Steve Parker Motoring / The Car Nut

HYBRID, CLEAN DIESEL, ALT-FUEL TAXIS IN OUR FUTURE? MAYBE NOT ...

Cleaning-up the air is always in everyone’s best interest, and one big way to make an impact on air quality is for a community or city (or nation) to mandate the use of alternative fuels or gas/electric hybrids for public transportation and taxis. A battle involving these kinds of vehicles is shaping-up in New York City, and what comes of it will have far-reaching consequences for cities around the world – and air quality.

Back in the 1960s, I remember Life Magazine cover stories about the growing air pollution problem in the world’s big cities, including and especially Tokyo. Japan’s largest city  had what was then some of the world’s worst air.

According to cleanairnet.org,  in Japan, 260,000 taxis, 94 percent of the total number of taxis in  the country, use LPG as their fuel. The mandated use of propane resulted in cleaner air and freed Japan’s taxis from having to rely on imported oil and gasoline. These days, Mount Fuji, about 80 miles south of Tokyo, is often visible from the capital, a big change there from the ‘60s and ‘70s. (Above and below, a Toyota Prius gas/electric hybrid in line for fares at the main train station of all Japan, Tokyo Station, Steve Parker photos; Center, This Chrysler PT Cruiser is dressed for work; its small engine gets good mileage and is light on emissions, too, but don't know about stuffing 5 or 6 people and their luggage into one of these).

What’s at stake in a battle between all the principals involved – carmakers, a powerful NYC commission and other varied and interested parties - is the use of alt fuel and hybrid cars and trucks as taxis there, home to the biggest fleet of cabs in the US. In fact, There are 13,087 taxis operating in New York City, not including over 40,000 other for-hire vehicles.

The battle is all over the bulletproof plastic partition, mandated by law in NYC, which separate the driver from his or her fares, and its possible effect on airbags and other passive and active safety devices.

Toyota and Honda have issued outright warnings against using their hybrid vehicles as commercial cabs. In addition, Ford, General Motors and Nissan have refused to certify the crashworthiness of their hybrid taxis, modified with mandatory partitions. Instead, the automakers shifted that responsibility to the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), which has shifted it to the federal government -- which does not require automakers to crash test vehicles modified with the hard, bulletproof taxi partitions.

Click below for more on NYC cabs and why the whole world is watching this fight to make hybrids, clean-diesels and other alternative-fuel vehicles legal to be taxicabs in New York City ...

CLEAN DIESELS GOING FAST - BETTER GET YOURS NOW!

Clean-Diesels - They're Here!

Carmakers are blowing the dust off some of their oldest marketing plans to get we American-types interested in cars and trucks outfitted with new, clean-diesel engines. And some of those plans call for using racing to get "clean-diesels" into the minds of a younger generation of car-buyers who don't remember GM's debacle with diesel engines from 1978 through 1985; they're also using a modern-day version of the old "Mobil Economy Run" (remember that?) to make their point about the new engines.

(Above, Various Audi models, some with a 2-liter clean-diesel engine, others with a 3-liter model, ready for a cross-country trip; Audi hopes it to be a record-setting jaunt which buyers will remember; what's funny is that the skyline in the background is Los Angeles, where the "race" ends, and not NYC, where the event actually started; Below, VW has created an entire racing series to promote their 2009 Jetta TDI clean-diesel).

- At 9AM, October 6th, a fleet of 23 clean-diesel Audis were slated to leave Manhattan's Tavern on the Green (in NYC's Central Park) on a trans-continental trek demonstrating clean-diesel efficiency;

- Volkswagen has created an entire racing series based around their clean-diesel Jetta TDI in Canada and the US. Thirty factory-prepared and maintained 2009 clean-diesel Jetta TDIs are being piloted by talented, up-and-coming drivers, aged 16 to 26 (16?!);

- VW recently sponsored an American couple on a "diesel tour" of the Lower 48, and their Jetta TDI managed 58.82 miles per gallon, enough to get it into Guinness' Book of World Records. The couple (still married, a miracle of sorts in itself) took 20 days to cover 9,419 miles, and not using "slow as you go, hyper-miling" tricks, either.  They stayed within 5-mph of the speed limit whenever possible.

Having driven a Geo Metro from Hollywood (corner of Sunset and Van Ness, the KTLA/TV5 studio lot) to Las Vegas - and back - on one tank of gas, I can attest to how tiring such a trip can be. Unlike the couple in the VW event, though, we were hyper-miling as much as possible. And in a very stock automobile, even one with a 1-liter, 3-cylinder engine, we found ourselves drafting every big rig we could, making the trip at an average speed of about 45 mph. Maybe. Running several hundred miles on I-15, which goes through some of the most boring parts of the desert, is bad enough at 85; take it from me, you don't want to do it at 45. From 1990 through '94, the Metro was built in Canada by Suzuki.

Volkswagen's Jetta TDI clean-diesel is being delivered to showrooms now, and might even be found in some if a potential buyer is willing to work their iPhone to track one down (we can imagine executive assistants throughout Hollywood being so ordered by their publicly-green bosses). Will Leonardo pull-up to the next Oscar ceremony in a clean-diesel VW? Maybe an Audi?

This is no green-scam, but a reality. While these new clean-diesels keep the benefits of diesel engines, they also lose their sorriest and most-memorable negatives.

(Actually, that is a Geo Metro above, but one I shot with my iPhone as I passed an accident scene on I-10, somewhere in California's "Inland Empire," and while some might think the side of the road is the best place for any Geo, they are becoming, as used cars, favorites of the hyper-miling crowd; The second shot, below, more-closely resembles the 1992 Geo Metro coupe we drove from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and back on one tank of gas).

Click below for more on all the clean-diesels - cars and trucks - which will be in a showroom near you - and soon, too!

LATEST ON DETROIT'S $50 BILLION LOAN

As this is written, no decision had been reached, at least publicly, about the Detroit Three’s request for a $50 billion loan or loan guarantee from, well, from us. US Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) was at both recent political conventions, as were the heads of the Detroit Three, aggressively pushing this plan.

Remember US Sen. Everett Dirksen’s line about cash? “A billion here and a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about some real money.” Yes, this is real money. (Barack Obama has stated his support for a $50 billion loan package for Detroit's car-makers; Below, John McCain has said he'll support an amount closer to $25 billion).

As just one example: Detroit has to get very busy, very quickly, in developing their own versions of the new  “clean diesels.” Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and other European car-makers are bringing them to the US; their emissions so clean they’ve been approved by the California Air Resources Board, with the toughest standards in the country. Audi and VW will use the “TDI” designation for their new clean diesels; Mercedes calls their versions “BlueTec.”

Asian manufacturers are hopping on the bandwagon; the 2009 Nissan Maxima is available with a diesel engine option.

But clean diesels are just one example of where Detroit must play catch-up.

For more on the Detroit Three's real challenges, and whether or not they deserve any help at all from the public sector, click below.

CAR-MAKERS WANT US TO ALL BE "ECODRIVERS" - SO WHAT'S THEIR END OF THE BARGAIN?

If you think car-makers, especially the Detroit Three, aren’t interested in life out here in the real world, rest easy. A press release from a car-maker industry group demonstrates that they are indeed paying attention to the rest of us. While saying little to nothing about the future product they’re trying to design, build and market, they do offer some tips for we poor plebeians in a press release, something they’ve dubbed “EcoDriving.” Among their tips to drivers are knowing which oil to use in your car and don’t tailgate. And no, I’m not kidding. More on EcoDriving later.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (AAM) is a trade (read: lobby) association of 10 car and light truck manufacturers including BMW Group, Chrysler, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi Motors, Porsche, Toyota and Volkswagen. For more information, visit the

Alliance

website at www.autoalliance.org or www.ecodrivingusa.com . (Above, that's the engine for the Chevrolet Corvette, drawn by David Kimball; the latest, supercharged version of this powerplant produces over 600 horsepower. Pretty to look at, but not exactly a high-mileage model; Below, Las Vegas and other resort destinations across the country are seeing drops in their number of visitors, much of it due to high gas prices).

Never heard of the group? Possibly, but oh, you know it's leader.

From 1993 to 1998, Andrew Card (President George W. Bush’s ex-Chief of Staff) was President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Automobile Manufacturers Association(AAMA), the Americans-only car-maker lobbying group whose first, and only members, were Chrysler, Ford and General Motors. So to speak with one voice, and under pressure from overseas car-makers, the AAMA dissolved in December, 1998, then quickly reformed and returned to welcome all car-makers as the AAM.

This week, AAM has announced a new program called EcoDriving. What is EcoDriving? “A comprehensive, nationwide effort to save consumers money at the gas pump, reduce fuel use and cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Click below to read the release on EcoDriving ... and our opinions about it.

