Main page | April 22, 2007 - April 28, 2007 »

GM Plugs Fuel Cells into Volt

Following up on the high-profile launch of its plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt concept, at January's Detroit Auto Show, General Motors returns with an alternate take on the show car at the Shanghai Motor Show, according to thecarconnection.com. This Volt version uses a downsized battery paired with a hydrogen-powered fuel cell.

Posted by   at 10:10 AM to Alternative fuels , Companies , Design , Environment , Shows | Permalink | Comments 0

Insurance Institute issues report on vehicle safety records

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has released a report on the vehicles with the worst and best safety records on the road. The report looks at driver death rates by make and model in 2001-2004 model year vehicles. The death rate is based on the number of a particular model vehicle on the road in calendar years 2002 to 2005 and the number of driver deaths in that vehicle.

Posted by   at 10:06 AM to Safety | Permalink | Comments 0

Chrysler sale seen done by May

DaimlerChrysler wrap up a sale of its ailing U.S. arm Chrysler as early as next month, a source familiar with the situation said yesterday, according to Reuters.
Corporate strategy chief Ruediger Grube was in New York for talks with potential buyers, the source told Reuters, adding that a deal in May was likely but not definite.
The source said the talks would not produce a deal in time to present it to the carmaker's supervisory board this month. "This will take some time. There are a lot of aspects to take into account," he said.

Posted by   at 9:34 AM to Companies | Permalink | Comments 0

GM's global sales hit new record

General Motors said it sold 2.26 million cars and trucks – a record – across the globe during the first quarter of 2007, according to preliminary figures released by the company today, according to the Detroit Free Press.
The world’s largest automaker said worldwide sales for the first three months of the year were up by 67,000 vehicles, or about 3%, compared with the 2.19 million cars, trucks and sport-utility vehicles sold during the same period in 2006

Posted by   at 9:29 AM to Companies | Permalink | Comments 0

Diesel seen making comeback in US car market

Diesel is about to make a major comeback. Nissan plans to sell a diesel-power version of its Maxima sedan in the USA in 2010, joining a small but rapidly growing parade of diesel sellers, according to USA Today.
And Volkswagen says that, for the first time, it is developing diesels specifically for the U.S. market and will sell them in the USA first, instead of starting in Europe.
Together, those signal a new willingness by automakers to offer fuel-saving diesels in what has been considered an anti-diesel market.

Posted by   at 9:25 AM to Alternative fuels | Permalink | Comments 0

Ethanol-based fuel seen causing health problems

Emissions from vehicles running E85, or 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, are just as harmful to humans as those from vehicles that run on regular gasoline, according to leftlanenews.com which cites a new study directed by Stanford Associate Professor Mark Jacobson at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Jacobson argues that switching to E85 could result in higher ozone-related mortality, hospitalization and asthma because it could cause the ozone problem in urban areas to worsen.

Posted by   at 10:52 AM to Alternative fuels , Environment | Permalink | Comments 0

Two supercars that are beyond gorgeous and your wallet

Vote on two super, way-beyond-drop-dead gorgeous.cars that nobody's ever heard of - the Koenigsegg CCR and Spyker C8 Double 12 S - on Forbes.com.
The 806 hp Koenigsegg from Sweden gets 0-to-60 mph in 3.2 seconds and costs about $540,000; the 400 hp Spyker from the Netherlands gets 0-to-60 mph in under 4.5 seconds and costs about $325,000.

Posted by   at 10:34 AM to Design | Permalink | Comments 0

Oil prices ease on futures markets

Oil prices fell in early trading in Europe today despite expectations that weekly U.S. petroleum inventory figures will show the 10th straight weekly decline in U.S. gasoline stocks, with traders focusing instead on the likelihood that they will also reveal an increase in crude supplies. Increasing U.S. refinery restarts also eased upward pressure on prices, according to the Associated Press.
Light, sweet crude for May delivery fell 37 cents to $62.73 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange by afternoon in Europe. Brent crude for June was down 52 cents at $65.41 on London's ICE futures market.
Gasoline futures slipped 0.01 cents to $2.05 a gallon.

Posted by   at 10:31 AM to Oil | Permalink | Comments 0

Nissan to sell diesel Maxima in 2010

Nissan plans to sell a diesel-powered Maxima sedan in the USA in 2010, Nissan Motor CEO Carlos Ghosn said in a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington Wednesday, according to USA Today.
Ghosn said the diesel vehicle is "basically a bet that regulations will get stricter and fuel prices will get higher." He said the diesel-powered Maxima should get "up to 30% greater" mileage than a similar-size gasoline engine. And because it burns less fuel, it will produce less carbon-dioxide, a greenhouse gas.
Nissan is the second Japanese automaker to announce a diesel car for the U.S. market. Honda said last year that it will sell a diesel car in the U.S. in 2009.

Posted by   at 10:26 AM to Alternative fuels , Companies , Environment | Permalink | Comments 0

Heads up displays, anyone? Perhaps not

Alex Ion writes there seems to be a real interest in the auto world in the kind of heads up displays that pilots use in fighter jets - where instead of having to look down at the various dials, pilots read them on a a transparent display on their windscreen that does not obstruct their overall view.
However, for his list of pros and cons of the technology, see his article on Devicepedia.com .

