Economy cars

Hoboken’s Ian Sacs (right) and Juan Melli with a Corner Car. (Jim Motavalli photo)

HOBOKEN, NEW JERSEY–Fresh off the $1.75 PATH tubes from Manhattan, I am standing on a pleasant residential street lined with brownstones in downtown Hoboken, New Jersey with the boyish Ian Sacs, head of the city’s transportation and parking bureau. In front of me is a Toyota Prius, just like any other except for the fact that it is parked in a green-lined space…and just about anyone in Hoboken could drive it.

Welcome to Corner Cars, Hoboken’s municipal car-sharing program, undertaken in conjunction with the mainstream player Hertz Connect. Residents pay $25 to join, but they get a $75 credit which can be applied to reserving cars on a per-hour basis. The program, just a few weeks old, has 200 members and 42 cars (two-seater Smarts are the cheapest at $5 an hour) in the first wave. Corner Cars claims that three families so far have given up their cars (and four more have made inquiries about it), but as many as 750 could take that step soon, the program estimates.

With a light rain falling, Sacs swiped his smart card across the Prius’ windshield and it unlocked. They let me drive, so we cruised the dense downtown (45,000 people in 1.3 square miles) and saw Corner Cars (Toyota Yarises, Priuses, Smart cars) all over the place. We drove past Carlos’ Bakery, across from City Hall, and saw a line two blocks long. For cupcakes? It all became clear, when I learned that the bakery is the setting for the Cake Boss food reality show.

We even encountered a young bike rider who’d recently moved to Hoboken, with easy mobility being a factor. He was accessing a Smart car for his friend who was late for a job interview, and loves the program–especially the $75 credit after a $25 payment. Here’s the view from the street:

By Larry E. Hall

Volkswagen Touareg Hybrid

Volkswagen, along with other European auto companies, has long proclaimed diesels as a better green strategy than hybridization. True, diesels are efficient and practical, but in the U.S., they have a reputation of being noisy and smelly. VW has worked hard to overcome that image with cars like the Jetta TDI but now are apparently changing direction (although they still like diesels).

During a press conference last week at its Electronics Research Lab in Palo Alto, California, Volkswagen chairman Dr. Martin Winterkorn repeated the company’s electrified slogan: “In the future, the heart of Volkswagen will also beat with electricity.” And in an opaque reference to the original Beetle, Winterkorn told the gathered media that “Volkswagen is working on the electric car for everyone.” (We’ll report on VW’s electric car strategy on PluginCars.com later today.) He added that hybrid and electric vehicles will account for three percent of the German carmaker’s global sales by 2018.

The Roadmap

Winterkorn concluded his remarks by laying out the company’s roadmap for hybrid and electric vehicle introductions into the United States. First up is the 2011 Touareg Hybrid, which launches later this year.

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07/29/2010 – Xtreme
Power, a provider of Dynamic Power Resources (DPRs) for
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announced the close of a $29…

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The Porsche 918 Spyder plug-in hybrid debuted in Geneva.

Porsche AG’s supervisory board has voted to move forward with production on the Porsche 918 Spyder, which first turned heads at March’s Geneva Auto Show. The plug-in hybrid supercar has a top speed of nearly 199 mph, can accelerate from 0 to 62 in just 3.2 seconds, and comes with an astounding $650,000 price tag. The high-end carmaker says that it has received 2,000 non-binding submissions of interest for the 918—more than twice the required level of interest for the board to vote on production of a new vehicle.

The Spyder’s two drivetrains provide a total of 718 hp, with 218 hp coming from a pair of 160kW electric motors and the other 500 coming from a 3.4 liter V8 engine. One motor will be mounted to each axis, with the V8 powering just the rear wheels. The electric drivetrain will provide about 16 miles of pure electric range when the vehicle’s fluid-cooled lithium ion battery is fully charged—similar to Toyota’s Prius plug-in hybrid.

Like the Prius, the Nissan LEAF and other more modestly priced plug-ins, the 918 will come with a dashboard computerized navigation system that tells drivers how far they can go on all-electric power and where the closest public charging station is.