DETROIT THREE GO GREEN; NISSAN, TOYOTA TOO

(Bob Lutz intro's the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid concept at an auto show).

We’ve written about the European car-makers being the first to bring the new “clean diesel” technology to the US in another post. Now, a look at the near-future of the Detroit Three and Japan’s two biggest car-makers, Toyota and Nissan.

Ford has announced a new strategy for selling small cars profitably in the United States, relying on improved quality, comfort and new cutting-edge technologies and not so much on trucks. Ford’s small Ka, very popular in Europe, is being shown in US TV spots from Ford. Ford’s all-new 2009 F-series trucks will come to market two months later than planned. Alan Mulally, the executive brought in from Boeing to run Ford, now says the company will remain unprofitable through 2009. Ford has announced a new division to manage the development of cutting-edge electronics technologies in a bid to win over younger car buyers.

Ford also said this week it will sell up to $500 million worth of new shares of stock to buy bonds from Ford Motor Credit. (2008 Jeep Commander).

At privately-held Chrysler, its next-generation Jeep Grand Cherokee in 2010 will be a unibody platform with  a new fuel-efficient V6 engine codenamed Phoenix. This makes sense for a great crossover, but serious 4x4 users will balk at the use of unibody technology for the most off-road-worthy vehicle available at a reasonable price. And don't even get me started on the Jeep Compass, Jeep Patriot and Dodge Caliber ... All on the same platform, and all sorely needing separate personalities; haven't they learned anything from GM's 30-year experience selling the same cars and trucks under different names? Bulletin: It doesn't work anymore.

Click below for more on the Detroit Three's attempt to Get Green and news from Nissan and Toyota.

THE CLEAN DIESELS ARE COMING -- ACTUALLY, THEY'RE ALREADY HERE

Sometimes, it’s the incongruities which make covering the auto industry as interesting and exciting as it is.

For many Americans, maybe the majority of car-buyers, cars coming with a “clean diesel” or a “diesel/electric hybrid” engine might not make sense, at first. But they’re going on sale this summer, and as summer rolls into the traditional new car introductions of the fall (and remember how fun those were?), several Euro car-makers have a good chance of dominating the sales of vehicles with these new clean diesel powerplants.  (Above, Audi has won the 24 Hours of Lemans the past three years with turbodiesel power; two R10 Audis with V12 5.5 liter engines are shown at the 12 Hours of Sebring, Below, That engine, which makes over 600-horsepower, is seen below).

GM’s use of diesels in Oldsmobile from 1977 to 1985, were a low point for the company and their customers. GM thought that using a standard V-8 engine block and  modifying its top end to run on diesel would be a neat trick. Unfortunately it was a terrible failure almost from its start, and GM had to replace a lot of diesel engines with the company’s standard gasoline V-8s.

These new clean diesels have been approved for sale in California, the state with the toughest (and best) emissions laws. Until now, and since October, 1998, diesel engines were essentially banned in cars and light trucks in the state. California accounts for nearly 15% of all car and truck sales in the country, so not being able to sell diesels in California forced all major car-makers to stop selling diesels nationally.

But these new clean diesels, which run correctly only on the low sulfur diesel fuels now available nationally (and more expensive than gasoline), are cleared for registration in all 50 states.

Click below for more on which European models are selling clean diesels in the US.

IS YOUR CAR'S INTERIOR MAKING YOU SICK?

Ever wondered about that dreary film which builds-up inside the windshield of your car or truck? Not outside, which can be taken care of easily enough; inside.

For years I’ve thought, “Hey, that stuff probably isn’t too good for anyone, whatever the heck it is,” but unfortunately, I didn’t know the half of it. Turns out there’s more to it than that “new car smell,” that there’s a veritable bouillabaisse of toxic fumes being released by the many different plastics and other chemicals used in car interiors. (Above - Automotive assembly lines are dangerous places, with injuries to workers a daily threat; line workers and consumers should be able to feel safe about their work and the cars they buy, Below - It's the interiors we need to worry about, not necessarily the outside of our vehicles).

Folks of a certain age might remember TV ads for a liquid dishwashing soap called Palmolive. In them, a woman is at her hairdresser, getting a manicure. Madge, the manicurist, is regaling this customer with the benefits of Palmolive, and how it's actually good for her hands, as this lady's hand is in a bowl getting, presumbably, softened. The customer asks, incredulous, "Palmolive!?" and Madge the manicurist says, "You're soaking in it!"

Which is a long way of getting to this: That ugly windshield film? We're breathing it!

Now there’s an organization which is measuring these toxins and just released their second annual report on the problem.

The Ecology Center (www.ecocenter.org) describe themselves as a membership-based, nonprofit environmental organization based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded by community activists after the country's first Earth Day in 1970, the Ecology Center is now a regional leader that works for a safe and healthy environment where people live, work, and play.

Find out more, and see and download the complete report on car interiors and child car seats at (www.healthycar.org). For our purposes, we’ll focus right now on the autos, and on the child car seat ratings in a future post, but very soon. The reports are fascinating; they've even factored-in mpg-ratings so the the highest grades go to vehicles with both a clean interior and better fuel mileage.

Click below for more on the toxins which are found in car interiors, and a short list of the best and worst vehicles.

HYDROGEN GOES MAINSTREAM; OH, THE HUMANITY (SAVED)

(A Honda engineer, left rear, shows the couple who had just taken delivery of the US' first leased FCX Clarity, how to 'fill 'er up!' at a West Los Angeles Shell station recently fitted for hydrogen storage and pumping; the Honda dealership handling the lease is about three miles from this gas station ... What a coincidence, huh? And, yes, that's the car its-own-self, glaring at the camera ... You'd think Honda PR people would take better photos, wouldn't you?)

History isn’t usually made at car dealerships, at least pleasant histories, but last Saturday that’s exactly what happened at Honda of Santa Monica, CA, when it delivered a new car, unlike any other, and about which few people could complain.

Local Southern California residents Ron Yerxa and Annette Ballester got the keys to the first FCX Clarity hydrogen fuel cell EV sedan in America. About 200 of the vehicles will be leased over the next three years around the country. Southern California will have three Honda stores with personnel factory-trained to sell, deliver, service and maintain these truly groundbreaking family sedans.  

The timing of Honda getting their FCX cars on the roads of America couldn’t have been better. Just a month ago, a Shell gas station in West Los Angeles, just a few miles from the Honda of Santa Monica store, was outfitted with the equipment to store and sell hydrogen, one of about 45 places in the country where hydrogen is available to the public. Honda, at their US headquarters in Gardena, CA, also has hydrogen fuel “pumps” for filling-up hydrogen fuel cell-powered  vehicles. (GM's Equinox, a fuel cell-powered CUV which will be leased, at Chevrolet dealers; GM says Chevy will handle leasing and sales of all the corporation's coming green fleet).

FCX Clarity is, according to Honda, “a next-generation, hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicle. Propelled by an electric motor that runs on electricity generated in the fuel cell, the vehicle's only emission is water, and its fuel efficiency is three times that of a modern gasoline-powered car.”

The company says this latest-generation FCX will travel about 280 miles, or 74-mpg GGE (miles per gasoline gallon equivalent). “GGE?” Great, yet another abbreviation to remember.

General Motors will also lease about 200 Chevrolet Equinox hydrogen fuel cell EVs over the next two to three years, finding their way into government, university and industry test fleets, as well as some lucky private citizens. The monthly lease for Equinox and FCX Clarity is about $600. (The instrument panel in Equinox comes with the now-requisite nifty and just-oh-so de riguer animated screen constantly informing everyone in the car just how much gas they're saving, or is it hydrogen? Aww, forget it! See what Toyota started with that screen on the Prius? Next, a loudspeaker will be announcing mileage each moment to those outside the car, too).

There’s an old joke in the car business about the public doing the last million miles of road-testing for new GM products, but in this case, it’s more true than not.

Click below to find out more about the FCX, the Equinox ... and espeically how they plan to turn all that hydrogen into electricity!

DETROIT THREE'S FUTURE VEHICLES; SOON ENOUGH OR TOO LATE??

(GM EV1s in a parking lot at a General Motors facility in Burbank, CA, waiting, as it were, to meet their maker. The cars were produced between 1996 and 1999 and 2,234 of them were leased through Saturn dealers and Southern Company,a public utility power provider. In 2003, GM sent flatbed trucks to find all their EV1s, which were eventually destroyed, save for a few given to universities and probably some for museums, too. The repossessions created a firestorm of negative publicity for GM. Even a successful feature film, "Who Killed the Electric Car?" was produced about the EV1 story. Some believe that GM's intention for this first electric vehicle produced by a major auto-maker in the modern era, was for it to fail in the marketplace, proving that the technology was not yet ready for public consumption. Others now say they believe that GM's announced plug-in hybrid, the Chevrolet Volt, might be headed down the same path; we hope not).

