I found myself in Los Angeles for a quick visit late last week and realized I wasn't too far from the brand new Tesla Motors store. Having read about the opening night gala event and curious about the chic new sales space, I wanted to go check it out. Trouble was, I wasn't close enough to walk, didn't have a car, and have heard too many bad things about LA's public transportation system to see if it was a feasible option for me. Luckily, I met up with Shannon Arvizu (TriplePundit) and she offered to drive the two of us down to the store to take a look at what they've got on display. Didn't take me long to say, "yes." I mean, even if there are have been problems with the development of the car and we're hearing rumblings about ego conflicts among some of the well-knowns who are involved, someone still needs to go and bring back a collection of photos for faithful readers, right? Right.
We headed down to Santa Monica Boulevard and found the well-designed store wedged between a Starbucks and the ING building. There are two Roadsters in the showroom, one in dark blue and the other is the silver VP10 (Validation Prototype 10) that Sam got to take for a test drive back in January. None of the cars in the store are for sale, as they're not the production versions, but that didn't stop a good half dozen customers from wandering in and making serious inquiries about being place on th waiting list in the hour or so that we were there. Between the two cars in the showroom sits a counter and barstools, the perfect place for store employees to talk to potential customers. A coffee bar and some Tesla swag are nearby in case you need either a jolt of caffeine or a fancy Tesla cap. Offices (doors open) and two wonderfully-decorated bathrooms round out the front of the shop.
The back half of the store features a garage bay with room for a three cars. This garage is incredibly clean today, and one thing we can count on is that the cement floor will never stained by a leaky oil pan (well, unless future models do come with the option of a range-extending ICE). The opposing wall houses a quick charger. But what really caught our eyes was a metallic blue Roadster aimed square at a garage door, looking like it wanted to go out. Read on after the jump to find out what happened next.
Recently we broke a story about a new electric "highway capable" three-wheeled car being prepared for the American market called the Triac. We promised to keep you posted and now that some interesting new details have emerged, behold the posting.
Apparently, many of you out there contacted Green Vehicles to seek out more information about the Triac for yourselves. It seems they might have been a little overwhelmed and it took a few days before a response was sent out en masse. The missive contained lots of interesting information which I will now share with you.
First of all, there were a couple of items from the video that were corrected. In the clip it states that the top speed of the vehicle is 70 mph. This is wrong. Green Vehicles is claiming that it can actually reach 80 mph. That's a speed that can come in handy when you're passing on the highway. The other metric to undergo revision was the range. This was lowered from 120 to 100 miles with the further explanation that the original figure was achieved at a relatively slow speed and that the new result was returned from a speed of 45 mph. Other Triac facts we learned were about the drivetrain. It will have a 5-speed transmission (we're guessing manual) matched to a 20kW AC motor with "one of the world's most sophisticated battery maintenance systems" to help you get the most out of your lithium ion battery pack. It's onboard charger will allow you to plug it in to either a 120V or 240V outlet. Now, what was that about a truck? Hit the jump for more news.
Click the Saturn Vue Hybrid for a high res gallery
Back in mid-2006, GM rolled out its first mainstream production hybrid, the Saturn Vue Green Line, fairly late in its product life cycle. That one featured the first iteration of the mild GM Hybrid system. It was in production for less than a year before the first-gen Vue went away in favor of an all-new global design that was developed in a cooperative arrangement between GM engineers in North America, South Korea and Europe. The same body style is sold in Europe and other parts of the world as the Opel Antara. A second version with different styling and a lower level of content is sold in most of the world as the Chevy Captiva.
The second-generation Vue debuted in North America in late spring of 2007 and the new Green Line hybrid model came along about six months later. The old Vue was the last Saturn to follow the original model of a metal structure with plastic body panels. That setup has now been abandoned in favor of a metal body and it pays big dividends in fit and finish but we'll come back to that. The Vue falls into the burgeoning compact crossover class, and is currently one of only two hybrids in the segment (the other is the Ford Escape). Find out how the Vue compares after the jump.
We recently had a short email exchange with the president of Bajaj USA, Al Kolvites, and we were informed that the 3-wheelers, known as rickshaws in some other countries, are no longer available in the states. Kolvites cites the manual transmission as one major reason as to why the 3-wheelers didn't sell very well in the U.S. Apparently, modifications were needed to make the machines DOT and EPA compliant, and Bajaj did not see the point of making the required changes considering the low number of units actually sold in the U.S. Kolvites says that he had asked for an automatic transmission version to sell here, but Bajaj declined, saying that most of their customers preferred the shift-it-yourself tranny and the mileage benefits that generally accompany them.
Bajaj USA has sold out of the inventory of 3-wheelers, meaning that if you want one, you'll need to scour the used market. We're truly sad to hear that the venerable rickshaw is no longer available in the states, especially considering the fuel mileage that the unique machines were capable of.
