The relationship between Americans (I can't speak for other cultures, but I suspect this at least crosses the Atlantic) and cars is a special one. The first bonding, if you will, comes as a teenager approaches the age of aquiring first a learner's permit, then a full driver's license. The cars from that age become special in the mind of the new driver, particularly those beyond the reach of the novice of ordinary means.
I was lucky, coming of driving age during what most automotive critics routinely label as the glory days of the 20th century for cars--the 1960s. Muscle cars reigned and quirky sports cars from Europe were available and we hadn't yet focused on the negative aspects of the internal combustion engine.
The names alone evoke the time. GTO. MGB. Road Runner. Alfa Romeo. Cyclone. TR6. Javelin. The list could continue for pages. That alone signifies what an incredible time it was.
Like most of my contemporaries, those enticing nameplates were well beyond my financial reach, but they remain to this day my automotive icons. My stories of the cars of that day, whether or not I actually got to drive them, continue to entertain succeeding generations.
But, I would propose that the driver coming of age this decade (2010-20) may have stumbled into a new golden age. It's a different time; in my day, the automotive discussion was all about performance and style and the currency was measured in 0-60 or slalom times, fuel injection and cubic inches. Now, the talk is as likely to run to grams/mile of CO2, esoteric battery chemistry or issues such as whether you want to own or simply rent a car.
The new choice is not V6 or V8, but EcoBoost or CNG, Clean Diesel or Plug-in Hybrid. The choices go on and on and will continue to expand in the coming years. Already in Brazil the typical choice for their tri-fuel vehicles is: gasoline, ethanol or CNG.
More choice will be confusing for many consumers, but I think the coming generations will embrace it, make it the new normal and help usher in a new era of glory days.
According to GMInsideNews.com, an independent website, General Motors will begin selling the Chevy Cruze with a diesel-engine option for the 2013 model year. It will be the company’s first diesel-powered passenger car in U.S. in decades. Workers at the Lordstown, Ohio, assembly plant where the Cruze is built were told about the diesel model last week (Feb. 15, 2010).
As news reports spread, GM officials quickly denied that this was part of their product plans, but their product chief Tom Stephens last year said the company was looking at adding a diesel engine to its passenger car line, so the story is consistent with those earlier pronouncements.
Because the Cruze is essentially the same car worldwide, GM could utilize its 2.0-liter diesel engine already sold in several markets. According to specs from Australia, where the diesel Cruze is currently sold, the model delivers 41 mpg with its 5-speed manual and 34 mpg with the 6-speed automatic—using the Australian test cycle. It’s too early to tell, but a U.S.-based diesel-powered Cruze could compete on efficiency with the current gas Chevy Cruze Eco manual (28 city and 42 highway)—while offering much better performance.
With well over 200 ft-lbs of torque (compared to less than 150 in the Cruze Eco), a model powered by a 2.0-liter turbodiesel could handily beat the performance of the 1.4-liter turbo gas in the Cruze Eco model, though at a likely cost premium of several thousand dollars. The key to the added cost will be the route GM takes to reduce diesel emissions in order to meet California standards and sell the model nationwide.
Think Global
Car companies are increasingly leveraging global assets to create common worldwide product portfolios. Toyota and Honda, as well as Ford and Nissan most recently, are using the best technology from their far-flung centers of expertise, bringing high-volume cost-savings along with the latest features. In Toyota's case, this has led to a global push for hybrid vehicles. Nissan is leading an all-electric campaign, and Ford is championing its EcoBoost engines as the most cost-effective path the building cars that consumers will want to buy.
With automakers planning an impressive roadmap of new efficient models, consumers will also have to expand their worldview by learning which alternative technologies best suit their driving needs. For example, while the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid can deliver 40-mile jaunts using only electricity, a diesel-powered Cruze might be the better option for drivers who frequently drive long distances. With an expected 40+ mpg rating on the highway, and power delivered throughout the torque curve—and most importantly a price tag that’s significantly lower than the Volt—a diesel Cruze could be compelling.
Diesel vehicles are well established as the fuel-efficient choice for the European market and elsewhere in the world, while carmakers have primarily focused on hybrid gas-electric technology as the high-mpg strategy for Americans. The potential introduction of a diesel Cruze could help break this pattern—and pave the way for automakers to mix and match diesel and hybrid powertrains, with some plug-in models thrown into the mix.
The distinctions between efficient gasoline, diesel, electric and hybrids are blurring in one other way: also according to GMInsiderNews, the 2012 Cruze will be get a push-button start, a feature commonly associated with hybrid and electric cars in the U.S., but now migrating across product lines to increase fuel economy.
A slightly different version of this story first appeared in Hybridcars.com.
BMW's Mini brand was used to market the company's first electric vehicle (450 total) in what the company called an "research phase" project. According to MINIUSA VP of Marketing Jim McDowell, speaking to a group of automotive journalists, "the Mini-E was a great experiment," but he put special emphasis on the "experiment" side of the description, saying the company had no other electric applications planned. Its parent BMW is moving to the Active-E 1-Series model next (another one presented up-front by BMW as a test, not a potential production vehicle) and also is committed to producing its Megacity electric car "in several years." McDowell said that they learned with the Mini-E that a bigger vehicle is needed to be a functional EV. When Mini created the Mini-E the added electric components and batteries used the original vehicle's rear seat, leaving it as a two-seat car with limited storage space. "You need space for groceries," McDowell said.
McDowell also told the audience that they "shouldn't wait for a hybrid" Mini. He said the added weight that comes with a hybrid system literally outweighed the fuel economy benefits of the technology.