Now that the government has called for increases in fuel mileage for the car-makers, the Detroit Three and several of the captive imports (overseas companies which have factories in this country) have started their predictable litany of complaints.

When John McCain’s (former) economic advisor Phil Gramm last week called America “a nation of whiners,” the first thing which came to my mind were car company executives.

Here’s what the government wants: that automakers achieve a 25% increase in fuel economy from the 2011 to 2015 model years.

Why and how do we find ourselves in this situation, where American companies seem decades behind their Euro and Asian competitors? This story goes way back. The early 1970s were bad times for American car-makers. First, the Environmental Protection Agency was created, and for the first time, car companies had to meet specific mileage and emissions standards to be able to sell in this country.

Those years also saw the first oil shortages, and Americans were, for the first time, found themselves waiting in line for gas and they didn’t like it. (Ford's Ka has been a hot product and best-seller in Europe for almost a decade; so, where is the US version of this car?).

As if the EPA’s creation and oil shortages weren’t bad enough as far as the Detroit Three were concerned, there was an even bigger problem on the horizon. European and Japanese imports were getting their first serious footholds in the American car market, the world’s largest. Many of these new, interesting cars and trucks had been developed in places where gas and diesel had always been relatively expensive, and they were immediately attractive to US buyers.

All this created problems for car-makers. But that was almost 40 years ago, which seems enough time for all of the Detroit manufacturers to develop cars to not only meet government-mandated goals, but even better them. (The Smart car, sold in Europe for several years, has had several aftermarket performance companies make engine, exterior and interior kits for the popular mini-car. This one is from Brabus, a German parts-maker; we think Americans would love a car decked-out like this).

Those 1970's imports were also making most of the products from Detroit seem old and boring. Snazzy new imported cars not only met the EPA goals, they often came with more standard features than Detroit offered (rear window defoggers and side-mounted mirrors, for two examples, which were then options on most of Detroit’s cars, if available at all).

Click below to read more about the future product we might expect from the Detroit Three and what obstacles there might be to these all-new cars and trucks.

SOLAR CELLS, MILLER CYCLES AND TURBO-DIESELS; MAY WE PRESENT THE FUTURE

Many news reports the past two days have been about Toyota’s intention to build the next-generation gas/electric hybrid Prius at a factory now under construction in Mississippi, scheduled to open in late 2010, which was originally planned for making the company’s Highlander SUV.

A lot of this reportage included the news that Toyota will use photovoltaic solar cells on the car’s roof to power the new Prius’ air conditioning system, making Toyota the world’s first car-maker to announce an intention to use solar cells to power an auto’s onboard system. In fact, my own first draft of the Toyota/karoshi posting below this one included that information, but when I fell into bed after posting, I asked my wife if she remembered something about Mazda using solar cells on one of their cars. (Mazda won the 1991 24 Hours of LeMans with this 787b race car ... No, really, they did! They just didn't tell anyone afterwards; plenty of racing fans still don't know about this victory. Mazda remains the first and still only Japanese car-maker to win LeMans and the one and only to win with a rotary-powered engine).

My memory is not as bad as I thought, at least my long-term memory, because when I got up today and logged onto the Web, I immediately did a search for “Mazda solar cells power” and sure enough, the company’s excellent but short-lived Millenia sedan was the first production car to utilize sun-power to run any on-board system. (Prius has been a blockbuster for Toyota; future models will use solar panels on the roof to power the car's HVAC and other systems; Prius' next-generation will be built at a factory still under construction in Mississippi, slated originally to build Highlanders).

I’ve always liked Mazdas and have owned several through the years, from an early RX2 coupe to a RX4 station wagon and a sporty Cosmo coupe (anyone remember that one?), all rotary-powered and tons of fun to drive, except when you pulled into a gas station.

I also drove one of the first, original RX7 coupes in the US, picking it up at an Oxnard, CA, shipping dock, fresh off the boat, and drove it south on Pacific Coast Highway towards Los Angeles for a photo session using the Pacific Ocean as a backdrop.

Those little, round and oh-so-very-smooth engines perform like a race car’s, just modified slightly for the street, but they used fuel much like a race car, too. Meaning a lot of it. And the news wasn’t so good on the other end of the cars, either, because rotary engine emissions have always been on the higher end of the allowable scale.

President Richard Nixon established the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, just as Mazda had begun selling cars in the US. The company and the EPA didn’t get along from the start. (Mazda's RX rotary sports cars have been favorites for amateur and pro racers since they first became available).

For the first time in automotive history, companies selling cars were being told how many miles per gallons their cars and trucks had to achieve and the amount and what kind of emissions a car produced were also now limited by law. To say this was a big change for car-makers doesn’t do the word “change” justice; this was absolutely the worst news possible for them, because they were going to have to invest billions in research and development and put all their engineers to work meeting the new rules if they wanted to sell cars in the US. This is the major reason US cars were so uniformly bad in so many ways from the end of the 1970s through almost the late-‘90s.

Click below to read more about solar cells being used on cars to power onboard systems, and the coming revolution in diesel-powered cars and trucks.

MCCAIN'S $300 MILLION PRIZE --- TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE

The Saudis have given their friend Bush another bitch-slap, just as they did a few months ago when the American President had to go begging to the leaders of the country we've been protecting from Osama bin Laden, something which Bush couldn't do for his own country. At this week's OPEC meeting, Saudi leaders say they see nothing wrong with the amount of oil they're putting on the market every day, and rather than turn Bush down completely, they embarrassed him even more by raising their daily number of barrels drilled so little that it makes W look even more ineffectual than usual. (One of the 747-SP 68 planes in the Saudi Royal Family's car pool. Yes, they certainly need OUR money, right? Below, John McCain wants you to make your own caption, Below that, Barack Obama in a cornfield, possibly talking-up ethanol, Below that, McCain and wife Cyndi).

I never thought I'd say this, but: John McCain has a good idea with his proposal of a government-funded, $300 million prize for battery development. OK, it's not enough of a good idea, it's not yet plain who is going to pay for it or who is going to benefit from it. But creating a $300 million prize (paid for, I guess, by all of us) for new battery technology which "should deliver power at 30 percent of current costs and have the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars" is not the worst thing we'd heard all day.

Right off the bat: Better batteries are just one problem in the development of electric vehicles, and the  Japanese are already doing more in that area than the US; in fact, Toyota announced just last week that they are building three all-new factories in Japan just to build batteries for their current and future gas/electric hybrids and EVs. Any new battery development is just one aspect, an important one, but just one part of developing the best answers for our transportation future.

Keep in mind, also, that EVs using hydrogen, methane or other, newer liquid or gas as fuel and using on-board fuel cells to turn that fuel into electricity, batteries are not even needed. See: FLYWHEELS ON 2009 FORMULA 1 RACE CARS ... AND SOON YOUR CAR, TOO on this website.

Meantime, Barack Obama, closely tied to ethanol interests, has not yet flatly rejected McCain's idea, which is something to say in itself. Obama believes a tax on oil company windfall profits should be placed into a fund to pay for the many new technologies needed is the best way to go, arguing that very little of what the oil companies are making actually goes back into the development of anything in the way of true "alternative fuels" and modes of transport. Hmmm ... McCain says "public money for private investment and development," and Obama says, "Tax oil company windfall profits to help develop the necessary new technologies". Now, again, which one is the conservative and which one is the liberal?

Obama is no angel when it comes to this topic. His reliance on advisors who favor ethanol's use is running into a big problem which he should have seen coming: Ethanol is no easy, simple replacement for petroleum in running internal combustion engines; in fact, its use and development for the future has already resulted in higher food prices around the world and the ongoing diminution of ancient rain forest in the Amazon and other places around the world, particularly in Southeast Asia, as corn and sugar beets and sugar cane are taking the place of the natural growth and environment. Want to grow millions of acres of that stuff? Use the now- or soon-to-be-fallow pineapple fields throughout the state of Hawaii, because most all of that pineapple production has moved to the Philippines. Home-grown --- what a concept!

When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was told about the possibility of an "atomic bomb" which might end WWII earlier than planned and save, perhaps, millions of American and Japanese lives, he threw the full weight and power of the US government behind what came to be called the Manhattan Project. Entire cities were created in the US with the average citizen knowing absolutely nothing about them or the project. When President John F. Kennedy proposed, to paraphrase him, "sending a man to the moon and bringing him back, safely, before this decade (the 1960s) is out," Kennedy didn't offer a prize, stage a contest or trot out some other sexy-sounding gimmick to develop the necessary technology. Like Roosevelt (who was, like Kennedy, a Democratic president), Kennedy understood the gravity of the problem and the best way to attack it, and put his then-Vice President, Lyndon Baines Johnson in charge of NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration, founded in 1958) and the project. LBJ took the assignment seriously, both initially and after he became US President. Whatever NASA needed, Johnson and the federal government delivered and the program, of course, was a near-total success.

