August 2008
Daimler Taps Tesla Motors to Provide Batteries for Test Fleet of Electric Smart Cars
By Scott Doggett August 29, 2008The Financial Times Germany reported today that Daimler has picked U.S. electric carmaker Tesla Motors to provide batteries for a 150-car test fleet of battery-powered Smart cars. The Smart EVs, which will be made in England and sent to Berlin and other cities for testing, will contain lithium-ion batteries capable of propelling the cars 90 miles between charges. The article also reports that Daimler has teamed with RWE, a major German utility, to install 500 charging stations throughout the German capital. Daimler will eventually expand the test fleet to 1,000 cars, the newspaper said. Daimler did not immediately return more
Movie Volt Just That, Says GM: 'Not Representative' of Final Version
By John O'Dell August 29, 2008Maybe this will put Volt frenzy to bed for a bit. Spy video of a Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric car (or plug-in series hybrid, take your pick) posted on Green Car Advisor and other sites in the past two days shows a car that General Motors says was built especially for the movie "Transformers 2" that is now being filmed. While the purple-blue car in the video "does share some of the design direction" of the production Volt due in late 2010, "it is not representative of the final production version," said GM spokesman David Darovitz. GM, he added, more
Nissan Paid for July Sales, Share Bump, Edmunds.com Analysis Shows
By Michelle Krebs August 29, 2008By Michelle Krebs Last month, observers marveled that Nissan was the only one of the Big 6 automakers to post an overall sales increase in July, an increase that helped it garner record high market share. So how did Nissan do that when the U.S. in such a slump that even industry darling Honda, previously bucking the trend, went down with the market as well? Simply put, Nissan's sales increase and higher market share were bought and paid for, according to Edmunds.com's analysis of incentive spending for July. more
Bridgestone America Commits to National Lead-Free Wheel Weight Initiative
By Scott Doggett August 29, 2008Major tire maker Bridgestone America announced today that it will no longer use lead wheel weights. The company, which operates 2,000 tire service stores across the U.S., made the announcement at a joint press conference in Detroit at which the federal Environmental Protection Agency called on businesses to voluntarily switch to steel weights when balancing wheels and tires. The press conference served as the formal launch of the EPA's National Lead-Free Wheel Weight Initiative. The weights are attached to wheels when tires are installed to counteract the combined effect of tire and wheel weight imbalances that can cause the wheel more
Questions for General Motors' Troy Clarke
By Michelle Krebs August 29, 2008Is the current downturn cyclical or are fundamentals changing so that the market will never return to normal? We think there are cyclical elements of it and some structural elements of it, and we think there are more structural elements than cyclical elements at this particular point in time. When I say that, though, I'm talking about a market that should be running in the 14-million unit range, not a market that's running in the 12.7-million unit range... We think that is still somewhat of an anomaly...We think the market should be running probably just a little north of more
When Times are Tough, Drop the Top
By Michelle Krebs August 29, 2008By Bill Visnic It may be tough sledding these days in the heart of the market, with deep incentives on just about everything with an internal-combustion engine, but the sharply downturning U.S. market hasn't affected one of the industry's oldest niches: convertibles. Times may be bad, but as the summer winds down, many convertibles are more than holding their own in the showroom, led by a few new names but supported by some old stalwarts. The numbers are comparatively tiny - convertibles are a fairly extreme niche, remember - but data from Edmunds.com shows many droptops definitely are bucking the more
The New Competitors: India's Three-Pronged Approach To The Electric Car Market
By John O'Dell August 29, 2008By Nick Kurczewski, Contributor Unwilling to leave the potentially lucrative electric vehicle market to Japanese, European and - maybe - American carmakers, Indian auto companies are rushing to develop EVs of their own. The impetus is twofold: To combat gridlock and air pollution at home, and to cash in on global demand for cleaner, eco-friendly vehicles. The Indian firms will be joining a rapidly growing field of manufacturers looking to market environmentally-focused vehicles. Industry heavy-weights like General Motors, Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi, Renault-Nissan and Daimler all have promised to bring plug-in hybrids or battery-electric vehicles to market within the next more
Stop the Presses! Chevy Volt Makes Appearance in SoCal Movie Shoot
By John O'Dell August 29, 2008No sooner were the words out (see previous post ) than we were proven wrong: you won't have to piece spy pix together to get a look at the 2010 Chevy Volt - it appears to have a role in the upcoming action flick "Transformers 2," as evidenced by a spy video posted on the Modern Mythology comics fan blog Thursday and later picked up by the Transformers Live Action Movie Blog . The purple-blue car, clearly bearing the Chevrolet Bow Tie emblem, has "VOLT" emblazoned across its rear fascia, as the screen capture above makes clear. The action, more
Volt Interior Design Taking Cues From Apple?
By John O'Dell August 29, 2008If the leaks keep on coming, people with the patience to piece a pile of spy photos together will know what the Chevrolet Volt looks like long before General Motors pulls the tarp off the production model. So far, GM has allowed us to see bits and pieces of the front left corner, side-view mirror, grille and tail end of the Volt--- just enough to understand that the exterior won't look quite like the knife-edged cncept that was unveiled at last year's Detroit Auto Show, but probably won't come to life looking like the next-gen Malibu, either. Now we're more
Toyota Plans Pure Electric Car, Moves Up Testing of Plug-In Prius Hybrids
By Scott Doggett August 29, 2008Right, Toyota's E-Com electric vehicle. Five years after putting the kabosh on its rechargeable RAV4 all-electric SUV, Toyota Motor Corp. announced today that it's back in the EV game, developing a plug-in electric-powered commuter car. Japan's largest automaker also said that it intends to speed up testing of plug-in Prius hybrids, which will contain the latest advances in battery technology. The all-electric car will be "mass-produced'' in the early 2010s, President Katsuaki Watanabe said today in Tokyo without elaborating. Tests of rechargeable Priuses, previously set for 2010, were moved up to late 2009. Currently available Priuses can operate on more