Can a small device double or triple your car's gas mileage? ABC News/Good Morning America did a report (see video below the fold) on high gas prices and they found an inventor who claims his Mileage Master can perform that feat. As I detailed in the Mythbusters article on fuel economy devices, some of those amazing fuel saving technologies you hear about are in fact real but are based on known technology. The Mileage Master, by Fred Crane, from descriptions in the report, sounds like regular old cylinder deactivation.
Cylinder Deactivation is something car companies are using right now to increase mpg numbers. Retrofit kits for older cars are also available. However, the cost of retrofitting an older car with cylinder deactivation may not pay for the savings in fuel. Did Crane get improvements from 20 to 42 even 60 miles per gallon? I don't doubt he saw improvements but I think there would have to be a lot of deactivation going on to get significant improvement in fuel economy, plus, turning off cylinders means losing power.
The reporter should have asked Crane about the impact on the car's horsepower, 0-60 time, etc. when using the device. Also, does using the Mileage Master void your warranty? Can you even use this device in modern cars?
The ABC report also talks with a guy running his car on used vegetable oil and Wright electric car but they don't get into too much detail about the problems, like taxes you have to pay on used oil.
Daimler chairman Dieter Zetsche is bullish on the adoption of diesel in the United States. At the ECO:nomics conference, Zetsche told the Wall Street Journal that Daimler is very happy with its diesel accomplishments over the last two years (see video below the fold). According to Zetsche, in the states where they are currently available, Daimler's diesel SUVs are showing twenty percent take rates and diesel cars are showing twelve percent take rates. Zetsche is confident Daimler will see the same share when diesel is offered in all 50 states. While very popular in Europe (where around half the cars are oil burners), diesel has yet to take hold in America, where only 3.5 percent of new car sales are diesels.
In the video, Zetsche was also asked about the public's unwillingness to pay for higher fuel economy. Zetsche said he thinks the public is only willing to pay for fuel saving technology that can be paid back in a short time, three to four years at the most. On the economy, Zetsche said the slowdown has not had much impact on Daimler's business so far. This means that Daimler customers are not jumping on the subway, at least not the ones that sell real estate, he joked.
At the New York Auto Show, Toyota U.S. General Manager Bob Carter spoke with Bloomberg about high fuel prices and the full-size truck market (see video below the fold). Carter said "we are not immune to what the current market conditions are and many full-size truck owners are delaying their purchases, waiting to see exactly where the market is going to go in fuel prices." Not to worry, Carter said, because "we may sell a few less Tundras but we will transfer that reduction in sales to our more fuel efficient models like the Prius and the hybrids." Can Toyota hybrids make up for a decrease Tundra sales? It's unclear. Toyota has predicted that they will sell fewer hybrids this year than last year and Prius sales are already showing declines. It's not totally clear on how Carter predicts hybrids will make up for slowing Tundra sales when Toyota is also predicting its hybrid sales will decrease.
One thing we are really looking forward to at the New York Auto Show is the official start of the Auto X-Prize, a contest to build a 100 MPGe car with a multi-million dollar prize. At the Detroit Auto Show, the X-Prize people and some of the teams had car models on display (see video below the fold).
We know that MDI's Air Car will be there. We are looking forward to seeing the other X-Prize teams (like Illuminati Motor Works) and we really want to see the Air Car in person. The compressed air powered car is out in less than a year, with a range and price that is just unbelievable. Below the fold is the most recent video I could find of the Air Car, which includes a mention of the investment from Tata which should make a release in a year's time possible.
When we get to talk to the Air Car representatives on Thursday, top of our list of questions is the re-charge (re-flate?) time. According to the video below the fold, the several-minute recharge time we heard about is only from dedicated air stations. Recharging at home with a generator will take 3-4 hours. The video below the fold also includes lots of information about the Air Car like the price and odd middle driver seating. Stay tuned for much more from us at the New York Auto Show.
What will you be driving in 2015? If you only drive GM vehicles, there's a one in three chance it'll be a hybrid, according to a report from Bloomberg. GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said, "around 2015 we're going to have to sell a ton of hybrids whether people want them or not." Lutz added, "it's basically going to result in the quasi-disappearance of V-8 engines." Lutz explained that the increase in sales of hybrids will be due to the new CAFE standards signed into law late last year that require car companies to make cars that, on average, get 35 miles per gallon. GM is well on its way to a having third of its U.S. cars sales being hybrids, just recently introducing their second generation mild hybrid system and promising to introduce a hybrid car every three months for the next four years.
Shai Agassi, founder and CEO of Project Better Place, gave an amazing speech at a New Democrat Network meeting recently. Want to know how Agassi's idea for electric cars got $200 million -- the "largest seed round of any venture in history?" Then you have to check out his speech below the fold which tells the history of the company, makes a case for electric cars and details his company's future plans.
