-6 and V-8 light-truck engines. As part of the expansion, Toyota will hire 240 workers.
The four-cylinder engines will go into Toyota Camrys built in Princeton, Indiana, and RAV4s built in Woodstock, Ontario. The engines for those models have been coming from Japan.
The Huntsville plant was built to produce V-8 engines for full-sized Toyota Sequoia SUVs and Tundra pickups. The collapse of those segments prompted the company to merge two V-8 engine lines at Huntsville, leaving part of the plant unused.
Both Toyota and Nissan Motor Co. have struggled to free up North American capacity for smaller engines as consumers have shifted to more fuel-efficient vehicles.
Toyota recently boosted four-cylinder Camry engine production at Georgetown, Kentucky, by making layout changes to an existing assembly area.
The new investment at Huntsville also will require Toyota's Bodine Aluminum Inc. subsidiary to expand output of engine heads and blocks at Troy, Missouri.
Toyota said that Bodine will spend $25 million and hire about 60 employees as a result.
Mazda will introduce a more fuel-efficient powertrain by 2011, kick-starting its pledge to increase fuel economy across its model line 30 percent by 2015, Automotive News (subscription required) reported today.
Mazda is developing a range of four-cylinder and rotary engines that are expected to result in higher fuel economy ratings.
For example, Seita Kanai, head of Mazda's R&D department, said a redesign of Mazda's best-selling 2.0-liter, four-cylinder engine with a new six-speed automatic transmission will see city fuel economy increase to 32 miles per gallon from 22. Highway fuel economy would increase to 42 mpg from 32.
"We want to provide this technology to all owners, not just through a few eco-friendly vehicles," Kanai said in a media briefing in Monterey, California.
Mazda did not say which engine or vehicle would be the first to market with the increased efficiency. But Robert Davis, senior vice president of Mazda North American Operations R&D, said the new powertrains cannot be retrofitted to an existing product line.
Given Mazda's product cadence, the redesigned MX-5 convertible or Mazda5 small minivan likely would get the new engines first. The entire model lineup will be equipped with the new engines by 2015, Kanai said.
The 30 percent improvement in fleet fuel economy does not include improvements from idle-stop, regenerative braking or hybrid powertrain development, he said. And although hybrids are a part of Mazda's future, such technology is minor compared to the company's concentration on improving internal combustion engines.
BMW announced today that it will debut an ultra-high-mileage version of its 320d sedan at the Frankfurt Motor Show next month.
The car, officially the 2010 320d Efficient Dynamics Edition, is equipped with a diesel engine achieving 57.4 miles per gallon and equally impressive CO2 emissions of just 109 grams per kilometer.
The automaker attributes the vehicle's lofty fuel economy to turbo-charged version of BMW's 2-liter, 4-cylinder, 163-horsepower engine, which is mated to a 6-speed manual transmission.
The vehicle sits lower to the ground than its regularly aspirated diesel sibling and is fitted with low-drag wheels to improve aerodynamics.
Additionally, the usual power parasitic losses that occur are stymied a bit through the use of brake-energy regeneration and electric power steering.
Acceleration remains a very respectable 0-62 miles per hour in 8.2 seconds despite all the attention given to the vehicle's fuel economy and greenhouse-gas emissions.
It would be nice of BMW exported it to the United States, but no one in Munich is discussing that option - at least not publicly.
Likewise, the price of the vehicle has not been disclosed publicly.
Toyota Motor Corp plans to release within this year a new medium-sized hybrid sedan, the SAI, that is bigger than the current best-selling Prius as it seeks to expand its lineup of electric-gas hybrids, sources familiar with the matter said Friday.
The SAI will be positioned as a Toyota brand-version of the luxury Lexus HS250h hybrid sedan released in mid-July. It will have the same basic structure but different exterior and interior designs, the sources said, according to a report in tomorrow's Japan Today.
The SAI's starting price is expected to fall between the HS250h's $41,751 and the new Prius' $21,668, the sources said.
Toyota also plans to release a cheaper compact hybrid based on its Vitz model with better fuel efficiency than the new Prius and a minivan-type hybrid as early as in 2011.
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.
Getting as tired of reading about the Car Allowance Rebate System as we are of writing about it? Well, you may stop seeing stories about the program very soon.
