U.S. government expiring tax credit for EV charging stations
As automakers swiftly push to get plug-in hybrid and electric autos to dealerships, the government is expiring a tax credit for putting in house and commercial charging stations. A credit for chargers ends on Saturday, even as some folks push Congress to reinstate it.
“The timing of this couldn’t be far more unfortunate,” mentioned Genevieve Cullen, vice president of the Electric Drive Transportation Association, a trade group for the electric-vehicle sector. Tom Saxton of Plug In America stated that the credit was making an chance for development in the new industry.
The tax credit enables taxpayers to cut the price of chargers set up in their garages by 30 percent . On commercial units, the tax break is up to $ 30,000.
The cut was currently down from 2010, when the credit was a 50 % part of the government’s stimulus package deal.
LEDs headlamps are becoming an auto industry ‘bling’ fashion statement
LED lights are loosing their luxury segment exclusivity as automakers are locating them to be much more effective than classic bulbs and a lot more accessible due to price drops.
Designers are also exploring the other benefit to making use of them, which is that they just look genuinely very good on vehicles. Audi is a best instance of this, with its LED use for some model’s daytime operating lights and taillights, as is the Dodge Charger with its complete taillight LED display.
Taillights “have become a style statement,” says Steffen Pietzonka, a vice president of advertising and marketing for Hella KGaA Hueck & Co., which generates LEDs for Audi. Pietzonka adds, “Over the following four years, a lot of entry-degree and mid-sized cars will have LEDs. It delivers huge styling opportunities.”
Kia has even begun to take advantage of the light’s styling possibilities with the 2012 Soul, and L.E.K. Consulting of London predicts this will be an escalating trend. LED taillights are expected to be gracing the rears of 29 % of North American produced automobiles by 2016, a ten percent increase from the 2011 model year.
Popularity with headlights is not expected to take off as fast, as L.E.K. is only predicting one % of North American created automobiles to have them by 2016.
BMW M6 Convertible to Bow at Detroit Auto Show
With the 2012 North American International Car Display shaping up to be a focal point for new vehicle introductions, automakers seem to be jostling with every single other in a bid to not be outdone.
As far as BMW goes, the Munich primarily based concern’s large announcement will probably be the M6 cabriolet, powered by a version of the identical 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8, which created its debut in the F10 chassis M5 back in Frankfurt this past September, although power and torque are reported to be enhanced.
Other M6 Cabrio attributes include a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission with Drivelogic, although rumors are surfacing that a standard six-speed manual could be offered for US buyers.
The M6 ragtop will also sport M Dynamic Control as component of it’s stability handle setup, along with an active rear suspension and differential, created to additional boost handling and traction. There will also be M Servotronic hydraulically assisted steering and two M-Drive functions, basically enabling the automobile to change character depending on the driver’s request.
Senate Commerce Committee approves changes in Auto Safety Bill
Modifications to the auto safety bill have been approved by the Senate Commerce Committee. This is being viewed as a modest step in the achievable overhauling of the National Highway Visitors Security Administration. If the bill becomes a law, then it would make sure, amongst other items, that automakers may be forced at issuing safety recalls of their vehicles in the very close to long term. These advantages the consumers who might very own potentially unsafe cars as there will now be a greater possibility that they will get to know about the very same sooner.
If the automaker is discovered to have delayed a recall, the bill can make sure that it get fined an quantity exceeding $ 17.35 million, which can extend up to a whopping $ 250 million. This has come out in a report published by The Detroit News. It has been far more than a year when Congress has been pushed by proponents to more strengthen the safety measures in the auto sector, following increasing concern of sudden acceleration in the cars of Toyota Motor Corporation.
This campaign for overhauling NHTSA has gained momentum just lately, according to Autoblog. The bill saw the addition of a quantity of safety measures with the sub-committee of the Senate giving its approval to the very same.
MSN Autos, has however, reported that this bill nevertheless had to be voted upon to make it onto a law. More, the bill would not be productive for a year right after it has been passed.
Shocker: Crash Tests Reveal that Most Cars Sold in Latin America Cars are Deathtraps on Wheels
The FIA Foundation announced the results of the first ever crash tests carried out by the Latin New Car Assessment Program (Latin NCAP), and the news isn’t good for consumers and automakers alike.