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Porsche says that the car will produce just 79g/km of emissions and get 78 miles to the gallon. (Of course, the method for calculating official fuel economy numbers for a plug-in hybrid remains a major point of contention within the industry and among regulators.) Since the 918 has four distinct modes—with each providing varying levels of performance and fuel economy—calculating its fuel efficiency is an even more complicated task. E-Drive Mode is the most efficient, with Race Hybrid Mode providing the gaudiest power numbers. In Race Hybrid Mode, the electric motors are used only for short bursts of additional passing power—meaning that fuel efficiency numbers plummet.

The Spyder isn’t the only hybrid that Porsche is preparing for release in the near future. The Cayenne S hybrid SUV will be released in the coming months, with Panamera S sedan following next year. Both will be equipped with V6 engines and nickel metal hydride batteries, with the Cayenne yielding 25 mpg and the Panamera nearly 28 mpg.

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Cars will dispense vitamins and helpful reminders

That’s the future envisioned by the people at Nissan, who announced today that their next-generation cars will be designed to make drivers feel they are better off staying in their cars instead of stepping outside.

Within the next two to three years, new Nissans will come with anti-collision radar technology; comfy “easy chair” seats designed by NASA, which are intended to improve blood flow; and air conditioners that spritz passengers with vitamin C, which helps prevent skin damage and wrinkles.

They will also have air purifiers designed by Sharp and smart speedometers that will remind drivers of upcoming anniversaries and birthdays, lest the driver forget.

Nissan hopes to capitalize on growing driver desire for value-added technology, the carmaker says. Cars are more than modes of transport, Nissan engineer Kenichi Tanaka explains: “The emotional aspect of a car has become increasingly important as customer needs diversify,” he told AFP.

The anti-collision system is similar to radar systems used in airplanes and ships, AFP reports. It monitors the distance from a vehicle in front and can prevent forward crashes at speeds up to 40 mph. It works by telling the driver to decelerate, then slowing the car by automatically raising the accelerator and pressing the brake.

Nissan has plenty on its plate with the impending launch of the electric Leaf later this year, but a focus on comfort suggests the carmaker is not counting on the Leaf alone to get drivers’ attention.

[PhysOrg]

07/28/2010 – The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) recently announced that
with only 700 MW added in the second quarter of 2010, wind power
installations to date this year have dropped by 57 percent and 71
percent from 2008 and 2009 levels, respectively…

07/28/2010 – Energy Secretary Steven Chu recently announced that the Department of
Energy has finalized a $117 million loan guarantee for href=”http://www…

When the Chevy Volt concept first materialized a few years back, there were a lot of questions surrounding America’s first mass-market electric car. While answers to most of those questions dribbled out over the last few years, GM remained mum on one critical aspect: price. But today it’s official: the Chevy Volt will cost $41,000 before a $7,500 federal tax credit, and the cars will arrive in driveways later this year.

Only 600 dealerships in Chevy’s “launch markets” – California, Texas, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Michigan and Washington, D.C. – will start taking orders for the Volt today, thought the first cars won’t roll off the lot until November. But that hasn’t stopped the GM PR machine from swinging into action, calling this a “historic day.” We’ll see. The Volt has competition arriving later this year in the form of Nissan’s Leaf, a full-blown EV that gets 100 miles to the charge and costs just $25,280 after the tax credit, compared with $33,500 for the Volt.

But Volt has its selling points. Though it only gets 40 miles from a single charge on its 16-kilowatt-hour Li-ion battery, GM boasts that the Volt performs beyond the competition because it contains a gasoline engine that can assist the battery for another 300 miles, arguably a very clutch feature to include on a car that is supposed to bridge the technological gap between the carbon fuels of the present and the all-electric future.

Considering most Americans keep their daily driving under the 40-mile mark, that might not make such a huge difference. The price, however, probably will. Even after the tax credit the Volt is one of Chevy’s more expensive offerings, not too far shy of an entry-level luxury car. As the NYT points out today, while there are 52,464 people across the globe signed up for an unofficial waiting list at the non-GM-affiliated gm-volt.com, those people on average are looking to pay about $31, 400 for the car. Hopefully cost won’t end up as the Achilles heel of a seemingly good idea.

