Posts Tagged ‘Chicago Auto Show’

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Green Daily

A recent study conducted by Frost & Sullivan assesses the impact of electric vehicles (EVs) on the commercial industry. In particular, the study focused on light-duty commercial vehicles along the lines of small delivery vans, pickup trucks and buses. Frost & Sullivan notes that commercial vehicles regularly remain in service for far longer than your typical passenger vehicles and, when coupled with the fact that many of the miles on these vehicles are racked up in stop-and-go use, you’ve got a vehicle that is costly to maintain, operate and fuel up. Seeking a way to reduce high operating costs, the study predicts that the commercial industry will increasingly turn to electric vehicles.

The study suggests that Europe’s demand for light-duty commercial electrics will far outweigh other continents. European companies and municipalities are expected to purchase 165,000 battery-electric vans, buses and trucks by 2016 with the North American market only requiring a fraction of that number (26,000 units). The vast majority of the light-duty commercial EVs that we will see tooling around by 2016 will include electric versions of the Ford Transit Connect and Mercedes-Benz Sprinter. These two vehicles are expected to capture one third of the European light-duty commercial EV market. As we’ve said before, commercial fleets are ideally suited for electrification and these high-volume predictions further affirm that belief.

[Source: Green Car Advisor]

Study: Light commercial electric vehicle market ready to heat up, especially in Europe originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Wed, 23 Jun 2010 18:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Via Autoblog Green

Filed under: Minivan/Van, Honda

When Honda pulled the wraps off of its Odyssey Concept at this year’s Chicago Auto Show, we knew it was just a few small tweaks away from being production-ready. Well, four months later, the official details and images have been released, and while the 2011 Odyssey doesn’t go a long way in offering fantastic new innovations for the minivan segment, it packages the whole thing together in what might be the best-looking minivan we have yet to see.

The 2011 Odyssey is lower and wider than the outgoing model, and features what Honda is calling a “lightning bolt” beltline, a feature that was present on the concept van that we saw in Chicago. We aren’t sure if we’re in love with that quirky design element, but one thing’s for sure, you won’t see the origami fold and stepped greenhouse on any other minivan in the shopping mall parking lot. Other new features for the 2011 model year include available HID headlamps up front, new 18-inch alloy wheels, larger 12.6-inch ventilated front disc brakes, revised side mirrors and a power tailgate. Honda has yet to release full performance specs, but we do know that there’s a 3.5-liter i-VTEC V6 under the hood, and early estimates state that the top-trim Odyssey Touring Elite should achieve 19 miles per gallon in the city and 28 mpg(!) on the highway.

Inside, Honda has made the most of the Odyssey’s extra width, offering an additional inch of shoulder room in the front row. What’s most interesting, though, are the three second-row seat configurations, including an all-new wide mode which allows the two side captains chairs to be pulled away from the center seat, meaning three child car seats can fit all across one row. Again, the Odyssey hasn’t really done anything innovative with its interior packaging, but new features like a chilled cool box in the front center console, HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface) input, 16.2-inch widescreen entertainment system, 15 upholders and a trash bag holder (yep!) will make the cabin more attractive to consumers who need one heck of an all-around family hauler.

We’ll have more details on the Odyssey’s underpinnings in the future, but for now, hit the jump to not only read Honda’s press release, but to see videos of the new Odyssey in action. A full gallery of high-res images is yours for the clicking below.

[Source: Honda]

Continue reading Officially Official: 2011 Honda Odyssey prepares to rock your sippy cups [w/video]

Officially Official: 2011 Honda Odyssey prepares to rock your sippy cups [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 17 Jun 2010 16:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Via Autoblog

Filed under: Ethanol, EV/Plug-in, Flex-Fuel, Hybrid, Ford

Ford has a long-standing reputation as a major player in the fleet vehicle segment. Just picture the Crown Vic that all-too-often pops up in your rear-view mirror with some flashing lights or the old Taurus that was a mainstay at rental lots across the nation and you’ll quickly realize that the company does a lot of fleet business. Though fleet vehicles aren’t really a segment that a company boasts about, they are vitally important for many automakers, Ford included.