That's because National Automobile Dealers Association officials today asked the government to suspend cash-for-clunkers because a survey by the group found that the $3 billion fund has been exhausted.
"We asked them to put a halt to the program - I think we said 'very soon' - but a suspension at midnight tonight would make sense," NADA Chairman John McEleney told Automotive News (subscription required). "Our survey opened the eyes of the Transportation Department."
A suspension would allow dealers to submit all pending claims and permit the government to process them so that a precise determination could be made of how much money, if any, is left in the program, he said.
NADA conducted an informal electronic survey of its 18,000 members earlier this week, McEleney said. A limited number responded, and the findings were extrapolated, he said.
Transportation has been conducting its own dealer surveys. Federal and NADA officials are comparing notes, using the two sets of findings to draw conclusions about funding availability, McEleney said.
Transportation spokeswoman Jill Zuckman declined to comment directly on McEleney's remarks.
German leaders, echoing a goal espoused by Barack Obama during and since his presidential election bid, have agreed on a plan to get 1 million electric cars on the nation's roads by 2020, Reuters news agency reported today.
The plan of Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet includes $705.1 million of funding for the construction of electric charging stations and programs to boost battery technology in Europe's biggest auto market.
"Our goal is to make Germany the leading market for electro-mobility," Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg told reporters at a news conference in Berlin.
BMW welcomed the plan, as did the VDA, the German carmakers' association, whose president Matthias Wissmann called the program's success of "great importance" for Germany.
An industry expert and another automaker were more skeptical, pointing out that demand for electric cars is weak and that mass-produced models are still years away.
"It is indeed helpful, but don't expect to see a sales rush like with the cash-for-clunkers program," said Willi Diez, head of the Automobile Industry Institute in the southern city of Nuertingen.
The government supported its car-scrapping subsidy with $7.35 billion - roughly 10 times more than the money now being allotted to develop the electric-auto sector.
Audi CEO Rupert Stadler lowered expectations in a newspaper interview.
"In 20 years there will be mass-produced electric cars, but they should only make up around five to 10 percent of all overall automobiles," he told the Austrian Wiener Zeitung.
There are 250 million vehicles on U.S. roads, according to Edmunds.com. Steps promoting development of EVs in America include Department of Energy grants and stricter fuel-economy standards.
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.
Toyota Motor Corp. will buy hybrid-car batteries from Sanyo Electric Co. as the automaker struggles to meet growing demand for the fuel-sipping vehicles due to a shortage of battery supply, Reuters news service reported today, citing an unidentified source familiar with the matter.
Toyota now procures its batteries from Panasonic EV Energy Co, a joint venture with Panasonic Corp. Panasonic plans to take control of Sanyo and is awaiting regulatory approval.
Demand for gasoline-electric vehicles has surged in Japan, helped by tax breaks and subsidies under a government initiative to promote fuel-efficient automobiles, but Toyota has said production of its hybrids is being held back by a supply bottleneck for batteries.
Its Prius hybrid was Japan's best-selling car in July for a second straight month, but customers placing orders have to wait about eight months before delivery.
Toyota also said this week that it had received about 10,000 orders for the Lexus HS250h sedan, the premium brand's first dedicated hybrid car, in its first month of sale in Japan. It aims to sell an average 500 units a month.
Toyota, the world's biggest automaker, will first use Sanyo's lithium-ion batteries from around 2011, said the source, who confirmed a report in the Nikkei business daily and spoke on condition of anonymity because the information is not yet public.
Toyota will first procure about 10,000 battery units per year from Sanyo, the world's biggest rechargeable battery maker, the source said. Toyota aims to sell at least 1 million hybrid vehicles a year in the early 2010s.
A Toyota spokeswoman said nothing had been decided about procuring lithium-ion batteries from Sanyo. A Sanyo spokesman declined comment, citing company policy on deals with potential and existing customers.
Toyota Improves Batteries
In a related development, Toyota announced that has developed a new technology that may dramatically boost the storage capacity of lithium-ion batteries and thus open the door to more practical electric vehicles.
American electric-vehicle services provider Better Place and French automaker Renault plan to produce tens of thousands of EVs a year beginning in 2011, with initial sales to occur in Denmark and Israel, the companies reported this week.
The carmaker is developing three wholly electric models: a sedan, a compact car and a panel van. In Denmark, the cars will cost up to $38,000, and drivers will also need to sign up for a monthly subscription with Better Place for its battery service.
