July 2010
Obama Takes a Drive in GM's Chevrolet Volt Plug-In
By John O'Dell July 30, 2010We try not to follow the pack too much, but just because everyone else is gonna post this picture doesn't mean we won't. President Barak Obama got behind the wheel of a 2011 Chevy Volt today while visiting GM's Detroit-Hamtramck plant in Michigan. Even though he's the President, GM apparently still wouldn't let him drive without a chaperon - that's plant manager Teri Quigley riding shotgun as Obama eases the car off the production line. Hey, his administration loaned the automaker a few hundred billion bucks so it could keep going last year - a short drive in a more
Mercedes Begins Electric Vito E-Cell Van Production, Plans 2,000 for Europe
By John O'Dell July 30, 2010We mostly know Mercedes-Benz in the U.S. as a luxury-car maker, but the company is a big truck and van producer as well. The familiar Mercedes logo adorning the grilles of tens of thousands of commercial vehicles in Europe and Asia and has recently begun appearing on large Sprinter diesel vans in the U.S. Now the company has begun production of an electric-drive version of its popular Vito light van - a project first announced back in February. The Vito E-Cell, which is larger than Ford's upcoming 2011 Transit Connect electric van, is being built at Mercedes' Vitoria, Spain more
Calif. Regulators Rule EV-Charging Firms Will Not Be Regulated as Public Utilities
By Scott Doggett July 30, 2010The California Public Utilities Commission has ruled that companies that sell electric-vehicle charging services to the public will not be regulated as public utilities. Companies such as Coulomb Technologies, Better Place and Ecotality can operate without being regulated as an investor-owned utility, the commission ruled Thursday during its regular meeting in San Francisco. The decision removes a barrier on reselling electricity at charging stations and may speed up the adoption of electric cars, which will help the state meet greenhouse-gas reduction targets, the commission said in a draft of its order. At issue was whether suppliers of EV chargers more
Senate Clean Energy Jobs Bill Has $3.9 Billion for EVs, Chargers and Batteries
By John O'Dell July 30, 2010The energy bill introduced Thursday in the Senate has a pleasant surprise: $3.9 billion in funding for electric vehicles and infrastructure. Earlier in the week, Senate staffers briefing the media discussed only $400 million of EV funding. But the full text introduced by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., includes $2 billion for the so-called early deployment communities program and $1.5 billion for EV and battery research and development. The EV provisions were pulled into the energy bill from the separate, bipartisan Electric Vehicle Deployment Act introduced earlier in the year. Reid's bill, the "Clean Energy Jobs and Oil more
GM Announces Plan to Increase Chevy Volt Production Output by 50 Percent in 2012
By Scott Doggett July 30, 2010General Motors, citing strong public interest in the Chevrolet Volt, announced today that it will increase U.S. production capacity of the extended-range plug-in hybrid sedan by 50 percent, from 30,000 units to 45,000 units, in 2012. ---------President Obama at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant today.--------- The announcement came as President Obama toured the Detroit-Hamtramck facility where the Volt is being produced now for sale later this year. The expanded production capacity is the latest in a series of Volt surprises this week, beginning with the announcement of its higher-than-anticipated manufacturer suggested retail price, followed immediately by the announcement of its very more
LS9 Says It's Found Genes That Enable One-Step Conversion of Sugar to Diesel
By Scott Doggett July 30, 2010Researchers at the South San Francisco biotechnology startup LS9 claim today to have discovered a way to produce alkanes - the major hydrocarbon constituents of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel - in a direct, simple conversion from sugar. If true, the development could lead to a significant reduction in the cost of producing "drop-in" hydrocarbon fuels that are low-carbon, sustainable and compatible with the existing fuel distribution infrastructure. "This is a one step sugar-to-diesel process that does not require elevated temperatures, high pressures, toxic inorganic catalysts, hydrogen or complex unit operations," said Steve del Cardayre, LS9's vice president of more
July Vehicles Sales as an Economic Indicator
By Jeremy Anwyl July 30, 2010Tuesday the car companies will report sales for July. Our forecast is for sales to exceed the previous highpoint for the year (achieved in March) and be the best sales result since last year’s Cash for Clunkers spike. Sounds good, right? I’ll bet some of you are already wondering what’s the catch. Well, there is some good news. A sale is a sale and when sales are up, that’s a good thing. The twist is that we have gotten in the habit of looking at the monthly sales—particularly their seasonally adjusted annualized rate (SAAR)—as an indicator of economic health. Here’s where it gets more
Welcome to Just to Clarify
By Jeremy Anwyl July 30, 2010Edmunds has a wide range of communication channels; AutoObserver, Inside Line, the Internet’s largest new vehicle research site and a host of blogs. So why start another one? First off, this is not a forum to repeat what is covered elsewhere. Instead, I would like add something extra. The auto industry, like the world at large is wrestling with complex issues. Yet attention spans seem to be shorter andshorter. Our collective gaze flits from one “hot issue” to the next. Arguments are formulated with key points exaggerated. It has become routine to tie issues to emotive triggers as a lazy alternative formulating more
Firms to Team on Demonstration Tests for Recovering CO2 Found in Natural Gas
By Scott Doggett July 30, 2010The Japanese energy-construction-projects corporation JGC, Japanese oil corporation INPEX and Germany's BASF, the world's largest chemical company, announced today that they have entered into an agreement to jointly carry out demonstration tests on a new technology for effectively capturing and recovering carbon dioxide contained in natural gas. The tests will be carried out at INPEX's Koshijihara natural gas plant in Nagaoka in Niigata Prefecture starting next month. Natural gas often contains CO2 when it is extracted from the well. Whether the natural gas is transported via pipelines, converted to liquefied natural gas (LNG) or used in chemical processes, the more
Chevrolet Dealer: Want a Volt? That'll be an Extra $20K
By Bill Visnic July 31, 2010General Motors Co.'s Chevrolet Volt may be able to travel 40 miles on its battery charge, but early adopters might be in for a bigger jolt when they try to avail themselves of the highly attractive lease GM touted when releasing the Volt's $41,000 base price this week - it appears at least one of the 600 Chevrolet dealers due to take part in the initial rollout in December isn't planning on letting any Volts pass through his doors until buyers pony up a rather substantial extra "charge." Forgetting the electricity-related wordplay, it's what people in the auto business know more