Hybrids "Paying Off" More Quickly, New Edmunds Data Shows
By Bill Visnic
As gasoline prices go higher, many hybrid-electric vehicles currently on sale are proving to be even wiser investments, say new data from Edmunds.com.
Considerable past discussion about hybrids has focused on "payback" time, or the period required for savings from a hybrid's enhanced fuel economy to recoup the initial higher purchase price a hybrid commands. Detractors often claimed that, from a strictly fiscal view of hybrids, most vehicle purchasers would never save enough in gasoline costs to recover their investment in expensive hybrid technology.
But with every increase in gas prices, the hybrid payback time becomes consequently shorter - to the point where some popularly-priced hybrid models can pay back their owners' investment in as little as 18 months, according to the new Edmunds.com study.
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Chery Partners With Arizona Chipmaker for Hybrids, Fuel Technologies
Chinese automaker Chery Automobile Co. Ltd. is partnering with a Phoenix, Arizona-based high-tech company, Freescale Semiconductor, to build a research facility in China to develop hybrids and other fuel-efficiency technologies.
"Through joint research and development, Freescale and Chery intend to drive breakthroughs in next-generation automotive system designs," Paul Grimme, Freescale senior vice president, told the Arizona Republic.
Chery also has an affiliation with Chrysler that is moving forward. Freescale supplies, among other things, advanced automotive chips for the 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon 2-Mode hybrids. Chrysler is about to launch the same 2-Mode technology, cooperatively developed by General Motors, Daimler and Chrysler with BMW, in its 2009 Chrysler Aspen and Dodge Durango.
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Biofuels Stakes Rise for GM and the Nation
By Dale Buss
With its second major equity investment in a biofuels startup company in the space of five just months, General Motors is moving front and center in what may become a pivotal global economic development of our time: the rapid rise of the cellulosic-ethanol industry.
GM’s announcement on Thursday that it has made an equity investment in a Boston-based company, Mascoma Corp., is a bookend to its January deal to help fund Coskata Inc., based in Warrendale, Ill. The two companies, partially nurtured by academics, use two different processes to yield similar crucial results: the production of ethanol for fuel from non-grain, essentially waste sources.
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GM Partners With a Second Cellulosic Ethanol Maker
General Motors plans to announce Thursday a second partnership with a cellulosic ethanol maker. The automaker is providing no further details until GM President Fritz Henderson makes the announcement in Washington, D.C.
GM already has announced a partnership with an Illinois-based cellulosic ethanol maker, Coskata Inc., and last week said Coskata was establishing a pilot plant in Pennsylvania to demonstrate its innovative process of converting a variety of materials, from garbage to agricultural waste, into ethanol.
GM's partnerships for developing cellulosic ethanol come against a backdrop of increasing outcry for the industry to quit using corn-based ethanol, as food prices rise.
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Toyota Camry Hybrid Outselling V6 Models
By Bill Visnic
Yet another sign consumer interest is turning from horsepower to fuel economy: the hybrid-electric version of the Toyota Camry, one of the nation’s best-selling cars, is outselling V6-powered Camrys by a solid margin.
For March, Edmunds.com data indicate sales of the Camry Hybrid set a new record: 6,930 units, or a considerable 22 percent of Camry’s 31,310 sales last month. Camry Hybrid monthly sales eclipsed 6,000 units only once since the car’s launch, in May 2007, when the 6,853 sold represented slightly more than 17 percent of total Camry sales.
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Toyota Prius: Next Chapter Opens in January
By Peter Nunn
Imagine a Toyota Prius, but faster, cleaner and greener. Such a car is coming soon and will launch at the Detroit auto show in January 2009.
America has fallen for the Prius in a big way, no doubt about that. Five years on, through an extraordinary combination of style, engineering and marketing, Toyota's fuel sipping hybrid remains the absolute gold standard for eco cars in the industry.
The next generation, however, has all the makings of an even bigger hit. That's because it will be a touch bigger so offering more space. It will come with stronger 1.8-liter hybrid performance yet at the same time boast even better economy and class leading emissions, if early word is correct.