Posted by   at 3:00 PM to Technology | Permalink | Comments 0

Push for clean diesel gaining support

As the auto industry moves toward more fuel-efficient, cleaner vehicles, there's a cluster of automotive, environmental and energy experts rooting for the diesel engine, according to the Detroit Free Press.
Perhaps their biggest challenge is to convince drivers that today's diesels aren't the slow, noisy, smelly diesels of the past.
A leading voice in that effort is DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group, which in January started producing its second diesel vehicle for North America. A diesel version of the Jeep Grand Cherokee will be hitting dealerships soon. It comes after the automaker sold more of the diesel Jeep Liberty than expected last year, Robert Lee, vice president of powertrain product engineering for DCX, told more than 100 people at the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress on Monday at Cobo Center in Detroit.

Posted by   at 11:50 AM to Alternative fuels | Permalink | Comments 0

Canadian parts maker said interested in Chrysler

Magna International Inc., a Canadian auto parts maker, is in advanced talks with DaimlerChrysler AG about a possible purchase of the money-losing Chrysler unit, according to an AP report in the Detroit Free Press. AP cited German newspaper The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung for the news.
The paper reported that the Aurora, Ontario-based company is in continuing talks with the German-American automaker about acquiring a majority stake in the Chrysler Group, but the paper did not name its sources. The paper said DaimlerChrysler would keep a minority stake in the U.S. division.

Posted by   at 11:46 AM to Companies | Permalink | Comments 0

Chrysler sale talks seen going on and on

The negotiations over the possible sale of the Chrysler Group are likely to drag on for several more weeks, despite some brave talk by DaimlerChrysler executives of making some kind of a decision by the end of the month, according to thecarconnection.com.
For one thing, it is now apparent that any deal will require at least some semblance of approval from both the United Auto Workers and the Canadian Auto Workers, which are both showing increasing signs of resistance to any deal that turns the company over to a private equity group, the Web site said.

Posted by   at 10:46 AM to Companies | Permalink | Comments 0

GM ramping up production and sales in India

General Motors plans to ramp up production and sales in India, one of the world's fastest-growing auto markets, according to USA Today which cited Chairman Rick Wagoner as he introduced a mini car to Indian customers with a competitive price tag yesterday.
GM also is scaling up procurement of low-cost auto components from India in a move that will help keep costs low at plants in other parts of the world, Wagoner said.

Posted by   at 10:44 AM to Companies | Permalink | Comments 0

All four of R.I. congressmen sign on to backover bill

Effective April 16th, all four Rhode Island legislators on Capitol Hill - Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, and Congressmen Patrick Kennedy and James Langevin - have signed on to co-sponsor the Cameron Gulbransen KIDS AND CARS Safety Act, that among other things would direct the Secretary of Transportation to establish a minimum visibility requirement behind all vehicles in the interest of preventing backover incidents, according to Sue Auriemma, vice president of KIDS AND CARS .
Each week in the US, an average of 50 children are struck by reversing vehicles - often in their own driveways - with two of these incidents resulting in fatalities.
The bills respectively are S694 on the Senate side and HR1216 on the House side. On the Senate side, the bill has been to a subcommittee hearing for the Commerce Committee and is awaiting mark up. On the House side, the bill is awaiting a subcommittee hearing.

Posted by   at 10:26 AM to Safety | Permalink | Comments 1

Auto engineers mull engines of the future

The Detroit Free Press reports that ashttp://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070416/BUSINESS01/704160362/1014/BUSINESS01 more than 35,000 engineers and executives gather in Detroit this week for the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress, one question will dominate the convention: What will power the car of the future?
The gas engine has dominated the U.S. auto market for decades, but gas-electric hybrids and diesel engines are gaining ground. Ethanol is being promoted as an alternative fuel, and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles are being tested in real-world conditions.

Posted by   at 12:36 PM to Alternative fuels , Auto industry , Design , Environment , Transportation | Permalink | Comments 0

Nissan seen heading down electric path

Could the electric vehicle be poised for a comeback? A new joint venture between Nissan Motor Co., NEC Corporation, and its subsidiary, NEC TOKIN Corporation, could pave the way for a new generation of battery cars, including super-high-efficiency hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and pure electric vehicles with far more range than the EVs California consumers snubbed in the 1990s, according to thecarconnection.com.

Posted by   at 12:33 PM to Alternative fuels , Alternative fuels , Companies , Environment , Technology | Permalink | Comments 0

Airstream trailers are still going strong

The first Airstream, the Clipper, arrived in 1936 amid a national craze for streamlining — in cars, in buildings, in toasters — as the brainchild of an inventor and travel promoter named Wally Byam. according to the New York Times in a piece dedicated to the famed trailer.
After World War II, as the highway system expanded, the economy boomed and Airstreams gained starring roles in Hollywood films, the trailer came to symbolize American-style travel.

Posted by   at 12:21 PM to Design | Permalink | Comments 0

Forbes' greenest vehicles

Check out a photo gallery of Forbes.com's list of 10 greenest vehicles. While most are gas hybrids, four are small, economic gas-powered cars.

Posted by   at 10:14 AM to Alternative fuels , Environment | Permalink | Comments 0

New breed of crash test dummies sought

An international consortium of nine automakers and two parts suppliers is asking researchers for proposals to develop "virtual humans" — computer programs that will help them design safer cars and trucks, according to USA Today.
The Global Human Body Models Consortium LLC says the computer models will provide better simulations of crash injuries than current crash dummies.
In an announcement scheduled for Sunday at the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress in Detroit, the companies say they have requested proposals from 40 research and university groups worldwide, and plan to create five centers of expertise for different parts of the body and two centers for full body models, the paper says.

Posted by   at 9:45 AM to Safety | Permalink | Comments 0