The 25 minute video flies by thanks to Agassi's charm and humor. Project Better Place begins testing this year and it plans to have hundreds of cars on the road a year later. Agassi refers to renewable energy sources as "virtual oil fields" and talks of feeding power to the grid as a backup power source for a country. The speech ends with him predicting that by 2020, more new cars will be electric. If that prediction comes true, he will have likely played a significant role.
Gallery: Project Better Place Renault Nissan Signs Deal
Green concepts car and announcements have dominated every single major car show - except for Chicago - for the last year or more. Autoweek thinks that's about to change in New York. "The New York auto show will have an old-fashioned flavor. Instead of a long list of world debuts for hybrids and other gasoline-saving technologies, the show will concentrate on redesigns," writes Autoweek. While green pickings do look a little slim for the New York show and the last few major cars shows have show some cracks in the green, I have to disagree with Autoweek because there should be lots of green news at the New York Auto Show.
First, the New York show has the official start of the Auto X-Prize which will include news of the exact purse and the sponsors. A few of the teams will be there and the press is sure to eat that up. We certainly will. Second, Toyota might have more details about their hybrid plans. Rumors are floating around that the iQ, a mini to be released this year, might be a plug-in hybrid. Third and finally, a new focus on power and the economy should not exclude green technology. In fact, green tech is the perfect solution for more power and saving money.
I guess we will know in a week when the New York Auto Show begins Wednesday. Check out several videos below the fold about green cars at recent car shows.
America's super car company Saleen is showing a little green. Autoblog reports Saleen's S5S Raptor, which debuts at the New York Auto Show this week, will run on ethanol and have a lightweight aluminum body. We only have an air brushed picture (above) to show you for now but will post pictures and more info on this 200 MPH beauty when we get to New York. The Raptor is a good example that petrolheads like Saleen (see video below the fold) can be green too.
Ethanol and aluminum technologies are green and, importantly, accepted by the super car community. Ethanol has lower energy and gets lower mileage than gasoline but a car can be tweaked to take advantage of the higher octane in ethanol to get more horse power. Use of lightweight aluminum saves fuel and it allows for higher speeds which is why sport car companies like Lotus, Ferrari and Tesla are using aluminum today.
We are still looking for a good, green reason why a car would need to go 200 MPH, though.
Zap's CEO Steve Schneider did a very interesting audio interview with CEONEWS.Tv recently where he talked about the Zap-X, the Zap-Coke deal and the future of the company. On Zap-X, Schneider says Chinese automaker Youngman owns 51 percent stake in the Detroit Electric joint venture, while Zap owns 49 percent in the company. Schneider explains Detroit Electric will sell higher speed electric vehicles while Zap continues to sell the lower speed vehicles. Schneider says the Youngman relationship is unique because, according to his understanding, there are only a handful of licenses given to Chinese companies to make cars inexpensively (Zap can sell buses for half the price, for example). On the release of the Zap-X, Schneider says it's a 36-month project but did not say when it started (it's been at least 14 months). Schneider did say the Alias is a 18-month project and they are six months into it. Remember that Zap has been talking about the Alias since June 2007, which was eight months ago.
On the recent deal with Coke (Coca-Cola is using thirty of Zap's compact trucks in Montevideo, Uruguay) Schneider says it was spawned from the UPS deal. Schneider explains the UPS deal came from one brave UPS rep that "risked his career" to use Zap trucks and a tractor trailers hub model. The hub model showed bottom line savings for the company and what do you think happened to that UPS rep? He was promoted to a much "larger capacity" position at the San Fran UPS branch! "Quite a few" companies (Schneider won't give out names) have contacted Zap, looking to repeat the model, since that brave UPS rep started the ball rolling.
Schneider also talked about a trip to Dubai and said the Middle East is more interested in electric cars than you might expect. Schneider was asked about the Daimler lawsuit and while he could did not say much, he did say Zap's lawyers tell him it should be settled in three months. Things are changing like the climate Schneider jokes and "the market is finally catching up (after 14 years) to what ZAP has been preaching." Schneider expects Zap to have 100 dealers by the end of this year, up from 56 at a recent meeting. AutoblogGreen is not a stock investing website but we have to admit we are really impressed by this interview and Zap's CEO Steve Schneider responses. He talks a good game, at least.
At the ECO:nomics conference (March 12-14), GM chairman Bob Lutz was asked about his global warming is a "crock of sh*t" statement. In the video (which you can watch below the fold), Lutz was asked why he said it and if GM investors and customers should care that he said it. Lutz did not answer the why but he explained there are a "whole bunch of motivations for doing what we are doing." These motivations may include climate change, energy independence and conservation but the common denominator is wanting to get away from oil as a primary source of energy.
Lutz was also asked will people pay for higher fuel economy? Lutz said if we see a rise in gasoline prices to European levels ($8-$9 a gallon) people will start valuing high fuel economy numbers but right now it's just a small, altruistic segment of the population. Lutz continued, saying he finds it troubling that all of this green tech adds six or seven thousand dollars to the price of the car. Lutz thinks the technological path to 35 MPG CAFE is clear; the business way, on the other hand, is covered in fog because there are no free lunches.