In other words, everything Americans like now about the Prius, including its unique design and crusading eco image, but in a 'smarter,' more high-grade package.
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GM Ethanol Partner Announces Pilot Plant
By Bill Visnic
PITTSBURGH – Coskata Inc., developer of a unique process that uses specialized bacteria to produce cellulosic ethanol – and with whom General Motors Corp. formed a partnership last January – announced Friday it will begin construction near here for the first production facility to demonstrate the process.
The demonstration plant, Coskata says, will start early next year and run 24 hours a day to produce about 40,000 gallons of cellulosic ethanol derived from almost any organic waste material, including agricultural waste and municipal garbage that might normally be placed in landfill.
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Strategies Changing Quickly in the Green Game
By Dale Buss
As Earth Day comes around once more, there are a few different scoreboards for tracking the relative progress of automakers in their attempt to win the green derby.
According to Toronto, Canada-based consumer-research firm BrandIntel’s recent survey of online discussion, for example, Toyota, Honda, Mercedes and Volkswagen have the most “green credibility” due to their hybrid and diesel vehicles. General Motors and Chrysler have been stuck among the least-credible because of their large fleets of trucks and SUVs and weaker lineups of hybrids and diesel options. Ford sits in the middle.
But several automakers are forging strategies for changing such scoreboards in their green credentials. A look at a few:
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Chrysler, Getrag Shift Into Drive for New Fuel-Saving Tranny
By Bill Visnic
Getrag Corporate Group and Chrysler LLC have signed the “definitive agreements” for the development, manufacturing and supply of Getrag’s high-tech Powershift automated-manual transmission earmarked for future Chrysler vehicles, Getrag announced earlier this month.
Getrag’s Powershift transmission incorporates the dual-clutch electrohydraulic components designed and developed by BorgWarner Automotive Inc. for its ground-breaking DuoTronic technology, first deployed in production vehicles by the Volkswagen Group, marketed as the Direct Shift Gearbox.
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For Automakers, Green Mantle Could Become a Golden Cloak
By Dale Buss
Toyota clearly donned it for awhile. Ford tried it on for size. American consumers seem to think it fits Honda pretty well these days. But no one covets it more now than General Motors.
We’ll call it the “green mantle:” a figurative decoration on the shoulders of automaker that tells the world, and competitors, that their company is the most environmentally renowned in the industry, both for their products and technologies and – perhaps even more important – in the public’s overall regard.
And taken particularly in the context of an annual worldwide recognition such as today’s Earth Day, it seems at least as important for any corporation to earn the perception of environmental responsibility as to actually be doing something tangible.
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GM to Introduce Buick LaCrosse Hybrid in China
By Michelle Krebs
BEIJING -- General Motors will begin selling the industry's first mainstream hybrid car by the time the 2008 Olympics opening ceremonies are held here. The hybrid system will go into the popular Buick LaCrosse sold in China.
Chinese production of the hybrid LaCrosse begins in June with sales following in July. Specifications on the car, which likely uses the same hybrid system as the U.S.-sold Chevrolet Malibu and Saturn Aura hybrids, will be disclosed at GM's auto show press conference Sunday. They did say the LaCrosse hybrid achieves fuel efficiency 15 percent better than the non-hybrid LaCrosse sold here with 15 percent lower emissins. Price has not been revealed though it will be higher than the non-hybrid model.
The hybrid LaCrosse is part of a grander GM scheme to go green in China, which if confronted with energy and environmental issues of monumental proportions.
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Toyota-Subaru Coziness Could Yield Retro-Corolla, Celica
By Bill Visnic and Peter Nunn
Normally stolid Toyota Motor Corp. hasn’t been shy in doubling of its stake in Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. and openly admitting the two will jointly develop new vehicles – including an all-new rear-wheel drive sport coupe on a dedicated platform.
Whew. Quite un-Toyotalike. This is the company that rarely “buys” anything or anybody, preferring joint ventures, particularly when it comes to vehicle development and vital components. When it decided to build cars with General Motors, Toyota bought nothing; it established New United Motors Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI) in California, which jointly makes vehicles for Toyota and GM.
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Chrysler, Nissan: Could More Product Swaps Be in Store?
