March 2008
Ford Reopening Shuttered Canadian Engine Factory; Could Be Site for New "EcoBoost" Engines
By John O'Dell March 31, 2008By Scott Doggett, Contributor Bucking its downsizing efforts, Ford Motor Co. said Monday that it will reopen a Canadian factory to produce a new line of engines. Ford will invest C$170 million (US$165 million) in the Essex Engine Plant in Windsor, Ontario, with an additional C$17 million (US$16.5 million) in support from the Ontario government, company and provincial spokeswomen said. The world's third-largest automaker closed the plant, affecting about 600 employees, in November as part of a broad restructuring that will shutter 16 facilities by 2012. Ford "will be committing a new engine to the plant," production will start "within more
"Green" Convenience Stores, Chevy Dealer Aim To Boost E85 Availability
By Michelle Krebs March 31, 2008By Bill Visnic A Delaware startup company is fronting an ambitious plan to construct 1,000 âGo Green Stationâ convenience store/fueling stations on the East Coast that will sell only ethanol-based E85 and other alternative fuels. Alternative Fuel Distributors, created last year to âdevelop, construct, own and operate convenience stores dedicated to supplying alternative fuels to retail customers,â said it expects to have 100 of the company-owned and trademarked Go Green Station convenience stores open by first-quarter 2009 in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Delaware. more
Why Is Honda CR-V Kicking Compact Crossover Butt?
By Michelle Krebs March 31, 2008By Kate McLeod It’s not often any competitor gets to kick Toyota’s darling butt, but Honda is doing it with its compact crossover CR-V. Last month, as overall U.S. vehicle sales declined 10 percent, Honda chalked up 15,694 CR-V sales, up 11.4 percent from a year ago February. The combined increase for the first two months of 2008 over 2007 — 14 percent — is a continuation of a record year for the CR-V, which sold almost 220,000 in 2007 making the it the best-selling SUV in America, a spot long-held by the Ford Explorer. Meantime, Honda reports March sales more
UAW Membership Falls to New Low; American Axle Strike Goes On
By Michelle Krebs March 31, 2008The United Auto Workers union reported its membership dropped below a half-million people for the first time since World War II. In U.S. Labor Department filings, the UAW said it closed 2007 with 464,910 members, a decline of 14.7 percent or 73,500 members from the previous year and more than two-thirds below its peak of 1.5 million members in 1979. It marks the union's low-water mark of membership since 1941. more
Edmunds.com Enhances Consumer Reviews
By Michelle Krebs March 31, 2008SANTA MONICA, Calif. â Edmunds.com has enhanced its Web site to make it easier for consumers to write and submit their own ratings and reviews of vehicles at Edmunds.com/carreviews.html. The changes affect pages viewed by millions of consumers on monthly more
BMW's Hydrogen 7 Gets Clean Bill of Health
By John O'Dell March 31, 2008Researchers at Argonnne National Laboratory have put BMW's hydrogen-burning V12 engine to the test and found that it is, indeed, as clean as the automaker has been claiming. The hydrogen internal combustion engine, mounted in a test fleet of about 100 7-Series sedans, is being placed with a variety of celebtrities, politicans, opinion-leaders and other high-visibility types around the U.S. and Europe this year to help raise awareness of BMW's alternative fuel strategy. The company, which has been developing the engine for years, has always maintained that, except for miniscule amounts of carbon and NOx, created by the heating of engine more
BMW Hydrogen 7: A Surreal World Trial Run
By Michelle Krebs March 31, 2008By Nick Kurczewski MONTE CARLO, Monaco — A hydrogen economy might still be a decade or more into the future but that hasn’t stopped BMW from continuing its real-world hydrogen trial run, courtesy of some surreal clientele. Prince Albert II of Monaco was handed the keys to a BMW Hydrogen 7 sedan at this week’s EVER Monaco ecological car show. He joins an elite list of roughly 100 celebrities and VIPs who have been loaned one of BMW’s Hydrogen 7s. The average loan extends from six to eight weeks. A BMW spokesman at the EVER Monaco ecological car show confirmed more
Time, Competition Rub Sheen from Accord, Corolla
By Michelle Krebs March 31, 2008By Dale Buss Toyota Corolla and Honda Accord are icons of the Japanese automakers’ rise to U.S. market dominance over the last generation — reliable performers on the road, steady draws in the showroom, dependably lauded by public and press alike. And the OEMs have just produced a new generation of each venerable model. But the long, long run of success could be nearing an end for both Accord and Corolla. Year-to-date sales are off for each nameplate more than for each OEM overall. Proliferating competition â some from sibling models â is squeezing them. Consumer consideration of Corolla or more
Tired of Battery Talk? How About a Flywheel?
By John O'Dell March 31, 2008Part 1 of 2 Parts This 1994 Chrysler patriot racecar concept used a flywheel for extra power. By Bill Visnic, Contributor Technology developed for Formula One racing has resuscitated decade-old talk of using flywheels as the energy-storage medium for hybrid-electric passenger cars. When the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the governing body of F1, quietly issued its 2009 technical regulations late last year, they included provision for F1 cars to use a "kinetic energy recovery system," or KERS. It enables the cars to recovery braking energy – as do the hybrids we drive today – and use it, on demand, as more
BMW Drops Gas For "Mono-Fuel" Hydrogen 7 Prototype
By John O'Dell March 31, 2008By John O'Dell, Senior Editor SACRAMENTO, Calif. --Those sly devils at BMW waited until today to drop the other shoe. Turns out the Hydrogen 7 that cleaned up in a recent Argonne National Laboratory emissions test wasn't one of the bi-fuel, gasoline-or-hydrogen internal combusion models the automaker has been testing. It was a new mono-fuel model, built to run only on liquid hydrogen. BMW officially debuted the car -- which looks just like the bi-fuel models -- at the National Hyrogen Association's annual conference here in California's capital city. The big differences are that the bi-fuel models have gas more