On diesels, McDowell had a different story. "I'd love to have a Mini diesel," he added. The problem he faces is the current European diesel engine won't meet California's strict emissions, so they are working on a new emissions-compliant diesel for the next generation Mini.
A version of this article was also published at http://www.plugincars.com/mini-moves-beyond-ev-experiment.html
Last November, Sergio Marchionne and his lieutenants spent a long day laying out the details of their plans for a new Chrysler that would compete on all fronts, including cars that would challenge the coming plug-in offerings from around the world. Since then, an EV version of the Fiat 500 has made the round of auto shows (and set to go on sale in 2012) and they've announced a government grant-funded test fleet of plug-in Ram pickups due out next year. And, of course, the company still sells the best-selling EV in the world, the GEM (full disclosure, a former Mightycomm client). Other than that, the company has been silent on plug-in vehicle plans while it struggles to right its balance sheets and bring new volume product to market.
At the Detroit Green Car Conference last week Chrysler's senior vice president for powertrain Paulo Ferrero might have been expected to elaborate on the company's strategy for electrification, since other speakers from Nissan, BMW and Think would be talking about their companies' EV strategies that were already being implemented. His presentation did include a slide or two on plug-ins, but with no new information other than a commitment to "develop a range of technologies for hybrid/electrification across various platforms." Pretty vague and clearly not a commitment to deliver vehicles on a timeline in sync with the competition.
Ferrero's big surprise -- natural gas vehicles! Turns out Fiat has CNG powertrains in a full range of vehicles already in Europe (where government incentives and utility support make them an attractive option) and they might find their way over here -- along with multi-air engines and a variety of improvements to the engines and transmissions that promise to deliver a 25% overall fleet average fuel economy improvement for Chrysler's fleet by 2014.
This article also was published at plugincars.com. See www.plugincars.com/chrysler-has-EV-plan-it-says-so-42296.html
Who would have thought an odd-shaped commercial vehicle produced in Turkey would be the harbinger of the future of the automotive industry?
Believe it. The Ford Transit connect appears to be the prototype of the near-future of an automotive industry in transition. In a word, that future involves choice.
At the turn of the previous century -- the early days of the 20th century -- consumers jumping into the new automotive world had to not only choose their vehicle and its size, color, options, etc., but also the powertrain/fuel. At that time they had three basic choices -- gasoline, electric and steam. The three systems divided up the market fairly equally. Fast forward a decade as the country paved more inter-city highways and the slow, short-range electrics and fast, but complex steam machines fell by the wayside to the efficient gasoline vehicles (which actually would run on a variety fo liquid fuels).
So it looks like the Ford Transit Connect may lead the way to a similar time 100 years later. At the Chicago Auto Show, Ford introduced the electric version of the Transit Connect (as expected), but also showed a CNG-powered version outfitted as a taxi (an upgrade to the soon to be retired Crown Vics), which also could be a propane/LPG-powered. These versions will join the existing gasoline and diesel versions of the small commercial van that are currently on the market.
But that's not all. In their Transit Connect consumer brochure, Ford makes the point that they are working on fuel cell technology as the ultimate zero emission vehicle. Since they've been running much smaller Focus compacts as their prototype fuel cell vehicles and the Transit Connect can clearly handle a hydrogen tank (which is the same size as a CNG one), that would add another choice.
So the customer walks into a Ford dealership, ready to add this vehicles to his/her fleet. After settling on the color and options, the big choices come:
- gas (or maybe E85 capable)
- diesel (or biodiesel/renewable diesel)
- electric
- CNG
- propane/LPG
- hydrogen fuel cell
A whole lot more than choosing between a V-8 and a V-6 or an automatic or manual transmission. Welcome to the future.
Chicago is one of the four major auto shows in the U.S. (along with Los Angeles, Detroit & New York, chronologically coming third) and has the reputation as the biggest consumer show, drawing up to a million visitors from the metropolitan area to view the latest cars and trucks.
LA and Detroit were full of "green" cars -- electrics, hybrids, plug-in hybrids, clean diesels, fuel cells -- and featured fanciful concepts and soon-to-be on the market production versions to whet the appetite of show visitors. The media previews focused on the same vehicles and themes. The casual observer could be excused if he/she left with the impression that a major shift was on in vehicle propulsion and fuels. Not that there weren't the usual contingent of performance cars and trucks, but they tended to fade into the background of coverage.
Then we get to Chicago and it seems as those it's back to business as usual. Toyota introduces the new Avalon; Chevy a news Suburban SUV, Ford its Edge SUV and Honda its next generation Odyssey minivan.
Oh, everyone mentioned fuel economy (and how the latest models were better) and Ford also had electric and CNG versions of its Transit Connect commercial vehicle (and Kia even had a plug-in concept car), but the vibe of the press preview was decidedly deja vu. The view forward that was presented by auto makers was sharply focused on what might be sold this year and next -- and it was the good old internal combustion engine.
But in discussion with some environmentally minded friends at the show, we stumbled on an interesting statistic. A one mpg increase in the fleet average of new vehicles has an order of magnitude more positive impact (reduction) of petroleum use, greenhouse gas production and overall emissions than a million new electric vehicles on the market (a number not expected for more than a decade).
From there we got to talking about what can be done to increase the efficiency of the current fleet of vehicles (rather than just replacing them), noting one press conference at the show where Bridgestone claimed its new eco tires could increase fuel economy by 4 percent compared to traditional tires. Bridgestone Ecopia Tires
Of course, those tires are more expensive than regular ones (just like hybrid or clean diesel cars), but the consumer who does the math will find they pay back not only their extra cost, but even the whole cost with reduced fuel use. So, are you ready to spend more to save more?