By Michelle Krebs
When Chrysler and Nissan announced their latest model-sharing plans Monday, company executives hinted they were leaving open the door for further product discussions. The initial opening that led to the Chrysler-Nissan small-car-for-big-truck swap had been cracked in January when the two companies announced Nissan would supply Chrysler with a version of the Nissan Versa to sell in South America.
"We agreed to an open dialogue [in January] to continue to explore future product development and sharing opportunities," Dominique Thormann, Nissan's North American senior vice president for administration and finance, said in a conference call Monday. "And today is one milestone and a culmination of that intention."
One milestone? Could there be others? What could be next?
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Ford, Microsoft Find They're in ‘Sync’ with Young Buyers
By Dale Buss
One of the few highlights of the industry’s dismal sales picture in recent months has been the Ford Focus.
In an otherwise dismal month and quarter for industry sales, March retail sales for the Focus marked their highest level for any month since August 2005 – with retail sales up 36 percent in March and 35 percent in the first quarter compared with the same periods a year ago. Counting fleet sales, Focus sales were up 24 percent in March and 23 percent for the quarter.
The reason for higher retail sales, Ford says, is in large part because younger consumers were flocking to buy Sync, the in-vehicle connectivity system that has been featured lately in marketing for the subcompact car.
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Toyota, Subaru Are Becoming Increasingly Entwined
By Peter Nunn
TOKYO — Japan is buzzing with news that Toyota plans to raise its stake in Fuji Heavy Industries, Subaru's parent company, from 8.7 percent up to around 17 percent.
The story was broken by the Nikkei, Japan's well-connected business newspaper, has since been picked up by other media, not denied 
by either Toyota or Subaru.
Indeed, a spokesman from one of the companies admitted privately "the Nikkei got a scoop." All of which seems to back up the Nikkei's claim that Toyota will pick up 64.25 million shares in FHI for around ¥30 billion (some $306 million).
Ever since Toyota became the leading shareholder in Fuji Heavy Industries in October 2005 in the wake of the company’s hasty divorce from General Motors, many in Japan believed it was simply a matter of time before Toyota upped its stake.
So why now? Because up to a point, both companies need each other.
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Capacitors Get a Boost from Suzuki
By Bill Visnic
Battery talk has become favorite dinnertime discussion throughout the industry.
It’s been that way at least since General Motors Corp. started pumping up the volume about its Chevy Volt — a so-called “extended-range electric vehicle” concept car everyone wants to see come to production. But it won’t unless battery developers now working feverishly to perfect lithium-ion chemistry can whip up the right formula to allow the car to run for 35 or 40 miles purely on battery power.
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GM Says 40 Miles Doable, but the ‘Business’ of Chevy Volt Battery Just Beginning
By Bill Visnic
DETROIT — General Motors Corp. executives and engineers said Thursday they’re confident they can hit the ambitious target of 40 miles of battery-driven range for the company’s high-profile Chevrolet Volt “extended-range” electric vehicle.
What the company’s not saying is which of its competing lithium-ion battery developers — Compact Power Inc. (using cell technology developed by Korea’s LG Chemical) or Continental Automotive Systems (cells from Boston’s A123 Systems) — might prevail.
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Think City, the Electric Car that Could Change Everything
By Nick Kurczewski
MONACO -- Jan-Olaf Willums, CEO of Think Global and the driving force behind the company’s new electric car, looked like his own batteries were nearly flat by the time AutoObserver sat down to chat with him at the EVER Monaco ecological car show. Held March 27-30, EVER Monaco is an annual exhibition of alternatively powered vehicles and energy systems. After a full day of interviews and roundtable discussions, Willums’ eyes looked weary, his tie was undone, and he bravely tried to stifle a yawn as we began the interview.
Five minutes into our conversation, the fog had lifted and Willums had hit his stride. His eyes were sharp, and the professorial-looking automotive CEO made it clear Think will not be content to simply reignite interest in electric vehicles. Think wants to revolutionize how customers buy a car, how they consume energy and even how they interact with their vehicle.