Ford’s domination in the fleet segment has grown in recent years. In 2009, the company led the way nationwide by landing 32 percent of commercial and 44 percent of government fleet sales. The company is proud of this achievement and plans to hold on to the lead by offering more efficient fleet products. For 2011, Ford will throw the whole bag of green options at fleet customers. They plan to offer technologies including electrics like the Transit Connect Electric, hybrids, natural gas, propane, biodiesel, E85 and EcoBoost in fleet vehicles that could be use for everything from flower delivery services on up to construction duty.

Fleet customers love efficient vehicles. The eco-friendly autos portray a good company image, there are lucrative incentives offered for buyers of green vehicles and saving money at the pump can really add up when a fleet of thousands is factored in. Will Ford throwing all of its recent breakthrough technology into the fleet pool help it remain atop the fleet market for years to come?

Photos by Drew Phillips, Sebastian Blanco / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.
[Source: AutoWeek]

Ford fleet vehicles gets greener with addition of E85, EcoBoost, electric drive and so on originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Tue, 27 Apr 2010 18:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Via Autoblog Green

“In only a few days our dealers have reinforced the accelerator pedal on more than 220,000 vehicles and are now running at a pace of more than 50,000 units a day,” said Bob Carter, this morning, from the Toyota stand at the 2010 Chicago Auto Show.

And he should know: Carter is Toyota Motor Sales, USA Group Vice President and General Manager — a certifiable big cheese at the company and the latest exec to publicly prostrate himself at the court of media and, more importantly, consumer, opinion.

“I know that many customers have been very concerned and rightfully so. Some customers are upset and that’s also understandable. We deeply regret the concern these events have caused,” said Carter.

“Nothing is more important to Toyota than the safety and reliability of our vehicles and right now we are completely focused on fixing the vehicles affected by recent recalls,” a sentiment Carter reiterated several times during his introduction of the refreshed 2011 Avalon.

In addition Carter addressed the most recent recall involving the 2010 Toyota Prius and Lexus HS250h, highlighting what the company calls “inconsistent brake feel” of the anti-lock brake system (ABS) and its remedies for models already on the road and currently in production. The priority is clearly on the higher profile and considerably larger volume Prius. Carter said that running changes made to the Prius production line last month have addressed the ABS response time for new vehicles. As for the ones already sold, Carter said notification letters are going out to Prius owners this week and that dealers have already begun implementing software updates to improve ABS response. HS250h owners will be notified in the coming weeks and similar production line changes for the Lexus will take place later this month.

Regarding the significantly larger accelerator pedal recall affecting millions of Toyota’s best sellers, Carter called his companies’ ongoing repairs “effective” and “simple” and “one that lasts the life of the vehicle” and praised Toyota dealers nationwide for being “overwhelmingly supportive.”

“We have the best dealers in the country and they’re proving it by providing extraordinary service and care for our customers. Many dealers are extending service hours and adding more weekend service. Some are staying open 24 hours a day … seven days a week … and a few are even using remote facilities dedicated to repairing vehicles,” said Carter.

So what does all this mean? It’s merely more evidence that Toyota has made an about face on the recall issue, moving away from a disastrous ‘duck and cover’ PR strategy to an all out offensive campaign that would make Sean Payton proud. It started with Toyota president (and grandson of the founder) Akio Toyoda’s mea culpa last week and crystallized at today’s announcement, which was ostensibly about the redesigned flagship Avalon. Instead, Carter devoted the bulk of his and energy addressing his companies various recall efforts.

“With everything going on we considered postponing today’s media introduction ,” said Carter. “But new products are what drive our business.” And to sell new products, Carter and Toyota knows that they have to tackle this recall mess head on, before they can think of putting it behind them.

