Archive for March 12th, 2010

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, Ford

Putting a bigger battery and a plug-in hybrid powertrain into a pick-up truck isn’t exactly a new idea (see here and here for just two examples). Of course, sometimes, old ideas are worth keeping around.

At the 2010 National Truck Equipment Association Work Truck Show this week, ALTe LLC, based in Michigan, showed off a Ford F-150 that has a plug-in hybrid powertrain installed. Of course, because everybody’s got to make their mark, ALTe calls their system a range-extended electric powertrain (REEP). File this along with General Motor’s extended-range electric vehicle (ER-EV) as a different name without a meaningful distinction. These are all plug-in hybrids.

In any case, the demonstration truck uses a 25 kWh lithium-ion manganese oxide polymer battery pack and 82 kW Remy DC drive motors that provide a 52-mile all-electric range. When needed, a 2.0-liter, 4-cylinder normally aspirated gasoline engine generates power for the battery. In this charge-sustaining mode, reports Green Car Congress, the truck’s fuel economy is about 32 miles per gallon. The powertrain offers 295 pound-feet of torque and has a towing capacity of 6,500 lb.

[Source: Green Car Congress]

ALTe’s plug-in hybrid Ford F-150 unveiled at the Work Truck Show originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Via Autoblog Green

Forget what General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Honda or Hyundai might think about the tremendous fall of Toyota’s reputation amidst poorly installed floor mats and
electronic gremlins in regenerative braking and power steering systems.  I’m
enjoying my own Schadenfreude these days, and it’s directed toward Thomas L.
Friedman.

You’ll remember Friedman as the Pulitzer-winning New York Times columnist who suggested, a couple of years before GM filed for bankruptcy, that Toyota should buy the American automaker and put it out of its misery. Friedman displayed a bit of Schadenfreude himself when he began that column with these words: “I have a question: If I am rooting for General Motors to go bankrupt and be bought out by Toyota, does that make me a bad person?”

Well, no. Just horribly uninformed. Later, Friedman feigned surprise when, in late 2007, Toyota joined its American brethren in opposing a 35-mpg Corporate Average Fuel Economy standard.

Heavens to Deming! Toyota is as profit-hungry as the company it should have usurped.

Neither history nor The New York Times has recorded, so far, whether our
second-favorite Pulitzer winner now is dreaming of Toyota going bankrupt and being bought out by Geely, Spyker or Brembo.

What the whole Toyota fiasco has proved is what we’ve been preaching for some time; that the difference in quality and reliability between the best and worst cars sold is much thinner than it has ever been. That even Toyota, which has been the go-to brand to recommend to friends who want reliable, if bland, transportation, is not immune to the potential problems from accelerated use of new electrical gizmos. That Toyota, like GM and all the rest, will act in its best economic interests every time.

The story of Toyota’s slide also taught the mainstream press something the
automotive press has known for some time; that the automaker’s U.S. management is here just to build, sell and market cars and trucks. The “big” decisions always come from Japan. And Toyota, coming from a country with a much more laissez-faire attitude toward its industries and a much less aggressive press, has long had a habit of fixing problems on the down-low rather than giving in to massive recalls. Its biggest problem isn’t the tragic Lexus ES 350 crash in San Diego, nor testimony before Congress by a woman who practically claimed her Lexus was possessed, like something from a Stephen King novel.

Toyota’s biggest problem is that its Prius has been affected. Several owners claim their cars have surged past 100 mph. This is the altruistically designed green model, the car deservedly praised for its advanced technology, with an image perfectly captured in a “South Park” episode in which the car is called the
“Toyhonda Pious.”

At the same time, we’ve reached a turning point in this saga. Toyota is attempting to use science to fight back unintended acceleration claims. Jalopnik‘s Matt Hardigree has done an exceptional job of reporting on how ABC faked the “sudden acceleration” demonstration of a Toyota Camry, and how James Sikes’ runaway Prius is suspect.

Sikes, of Carlsbad, California (is San Diego County to unintended Toyota
acceleration what South Florida is to Weekly World News stories?) is the owner of Adultswinglife LLC, which owns, as the name implies, adult websites (itself not an indictment of Sikes’ veracity). He recently filed for personal bankruptcy and had missed five payments on his hybrid Toyota, Jalopnik reports.

He eagerly takes an interview in a local television news story, claiming his Prius’
throttle pedal stuck while passing a car on the expressway. A California Highway Patrol officer drove up next to him and told Sikes to put the car in neutral “to no effect.” Sikes hit the brakes and the parking brake with the CHP easing his patrol car’s rear bumper ahead of the Prius’ front bumper, just in case.

Too bad there wasn’t time to get an L.A. news chopper out there to cover Sikes’
drive, O.J. Simpson-style.

At least Sikes was more believable about the Prius’ surge — to 94 mph, not 108 or 109 mph, as others have claimed of their hybrid Toyotas. I’m more convinced than ever that the vast majority of these incidents come from American drivers who could barely handle a car with automatic transmission, power steering and brakes before they started using mobile phones.

And I admit we have a bit of myopia about this matter, in our little corner of the
journalism profession. I don’t know of any automotive journalists who have
experienced any kind of unintended acceleration in any brand of car over the years. We don’t understand how any car or truck’s brakes can’t overcome an engine’s power.