The fourth annual Green Grand Prix takes place next weekend in Watkins Glen in upstate New York. AutoblogGreen received a few photos taken at the 2007 Green Grand Prix that we'd like to share. Looks like some of our old friends were a the race last year, along with some vehicles we'd like to learn more about. Each photo in our gallery below has a caption that describes what you see in the image, but let's just point out that we have here a wood-powered Isuzu Trooper, a 1933 Ford pickup that burns propane and a flex-fuel Ford Escape hybrid. There's also a nice shot of our friend Jory Squibb's Moonbeam. The Green Grand Prix is the only official SCCA Time-Speed-Distance Road Rally for alternate fueled vehicles and hybrids in the United States and takes place on May 3. There's more information in our original post on the race.
If you weren't glued to your computer today (and if there's any day of the year when we should be outside enjoying the outdoors, this is the one, right?), I thought it would highlight a few of the special features we posted earlier today. We spent time putting together a couple of lists and crunched some numbers to come up with these posts. Hope you like 'em.
Of course, we also saw some official statements in time for Earth day from Zap and Ford. Hope your day was a good one, and we'll see you back here tomorrow.
As we cover the automotive industry, we run across numerous events which lean, in one way or another, towards our green preferences. Some of these could be very influential on the industry while others are really more for fun. With that in mind, we've compiled a list of our top five favorite upcoming green events for Earth Day. Take a look-see starting with number five (or skip ahead using the list below) and let us know how you feel.
Each day we cover the green sector of the automotive industry, and we see news coming from every direction touting some sort of new technology that is intended to reduce the effect our transportation has on the environment. Some of these technologies are easy to disregard as mere pipe-dreams, while others take a little more time to digest. For that reason, we've decided to take the opportunity on Earth Day to highlight some of the most promising green technologies that are either currently hitting the market or are just over the horizon. Follow along as we cover what we consider to be the top ten most promising green technologies. The ride starts here.
We here at AutoblogGreen are big on technology that can lower environmental impact. Hybrids are widely touted as one way of doing that although some are much better at it than others. With over a million of the most popular hybrid, the iconic Prius, being sold there must be a noticeable decrease in the amount of gas being burned by Americans, right? Have you ever wondered how much gas would be saved if we all drove a Prius? About half, unless we all drive like Danika. OK, that's an unlikely scenario. How about if 10 percent of the car-driving public used some kind of hybrid? With 2.2 percent of the cars sold last year being hybrids it seems we are on our way to that small milestone.
After pulling out my slide rule (and then putting it away after I remembered I never did learn how to use it), calculator and a copy of the I Ching, I set out to solve this problem of the ages. According to the Department of Energy (DOE) we burned through 9,290,000 barrels (390 million gallons) of gas a day in 2007, which is about half of all finished petroleum used - so we're not even talking about diesel or aviation fuel. Using advanced algebraic formulae which required the participation of all of my fingers and toes, I've deduced we could save about 6,285,000,000 gallons each year (around 16 days worth of gas) if ten percent of us drove hybrids. A big number indeed but one I hope we can soon surpass.
Hybrids help you save gas at the pump, this is something we all know. We also know why burning less gasoline is good: fewer greenhouse gases are emitted to the atmosphere, it reduces our dependence on foreign oil and we spend less money at the pump. However, there is always the question about what is the overall impact of using a hybrid versus using a non-hybrid version. There are currently 17 hybrid models available in the U. S. market and all but one have a corresponding non-hybrid counterpart to compare with. As part of our Earth Day coverage today, we took a closer look at the following two questions:
Question #1: How far can we drive with a hybrid powertrain compared to a non-hybrid?
Question #2: When will the hybrid investment pay for itself through gas savings?
Before we go to the complete list let me explain the criteria we used. First of all we chose the "economy" powertrains, when we had the option. Therefore we'll be comparing mostly 4-cylinder models. In the case of SUVs, we chose the AWD/4WD versions. For a few models, we've compared them to the European diesel versions data, although this should be taken with a pinch of salt due to the EU's different driving cycles. Finally, we used $3.5/gal as the price of gasoline and added the car's MRSP price. Don't forget that some of these vehicles will qualify for various tax breaks, so you might have to recalculate our numbers for yourself. Got all that? Good, let's see the results (after the jump).
When we were brainstorming ideas for Earth Day posts, we thought about featuring the ten most exciting green cars we wish we could buy today. It turns out that there are at least twice as many green rides on the horizon that we'd really like to have today, so the list has expanded. We'd like to note that this list is far from complete; the green sector of the automotive industry is growing in leaps and bounds. Start here and join us for a guided preview of our future garages or jump ahead by clicking on a number below. Either way, enjoy!