Creating transportation systems of the near-, mid- and far-future is a job which only the tremendous power and weight of the US government, and perhaps other governments, too, can take-on.

Spending $3 BILLION A WEEK in Iraq (and we haven't even invaded Iran, yet) is not going to develop these cars and trucks for us, and our country is not even getting the "benefits" of Iraqi oil which we were told were going to allow Iraq to "pay its own way" as we toppled their government, installed a new one, and made everyone there happy, throwing roses petals at the feet of our invadi, uh, we meant liberating armed forces.

(California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger takes a look at an electric vehicle, the Tesla, at a Santa Monica, CA, airplane hanger two years ago).

Click below for more on the REALITY of the McCain $300 million battery contest ...

BIG GREEN NEWS: FIRST HONDA FCX CLARITY HYDROGEN FUEL CELL EV CUSTOMERS ANNOUNCED

Honda today, June 16, 2008, took the first steps, in Japan, in leasing their FCX Clarity hydrogen fuel cell EV sedan to five Americans and creating the world's first "network" of dealers with the ability to service and repair the first true 21st century vehicles. (Photo - Clarity's world intro was at the Los Angeles Auto Show; Honda's Asimo robot is seen on-screen above car).

Whether or not the ubiquitous Honda robot, Asimo, had a part in the ceremony at the Honda HQ isn't known.

But it's a history-making event; for all the news Toyota and General Motors have made the past few years about developing gas/electric hybrids and fuel cell EVs, Honda has beat them to the PR punch. They were also first in creating a second-sales channel (Acura) in the US for luxury-oriented cars, again proving the adage that Honda is the most progressive of Japanese car-makers. Here's the press release, directly from Honda:

American Honda has announced five of the first customers for its advanced new FCX Clarity hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicle and also provided details of the world's first fuel cell vehicle dealership network in the United States. The announcements were made during a ceremony for the start of FCX Clarity production at the world's first dedicated fuel cell vehicle manufacturing facility in Japan. (Photos - Honda execs and two of the five "early adaptors" chosen by Honda to receive some of the first FCX Clarity sedans; Below, Clarity's interior).

Film producer Ron Yerxa will take delivery of the first FCX Clarity in July. The remaining four early adopters  for Honda's next-generation fuel cell vehicle are author and actress Jamie Lee Curtis and her filmmaker husband Christopher Guest; business owner and car enthusiast Jim Salomon; actress Laura Harris; and Jon Spallino, already the world's first retail fuel cell vehicle customer, who has been leasing the current generation FCX since 2005. Yerxa, Harris and Spallino attended the event in Japan.

To provide its customers with outstanding sales and service support and as a critical step in advancing fuel cell vehicles in the real world, American Honda announced the establishment of the first network of dealers to facilitate the sales and service of fuel cell vehicles. The three Southern California Honda dealers are Power Honda Costa Mesa (Costa Mesa), Honda of Santa Monica (Santa Monica) and Scott Robinson Honda (Torrance).

American Honda is working with its dealer partners to implement processes for fuel cell vehicle lease, delivery and service support for the duration of their leases. Establishing a dedicated sales network and service infrastructure provides customers with the best balance of convenience and the highest quality of service. When the FCX Clarity requires periodic maintenance, customers will simply schedule a visit with their local FCX Clarity dealer. (Photo - FCX Clarity being built in Japan).

American Honda will perform all required work at its specialized fuel cell service facility, in the greater Los Angeles area. Upon completion of the work, the dealer will return the vehicle to the customer.American Honda is working with its dealer partners to implement processes for fuel cell vehicle lease, delivery and service support for the duration of their leases. Establishing a dedicated sales network and service infrastructure provides customers with the best balance of convenience and the highest quality of service. When the FCX Clarity requires periodic maintenance, customers will simply schedule a visit with their local FCX Clarity dealer. (End of Honda release).

OK, apart from the very positive feelings engendered by this announcement, a couple of other thoughts: First, involving show business-types as three of the first five "early adopters" may not go over as well in the US as it might in Japan; secondly, Honda should have staged this event in their US headquarters in Gardena, CA, and third, while the emphasis on Southern California people, places and dealerships is understood to be necessary, Honda would have done well to involve FCX Clarity-intenders from other parts of the US. (Photo - Rear running shot of FCX Clarity).

If we remember right, during the first few years Saturns were sold in the US and the GM division was  heavily promoting the company's desire to take the best care possible of their customers, Saturn mechanics would on occasion fly to the ends of the earth to service customer cars. We remember one case of a Saturn wrench flying to Alaska to service a customer's car, and Saturn made a TV commercial about that event and it garnered them a lot of positive feedback and brought new customers into their stores all over the country.

Certainly FCX Clarity cars are nowhere near as numerous as Saturns were in their early days; in fact, four of the five FCX fuel cell sedans for its first group of five customers probably haven't even been built yet. But spreading the cars around the country a bit might have been a great way to begin the leasing of FCX Clarity EVs in the US and is no doubt something which Honda will attempt as soon as they think it makes sense for them.

In any event, big-time props to Honda for beating some much bigger competitors to the finish line in this, the very first "race" of putting hydrogen-powered fuel cell EVs into the hands of the American public.

(Photo - Fuel cell stacks being manufactured at Honda facility; we wonder if the robot is a cousin or friend of Asimo).

For first official factory specifications on Honda's FCX Clarity, click below.

DIESELS PLACE 1-2-3-4-5-6 AT LEMANS

Another crucial step in the coming renewed sales and marketing of diesel-powered cars and light trucks in the US for the first time in many years took another huge step forward in France this weekend, as turbo-diesel V12 race cars filled the top six finishing positions at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The winning car was entered by Audi Sport North America, and not Audi's German factory affiliate, Audi Sport Team Joest (Photo - Above, red/silver car pictured; Below, Peugeot's turbo-diesel 908HDi at Sebring in 2007) .

Whether or not Audi and Peugeot decide to make a serious effort to educate American car-buyers about their diesel race-winners remains to be seen, but we think it should be a given that they spend millions promoting their victory. In Peugeot's case, they had a second-place last year, their first try at the LeMans 24 Hour with their 908 turbodiesel, this year called the 908 Hdi-FAP. This year, their repeat second-place finish and being 3 of the top 6 finishers is worth letting the world know about, too. The two Audi and Peugeot winners, which finished on the same lap, completed just over 3,231 miles when the checkered flag waved.

Let someone in the US argue with the endurance and power of diesel engines; if Audi and Peugeot do their marketing job right, Americans will be singing the praises of diesel engines when Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and of course Audi and possibly Peugeot bring their oil-burners to this country beginning in late summer, 2008.

But we always think back to 1991, when Mazda won the LeMans 24 Hour with a rotary-powered car in the LeMans Prototype class, the same in which Audi and Peugeot were entered this week, and Mazda completely neglected promoting their vctory afterwards. It was the first time a rotary-powered car had won LeMans and the first time a Japanese company had won the race. Mazda, though, did nil when it came to marketing and advertising their victory, which means all the money spent on the race car was essentially wasted. We hope Audi and Peugeot have both learned from Mazda's mistakes.

Audi claimed their third diesel-powered victory and their eighth win in a row in the event, joined on the podium again this year by Peugeot, whose own diesel racers drew away from the field early, but then succumbed to numerous problems only typical of this unique 4pm to 4pm race, which was, as is nearly invariable, visited by rain showers. One of Peugeot's multi-million dollar race cars was sidelined for a time after hitting a bird. (Photo - Mazda's 787B which won LeMans in 1991 was both the first Japanese car and the first car with a rotary engine to win at the 24 Hours of LeMans. Never knew that? Neither does anyone else ... Mazda never advertised or promoted their victory).

The race track, which combines dedicated racing surfaces as well as roads used on a daily basis by the  public, and of course closed for race week, is 8.481 miles in length. The track's longest straight portion, the Mulsanne Straight, was broken into two sections by a chicane years ago to slow the cars.

Because of the serious battle expected between the Audi and Peugeot turbodiesel teams, most if not all of the world's top sports car endurance pilots spent their weekend jumping in and out of the 200+ mph race cars which, in 24 hours, saw the first and second place finishers both complete 381 laps. The second-place Peugeot finished the race just short of 5 minutes behind the winning Audi; the third-place Peugeot was 2 laps behind the winners and the fourth-placing Audi was 7 laps behind the two top finishers. The next Peugeot and Audi were 13 and 14 laps, respectively, behind the event-winning Audi. (Photo - Corvette C6-R leads a Ferrari F430).