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Citroën Shows Its Many Shades of Green at EVER Monaco
By Nick Kurczewski
MONACO -- With Citroën’s history of avant garde design and outrageous concept cars, we were surprised to find its stand at the EVER Monaco ecological car show as daring as a navy-blue suit.
Though many exhibitors during EVER Monaco, held March 27-30, chose to showcase vehicles loaded with high technology, or huggably cute city cars, Citroën’s surprisingly subdued approach proves alternative energy doesn’t always need a fancy wrapper.
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Nissan’s Electric-Powered Future
By Nick Kurczewski
MONACO -- Kazuhiro Doi can engineer you a boring electric car if you want it, but he’d prefer not to. As Nissan’s general manager and technology chief, Doi has the inside line on Nissan’s work in everything from electric vehicles to hybrids, and advanced safety features.
Under Doi’s leadership, Nissan developed a vehicle th at can detect when a driver is too intoxicated to drive. One of his latest projects is the Nissan Mixim, which was at the EVER Monaco ecological car show, held March 27-30.
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Venturi Automobiles: Homefield Advantage at EVER Monaco
By Nick Kurczewski
It’s rare that an interview has to be postponed for royalty. But as Prince Albert of Monaco made his way through the displays at this year’s EVER Monaco ecological car show, that possibility was business as usual for Venturi Automobiles, the world’s only Monegasque car company.
AutoObserver caught up with Venturi’s charismatic CEO, Gildo Pastor, to discuss his tiny company’s latest electric, solar, and even wind-powered automotive technology projects. One eye scanning the floor to make sure Prince Albert’s entourage was not approaching, he also provided us with a few tantalizing hints as to what lies ahead regarding Venturi’s push into the American market.
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Toyota Denies Japanese Government Helped with the Prius
Toyota Motor Corp. denied Wednesday it had received any funding from the Japanese
government to develop its Prius hybrid, The Associated Press reported.
Former Toyota executive and board member Jim Press, now vice chairman and president of Chrysler, had been quoted in the March 24 issue of Business Week magazine as saying, “The Japanese government paid for 100 percent of the development of the battery and hybrid system that went into the Toyota Prius."
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Sparking Controversy, and Confusion, at EVER Monaco
By Nick Kurczewski
The REVA 2.0 electric car proves even tree-hugging technology is not immune to the dirtier world of design infringement, and the confusing cross-pollination between Chinese companies and the electric vehicle marketplace.
Displayed for the first time at the EVER Monaco ecological car show, held March 27-30, the REVA 2.0 is a direct copy of a Smart Fortwo city-car. But the bright-yellow 2.0 on display in Monaco is actually built in China, while REVA Gmbh is based outside of Stuttgart, Germany.
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Chinese Engine Maker to Build First Diesels for Domestic Market
By Bill Visnic
Diesel envy officially hits China with the announcement from China Yuchai International Limited that it will assemble the first diesel engines earmarked for passenger cars in the Chinese domestic market.
China Yuchai, which said in a release it is the nation’s leading manufacturer and distributor of diesels, has broken ground for an the new engine-making facility for Jining Yuchai Engine Company Ltd., a joint venture formed between China Yuchai and domestic automakers Geely Holding Group Co. Ltd. and Zhejiang Yinlun Machinery Co. Ltd.
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Toyota Plans Research Institute Near Detroit
Toyota announced Tuesday it is establishing a North American research institute at its Detroit-area facility and plans to spend $100 million during the next four years on advanced research.
The Toyota Research Institute of North America initially will employ 35 researchers and staff in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Toyota already has a technical center, and plans to add 10 researchers this year and 20 more by 2010. Toyota hinted the institute will be used for its environmental efforts.
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"Green" Convenience Stores, Chevy Dealer Aim To Boost E85 Availability
By Bill Visnic
A Delaware startup company is fronting an ambitious plan to construct 1,000 “Go Green Station” 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 “develop, construct, own and operate convenience stores dedicated to supplying alternative fuels to retail customers,” 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.
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BMW Hydrogen 7: A Surreal World Trial Run
By 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 Prince Albert would have a Hydrogen 7 for a two-month trial.