We just spoke to GM's Greg Martin, Director, Policy and Washington Communications, about the fuel economy regulations that are being proposed by NHTSA today. Martin reiterated that although the new CAFE rules are tough, it is the company's position that they will meet them just as they said they would back in December when the Energy bill was passed by Congress. At an Earth Day event today in Washington, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters will announce the actual regulations that carmakers will have to meet in response to the mandate from Congress. The Energy bill called for an overall fleet average of 35mpg by 2020. The NHTSA rules will require a fleet average of 35.7mpg for cars and 26.7mpg for trucks, both by 2015.
If this pace continues through 2020, it would exceed the effective 42mpg that would be required by the proposed California CO2 limits. Since the federal rules would exceed California's requirement, that raises the obvious question of whether that means the automakers would stop fighting the California rules. According to Martin, the issue with the state rules is not so much the mileage requirement. The real problem is the "17 or 18 distinct compliance plans that an automaker would have to manage" due to the patchwork of rules. Not all the states are taking the California rules in whole, some are cherry-picking and paperwork has to filed in each state verifying that the manufacturer is in compliance. This can be particularly problematic if the rules are based on sales within a given state and sales of different types of vehicles vary from state to state. A single national rule simplifies things and allows manufacturers to aggregate sales averages over the whole country.
There was a panel discussion at this week's SAE Congress that I couldn't pass up. Titled "Fuel Cell Vehicle Panel: Challenges Remaining for Commercialization," the session was a bit of a brainstorm on just how we might one day drive hydrogen-fueled cars with some of the people who are working quite diligently on the problem today. The panel featured Dr. Massimo Venturi, CTO of NuCellsys GmbH, Germany, Dr. Kev Adjemian, senior principle engineer, Nissan Fuel Cell Laboratory, Michigan, and Dr. James Miller, director, Electrochemical Technology Program, Argonne National Lab (for DOE), Fuel Cell Laboratory, Chicago. The three spoke and answered questions for about 30 minutes. Needless to say, the big problems weren't solved in this half hour, but it was enlightening to hear from another industry panel where things stand today regarding the automobile and the hydrogen economy. Considering that the public's perception of hydrogen fuel is currently defined (for many) as the Hindenberg explosion, there are more than just technological issues to deal with.
Because of the nature of the SAE Congress, I did not have permission to post the audio of this panel. Instead, I've detailed some of what was said and given a few of my own thoughts after the break.
In a back corner of Cobo Hall during the SAE Congress this week, we came upon the Emitec booth featuring the company's line of diesel filters. We spoke with Markus Downey, an application engineer at Emitec, about what makes these filters different from others on the market, and you can listen to our talk by clicking on the audio widget player below.
Emitec produces a partial flow filter (as opposed to a wall flow filter) made of metal and uses a passively regenerated cleaning system. This means that the soot collected from the exhaust is catalytically combusted with NO2 generated upstream in the engine. Downey explained that the benefit to this system is a more stable operating system, which makes it easier to be retrofitted. The DPFs can be used on large diesel engines (i.e., buses or trucks) or on diesel engines in smaller passenger cars. Some companies, like MAN, use Emitec filters as a first-fit. Downey said that most of the company's testing is done in Europe using ULSD, but he figures that a standardized biodiesel - should such a thing ever be widely available - would not pose a problem for the Emitec filters.
Emitec's press release is pasted after the jump. (UPDATE: updated release)
About a month ago, we spoke with Dr. Prabhakar Patil of Compact Power, Inc. about CPI's lithium-ion battery technology. We didn't want to miss the chance to chat in person during the SAE Congress this week, so we stopped by the CPI booth. The reason most AutoblogGreen readers would be following the fortunes of CPI is the company's work with GM on the Chevy Volt (CPI, along with A123 Systems, are supplying the test battery packs for the Volt. BTW, the Volt/Malibu mules are on the track) but Dr. Patil again mentioned that CPI is working with other, unnamed OEMs. We're anxious to learn more about that.
But let's talk about the battery deal we do know about. Based on the packs currently being tested in the Volt, Dr. Patil estimated that a li-ion battery that could move an electric car 100 miles between charges would weigh about 800 pounds. This is double what the Volt's batteries weigh, but would get you 2.5 times the Volt's EV-only distance, because the Volt's batteries reserve some power for the hybrid operations. Regenerative braking can get you the rest of the way. Considering all the studies that show that most people drive well-under 50 miles a day, carrying around all that extra weight for capacity that won't often get used doesn't make a lot of sense, he said. Patil also sees the benefits of the recent CARB ZEV mandate decision. Give a listen.
In the CPI booth was the company's ER2 racer which was setting speed records back in 2002. The ER2 uses an 11 kWh li-ion battery pack and a 165 kW AC induction motor to go from 0-60 in 3.2 seconds. More details here.
We just spoke to GM's Greg Martin, Director, Policy and Washington Communications, about the 
About a month ago, we spoke with Dr. Prabhakar Patil of Compact Power, Inc. 
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