In this second LeMans 24 Hour in which the two top contending teams, Audi and Peugeot, were both  powered by 12-cylinder 5.5-liter turbo-charged diesel engines, Audi came out on top for their third-year-in-a-row diesel win and Peugeot placed second overall again in what is considered to be the toughest and most demanding sports car race in the world.

Here are the top ten finishers overall and in class. Rather than just glossing-over the list, take a minute and really look at the names ... Jacques Villeneuve ... Rinaldo Capello ... Pedro Lamy ... Ron Fellows ... This is big-time stuff! This list includes the LMP1 cars, the fastest; the first LMP2 finished in tenth place, the Van Merkstein Motorsport Porsche RS Spyder:

1. Tom Kristensen, Rinaldo Capello, Allan McNish; Audi No. 2, 381 laps.

2. Jacques Villeneuve, Marc Gene, Nicolas Minassian; Peugeot No. 7, 381.

3. Franck Montagny, Christian Klien, Ricardo Zonta; Peugeot No. 9, 379.

4. Lucas Luhr, Mike Rockenfeller, Alexandre Premat; Audi No. 3, 374.

5. Pedro Lamy, Stephane Sarrazin, Alexander Wurz; Peugeot No. 8, 368.

6. Frank Biela, Marco Werner, Emanuele Pirro, Italy; Audi No. 1, 367.

7. Harold Primat, Christophe Pinseau; Benoit Treluyer, France; Pescarolo Judd No. 17, 362.

8. Soheil Ayari, Loic Duval, Laurent Groppi; Courage-Oreca Judd No. 5, 357.

9. Tomas Enge, Jan Charouz, Stefan Mucke; Lola Aston Martin No. 10, 354.

10. Peter Van Merksteijn, Jos Verstappen, Jeroen Bleekemolen; Porsche RS Spyder No. 34, 354.

The second finisher in the LMP2 class was another Porsche RS spyder, entered by Team Essex and driven by Elgaard, Nielsen and Maassen. (Photo - Above, Audi LeMans Concept at 2003 Tokyo Motor Show, which eventually became the Audi R8; Below, Ferrari F43).

An Aston Martin DBR9 took first in LMGT1 and 13th overall, much to the consternation of two Corvette C6-R racers driven by Ron Fellows, Johnny O'Connell and Jan Magnussen, their Corvette finished second in class and 14th overall and the other Corvette C6-R was right behind them in 15th overall. "Mad" Max Papis, Olivier Beretta and Olivier Gavin drove that one.

A Ferrari 430 GT entered by Risi Competizione, driven by Melo, Salo and Bruni was first in LMGT2 and 19th overall. Another F430 GT was second-in-class and 22nd overall.

NEW NOW! FOUR ALL-NEW HONDA HYBRIDS; FCX CLARITY FUEL CELL SEDAN NOW LEASING

Honda says that by 2015, the company will have a minimum of four very different gasoline/electric hybrid cars on-sale in the US and around the globe. These will include a hybrid version of the Fit, a sporty hybrid modeled on the CR-Z concept we saw at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show, the company's existing Civic hybrid and an all-new Toyota Prius-fighter slated for a 2009 debut. (Photo Above -- Honda's robot Asimo appears above the FCX Clarity at the 2007 Los Angeles Auto Show).

More on those four later; Honda's most intriguing news this week is their announcement that production versions of their FCX Clarity hydrogen-fueled fuel-cell EV will soon be in the hands of about 200 families, who will sign three-year leases for each of the cars at about $600 a month. (Photo --- Honda said this week that their CR-Z concept, shown at the Tokyo Motor Show in 2007, will be one of the vehicles the company will sell as a gasoline/electric hybrid).

But first, as they, this: Most important for consumers around the world, Honda (and Toyota and Nissan) continue to put their money where their mouth is; American car-buyers still cannot buy very high-mileage cars with cutting-edge technologies from one of the Detroit Three. As it was with overall vehicle quality through the '80s and '90s and in many cases right up until today, Asian car-makers and the Japanese in particular seem so far ahead of the curve when it comes to gas/electric hybrids and hydrogen-fueled fuel cell EVs which produce virtually no emissions, that the Detroit Three seem in danger of being left out in the cold.

European car-makers including Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz will be marketing diesel-powered cars and trucks in the US later this year which meet the nation's strictest mileage and emissions standards. The Detroit Three lag well behind of that bell curve, too. Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Mazda have all been experimenting, very publicly, with using hydrogen as a fuel for internal combustion engines. (Photo --- GM's Equinox hydrogen-fueled fuel cell crossover; the company says about 60 of them will be available for leasing later this year).

When compared with Chrysler and Ford, General Motors is clearly, and by far, the US' leader in high-tech, high-mileage, low-emissions cars and trucks. Their development of the mileage-improving Dual-Mode Hybrid Transmission for large trucks and SUVs, the Volt passenger car which uses a small gasoline-fueled "generator" to keep on-board battery packs recharged and allow a 600-mile near all-EV range, and the Equinox hydrogen-powered fuel cell small SUV are all note-worthy newsmakers. The General says that some Equinox test vehicles will "hit the road" with specially-selected families in America within the next year, similar to the program Honda has announced for their FCX Clarity (more below). But talking about developing the vehicles necessary for the 21st century and beyond and actually building and selling them to the public are two very different things.

Honda says their plans call for the company to deliver about 200 of their FCX Clarity (Fuel Cell eXperimental) hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles to Japanese and American customers in its first three years of production, with leases beginning this July. The program marks the world's first large-scale retail initiative for fuel cell vehicle technology, and Honda has begun the process of identifying customers from a group of over 50,000 drivers who have expressed interest in the FCX Clarity on the company's website. (Photo --- A new dual-mode transmission is one of the components which make the large GMC/Chevy SUVs "Green Cars of the Year;" the system almost doubles highway mileage).

Honda will announce its first customers when the first FCX Clarity rolls off the production line at a ceremony on June 16, 2008 in Japan, where Honda will also showcase the world's first dedicated fuel cell vehicle production facility.

FCX Clarity is a next-generation, hydrogen-fueled fuel cell vehicle. Propelled by an electric motor that runs on electricity generated in the fuel cell, its only emission is water, and its fuel efficiency is three times that of a modern gasoline-powered automobile.

The FCX Clarity's multi-year launch began in October 2005, where we witnessed the unveiling of the next-generation FCX Concept vehicle at the Tokyo Motor Show. This was followed in November, 2007 with the debut of the FCX Clarity much-closer-to-production model not in Japan, which was expected, but at the Los Angeles Auto Show. We were there, too, when Honda announced plans to begin leasing vehicles to customers in the US.

For more analysis, perspective, information and photos of Honda's four new hybrids and FCX Clarity fuel cell sedan, click below.

TESLA OPENS LOS ANGELES STORE; NOW ALL THEY NEED ARE CARS

Those of Los Angeles' much-vaunted and desperately-hip Westside can now shop for their EVs in a new 10,000-square foot showroom owned by Tesla, the troubled Northern California electric vehicle-builder. Tesla employees, not commissioned salespeople, will also staff the facility, opened on May 1st. Located at the heavily-trafficked corner of Santa Monica and Sepulveda Boulevards, one of the most-clogged intersections in the entire city, Tesla says (still) that the best is yet to come. Like actual cars. (Photos --- Staging a business opening in Los Angeles? You need red-coated parking valets, uniformed "actors/servers/models" who "circulate" with trays of cheap champagne and "crudites," whatever they are, a security guard-looking person or two, especially if celebrities are expected, and in LA, they always are, and, perhaps most-important, nearly-unreadable signage; Below, Here's an actual big-time celebrity Tesla managed to corral into their dealership opening; yes, it's "Q", or, as he's known to everyone else, Quincy Jones. Jones is also a great actor; see how he acts as if he knows the Tesla exec he is hugging).

A better start would have been locating the showroom even farther west, in the People's Republic of Santa Monica (one of our old and much-missed hometowns) or Venice (the only part of the city of Los Angeles which actually touches the ocean) ... West LA is cool, if you're a UCLA student or a Hasidic Jewish family with 11 kids and family members "in the diamond trade". But it just ain't SM and doesn't even come close to Venice when it comes to cool, where zillionaire actors and their heavily-armored and -patrolled "vertical estates" share block space with 4th-generation public housing and strapped gangsters slingin' rock being the local live entertainment starting at 11pm each evening. Ask about the special Sunday afternoon shows during summer. (And I lived there, too, so don't get hinky with me about it).

Tesla, which forced-out its co-founder, Martin Eberhard, and is engaged in various lawsuits with car designer Henrik Fisker, recently took delivery of its first four production cars --- depending on who you talk to about that very touchy subject.