The cost of the zero-emissions vehicles in Israel was not disclosed.
"We expect the production of electric vehicles to be in the tens of thousands per year for the Danish market from 2011," said Jens Moberg, chief executive of Better Place Denmark, the Danish subsidiary of the transport company developing the lithium batteries fitted in the vehicles.
Electric-car drivers will need to sign up for a monthly subscription with Better Place to get access to the batteries. "It will be like signing up for a mobile phone contract," said Moberg.
He declined to say how much a subscription would cost, but he said the battery would cost $11,760 to manufacture in 2011-12. By comparison, the battery in the Tesla Roadster costs about $30,000, and Moberg said he expects the cost of the Renault battery to fall as production expands.
Drivers can recharge the batteries at home, which would take several hours, or switch batteries at a "swap station", taking three to five minutes - less time than it takes to fill a petrol tank.
In Denmark, close to 100 battery swap stations will be available around the country, with plans to expand further. Drivers will also be able to top off their batteries at charge spots installed at car parks and on the streets.
Copenhagen is working to install up to 60 by the time of the U.N. climate change summit in December, when world leaders will attempt to broker a worldwide deal to reduce carbon emissions.
Better Place is in discussion with a number of European countries, as well as Australia, Japan and the U.S., about expanding the plan further from Israel and Denmark.
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."
Ford Motor Co. announced today that it has developed an intelligent vehicle-to-grid communications and control system for its plug-in hybrid electric vehicles that interacts directly with the nation's electric grid.
The new technology allows the vehicle operator to program when to recharge the vehicle, for how long and at what utility rate, company spokesmen said at a press conference at Ford's headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan.
All 21 of Ford's fleet of plug-in hybrid Escapes eventually will be equipped with the vehicle-to-grid communications technology, the spokesmen said.
The first of the specially equipped plug-in hybrids has been delivered to American Electric Power of Columbus, Ohio. Ford's other utility partners' vehicles will also be equipped with the communications technology.
When plugged in, the battery systems of the specially equipped plug-in hybrids can communicate directly with the electrical grid via smart meters provided by utility companies through wireless networking.
The owner uses the vehicle's touch screen navigation interface and an in-dash computer to choose when the vehicle should recharge, for how long and at what utility rate.
For example, a vehicle owner could choose to accept a charge only during off-peak hours between midnight and 6 a.m. when electricity rates are cheaper, or when the grid is using only renewable energy such as wind or solar power.
Greg Frenette, manager of Ford's Battery Electric Vehicle Applications department, said "direct communication between vehicles and the grid can only be accomplished through collaboration between automakers and utility companies, which Ford and its partners are demonstrating with this technology."
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.
Suzuki, which said last month that it would start selling its all-wheel-drive sports sedan in the U.S. by the end of the year, may unveil a gas-electric hybrid version in the country as soon as 2011, the Japanese newspaper Nikkei reported Sunday.
The carmaker, which would follow fellow Japanese carmakers Toyota and Honda into the hybrid vehicle market, will use a powertrain it's developing with General Motors for the hybrid version of its Kizashi, Suzuki's first mid-sized sedan, Nikkei reported.
The hybrid will get about 20 percent better gas mileage than its gas-powered equivalent, which will be powered by a 2.4-liter inline four-cylinder engine, according to Nikkei.
Suzuki, which announced late last month that it would begin selling the gasoline-powered version of the Kizashi in North America this winter, also said it would make a hybrid version of the sedan, although it declined at the time to estimate when the hybrid would be available.
American Suzuki Motors Corp. spokesman Jeff Holland declined to comment on the Nikkei report.
GM, which first invested in Suzuki in 1981 and owned as much as 20 percent of the company in 2001, sold its remaining 3 percent of the company last year. Suzuki sold about 26,000 vehicles in the U.S. from the start of this year through July, down 60 percent from a year earlier.
The popular cash-for-clunkers program is slashing donations to charities that rely on gifts of cars to fund social programs, Reuters reported today, citing charity officials.
Volunteers of America and other aid organizations that receive tens of thousands of cars each year said such donations have quickly fallen up to 12 percent - and fear a 25 percent drop eventually, or more than $100 million - as owners rush to trade gas guzzlers for new fuel-efficient models while federal rebates last.