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Turning to Turbo
By Kate McLeod
The clock is ticking loudly toward 2011. That's when Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations will mandate increased miles per gallon for light trucks and passenger cars.
We know automakers are working all the angles to meet these new higher fuel economy goals. Diesels are tough because Detroit doesn’t make them and the Japanese don’t like them — although diesels that comply with 50-state regulations promise to be on sale later this year.
Hybrids have proven they work, but they are a costly solution to the problem. There’s a third option: the turbo-charged gasoline engine. It is cheaper than diesels — which are themselves all turbocharged — or hybrids.
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Leave the Lamborghini at Home. Electric Vehicles are Big News (and Big Business) at the EVER Monaco Ecological Car Show
By Nick Kurczewski
MONTE CARLO, Monaco — Corporate raiders and business tycoons beware, the supercar-saturated streets of Monte Carlo are about to be flooded with environmentally friendly automobiles. But don’t worry: A weak American housing market, collapsed banks and the falling dollar have nothing to do with the world-famous principality’s sudden change from its usual chest-thumping four-wheeled displays of wealth.
The EVER Monaco ecological car show opened its doors Thursday; it will run through Sunday. Now in its third year, the annual green-car show is dedicated to all forms of transport powered by fuels offering environmental benefits. The show is proof that, even in the glitzy confines of Monaco harbor, Earth-friendly automobiles are making big waves.
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Sirius-XM Merger Clears Antitrust Hurdle
The U.S. Justice Department has approved the $5 billion buyout of XM Satellite
Radio by Sirius Satellite Radio, saying the merger of the nation’s only two satellite-radio companies does not pose antitrust problems. The two have plenty of competition from other radio and entertainment outlets now and Internet outlets will provide even more in the future, the department ruled.
The deal now requires the approval of the Federal Communications 
Commission. Shareholders of the two companies, neither of which has ever turned a profit, approved the merger in November. The companies say the merged entity will save hundreds of million in operating costs, which will benefit customers.
Consumer groups and the land-based radio industry opposed the merger.
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Saturn Pilot Program to Push Online Shopping
By Dale Buss
General Motors’ Saturn division plans to launch a pilot program within three months that is intended to allow integrated online execution of just about every aspect of a vehicle purchase that can be legally and physically accomplished outside a dealership.
AutoObserver has learned that Saturn’s test — with as many as 10 dealers nationwide — will allow customers to perform several functions on a dealer’s Web site that currently either must be handled in the showroom or executed only piecemeal online, including checking dealer inventories, applying for credit and scheduling a test drive.
The pilot also is expected to test ways to use the Internet to facilitate the evaluation of customers’ trade-in vehicles and to negotiate price using online chat and e-mail between dealership personnel and customers.
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Shifty Events from New York Auto Show
By Bill Visnic
NEW YORK — There was plenty of industry chatter this week about the connotations of the New York auto show. Chrysler LLC and General Motors Corp.’s Pontiac decided to headline a couple of muscle cars that raised hypersensitive environmental eyebrows, not to mention a handful of low-volume, less high-profile models that didn’t issue a particularly positive sustainability message, either.
Lost in the hubris over whether the likes of the Pontiac G8, Dodge Challenger and BMW M3 Convertible are politically correct endeavors were interesting developments in the greasy regions that could end up saving more fuel than a healthy fleet of hybrid-electric vehicles.
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New York Icon Getting a Makeover
By Kate McLeod
NEW YORK -- New York City’s bright-yellow taxicab is so entwined with the Big Apple’s identity that tourists put hailing a cab on their to-do lists, along with riding the subway and seeing a Broadway show. A cab ride in New York is a singular experience; it has character.
Now, it appears, the New York taxicab will be reinvented. The deputy commissioner for public affairs at the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), Allan Fromberg, recently released a request for information (RFI) asking for proposals to redesign New York’s taxicab fleet.
(Read more...)
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Edmunds.com’s Car Stock Exchange Off to a Running Start
By Dale Buss
Edmunds.com’s new Car Stock Exchange already is exhibiting some “natural resonance” with online automotive enthusiasts, which “suggests that it may catch on” for the long term, said CEO Jeremy Anwyl.