The first production car went to Tesla Motors chairman and chief financier Elon Musk, while car #2 is reserved for that forced-out co-founder, Martin Eberhard, who reportedly doesn't want his car until a special paint job is ready (we predict he'll never see that car --- getting forced out of a company you help found and staked isn't a good way to engender positive vibes). Tesla says that #4 was seen at the Top Marques Monaco show with U2's Bono behind the wheel. Investors, buyers and others hope that Roadster #3 might soon be on its way to an actual customer's garage.

The automaker says they have already pre-sold 600 cars and has a waiting list 400-strong. Priced at $100,000, Tesla demanded a $100,000 "deposit" from Roadster buyers willing and able to wait a long time until their cars are ready; there are plenty of oh-so-worried green-types with that kind of disposable income in LA. Which brings us to the new store. (Photo --- If you have a car dealership, you need a car to exhibit, like this $100,000 Tesla Roadster, one of four made in-time for the showroom's opening).

With reportage by Mark Rechtin of Automotive News (with our own inspired comments), we learn that the new store, close to the crawling 405 freeway and the congested corner of Santa Monica and Sepulveda Boulevards, makes a potent statement for forever-gridlocked Angelenos to buy an electric car.

Click below to read more about and see more photos of the new Tesla dealership in Los Angeles!

LA TIMES RUNS TIMELY, EXCELLENT PIECE ON ELECTRIC VEHICLES

The LOS ANGELES TIMES ran one of the best and most-realistic looks at California's nascent electric vehicle industry in their Saturday, April 5th edition. It's a MUST-READ for all Car Nuts around the world, and just click anywhere this sentence is highlighted to go to the LA Times' website and read this interesting and necessary article --- Finally, a major newspaper  writer who "calls 'em as he sees 'em" when it comes to EVs. (Photos --- Above, a gasoline/electric plug-in hybrid created by Fisker in Souther California. Below, The iconic Bradbury Building in downtown Los Angeles; those who saw the movie "Blade Runner" and remember that "apartment building" where an engineer for Tyrrel Corporation worked, creating his own living, breathing "toys," have seen the remarkable interior of that building. And, yes ... The wrought-iron cage-style elevator is still there and still works; we know because we've ridden in it several times).

Now please permit me, because I've worked for both the LA TIMES and KTLA/TV5 in Los Angeles (first commercial TV station west of the Mississippi) to say a bit about today's LA Times, KTLA and their new owner.

In spite of all the bad things which have befallen the once-venerable Los Angeles Times, their automobile coverage has actually improved a bit. Every Wednesday, the paper normally carries three pieces in their "Highway 1" section; a car road test by Dan Neil, a motorcycle test by Susan Carpenter and some sort of industry news important to LA-area readers, usually written by Ralph Vartabedian, one of the nation's top technical writers. On Saturdays, they've started another "mini-section" called "The Garage". This could contain one lengthy article and a few auto news "tid-bits" and, on occasion, a personality profile. The paper will be a long time in recovering from a profile of Carroll Shelby which ran a few months ago and was nothing but a warmed-over PR promotion for Ol' Shel' ... No surprise there, but this piece was embarassing, and I haven't seen the byline of the freelancer who wrote the piece yet again in the paper ... We also couldn't find the article on the LA Times' search engine. (Photo --- LA's City Hall; there was a law in Los Angeles that no downtown building could be taller than City Hall. A publisher of the LA Times, which has its offices across the street from City Hall, purposely built the Times' latest office tower to be higher than City Hall).

Sure, the "Highway 1" automotive "section" is still only the first 1 1/2-pages of the "classified section", certainly nowhere near, in scope or quality, of the section which I was hired to write for every week when it first appeared, and would for its first few months be anywhere from 10 to 20 pages a week. But the Times' bean-counters eventually got rid of the entire section. And, yes, newspapers have bean-counters, too; they don't exist just to torture car-makers, they like to "spread the love" around. The revelation, at about this same time in the mid-90s, of the paper's involvement in a screwy, definitely unethical and immoral, possibly illegal advertising deal cut between the Times and the then-new Stapels Center (home to the LA Lakers, Kings, Clippers, the Grammy Awards and on and on ...), served to further harm "Highway 1" as the paper cut-off buying stories from any freelancers as Times people at the top off the food chain lost their stomach for dealing with any outside writers and/or photographers. You know how it is: When some of the key people at a company are caught with their hand in the cookie jar, then the whole place suddenly "gets religion."

The NEW YORK TIMES, in their April 7th edition, details the recent purchase of Tribune Corporation, parent of the LA Times, by Sam Zell, a well-known Chicago businessman, corporate raider and ... he's been called a "slumlord", too.  Zell also got their near-25 TV stations covering most of the major cities in the nation, and the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field, both of which Zell has said are on the auction block. Tribune, it is said now, is hanging by a string to being able to pay all their (new) bills. The NY Times says Zell will probably sell-off his newspaper holdings (LA Times, Chicago Tribune, NY Newsday, etc) and keep the electronic media, which produces more cash. All of this is a shame for Tribune employees, because Zell financed the original deal to buy Tribune by giving ownership to the company's employees, and now they're finding out their shares may not be worth much more than pennies on the dollar.

Click anywhere on this line to read the Times' excellent article about the state of the EV industry in California.

ROUSH HYDROGEN FUEL PROJECT IN UK

Most American racing fans think they know all about Jack Roush, the "Cat in the Hat" who can be found most weekends running the show for his Ford cars and trucks in the NASCAR Sprint, Nationwide and Craftsman Truck series. But knowing that much about Jack Roush is like knowing that Roger Penske has won one or two Indy 500s ... The real story is much, much deeper. Roush, headquartered in Livonia, Michigan, right smack in the heart and soul of the Detroit Three's car-making plants, is a company of more than several thousand employees located in offices and factories and assembly plants all over the world. (Photos --- Above, Jack Roush's own "Little Deuce Coupe" is exhibited outside a company display trailer; Below, "The Cat in the Hat" at a NASCAR event).

A recent press release out of the UK reminded us, once again, of how big and far-flung the Roush Empire is (and we don't think he'd mind his company being called an "Empire"). It seems that Roush, in conjunction with a UK outfit called ITM, are working together on a project to not only develop commercial vehicles with internal combustion engines which will run on hydrogen, producing few emissions and no CO2, but they are also going to create new and improved ways to actually make their own hydrogen fuel. Imagine that: Not only could a company use hydrogen as the main fuel for their (now) low-polluting fleet, but they can also make the fuel for their cars and trucks wherever there's access to water and electricity. Not bad, eh?

Hydrogen fuel used in an internal combustion (IC) engine of any type is not the "be all, end all" answer for the world's transportation problems; far from it. We first saw hydrogen used as an engine fuel and displayed for the public by Mazda, used in a rotary engine, at the 2003 Tokyo Motor Show. There are many problems to be overcome, including making the fuel, storing it in some central location, transporting it to other locations by truck, train, pipeline or some new method not yet developed, and then, finally, delivering it to the vehicles which will "burn" it in their IC engines. Once on-board the vehicle which will use it brings up another set of tough problems; storing it safely is just one of them. A given amount of hydrogen does not deliver the same amount of mileage which the same amount of gasoline can produce. But hydrogen as a fuel has a lot going for it: It is the most prevalent element in the universe, and when used in an IC engine, very few pollutants are created. So it's definitely worth looking at it closely, and good to see an American company, Roush Technologies, apparently among those in the lead of this particular race. So here's the latest on Roush, their UK partner, and their corporate plans. So here's some of what Jack Roush is doing when he's not busy promoting Ford and saying nasty things about the Toyota teams in NASCAR. We'll even leave-in the quaint misspellings for those of you who enjoy that sort of thing (as we do) as "proof" that the release did originate in the UK (someone once suggested that Disney should simply buy the UK and turn it into a giant theme park ... Don't laugh; it's still possible!).

2008 Roush and ITM to Collaborate on Hydrogen Vehicles

ITM Power plc & Roush Technologies Limited

Collaboration agreement with Roush Technologies Limited to accelerate the arrival of hydrogen vehicles
ITM Power plc is pleased to announce a collaboration agreement with Roush Technologies Limited in a unique project to realise hydrogen-powered, emission-free vehicles on UK roads. Roush Technologies is one of the world’s foremost automotive design, engineering and development groups and the collaboration agreement is expected to accelerate CO2-free, hydrogen-fuelled commercial vehicles operating in Britain. (Photos --- Below left, artwork for the Roush and ITM collaborative hydrogen project; Below right, one of Roush's Ford Fusion NASCAR race cars after a victory).

Roush Technologies, which already has extensive experience in the commercial vehicle sector, will be responsible for both adapting existing internal combustion-engines in vehicles and researching the development of new power units to utilise hydrogen fuel.