"We started seeing it right away in July" when the program began, said Jim Hartman, vice president of vehicle donations at Volunteers of America. "It varies by market, but there's been an 11 to 12 percent drop compared with last year."
"The cars I'm seeing cashed in as clunkers, like older SUVs, are absolutely the typical donation to us," he said.
The clunkers incentive gives consumers a U.S. government rebate of up to $4,500 for trading in some gas-guzzling vehicles for new ones with better fuel economy. Congress scrambled early this month to add $2 billion in funding when the program's initial $1 billion allocation was quickly spent.
Rick Frazier, director of the car-donation program at The Military Order of the Purple Heart, which assists wounded U.S. veterans, estimates the $3 billion will result in 700,000 clunker trades.
Frazier said charities would normally receive 25 percent of those 700,000 cars and, at an average value of $600 each, they could be out $105 million over 24 months.
"That will be devastating," he said. "A lot of services will have to be cut."
Peugeot can expect lots of slack-jawed gawkers at it exhibit area at the Frankfurt show next month after the French automaker rolls out the first two in a series of vehicles it has planned that sport the company's Hybrid4 two-powered, 4-wheel-engaged drivetrain.
The first of the two vehicles to go to market will be 3008 Hybrid4 crossover, shown above.
Like the RCZ Hybrid4 concept sports car (right), it will feature a parallel hybrid system consisting of an electric motor spinning the rear wheels and an internal combustion engine spinning the front wheels.
The hybrid system allows the vehicles to have 4-wheel drive on demand, and it allows the vehicles to operate in internal combustion, EV or blended modes.
By splitting the powertrains, Peugeot engineers vastly reduced the mechanical complexity of the vehicles compared to, say, the power-split systems developed by Toyota and Ford.
The 3008 Hybrid4 is set to go on sale in Europe in 2011. If Peugeot hasn't said if the hybrid is U.S.-bound.
As for the RCZ Hybrid4, there are no plans to take to market at all, although that could change and we certainly hope it does.
The conventional gas-powered RCZ coupe is scheduled to debut next spring with a 200- horsepower, 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine.
Peugeot is not releasing pricing or fuel-economy information for the 3008 Hybrid4 at this time.
In an uncharacteristically succinct statement issued today, Lexus announced that it will introduce a premium compact concept at the Frankfurt Motor Show on September 15th and it unveiled an official sketch of the car.
"The concept will demonstrate a mix of technical innovation and ground-breaking design that promises to raise the bar in the premium compact segment," the statement said, adding that further information about the unnamed vehicle won't be available until the show.
That said, we have to assume that by "technical innovation and ground-breaking design" the new model will feature some of green innovations found in Lexus's low-emissions, fuel-efficient hybrid models.
Among those innovations: A rear-wheel-drive hybrid powertrain featuring a 3.5-liter V6 gasoline-fuel internal combustion engine mated to a high-output electric motor.
The vehicle, which will likely represent Toyota's effort to compete with Audi's A3 and BMW's 1 series cars in Europe, might be destined for U.S. showrooms.
Unfortunately, that bit of wishful thinking won't likely be confirmed or denied before the Frankfurt show.
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.
Toyota Motor Corp. plans to launch a hybrid vehicle that is cheaper and more fuel efficient than the Toyota Prius as early as 2011, a Japanese newspaper reported today.
---------- Right, the 2010 Toyota Yaris. ----------
The car will share key parts with the Toyota's Yaris and will get double the fuel economy of the Yaris, The Yomiuri Shimbun reported. It will be sold in the United States, Japan and Europe.
The vehicle would be priced around 1.5 million yen ($15,650) and deliver 94 miles per gallon, the newspaper said, without revealing how it got the information.
"The 'ultra-fuel-efficient' car will surpass in terms of fuel efficiency the latest model of Toyota's top hybrid car, the Prius," the newspaper reported. "The envisaged model will be the world's most fuel-efficient mass-produced hybrid car, whose main power source is gasoline."
Toyota spokeswoman Yoshie Matsuura said she could not discuss future product plans. But Toyota is known to be planning a small, inexpensive Yaris-based hybrid to compete with Honda Motor Co.'s plans for a hybrid version of the Fit/Jazz
The current Prius gets about 89 miles per gallon under a Japanese mileage test that is not comparable to U.S. or European tests.
A respected economist says the federal government's cash-for-clunkers program is paying at least 10 times the "sticker price" to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.