GM plans to roll 10,000 Volts off its Detroit production lines by the end of next year, with 30,000 following in 2012. For those not interested in buying a car in that time frame, the Volt will lease for $350 per month with $2,500 cash down.

[Autopia, NY Times]

By: Steamboat L. Salter

Paint your own Rims? Who would have thought something previously done by professionals could be done in your own home.

While, the concept of painting your own rims has been around a few years now, many questions pop up of how to do it and I thought I would share my own experiences with painting my Integra stock rims. I have read up many examples of how to do this, but my first time trying was this year when I chose to refinish my winter rims. I was quite please with the outcome.

First, what the hell do you need to paint your rims? Paint of course :) This is where Duplicolor comes in with their wheel paint. They offer paint colors to match your style coming in white, gunmetal, classic silver and bronze as well. I chose to do mine in gunmetal leaving my lip the stock polished style look. So here are your options:

So you chose your color, bought your paint and are semi-ready. First, you need to sand down your rims. Why? This gives the surface a rough texture so the paint has something to adhere to. Reference the article to polish your rims on how sanding of the rims works. The only difference with this is how far you want to go. In my case, being winter rims painted I chose not to go through the process of stripping the paint on the rims completely. I simply sanded down the surface with 300 grit sandpaper ensuring to make everything sanded equally. This gives the rough surface required for the paint to adhere, and as long as your rims had no damage it should be good enough.

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General Motors announced today that the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid will be offered for sale at $41,000, or for a surprisingly low monthly lease cost of $350 per month (with a $2,500 initial payment.) The sticker price for the Volt is $8,200 higher than that of the $32,800 all-electric Nissan LEAF—though the two vehicles’ lease prices are virtually identical.

The Volt’s $41,000 sticker cost doesn’t actually reflect what early buyers will pay for the car—the federal government is subsidizing the price of both it and the LEAF to the tune of $7,500. That brings real price of the Volt down to $33,500. For California drivers in particular though, the economic attractiveness of buying a LEAF versus a Volt is even stronger—the Volt plug-in hybrid isn’t eligible for the state’s $3,000 Advanced Technology-Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle rebate for plug-in hybrids.

When Does a $41,000 Car Cost the Same as a $32,000 Car?

GM says that the apparent disparity between the Volt’s sticker and lease prices is a reflection of the company’s calculation that the vehicle will maintain a very high residual value after three years—significantly higher than that of the LEAF. Even if that is the case, it’s probably more than just a coincidence that the result of that calculation was a monthly lease that matches up so closely to the LEAF’s.

But there also seems to be bit of a hitch in GM’s residual value logic. If electric vehicle incentives are still being offered three years from now, will any original lessees be interested in buying their used Volt when they can get a brand new plug-in for almost the same price?

Remember, the $7,500 federal credit only applies to new vehicles, and is subtracted from the monthly payment of the original lease. That means that whether or not the lessee decides to purchase the car at the end of 36 months, the Volt will effectively come full circle—from a $41,000 car that leases for the price of a $32,000 car, to a used car that resells for the price of a $41,000 car.

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07/27/2010 – >SynapSense Corporation, developer of technology that
improves energy efficiency and cuts power and cooling costs in data
centers, recently announced that it is deepening its relationship with
GE by securing an investment and commercial partnership as part of a
focus on digital energy services, the Smart Grid and ecomagination…

By: sumitdadhich

Men improved their mode of transportation from early centuries to present era. Slowly cars were developed and so were their variety. From small size to mid-size, from a diesel engine to petrol efficient there was a major discovery that made the movement of men much easier. Cars were slowly transformed into a style statement along with its locomotive characteristic. Sporty Utility Vehicles (SUV) was one of major discoveries of this mastermind which was designed based basically on a station wagon but with a very light chassis.

The Toyota Highlander was the first car based midsize SUV, when it was first launched in late in 2000 in Japan. Known as the Kluger in Japanese and Australia, comes mainly in 5 seated or 7 seated configurations. It was an instant hit in no time as soon it was launched and became the sale success for its company. Created basically as a crossover by its manufacturer, it delivers car-like handling with smooth transitions, impressive and striking capability, and flexible and supple cargo options. The model fills many diverse roles, and does so affordably, making it an exceptional value.

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