September 2008
Feds Fund Rail Projects As American Commuters Drive Less, Take Trains More
By John O'Dell September 30, 2008Fuel prices are driving American commuters out of their cars and onto intercity trains, so the federal Transportation Department has decided to spend $30 million on an assortment of state rail programs previously ineligible for federal matching funds. The agency announced today that its latest cumulative mileage data shows that American motorists drove 3.6 percent fewer miles in July than in the corresponding month a year earlier. That doesn't sound like much of a dip until the actual miles are tallied: The department estimates that Americans drove a total of 254.5 billion miles (yes, with a "b") in July, so that more
Credit Crisis Plunges September Auto Sales to Uncharted Depths
By Michelle Krebs September 30, 2008By Dale Buss and Michelle Krebs Wheezing U.S. auto sales in September fell by 26 percent, coming in below one million units for the first time for any month in more than 15 years and prompting epochal comparisons to the dismal fall of 2001, when American consumers were frozen by the shock of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Overall sales for the month were only about 965,671 vehicles, compared with some 1.3 million vehicles sold in September 2007. In September, the seasonally adjusted selling rate -- the industry's most important interpreter of the sales picture -- fell to an abysmal more
VW Reportedly Developing Twin-Drive Golf/Rabbit Plug-In Electric Hybrid for 2011
By Scott Doggett September 30, 2008Volkswagen reportedly is running a 20-strong test fleet of plug-in Golf/Rabbit hybrids in and around Berlin with the expectation of bringing the model to market in 2011. The current test models are using diesel engines to extend the vehicles' 30-mile electric range, Motor Trend reports, but the production versions are likely to get gasoline engines to keep costs down in the face of increasingly pricey diesel-emissions regulations. Unlike the extended-range Chevrolet Volt gas-electric hybrid, which employs an electric powertrain and a gasoline generator that only energizes the battery pack, the VW's wheels will receive power directly from both the more
Small Cars and Hybrids - What Else? - Headline This Week's Paris Show
By Michelle Krebs September 30, 2008By Bill Visnic In the first major auto show since the bottom dropped out of the U.S. economy and the industry ponders a summer of dismal sales in both the U.S. and Europe, the Paris auto show opens to the media on Thursday, where the most prominent wares will be small, fuel-efficient cars and hybrid-electric (or fully electric) vehicles. What's it all mean? Consumers are downshifting their consumptive habits, and the auto industry is scrambling to adjust - particularly for the U.S., which unlike Europe has little experience with exorbitant fuel prices and the vehicles required to answer the issue. more
Toyota Develops Rear Window Airbag; Fuel-Efficient iQ to Get It First
By Scott Doggett September 30, 2008Ever since it first appeared in a Mercedes nearly three decades ago, the airbag has ballooned in popularity and its placement has come to include every side surface area of the passenger compartment save one: the rear. Thanks to Toyota Motor Corp., soon that will no longer be the case. The Japanese automaker announced today that it has developed a rear window airbag to protect the heads of backseat passengers in the event of a rear-end collision. The innovative airbag deploys from the roof lining above the rear window in the form of a curtain-like barrier. Together with the more
Eco-Driving Enthusiasts Get Guinness World Record 58.82 MPG Around the U.S.
By Scott Doggett September 30, 2008Eco-driving enthusiasts John and Helen Taylor set a Guinness World Record this month for lowest fuel consumption while visiting the 48 contiguous United States by averaging 58.82 miles per gallon during their 20-day road trip in a stock 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI. The couple smashed the previous record drive of 51.58 mpg -- and did so driving a diesel vehicle with a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rating of 30 mpg in the city and 41 mpg on the highway. The Taylors attribute their vastly superior fuel economy to driving instructions that can be found on the "Taylors' Tips" page of more
The Failed Federal Bailout and the Automakers
By Michelle Krebs September 30, 2008By Michelle Krebs No one is happy about the U.S. House of Representatives' rejection of the $700-billion federal bailout of the financial services sector and subsequent stock market crash - least of all automakers. In the short term, auto stock prices for almost every global automaker and their suppliers tumbled on the news Monday - some plummeted to record lows. No bailout means no end to the credit crunch that is keeping belt-tightening customers from even bothering to go to a showroom as September sales to be reported Wednesday will show. Longer term - and maybe not all that long more
'Green Challenge' Debuts With Hybrid Racer at Saturday's American Le Mans Series
By John O'Dell September 30, 2008When the American Le Mans Series Petit Le Mans event at Road Atlanta wraps up this weekend, one of the trophies to be awarded will be for the winner of a new "Green Challenge" race within the race. Favorites are the series' clean-diesel cars, but the first hybrid race car (left) since the Panoz Q9 GT hybrids of the late 1990s also is in the running. The Green Challenge is a new contest in which cars in the race are judged on green criteria including fuel consumption and total environmental impact. more
Buffett Puts Money Into Electric Car Market With Investment in China's BYD
By John O'Dell September 29, 2008Investor Warren Buffett's been wrong before, but it's a rare occurrence. That's important to note as we watch the Midwestern moneyman with Midas' touch plunk down a few hundred million for a state in China's battery-maker turned car company BYD. Buffett's MidAmerican Energy Holdings says it will pay $230 million for a 10 percent interest in BYD (it stands for Build Your Dreams), reportedly to help push the Chinese company's environmentally friendly automotive technologies. A lot of venture capital firms have jumped onto the green-tech bandwagon in recent years, but the entry of this unit of Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway more
Incentives Up from a Year Ago, Edmunds.com Reports
By Michelle Krebs September 30, 2008SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- The average automotive manufacturer incentive in the U.S. was $2,801 per vehicle sold in September 2008, down $1, or 0.04 percent, from August 2008, and up $444, or 18.8 percent, from September 2007, Edmunds.com estimates. "Although up overall from last year, incentive levels remained flat from August to September despite worsening economic conditions and weak auto sales," said Jesse Toprak, Edmunds' executive director of Industry Analysis. "The high incentive costs of heavily discounted 2008 models are being offset by the low incentive costs of the 2009 models entering the marketplace." more