And we’re used to driving vehicles to extremes; accelerating, braking and cornering much closer to limits than the average driver. The vast majority of motoring journalists have had at least some experience driving road cars on racetracks. So it’s hard to comprehend how a sticky throttle pedal could turn into the car “speeding out of control” to any driver not used to full ABS stops or 1.0-g cornering. Add to that your image of the average Prius driver. Maybe that’s why they’re so fuel-efficient — most Pruises drivers would rather tuck their cars into the garage than risk pulling out into traffic.

Yes, it’s part of the “dumbing down” of American drivers, who expect automakers to make their cars save them from certain death when they change two lanes on the freeway, sans turn signals, while text-messaging friends and family. To be sure, Japanese and South Korean drivers probably aren’t much different, although Western European drivers surely are. German automakers still grudgingly add more and bigger cupholders for their U.S. imports than for home market cars.

The most tangible sign, though, that Toyota may be approaching an Audi-like
turnaround of its unintended acceleration problem comes not from the nightly news programs, but from late-night talk show hosts. Thursday night, David Letterman, who has had nearly as much fun on “The Late Show” with Toyota as he has had with Jay Leno’s return to “The Tonight Show” introduced a mock Akio Toyoda and his mock apology to American consumers.

“Akio’s” apology turned into this admonishment: “Americans drive like frightened kitties.”

Via MotorTrend Magazine Blogs

Filed under: Coupe, Budget, Chevrolet, GM

Check out this little nugget General Motor’s North American president Mark Reuss let slip during a recent web chat:

“[...] 2 door cruze is a nice idea, and it may show up in the global market. As we have 2 door Cobalts currently, [North America] would naturally look at a Cruze 2 door, but I believe our small car portfolio will be WAY beyond what it is now, so a 2 door something still is needed.”

Quite interesting, no? Especially as the Cruze will eventually replace the Cobalt as Chevy’s C-segment car. We suspect there will be a bit of overlap between the two cars (GM’s high-volume models die hard), but the idea of a Cruze SS Coupe is quite tantalizing. To us at any rate.

Also lip smacking is another bit of info Reuss let slip when a man named Pete asked the following question, “Can you tell us if the plans for a ZETA RWD sedan in one of the core brands is moving forward?” Mr. Reuss’ response, “quite possibly Pete…….” That’s not the Lutzian answer we’re used to (“RWD, twin-turbo wagons with manuals for all!”) but it’s not a “no,” either. Also of note, Reuss, a competition-license carrying “car guy” at one time owned Buick GNX #446. Good to know, and stay tuned….

[Source: GM Reinvention]

GM President Mark Reuss: Chevrolet Cruze Coupe “may show up” originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Via Autoblog

Filed under: Spy Photos, Truck, Chrysler, Dodge, Off-Road

We just told you that that Chrysler will be launching four new “Moparized” vehicles later this month, and our spies have already caught one of these new vehicles – the Dodge Ram Power Wagon – on the streets of southeast Michigan.

Unlike the Power Wagon that’s just now hitting dealers, this is a totally unique package, featuring a single-cab configuration with a short, style-side bed. The huge off-road tires and exaggerated wheel arches lead us to believe that this is Chrysler’s answer to the Ford F-150 SVT Raptor (if only in concept form), and our spies tell us that this prototype “made hair-raising sounds” as it drove by, leading us to believe that the 383-horsepower Hemi V8 is underhood.

We can’t wait to see the production version on March 27 at the 44th Annual Easter Jeep Safari in Moab, Utah. If these spy shots are anything to go off of, it looks like it’ll be serious fun for desert storming.

[Source: KGP Photography]

Spy Shots: Dodge Ram Power Wagon hits the streets in search of Ford SVT Raptor originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Via Autoblog

Filed under: Car Buying, Marketing/Advertising, Chevrolet, GM

A[nother] different kind of car company. A[nother] different kind of car. Apparently, as it once did with its Saturn division, General Motors is again fiddling with the tried-and-true dealership sales model by creating two separate new test programs that would potentially offer a low-pressure car buying environment.

One of them, a so-called Test Drive Studio, would be a “permanent or semi-permanent, minimally branded, brick-and-mortar” facility that would first appear in Chevrolet-centric areas such as Miami, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Chicago. Included amongst the newfangled features would be test drives in the Chevy Malibu, Traverse and Equinox, followed by their main competition. “May the Best Car Win,” indeed.

According to Steve Tihanyi, general director for marketing services, alliances and branded entertainment, “It’s a non-threatening environment. It’s not pressure-filled; you can drive all the right competitive products against the [vehicles]. If you take Malibu as an example, we will also have vehicles like Camry, Accord, Ford Fusion, or Taurus, so you get a really good cluster of vehicles to experience at your own pace.”

Also new will be a competitive test-drive program that will run concurrently with auto shows in 30 markets all around the United States. “One thing we know about auto shows is a lot of people who come will be in market in zero to 12 months,” says Tihanyi.

To go along with the new dealership test model, GM will start a digital marketing campaign in each of the four aforementioned test markets, targeting buyers currently shopping for vehicles in GM’s competitive markets. Says Tihanyi, “So, hypothetically, if you are on Edmunds.com and shopping a Camry, we are going to offer up an opportunity to come to the Test Drive Studio in that market to compare everything you have in your shopping set right now. Our feeling is you may have not had the Malibu in your consideration set, but if you try it, you will.”

[Source: Marketing Daily | Image: Scott Olson/Getty]

Report: GM launching pair of low-pressure ‘test’ dealerships that offer competitor car drives originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Via Autoblog