Via MotorTrend Magazine Blogs

CHICAGO – Making a minivan visually exciting is pretty much like making cold fusion. Honda has taken another shot at improving the humble minivan’s image, and it may finally have succeeded. The 2011 Odyssey, previewed in a “concept” that showed no interior and is probably a few millimeters off the production model in each dimension, is as sexy as minivans get.

Honda says the new Odyssey is designed to appeal to what its marketing mavens call “hesitators,” who apparently are people too wishy-washy to decide whether or not their images can withstand driving one. The new minivan has a more rakish windshield, a tapered roofline and what design chief Catalin Matei calls a “lightning bolt” beltline. It’s longer, lower and wider than the old minivan, with more interior space and will come with a V-6 using Honda’s variable cylinder management, standard on all trim levels. It helps boost fuel mileage from the current 17/25 mpg to 19/28.

It looks good for a minivan, though even that statement is relative. After all, it shares floor space with the Accord, Crosstour and Pilot.

No such equivocating on the 2011 Ford Edge that goes on sale this summer. While we can’t confirm its touted dynamic improvements, yet, it’s a serious facelift much like what our 2010 Car of the Year, Ford Fusion, went through last spring.

Most important though, is that the ’11 Edge will introduce Ford buyers to the company’s new 2.0-liter EcoBoost four (in addition to the two V-6 options). It’s a sign of Ford’s confidence in turbocharged, direct-injection engines that would otherwise be considered too small to power something as big and heavy as the Edge. And it’s a competitive shot back at Chevrolet, which has had great success with its 32 mpg-highway front-drive, four-cylinder Equinox. Ford claims the EcoBoost four Edge’s highway fuel mileage will be 30 percent more efficient than the 2007 Edge. Ford isn’t talking horsepower, torque or EPA fuel mileage numbers, yet, though a front-drive EcoBoost Edge should get about 30 mpg highway, up from the ’07 Edge V-6′s 23 mpg.

Toyota’s 2011 Avalon is less inspiring. We used to call the car the world’s best Buick. Now Buick is building one of the world’s best Lexuses. The Avalon’s facelift is subtle in a way befitting this anonymous full-size sedan, with a redesigned front clip, new headlamps and LED taillamps, dual exhausts and an interior upgrade. The rear seats have a power recline feature, making it probably the best place to be in the new Avalon. With Ford’s newfound aggression in updating all its car lines, and GM’s good looking crop of new models, this mild facelift may not be enough for the stolid Toyota.

The ’11 Chevrolet Silverado Heavy Duty’s facelift is even more subtle. A new lower front fascia here, a new hood with badges touting its redesigned, more powerful 6.6-liter Isuzu-less Duramax diesel and Alison six-speed automatic there.

It’s all new under the sheetmetal, though, with box-frame torsional stiffness more than five times the outgoing model’s. Chevy promises “substantially more” than the current Duramax’s 365 horsepower and 660 pound-feet of torque and an 11-percent fuel efficiency boost. Towing capacity is now 20,000 pounds and payload is 6335 pounds.

This is what heavy duty truck buyers care about most, Chevy says – not new sheetmetal. And while the Silverado 2500/3500 got new sheetmetal for ’07, the chassis goes back to ’01. GM’s recent financial woes, including its bankruptcy, forced GM to restrict the upgrades to under the skin.

So that’s pretty much what the ’10 Chicago Auto Show looks like. It’s fairly quiet, despite the best efforts of the show’s top-notch management. Wedged between Detroit and Geneva, Chicago has been about facelifts and new trim packages for a few years now. As Ford has learned under Alan Mulally, though, this is important stuff, necessary to keep cars and trucks in the spotlight between product cycles. If Ford’s competitors learn what it has learned, the Chicago show can thrive for years to come.

Via MotorTrend Magazine Blogs