AutoblogGreen

Click the Malibu for a high res gallery

There was a time not so many years ago when the best-selling cars in the U.S. market were mid-sized models from General Motors. Cars like the Oldsmobile Cutlass and Chevrolet Malibu outsold everything else by very healthy margin. In the middle of the 1980s, that changed as the successive generations of Honda's Accord grew larger, Toyota introduced the Camry and Ford brought out the then-radical Taurus and Sable. Sales of mid-sized GM passengers went into a steady decline with the once top-selling Oldsmobile brand being euthanized completely and Malibu being dropped as a model name.

While 2008 has been an absolutely dismal year for automakers in the U.S. market, there have been a few bright spots. For those like me who have never been fans of SUVs and could never quite grasp why so many people had gravitated towards them, the resurgence of sales for smaller and mid-sized cars has been a pleasure to watch. The Chevy Malibu is back for a third iteration since its revival at the beginning of this decade. The first was so bland as to be invisible, while the second was not easy on the eyes. The latest version debuted in 2007 to almost universal acclaim for its bold styling. We recently tried out two different Malibus that are set up specifically for improved fuel economy. Check out our thoughts after the jump.



Photos Copyright ©2008 Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc.

Wondering how to turn a Fiat 500 into a dinghy, um, we mean a tender? According to Italian coachbuilder Castagna, it can be done. First, remove the top, doors and tailgate. Second, enlarge the sills so that some semblance of structural integrity is maintained. Next, remove the entire interior. Replace the interior with teak wood and wicker accents and add weather-proof seats. Replace the top with some multi-striped canvas for some additional weather protection. Finally, remove the internal combustion engine along with all of its assorted bits and pieces. To make it mobile once again, install an electric drivetrain that is capable of propelling this beastie over 80 miles per hour. Of course, you'd want to travel a good distance, so it is reportedly able to get over 80 miles of range per charge. After taking a look at this conversion, we wonder if the company would just be willing to do the electric drivetrain and leave the rest alone.

[Source: Channel 4]

Just the other day, we heard the European Union was thinking of lowering its CO₂ standards for automakers. It appears that the rumors were true, as the European Parliament has indeed voted to amend the proposed standards. The details are pretty difficult to follow, as this particular issue has been going on for an excruciatingly long time, so bear with us here. The gist is that the Commission will grant automakers a longer period of time to meet the now-not-as-clean target of 130g/km of carbon emissions along with reducing the amount that automakers would be fined for missing that target. To go along with this, credits would be earned for models which produce fewer than 70g/km. That makes some sense, as it may get automakers to push for that low figure. The problem is that up to five other vehicles could be offset by that one low emitter. That's pretty bad math. Expect these issues to be voted on in the near future.

[Source: Channel 4]

Although Japanese battery makers currently have plans to greatly expand their production capacity at home, it seems this still isn't enough and America seems to be the destination of choice for some new manufacturing plants. One of the companies planning on creating some green-collar jobs in the U.S. is GS Yuasa Corp. Their president, Makoto Yoda said, "Named must your fear be before banish it you can. We have to choose our next factory's location based on growth in the given market." While not a household brand name for most Americans, GS Yuasa's automotive partner, Mitsubishi, is sure to ring a bell. They are using lithium ion batteries from GS Yuasa in their all-electric i MiEV which is soon to be tested in California. Although they have not yet committed to selling this car stateside, this announcement is sure to raise hopes.

Another company with American battery factory plans is Toyota. Having already announced plans to build Priuses in Mississippi in 2010, the world's biggest automaker believes manufacturing batteries here will help them achieve their cost reduction goals. Toyota has been able to reduce it's per vehicle cost by 50 percent since its first-gen Prius and hopes to halve those costs again in their next-gen. Of the decision company vice chairman Kazuo Okamoto said, "It is very difficult to make the main parts of batteries outside Japan, but we have to have battery production in North America," No time table for the plants were given but when they arrive we think they will help provide both employment and environmental wins for America.

[Source: Bloomberg / Reuters]

America, please don't buy a Harley because it gets 50 mpg. MPG describes riding like biology describes sex. History has shaped this tank, not the whims of foreign oil. American workers pour their soul into it. Lets chase sunsets whether gas is 6 bucks or 6 red cents. Let's ride to parties like rock stars. Let's fill the tank that gives back more than we put in. So screw it, let's ride.

