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.
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The Progressive Automotive X Prize was launched at last year's New York Auto Show.
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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.
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Chrysler experimented with turbine power in the early 1960s.
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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.
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Mercedes B-Class fuel cell cars are being used in long-term road tests in Europe and U.S.
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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.'"
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.