ITM will provide the breakthrough refuelling solution by enabling vehicle operators to generate their own hydrogen fuel. Using a patented electrolyser, due to enter production at ITM’s special facility in Sheffield later this year, it is possible to make hydrogen fuel wherever there is a source of electricity and water. The advances in electrolysis technology that ITM has achieved elegantly address the hydrogen infrastructure issue by using the already developed electricity and water distribution network.

The electrolyser can produce hydrogen from water and any source of electricity including off-peak or renewable energy --– electricity generated by wind, wave or solar power. Unlike petrol or diesel, when hydrogen burns, it releases no CO2, merely water vapour.

This agreement will enable both parties to jointly offer a complete package of hydrogen refuelling systems and hydrogen vehicles to customers. It is anticipated that first sales will be to large commercial or local government organisations that wish to demonstrate a commitment to reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Marketing to third parties will commence as soon as possible.

"WORLD GREEN CAR OF THE YEAR" --- BMW 118d AT 2008 NY AUTO SHOW

BMW does so many things so well, that it's getting difficult to pin down exactly where the company excels and where it might be somewhat lagging. In every motorized category, excepting the one in which the company actually began, making spare parts for piston-powered aircraft engines, BMW not only makes "world class" parts and whole assemblies, they actually set the standard for "world class" in motorcycles and automobiles. It's not unusual, when at a new vehicle introduction for the media, for company executives to speak at length about how and why they "benchmarked" BMW for one, or several, aspects and/or systems of their own new car. BMW makes their eponymous brand of car, as well as Mini and Rolls-Royce. Is there any other company, in any manufacturing discipline, whose corporate pendulum swings a swath so wide from one side to another? From Mini to Rollers, with their BMW cars located somewhere in the middle, this company is truly remarkable. Now, an award for BMW in a new, somewhat unexpected, arena --- That of the "World Green Car of the Year." (Photos - Top, BMW 118d, named "World Green Car of the Year" at the 2008 NY Auto Show, Below, Chevrolet Tahoe SUV at the late-2007 Los Angeles Auto Show, named "Green Car of the Year" ... Hey, now! Wait a minute!).

Allow us a laugh, at Chevrolet's expense, because Chevy's full-sized, gigantic Tahoe SUV, was named "Green Car of the Year" by a magazine called Green Car Journal at the most-recent Los Angeles Auto Show. We supported the choice at the time, and we still do, and not only because Green Car Journal's editor, Ron Cogan, is an old friend of ours. Cogan, and several others on the voting panel, saw Tahoe as a good choice because, 1) The huge SUVs are going to be produced and purchased for the foreseeable future in the US, and, 2) The revolutionary "dual-mode hybrid automatic transmission," developed by GM, BMW and Daimler, doubled Tahoe's in-town mileage. But a small-ish BMW diesel (!), something we're not used to seeing in the US, winning "World Green Car of the Year" is a no-brainer which doesn't need a five-minute explanation, like the Tahoe's win does. And it usually takes me a bit longer than five-minutes when explaining (defending?) the magazine's choice of the Tahoe. Now, "here's the rest of the story," as radio old-timer Paul Harvey might say, directly from BMW, with, as always, all the fun "Euro-isms" kept intact:

BMW’s award-winning EfficientDynamics programme has been honoured with a global brand. A jury consisting of 47 motor journalists from 24 countries has awarded the BMW 118d, a model that displays all facets of what BMW terms EfficientDynamics, with the “World Green Car of the Year” at the New York International Auto Show 2008. (Photo - BMW 1-series, just reaching BMW dealerships in the US; no plans announced as yet for the second-generation direct-injection diesel 118d to come to the US).

Judges of the World Car of the Year Awards praised BMW and its 118d for offering buyers a model with a range of innovative technologies that reduce fuel consumption and cut CO2 emissions as standard. The three- and five-door BMW 118d record an impressive 62.8mpg on the combined cycle with CO2 emissions of just 119g/km – putting it into the Band B category for Vehicle Excise Duty. The BMW 118d now costs just £35 (USD $70)a year to tax.

To help it achieve these impressive figures, EfficientDynamics technologies such as Brake Energy Regeneration, Auto Start-Stop and Electric Power Steering are employed to cut fuel bills and emissions. An optimum gearshift change indicator is included to encourage economical motoring.

$10 MILLION AUTOMOTIVE X PRIZE ANNOUNCED AT NY AUTO SHOW

In the same week in which futurists and all people across the globe (and who-knows-where-else) said goodbye to the incredible Sir Arthur C. Clarke, age 90, it was on March 20th at the New York International Auto Show, that the X PRIZE Foundation and Progressive Insurance jointly announced the $10 million dollar Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE. "Let the race begin!" said X PRIZE Chairman and CEO Dr. Peter Diamandis. Sir Arthur was no doubt pleased, wherever he was when the announcement was made. (Photo - Tesla, their roadster pictured here, and whose cars went into production this week, according to the company, have entered the X Prize competition for autos).

Long after the Raptors, the Corvettes and Challengers and Murcielagos and those ubiquitous Hemi engines (doesn't the newly-private Chrysler Corporation make any other engines?) at this week's New York Auto Show are forgotten (like, next week), it's quite possible that the winning vehicle, and those who created it, in the $10 million Ansari X-Prize competition for vehicles, will be well-remembered many decades from now. Here's the basics, taken directly from the prize's website:

    The Ansari X PRIZE was modeled after the $25,000 Orteig Prize, offered in 1919 by wealthy hotelier Raymond Orteig, to the first pilot who could fly non-stop between New York and Paris. The prize was finally won in 1927, by an unknown airmail pilot named Charles Lindbergh. Lindbergh won the hearts of a nation, and his world-changing achievement spawned a $300 billion aviation industry.  (Photo - Richard Branson has been active in the X Prize contests on land and in the air, well, in space, actually).

    The X PRIZE Foundation began a revolution in private spaceflight with the $10 million Ansari X Prize.On October 4, 2004, the Mojave Aerospace Ventures team, led by famed aircraft designer Burt Rutan and financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, captured the Ansari X PRIZE. The world took notice of this great achievement and the winning SpaceShipOne is now hanging in the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum.

     The X Prize Foundation, best known for its competitions promoting space flights, is offering $10 million to the teams that can produce the most production-ready vehicles that get 100 miles per gallon or more.

     More than 60 teams from nine countries have signed up for the competition so far, including California electric carmakers Aptera Motors and Tesla Motors, German diesel carmaker Loremo and a team
from Cornell University (where Carl Sagan studied and taught for many years).

   Teams will be able to sign up through mid-2008, when applicants will be narrowed to those who can prove they would build production-ready, consumer-friendly cars. Those that qualify will race their vehicles in cross-country races in 2009 and 2010 that will combine speed, distance, urban driving and overall
performance.

    The purse will be split between two categories: mainstream and alternative cars. Mainstream cars must carry four or more passengers and have climate control, an audio system and 10 cubic feet of cargo space. They also must have four or more wheels, hit 60 miles per hour in less than 12 seconds and have a minimum top speed of 100 miles per hour and a range of 200 miles.

   Alternative vehicles will be required to carry two or more passengers and five cubic feet of cargo, have a top speed of at least 80 miles per hour and have a range of at least 100 miles.

The Santa Monica, Calif.-based X Prize Foundation, which was founded in 1995, gained fame in 2004 when it awarded $10 million to the first private vehicle to fly into space. The foundation since has launched a $10 million prize for rapid human genome sequencing and a $30 million prize for sending a robot to the moon.

TESLA WANTS TO "OUT-VOLT" GM'S VOLT

Tesla, the beleaguered San Carlos, California company which has had an on again/off again relationship with the motoring media, and recently went through personnel changes which a former official with the company deemed a "bloodbath", now says that in addition to the manufacture of their $98,000 Tesla Roadster starting March 17th, 2008, and their ongoing Research and Development aimed at bringing out an all-electric four-door sedan named Whitestar, which they say is due on-sale in late 2009, they've had another big announcement (which seem to be happening on a weekly basis now): Tesla says they will also be building a gas/electric hybrid version of the Whitestar using technology similar to that in the Chevrolet Volt concept car which has been ballyhooed by GM at many of the largest US auto shows, beginning in January, 2007, at the Detroit Auto Show. For the rest of the story and more Tesla photos, click on "Greening of our Automotive Future" in the right-hand margin, or just click here.

'CAR NUT' IN LIVE RADIO DEBATE WITH GM'S ENVIRONMENTAL PR CHIEF

'CAR NUT' Steve Parker found himself involved in 16-minute long, live, head-to-head debate with David Barthmuss, chief public relations person for General Motor's environmental activities. It all happened on November 30 on KPCC 89.3FM, the NPR station in Los Angeles.