Click on the pic on the right to enlarge. Yeah, so that's a new ad for Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Some of us here are motorcycle riders who have been riding since gas was cheap and who continue to ride now that it isn't. We still believe in the virtues that good gas mileage brings. We also don't recommend riding a motorcycle solely to save money on fuel, but it certainly doesn't hurt. Although we understand what Harley is saying with this particular advertisement (while also slyly mentioning that its bikes do get good mileage), we still wonder if it's the best message to send.

[Source: Motorcycles.About.com]

There was a bevy of transit officials and politicians assembled Friday at West Brighton's Castleton Depot as the first 15 Orion VII Next Generation Hybrid-Electric buses were officially feted on Staten Island. These are just a few of the 850 strong order on its way to New York. Staten Island will receive 159 of these which will make the gas-saving hybrids a full 51 percent of the fleet. At $514,000 apiece the buses aren't cheap, but officials expect them to require less maintenance as well as save 50,000 gallons of fuel over their 12-year life.

Besides the hybrid technology the buses also boast smarts of another kind and can transmit all sorts of data, from the inside temperature to the number of times the doors are opened. Other features range from small touches like LED bulbs to client conveniences such as a lower floor for easier boarding and a flip out ramp to accommodate wheelchairs or passengers with strollers.

[Source: Staten Island Live]

The Chevrolet Volt raises a lot of questions. From its public unveiling in January 2007 people wondered, is it a hybrid or an electric car? Right from day 1 in December 2006 before the auto show, GM officials have called it a range extended electric car. They use the electric car terminology because, unlike what we think of as hybrids today, only an electric motor drives the Volt. The engine, a normally aspirated 1.4L (not turbocharged as Motor Trend indicates) just drives a generator (not a two mode hybrid unit as MT says) instead of the wheels. However, the presence of the range extender causes the EPA to consider it a hybrid and they expect it to have almost a full charge at the end of the test cycle. The design intent is that the battery would be run down after having run more than its 40 mile electric range during the test. As designed, the engine would only run 15 percent of the time during the current EPA cycle and would yield over 100 mpg. But, using the EPA's methodology and having the engine keep the battery near full charge - which completely defeats the purpose of a plug-in vehicle with a 40 mile electric range - the Volt would only get about 48 mpg. While not a bad number, it's no where near reflective of what the Volt could achieve in the real world for most drivers. Clearly the EPA needs to work with manufacturers to change the testing methodology and come up with something that more closely approximates real world conditions for plug-in vehicles. Insisting on something else would force automakers to calibrate plug-ins to meet those requirements at the expense of real world efficiency, helping no one.


[Source: Motor Trend]

Subaru is slowly expanding his diesel availability in Europe. Fitted with the marque's signature boxer diesel cylinder (the only I can think of in a modern production vehicle), this diesel powertrain has been already available for a few months for the Legacy and Outback models. Following the Paris Motor Show, the engine will also be found under the hoods of Impreza and Forester models. The diesel Impreza gets 150hp and has CO₂ emission levels of 152 g/km, while the Forester develops 147hp and has CO₂ emission levels of 167 g/km. Both cars get new 6-speed gearboxes as well as Diesel Particulate Filters (DPF) fitted as standard. Subaru will also showcase two additional models in Paris, the G4e and R1e, which we've already seen at other motor shows.

[Source: Le Blog Auto]

Tata Motors has confirmed that the rumors of an all-electric Tata Ace and the all-electric Tata Indica are true. In an unveiling in India this past week, the company took the wraps off of two lithium-ion battery-powered EV prototypes based on the Ace work truck and the Indica sedan (pictured). As we heard earlier this year, the Indica EV will first be sold in the Norweigian market next year because the Scandanavian country "has the necessary infrastructure in place to run electric cars which India lacks," as Tata Motors President Ravi Kant put it. Indians will get their own chance to buy the car in about 24 months. According to the Business-Standard, the all-electric Indica has two battery packs which can charge in eight hour and go around 110-120 miles on a charge.

Now, about an electric Nano...

[Source: Business-Standard]

Hitchhiking is a very simple way to share a ride and, sometimes, share gasoline expenses and reduce carbon emissions. In the Netherlands and Belgium there are even some organized hitchhiking centers, where both car drivers and carless people register and meet to share a ride. Well, the same concept has arrived online in various places (see also Zimride and Carticipate), but it's web-based now and it's called Roadsharing. The website works in a very simple way to hitchhikers and drivers in contact with each other in order to share a trip and organize ways to share expenses like tolls and gas. RoadSharing allows you to enter a route you're interested in making with a car or to ask you for a ride. Currently, the page works in five languages - English, Italian, French, Spanish and German - and shows rides available many European countries as well as India, Chile, Brazil and Argentina.

[Source: RoadSharing]