While carbon credits are projected to sell in the U.S. for about $28 per ton (today's price in Europe was $20), even the best-case calculation of the cost of the clunkers rebate is $237 per ton, according to University of California transportation economist Christopher Knittel.
When burned, a gallon of gasoline creates roughly 20 pounds of carbon dioxide. Knittel combined that known value with an average rebate of $4,200 and a range of assumptions about the fuel economy of the new vehicles purchased and how long the clunkers would have been on the road if not for the program.
He even assumed drivers didn't change their habits, although some analysts have suggested that the owners of new vehicles will drive more than they would have with their old cars.
In the end, Knittel concluded that the lowest cost to remove one ton of carbon from the environment was $237.
"More likely scenarios produced a cost of more than $500 per ton, even when we accounted for reductions in pollutants other than greenhouse gases," he said in a statement issued Thursday. "That suggests the cash-for-clunkers program is an expensive way to reduce carbon."
Knittel did not analyze the program's other key objectives: stimulating the economy and providing relief for automobile manufacturers.
Knittel is an associate professor and chancellor's fellow in the UC Davis Department of Economics, a faculty associate at the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies, and the policy and business strategy leader of the Sustainable Transportation Energy Pathways Program at UC Davis.
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.
Ford Motor Co. is boosting production of its Focus compact to meet surging demand sparked by the federal government's "cash-for-clunkers" program.
Workers at the company's Wayne Assembly Plant, where the Focus is produced, told The Detroit News today that they began working nine-hour shifts last week and are expected to move to 10-hour shifts this week. They also are scheduled to work this Saturday and every other Saturday into September.
"I think they increased the line speed, too," said John Kujat, who said this has been a rare piece of good news for him and his co-workers at the factory. "I'm just buying a house, so I could use a little extra money."
Ford would neither confirm nor deny the production increase, though the company had said it would re-evaluate its production goals by the end of August.
"It's no small task to make an assessment of what's going on now and future demand," said George Pipas, head of sales analysis and reporting at the automaker.
The low-emissions, fuel-efficient Focus was one of the most popular cars with customers are trading in used vehicles under the cash-for-clunkers program, which provides up to $4,500 to consumers who trade in a used gas-guzzler for a new, more fuel-efficient car or truck. As a result, dealers across the country have reported shortages of the popular compact.
While Ford ended July with a 25-day supply of the vehicles, it had only a 21-day supply of Ford Escape compact sport utilities, which also have been strong sellers in recent months.
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.
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..
Smart is reportedly working on a radical design for a new three-seater sports car that will form part of a new model assault, as well as a more conventional four-seat car to be produced in co-operation with Renault.
According to an Automotive News Europe report (subscription required), Mercedes is developing the three-seater partly in reaction to Toyota's iQ, which has gained plaudits as a fashionable and innovative urban city car.
The model has been conceived as a sportier alternative to Smart's upright second-generation ForTwo model, although the ForTwo will be retained in the Smart model line-up.
The model is likely to take the "ForThree" nameplate, although nothing has yet been decided by Smart's owner, the Mercedes-Benz Car Group.
Plans for the car were uncovered in European patent-application sketches (pictured, click to enlarge) obtained by Automotive News Europe sister publication AutoWeek.
The new three-seater model will draw heavily on the architecture and basic layout of the famous McLaren F1 supercar, which had a central driving position flanked on either side by two passenger seats.
The model is also likely to contain a number of innovative packaging concepts to accommodate three people in what will is likely to be a highly compact passenger car. These include a swivelling seat base as well as a transverse runner within the floor that allows the driver's seat to be adjusted out towards the door.
Although the patent applications do not mention the new car's proposed mechanical package, Mercedes is well advanced on a new line-up of modular three-cylinder gasoline and diesel engines as large as 1.4 liters.
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.
China's First Auto Works, which builds trucks and buses as well as cars, has taken delivery of the first 70 of an order of 220 "pre-transmission" hybrid drive systems ordered from Enova Systems, the California-based electric and hybrid drive-systems developer said this morning.
---------- FAW hybrid buses in China will be using U.S. hybrid drive systems. ----------
Enova
, making the announcement on the eve of the Plug-In 2009 electric and plug-in hybrids conference that begins tomorrow in Long Beach, Ca., said it also has signed an agreement to supply 800 more of its parallel hybrid drive systems to FAW
in 2010.