Less than two weeks after its official launch, the Car Stock Exchange — where consumers invest virtually in the sales performance of their favorite vehicles — “is running ahead of what we thought,” said Anwyl.
“There’s already a lot of buzz building that we didn’t necessarily anticipate right away. There are some small but rabidly loyal audiences (of car enthusiasts) that are already chattering about this thing quite a bit.”
(Read more...)
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Audi "Positioned Well" for Coming Fuel Economy Crunch
By Bill Visnic
DETROIT — Audi of America Inc. is ready for a projected shift in consumer demand toward more fuel-efficient vehicles, said its top technical executive.
At the recent Detroit auto show, Michael Dick, Audi AG’s member of the board of management for technical development, told AutoObserver, “I think we are positioned very well” for any increased focus on fuel-efficiency in the U.S.
“Our history is to make highly efficient cars,” Dick said, noting Audi and its parent, Volkswagen Group, were the first European automakers to introduce new-age, direct-injected turbocharged diesels to the passenger-vehicle market in 1989.
(Read more...)
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Automakers Flexing Their Green Thumbs
By Pál Négyesi
With the European Union trying to compel automobile manufacturers to reduce their products'
carbon-dioxide emissions to an average of 120 grams per kilometer by 2012 it is no wonder the halls at the Geneva International Motor Show were echoing with announcements of new technologies to help companies achieve this ambitious target.
(Read more...)
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Geneva Auto Show: If These are Eco-Friendly, Sign Us Up
By Bill Visnic
The Geneva auto show turned out as expected: It was a singular stage featuring fuel-efficiency and carbon-dioxide-reducing abilities as essentially the only act. Most automakers showed up in Geneva with actors capable of assuming roles in this new-age play. Those without the talent promoted the understudies’ virtue, that primarily being performance.
But what we liked most about the eco-positive hardware fronted in Geneva is how visually and intellectually appealing some of it turned out to be. In no particular order, our green favorites:
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GM Charged Up About Li-ion for 2010 ‘Mild’ Hybrids
By Bill Visnic
General Motors Corp.’s hybrid electric vehicle engineers announced at the Geneva auto show today they will have advanced lithium-ion batteries ready for the company’s next generation of “mild” hybrids coming in 2010.
The batteries, which GM says are being developed by Japan’s Hitachi Vehicle Energy Ltd., will improve performance and efficiency of the Saturn Vue Green Line and Aura Green Line and the Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid, GM sources say. Fuel economy, for example, will be some 15 to 20 percent better than the same vehicles with conventional gasoline-engine powertrains.
(Read more...)
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Mercedes "Breakthrough" Battery Developer Also GM Volt Supplier
By Bill Visnic
Our editor in Geneva, Switzerland, says this week's international auto show there is buzzing about Daimler AG’s reputed breakthrough in the development of lithium-ion batteries for hybrid-vehicle applications.
Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz unit is claiming the “first patented integration of a lithium-ion battery into a series-produced passenger car” when it launches the Mercedes-Benz S400 BlueHYBRID starting in 2009.
Mercedes’ 2009 rollout, in effect, trumps the earliest-known planned deployment of lithium-ion for production vehicles, believed to be General Motors Corp. for its own hybrid applications in 2010, and Toyota Motor Corp, also sometime in the 2010 timeframe. GM, of course, most famously promises its own lithium-ion battery breakthrough for its highly promoted Volt “extended-range” electric vehicle (E-REV), which also is earmarked for introduction around 2010.
(Read more...)
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Porsche Becoming Volatile Over CO2 Limits
By Bill Visnic
The globe allegedly is warming up, and so are tempers in Europe as the
Continent’s ongoing dialog regarding carbon-dioxide emissions is
beginning to draw some acrimonious battle lines.
If the questions hit the sore spot, the issue could provide fireworks
at the Geneva auto show, where CO2 is expected to be a prime
topic at nearly every automaker’s display.
(Read more...)
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Bush Comments Lend Another Boost to Cellulosic Ethanol
By Dale Buss
The politicians in Washington aren’t on the same page on every issue with the U.S. auto industry. But it’s increasingly clear the most important of them see eye to eye with some major automakers when it comes to cellulosic ethanol.