When I (an American) think about the Lexus brand, the first thing that comes to mind is not its hybrid option. In Europe, it seems Lexus and hybrid are synonymous because a Lexus official told the BBC, "Hybrid is Lexus brand defining technology." We have written about the increasingLexus hybrid sales in Europe over the years and even the shocker that hybrid Lexus vehicles were outselling the gas versions 4-to-1 in Europe. Sainsbury's chief executive, Justin King, gave up his Maserati Quattroporte for a hybrid Lexus. Overall, though, Europeans still love diesel and aren't big fans of hybrids. Also, and you might find this hard to believe (he wrote sarcastically) but Europe already has one (or two?) luxury car brands.
So, why is the Lexus hybrid doing well in Europe when hybrids and even Lexus is not doing well? Complete lack of competition! "Only Lexus has hybrid, and we have three while others have yet to launch one" the Lexus company official said. Lexus was the only hybrid we could recommend to Yoko Ono when she lamented the lack of a comfortable hybrid because, as the BBC notes, Audi, BMW and Mercedes don't currently sell a hybrid.
So, word to GM and Ford (two companies apprehensive about hybrids in Europe), here's how you get hybrids to work in Europe: make them high-end. Diesel is "a more honest technology" than the hybrid system, said BMW's outgoing sales and marketing director, Stefan Krause. Still, we'd rather see a hybrid BMW on the sales lot than more concepts.
Gallery: AutoblogGreen Garage: 2008 Lexus LS600h L
Leading presidential candidate Barack Obama earmarked $1 million for research on turning Hummers into hybrids. The earmark money will go to the Illinois Institute of Technology (Obama just happens to be the senator from Illinois) for the development of a cost-effective hybrid conversion kit. These kits could turn the army's gas guzzling Humvees into fuel efficient hybrids and would be a real endorsement for hybrid conversion in general.
The unexpected stars of this year's Geneva Motor Show were small cars. I expected hybrids or electrics to really make news but small cars stole the show. One of those small car stars was the Toyota iQ which will be released in half a year or so. How did Toyota do that? I think they had some help from Daihatsu, a car company Toyota bought a 51 percent stake in 1999 and one of Japan's most prolific maker of small cars. Daihatsu made the UFE (ultra fuel economy) III concept in the picture above (see it in a video below the fold) and first shown in 2001. The UFE III's drag coefficient is .168, it get gets 169 miles per gallon and it's a hybrid.
GM will probably beat Toyota on the hybrid front on shear numbers alone. GM's mild or Two Mode hybrids, according to GM's own marketing, will make SUVs as fuel efficient as small cars. Do you see an open market? Daihatsu was the first company in Japan to release a mini hybrid. There is some talk the iQ might even be a plug-in hybrid. Will Toyota release the first mini hybrid this year? However Toyota decides to leverage their Daihatsu subsidiary, if the UFC III concept is any indication, it's sure to be interesting.
BergToys has a great idea for a human-powered children's toy: Moov. The concept is your basic kid's big-wheel or push scooter but the parts of the toy are interchangeable and they allow a child to make several different kinds of vehicles. The creativity of the child is also opened up because they can create vehicles not in the manual. How about a unicycle? Hey BergToys, make one for us bigger kids because I wouldn't mind transforming my mountain bike into a scooter or a recumbent three wheeler. Want one for junior? The website says "We are doing our utmost to complete it a.s.a.p." Can't wait! In the meantime, check out the video of the Moov below the fold.
Late 2008, Mercedes Benz will clean up its diesel GL, ML, R class SUVs with Bluetec, making them 50-state legal. MotorWeek kicked the tires on the GL320 CDI (see video below the fold) and they seemed to like it. The diesel version of the GL ($54,225) will be $2,500 cheaper (yes, cheaper) than the gas version of the GL450 and will get thirty percent better mileage (18 city, 24 highway). The video review also says the GL is a 3 litre V6, has 215 horse power, 389 lb-ft torque and 7,500 towing capacity. 2008 is the coming out year of clean diesels in America and this is the best entry we have seen so far. There are no compromises with the diesel GL on price or power, so it should be a good barometer of diesel's acceptance in the US.
Daimler chairman Dieter Zetsche is bullish on the adoption of diesel in the United States. At the ECO:nomics conference, Zetsche told the Wall Street Journal that Daimler is very happy with its diesel accomplishments over the last two years (see video below the fold). According to Zetsche, in the states where they are currently available, Daimler's diesel SUVs are showing twenty percent take rates and diesel cars are showing twelve percent take rates. Zetsche is confident Daimler will see the same share when diesel is offered in all 50 states. While very popular in Europe (where around half the cars are oil burners), diesel has yet to take hold in America, where only 
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