A battery bottleneck is hurting efforts to boost output of the Prius to meet booming demand for the hybrid, and the problem will likely persist into next year, according to a senior Toyota official.
"The new Prius model has been excessively popular, inconveniencing some of our customers, and the factories are working overtime at full capacity," Takahiko Ijichi, Toyota senior managing director, said Tuesday at the company's quarterly earnings announcement.
"Unfortunately, the batteries are not catching up with demand. Production of the batteries needs to be increased in order for our production to go up."
Toyota has an annual Prius capacity of 500,000 cars. Panasonic EV Energy Co., which makes the nickel-metal hydride batteries for the gasoline-electric hybrid car, can't churn out more than that right now, Ijichi said.
The third-generation Prius hybrid is a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy year for the world's biggest automaker. The car is facing months-long waiting lists at dealerships and is easily outselling Honda's rival Insight hybrid in Europe and the United States.
The success of the Prius in Japan is one reason Toyota says it will post its first domestic sales increase in five years.
"The new Prius model is selling quite well," Ijichi said.
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.
The Obama administration today will award $2.4 billion in grants to 48 projects that promote advanced battery and electric vehicle manufacturing, according to administration officials.
The grants are designed to boost U.S. manufacturing jobs in an industry that has so far seen the leading technology come from Japan and elsewhere in the Far East.
"Today, almost all of these technologies are overseas," said Matt Rogers, a senior adviser at the Energy Department. "These are really about creating manufacturing capabilities in the United States."
The Electric Drive Vehicle Battery and Component Manufacturing Initiative was funded by the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The funds are to advance and lower the cost of technologies, such as lithium-ion batteries, necessary to commercialize electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.
President Obama has pledged to have 1 million plug-in hybrids on U.S. roads by 2015.
Only one in every five applications won funding, representing about a third of the total dollar amounts sought, said Rogers. While one-fifth of the funds went to small businesses, a number of major auto manufacturers will also benefit.
Twenty-five states will see money from the pool, with the most going to Michigan, followed by Indiana. Eleven and seven projects, respectively, will be funded in these two states, where unemployment has soared as the auto industry licks its wounds.
Information about specific project winners, dollar amounts and jobs created will be released today, Rogers said. One of the applicants is a struggling Chrysler LLC, which plans to develop a plug-in hybrid version of its Dodge Ram pickup truck.
The money is divided into three pools: $1.5 billion will go toward expanding battery and battery component production, as well as recycling capabilities; $500 million will be for manufacturing electric drive and power electronic components; and $400 million will help purchase and test thousands of plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles, install vehicle charging infrastructure, and provide education and work force training.
The administration plans to roll out the funds as part of today's full-court press highlighting the economic recovery.
Compared to overall carbon-dioxide emissions in the U.S., the pollution savings from the absurdly popular and taxpayer-funded cash-for-clunkers program do not noticeably move the fuel gauge, climate experts told The Associated Press in an article published today.
----------
The horror, the horror: Despite all of the hoopla, C4C does little to effect climate change.
----------
The experts told the news service that the program - which was conceived to stimulate the economy, jump-start the auto industry and a curb the amount of automotive greenhouse gases entering the Earth's atmosphere - is not a good way to attack climate change.
"As a carbon-dioxide policy, this is a terribly wasteful thing to do," said Henry Jacoby, a professor of management and co-director of the Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change at MIT. "The amount of carbon you are saving per federal expenditure is very, very small."
Officials expect a quarter-million gas guzzlers will be junked under the original $1 billion setaside by Congress - money that is now all but exhausted.
Calculations by The AP, using Department of Transportation figures, show that replacing those fuel hogs will reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by just under 700,000 tons a year. While that may sound impressive, it's nothing compared to what the U.S. spewed last year: nearly 6.4 billion tons (and that was down from previous years).
That means on average, every hour, America emits 728,000 tons of carbon dioxide. The total savings per year from cash for clunkers translates to about 57 minutes of America's output of the chief greenhouse gas.
Likewise, America will be using nearly 72 million fewer gallons of gasoline a year because of the program, based on the first quarter-million vehicles replaced. U.S. drivers go through that amount of gas every 4 1/2 hours, according to the Department of Energy.
By Scott Doggett, Contributor