Remaining presidential candidates have made a point of touting cellulosic ethanol — which can be made from a number of sources other than corn — as an important alternative fuel. On Thursday morning President Bush added to the chorus of support at his White House news conference. He emphasized cellulosic ethanol as a crucial part of the short-term answer to problems of fuel pricing and availability, as well as a long-term solution.
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Fuel-Cell Experiment Misses the Bus
By Bill Visnic
Some cost and durability figures for operating hydrogen fuel-cell powered buses have leaked out, and from them it appears the best thing that can be said is it’s a good thing it’s a demonstration program.
To fulfill a California Air Resources Board requirement that operators of large bus fleets participate in a Zero-Emission Bus demonstration program, in 2005 the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority purchased three buses powered by early versions of fuel cells developed by Ballard Power Systems Inc. of Vancouver, Canada.
Green Car Journal reports a memo directed to the Santa Clara VTA’s board of directors indicated operating the buses has cost the Santa Clara VTA a staggering 32 times more than the overall running cost for comparable diesel-engine buses.
Cost per mile for to operate a diesel bus: $1.61. Cost per mile for the fuel-cell buses: $51.66.
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Hyundai Is Working on the Next Great Niche
By Bill Visnic
CHICAGO — Even before unveiling its redesigned Sonata sedan and a low-slung hydrogen fuel-cell concept car at the recent Chicago auto show here, John Krafcik was already talking about Hyundai Motor America’s next big ideas.
Agreeing the company appears to have most conventional U.S. market segments covered, Krafcik, HMA’s vice president of product development and strategic planning, told AutoObserver the company now is under way with an advanced-planning initiative to identify — or create — new market niches and evaluate the potential for Hyundai to develop appropriate new vehicles.
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Hydrogen-Powered Cars: 16 Million on Europe’s Roads by 2030, Report Says
A new report by the European Union (EU) estimates 16 million hydrogen-powered vehicles will be traveling European roads by 2030, dramatically reducing oil consumption but requiring lengthy and expensive infrastructure changes.
The use of hydrogen fuel is a realistic alternative to fossil fuels and could cut oil consumption by 40 percent by 2050, but infrastructure investments could cost the equivalent of nearly $90 billion (based on today’s exchange rates), says the EU’s research, reported on by Dow Jones Newswires on Tuesday.
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Sirius’ Boost in Subscribers Narrows Loss
Sirius Satellite Radio, which is offering its services in a increasing number of car models, got a boost in the number of people who subscribe to its service, which helped lower its costs and helped narrow its fourth-quarter loss, the New York-based company reported.
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Toyota to Seed More U.S. Research
By Bill Visnic
News from the U.S. financial media cites a report from Japan as saying Toyota Motor Corp. plans to fund several new advanced-research groups in the U.S.
Media in Japan are reporting Toyota will establish new U.S.-based research teams for alternative energy, safety and advanced materials. The company typically has engaged such long-term research only in Japan.
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Audi: Diesel Is the Practical Choice
By Michael Jordan 
Now that BMW has officially announced it will introduce a diesel-powered sedan for America, the German carmakers finally are making good on their promise to bring diesel to the U.S. as a clean-air solution.
BMW certainly isn't alone; Audi plans to announce the introduction of a diesel-powered Audi Q7 for the U.S. Johan de Nysschen, Audi of America's executive vice president, notes diesel-powered vehicles will play an important role in his company's attempt to expand its annual sales to 200,000 -- a long way from the less than 100,000 vehicles the company will have sold during 2007.
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Venturi’s Electric Eclectic, Version 2.0
By Nick Kurczewski
MONTE CARLO, Monaco — As the only automobile company to call the glamorous enclave of Monaco home, it’s no wonder Venturi has turned environmentally friendly vehicles into green-themed status symbols.
The second generation of the company’s successful solar-electric Eclectic model is due later this year.
First seen at the 2006 Paris auto show, the Venturi Eclectic certainly lives up to its name. Looking like a cross between a dune buggy and a lunar rover, its design evolved around the 2.5 square meters of solar panels on the roof. The Eclectic seats three, and when fully charged has a range of 30 miles.