Actually, the crash test results reveal a terrifying reality: most of the best selling cars in Latin America’s emerging markets offer minimal or no protection at all to their adult occupants let alone children…
Max Mosley, president of Global NCAP, said: “The latest results of the Latin NCAP reveal that South America’s most popular cars are still about 20 years behind the levels of safety enjoyed in Europe and North America. This cannot be acceptable.”
“We want to see the UN’s global crash test standards applied to all new cars across the world. And we want consumers to be aware of the life and death choices they make when buying a new car,” Mosley added.
The 64 km/h (40 mph) frontal impact crash tests revealed that most of the cars that were tested suffered from poor structural rigidity which, along with the absence of airbags in most of them, “awarded” them an unheard-of, in the 21st century, one-star rating!
That Dam Towing Test: New SAE Trailering Standards Explained
Manufacturers’ truck-towing ratings are a lot like Donald Trump’s politics. Bold? Certainly. Realistic? Um, we have no idea. Each manufacturer arrives at its towing numbers differently, and that variety in the testing means tow ratings don’t have much context: Just because a truck can tow an impressive amount doesn’t mean its rating indicates how well that load is carried.
The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) has sought for the past half-decade to bring clarity to the situation, and now automakers are getting on board, too. The SAE standard, “Performance Requirements for Determining Tow-Vehicle Gross Combination Weight Rating and Trailer Weight Rating,” is known as J2807, and a big piece of it is how a laden truck climbs a grade such as the Colorado River’s Davis Dam. First published in 2008, the standard was revised in September 2010. Ford, General Motors, Ram, and Toyota have agreed to adopt SAE J2807 for the 2013 model year, and Nissan will soon follow.
Why would truckmakers want to sign up to meet yet another standard? Having the biggest towing number is a huge bragging right in the pickup-truck segment, but so is honesty and authenticity.
SAE J2807 aims to confer just that. To help make sense of this new standard, we’ve highlighted a few of the tests and requirements that go into determining a given truck’s trailering ability.
Nissan Launching Revised Xtronic CVT Next Year; We Drive It and Don’t Totally Hate It
December 2, 2011 at 12:40pm by Jon Yanca
The continuously variable transmission (CVT) isn’t popular around these parts; we hate their attendant rubbery acceleration feel and the engine droning they cause. Still, their use is spreading wider than perhaps ever, with many automakers adopting them to increase their fuel-efficiency numbers in a hurry. (Whether CVTs are actually more efficient, well . . .) Nissan is one company that’s slurped from the CVT well most often, having offered them in nearly all of its vehicles for some time. We learned at the Tokyo auto show that it plans to debut its latest CVT in a front-wheel-drive vehicle next year. (We know that vehicle will be the 2013 Altima, although the company won’t officially admit it.)
The new version is said to improve fuel economy by up to 10 percent versus the previous generation, in part due to a claimed 40-percent reduction in friction. Its exterior casing is smaller by about 10 percent, and internal improvements include a new pulleys and a smaller oil pump that now uses lower-viscosity oil. Two variations of this Xtronic box will be made, including one for 2.0- to 2.5-liter applications and the other for engines ranging in displacement from 2.5- to 3.5 liters. Differences between the versions are limited to ratio spreads (7.0 in the smaller application, 6.3 in the larger) and a more robust belt in the 2.5-to-3.5-liter application to better handle the additional torque.
We briefly sampled the new CVT at Nissan’s Grandrive R&D track at the Oppama plant, outside Tokyo, Japan, and walked away with higher hopes for the future of rubber-band boxes. Installed in a current-gen Altima with a 270-hp, 3.5-liter V-6, the new CVT was significantly less irritating than usual, and we noticed a marked drop in engine noise. As an example, at 50 mph, the old transmission would hold 1500 rpm, while the new ‘box settled the V-6 in at just 1100 rpm. Off-the-line throttle response is quick thanks to a swifter torque-converter lockup (although that hurts smoothness and overall acceleration performance), and power seemed to be delivered upon request during at-speed passing maneuvers, without a drastic delay or a quick spike in engine rpm.
While we still prefer the feel of a traditional automatic to a CVT—and the control of a manual above all—we’re going to have to get used to seeing more of this type of transmission. If most new-generation CVTs can display the kind of advances we saw from this Nissan piece, we might even learn to tolerate them.