The day before, GM CEO Rick Wagoner, in a "major address" at the opening-day breakfast for the 100th anniversary LA AUTO SHOW, said GM "intended" to build a plug-in hybrid version of the Saturn VUE SUV. A few of the gathered reporters picked up on the his using the word "intended", rather than Wagoner giving a firm date for production and an approximate price for the vehicle. Steve did this radio interview from the LOS ANGELES AUTO SHOW, where he'd spent the past two days taking-in the world's automakers efforts to break into the 21st century with the latest in environmentally-friendly fuels and powertrains. The debate became heated when Parker questioned how dedicated the domestic carmakers actually are to providing hybrid gas/electric Prius-like vehicles to their customers.

To hear the entire interview, hosted by KNBC/TV4 anchor Ted Chen, click here. Then let us know YOUR comments! (Photo: Cutaway of transmission developed by GM and DaimlerChrysler to fit hybrid powertrains). Do you think GM, FORD and CHRYSLER are truly dedicated to building high-mileage/low-emissions vehicles on a large scale, or will they continue to try and sell large SUVs with V8 engines as long as they can?

MITSUBISHI TO SELL EV CAR IN USA

Our friends at AUTOMOTIVE NEWS certainly ran something of a "bulletin" in today's online edition. Ace reporter Kathy Jackson of that publication, the daily online bible of the car world, says that Mitsubishi Motors Corp. plans to sell a small electric car in the United States. President Osamu Masuko said the vehicle, powered by a lithium-ion battery, will be launched first in Japan. A hybrid version of the car also might be available, Masuko added.

Timing and sales volume targets were not disclosed. A detailed announcement about the car is expected shortly.

"From an environmental standpoint, we believe the electric car is the way to go because it has zero emissions," Masuko said in Las Vegas last week at a Mitsubishi dealer meeting. "Fuel cell technology is still off in the future. Diesels are big in Europe but not in Japan and the U.S."

Mitsubishi has been testing hybrid and electric cars in Japan. In January, it unveiled a hybrid concept at the Detroit auto show.

The Concept-CT MIEV is smaller than the Lancer. It has four doors, all-wheel drive and a 1.1-liter gasoline engine. Each wheel has its own electric motor. The electric motors provide awd without a traditional transmission, thus cutting weight.

During a previous interview, Mitsubishi executives told Automotive News that the production version of the concept might be based on the next-generation Colt, which is due before the end of the decade.

Lithium-ion batteries store twice the energy of similarly sized nickel-metal hydride batteries.

My writing now, not Kathy's: Mitsubishi has been selling their mini "i" car (photo, left) in select markets. Many analysts think the car might do well in the US against the Toyota Yaris, Nissan Versa and Honda Fit. But the current i was engineered only for right-hand drive. A version equipped for left-hand drive would have to await the next-generation i in four or five years. The i already is sold now in Singapore, Brunei and Hong Kong. Sales in New Zealand are planned for sometime in the near future. In some unfortunately short-sighted planning, Mitsubishi says the US would have to wait until at least the next generation of the car for the i to be legal for sale in all 50 states.

This announcement of an all-electric EV, though, is something of a stunner. If there's one Asian company in danger of being forced out of the US marketplace, it's been Mitsubishi, for some years now. First off, their name brings back some bad memories for plenty of Americans who still remember (or who have read) that the Japanese ZERO warplane was built by Mitsubishi. Lots of auto marketing people are surprised the company never changed their name, at least in the USA. But you have to hand it to them: With Toyota, Honda and Nissan fighting it out among themselves when it comes to gas/electric hybrids and the highest-mileage cars, here comes Mitsubishi with the first all-electric passenger car to be sold in the US. That's sure one way to make headlines.

BAD NEWS FOR DIESELS IN CALIFORNIA AND THE USA

One of the most interesting and exciting cars we saw at the TOKYO MOTOR SHOW in November, 2005, was a C-class version of a Mercedes-Benz with a diesel/electric hybrid engine. The system was called BLUETEC, a pretty "cool, green-ish"-sounding name. It was at TOKYO for only one day --- the first of the two media days, and was not exhibited to the Japanese general public during the regular run of the show. M-B has been trying to get their all-diesel BLUETEC system approved for sale in the US, but it appears that five holdout states, led by California, means the cars will not be available to citizens in the states where Mercedes sells the most vehicles. According to our friends at Green Car Congress, and our own knowledge of selling cars and trucks in the US, it doesn't make much sense for companies to sell any vehicles in the USA if California and New York are not on the list.

Despite telling us back in January that its Mercedes-Benz E320 BLUETEC would be compliant with emissions standards in all 50 states, DaimlerChrysler has announced that it has not reached that goal and the vehicle will only be sold in 45 states when it goes on sale this fall. The five states in which the E320 BLUETEC will not be sold include California, Maine, Massachussets, New York and Vermont.

The high emissions standards required by these five states represent a major hurdle for any manufacturer that plans to introduce diesels-powered light-duty vehicles in the U.S. If DaimlerChrysler, a vocal proponent of diesel in the U.S., couldn't meet their requirements, we're certain it will be at least a year or two for other automakers to either convert their current diesel engines or develop all-new ones to meet the stiff requirements. (Photo: Dr. Zetsche introduces the "Bluetec Vision Hybrid" at the Tokyo Motor Show, 2005).

An E320 BLUETEC prototype tested by the EPA in 2004 narrowly missed meeting the EPA's new Tier 2 Bin 5 standard for 50-state compliance. When the car does arrive it will use an NOx absorber to reduce the output of the harmful emissions.

Future BLUETEC models will use a urea-based injection system, which the EPA has yet to approve and regulate but promises to do so soon. Urea-based injection technology appears to be the best solution for getting diesels on U.S. soil as fast as possible, but the EPA has concerns over adding another fluid to vehicles that needs to be actively checked and refilled by the driver. (Photo: Bluetec powerplant installed in a DaimlerChrysler Jeep Grand Cherokee).

LOTUS TO BUILD TESLA EV SPORTS CAR

According to a report on EDP24.com, (the Norfolk Eastern Daily Press website), Group Lotus' involvement with the Tesla Roadster project is now very much official: the Roadster will be built by Lotus at its Hethel facility.

The move is part of Lotus chief's Mike Kimberley's announced ongoing plan to increase the company's involvement in outside design and engineering projects. It comes on the heels of Lotus' new deal with Nanjng Automotive to aid in the development of new MG vehicles, which will be assembled in Nebraska (you got that?).

Kimberly had been one of the bosses at Lotus over two decades ago, and he absolutely understands that companies such as his (for instance, Porsche) make much, if not most, of their monies from doing R&D work for other car companies, and even other manufacturers, outside of the car business. (Photo: California Governor Arnold "happened" to show-up at the unveiling of the Tesla EV on July 26th in very-ultra-hip-and-trendy Santa Monica --- Apparently the luckiest break the Tesla folks may ever have!).

DCX DIESEL/ELECTRIC HYBRID BUS DELIVERED IN USA

San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency accepted on June 1, 2006, the first of 56 diesel electric hybrid Orion VII low floor buses from DaimlerChrysler Commercial Buses. The vehicle represents California’s first series production diesel-electric hybrid bus in transit service. After the official roll-out in fall 2006, San Francisco will feature the third largest hybrid bus fleet in the country.

(News and photo courtesy DaimlerChrysler) The selection of new diesel-electric hybrid buses capped an effort that began with MUNI’s Alternative Fuel Pilot Program of 2001-2003. Thereafter, MUNI worked extensively with the California Air Resources Board to obtain changes in the regulations, unanimously adopted in 2006, that enabled the acquisition of these buses.

The Orion VII hybrid bus, which is powered by BAE Systems’ HybriDrive® series propulsion technology, is proven to reduce emissions and is significantly more fuel efficient. With over 10,000,000 miles logged in highly demanding urban cities such as New York and Toronto, the Orion VII hybrid bus has demonstrated in an independent study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to achieve up to 45 percent better fuel economy compared to conventional diesel buses. Additionally, the Orion VII greatly reduces emissions: 90 percent less particulate matter, 40 percent less NOx, and 30 percent fewer greenhouse gases.

The benefits extend to those driving and riding the buses as well. Drivers will enjoy faster acceleration while customers will experience a quieter, smoother ride free of the frequent transmission shifts encoun-tered in conventional buses. The 35-seat low floor buses allow for easier access for all riders and can accommodate up to two wheelchairs.

After the delivery of the full order, electric-hybrid buses will comprise 11 percent of MUNI’s bus fleet. In conjunction with other buses such as trolleys, MUNI will then feature an electric fleet of well over 50 percent.

(Photo: Audi-built diesel-powered race cars won the "24 Hours of LeMans" this past June, 2006).