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Are Customers Finished Buying Tickets to the Horsepower Race?
By Bill Visnic
The evidence is mounting. Big engines and huge horsepower no longer are the keys to the car-buyer’s heart. In fact, it quickly may become the opposite.
Installation rates for V8 engines -- the bread-and-butter powerplant for the horsepower wars that have dominated the U.S. market for more than a decade -- are dropping. And data from Edmunds.com extrapolating the purchase intentions of consumers actively shopping for a new vehicle show those potential customers are markedly less interested in V8 power.
Certainly, it’s a time of deep but swift transition for the U.S. light-vehicle market. At the recent Detroit auto show, there were numerous examples of high-horsepower wares, but they most decidedly were presented in modest tones, taking a back seat to whatever fuel-efficient and eco-friendly model or technology was available. The chest-thumping days of explosive, twin-Hemi concept SUVs are done.
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2009 Acura TSX: European Flavored
By Peter Nunn
TOKYO - Acura's redesigned 2009 TSX sports sedan has broken cover, weeks ahead of its official intro at the New York International Auto Show.
In what's shaping up to be a busy year for Acura, Honda's premium brand, this new TSX announcement comes just days after the revised 2009 Acura RL flagship was unveiled at last week's Chicago Auto Show. Acura has also said it will debut an all-new TL performance luxury sedan later year as Acura's model lineup gets a substantial revamp.
Indeed, John Mendel, executive vice president of automobile operations for American Honda Motor Co., had promised last summer that 2008 would be the year of laying out Acura's new direction.
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Acura Won’t Shy Away From Size
By Bill Visnic
CHICAGO – Honda Motor Co. Ltd.’s upmarket Acura division doesn’t appear to be afraid to buck indications that American customers may be ready to accept smaller vehicles in exchange for better fuel economy.
At the Chicago Auto Show, Dick Colliver, Acura executive vice president of auto sales, flatly said Acura intends to market comparatively large vehicles — and for that reason, amazingly has no plans to sell hybrids. Instead, Colliver said, Acura will use diesels to provide its customers with an environmentally responsible, fuel-efficient powertrain option.
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GM About Energy Solutions, ‘Building What Customer Wants’
By Bill Visnic
CHICAGO – Kicking off media days at the Chicago Auto Show, Troy Clarke, General Motors Corp. group vice president and president, GM North America, said GM, like the presidential candidates in the news, has a new platform in order to win the “vote” of U.S. customers. That platform: “energy solutions.”
Clarke said GM is determined to proceed with future vehicle-development programs that focus on “what people want to buy, not what we may want to sell them.”
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GM Duramax Investment Presages Diesel Power for Suburban, Hummer
By Bill Visnic
General Motors Corp.’s announcement this week of a large investment to produce a new variant of its largest diesel engine, one that complies with 
emissions standards in all 50 states, likely foretells GM’s plan to use the engine for the Chevrolet Suburban SUV, in addition to other large SUVs, pickups and vans already using the current 6.6-liter Duramax diesel V8.
Currently, even the largest versions of the Suburban have made do with GM’s gasoline 6-liter V8. The gasoline-engine Suburban 2500’s 12 mpg city and 17 mpg highway fuel-economy ratings appear to be an increasing liability, however — a liability diesel power could help to alleviate.
But there’s a new complication: Current federal Tier II emissions standards created a new category of vehicles — Medium Duty Passenger Vehicles, which, beginning in 2009, must meet the same emissions standards as every other passenger vehicle on the road.
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First Cellulosic Ethanol Plant Begins Production; Will Fuel Sebring Race
By Bill Visnic
Ethanol derived from cellulosic “waste” sources –- rather than the corn-based stock that produces almost all of the ethanol used today –- takes a big step this week, as the nation’s first cellulosic ethanol plant begins production.
The cellulosic ethanol plant, engineered and operated by KL Process Design Group of Rapid City, S.D., is located near Upton, Wyo. The plant processes soft waste wood into ethanol and is the result of a 6-year cooperation between KL and the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Cellulose is the primary structural component in all green plants.
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