AutoblogGreen

This week in San Francisco, Better Place founder Shai Agassi and the mayors of San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland announced the launch of an electric vehicle charging system in the Bay Area. An investment of $1 billion will be needed to install a network of public charging stations throughout the region. The process of planning the system and applying for permits is expected to start early in 2009. However, its not entirely clear who is putting up all that money for the system. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has promised tax breaks to encourage sales of electric vehicles. One thing that is clear from all of this is that the limitations of electric vehicles will require a significant infrastructure to support wide-spread use. Given what is happening with the economy right now, the goal of having this infrastructure in place throughout the region by 2012 may not be realistic.

[Source: Earth2Tech]

Last spring, when General Motors starting track testing its first E-Flex powertrain "mule" prototypes, the cars were based on previous-generation Chevrolet Malibu body shells, the Mali-Volts. The engineering team has now moved on to the next generation of its development cars. The latest batch of testers are now using Chevy Cruze bodies, which is appropriate since both the Cruze and Volt share the same Global Compact Architecture (that is the next-gen Delta platform). In many respects, Volt is a Cruze with the ER-EV powertrain and different styling. I spoke with Denise Grey and Tony Posawatz of GM in Los Angeles the other day about progress and there are a number of E-Flex Cruzes now running at Milford. Some of these vehicles will be heading North soon to do cold weather development. In the meantime Bob Lutz has had a chance to drive Cruze based car and talks about it at the Fastlane blog.

[Source: GM FastLane]

Those who were miffed at General Motors for eschewing its initial plans to launch the Chevy Volt with a small 1.0L turbocharged three cylinder engine are probably not going to like this piece of news, but Fisker Automotive has finally settled on an internal combustion engine to recharge the Karma's on-board lithium ion batteries. It's a big one, with a full 2.0-liters of displacement and direct injection, oh... and a turbocharger for good measure. While it is definitely debatable whether or not the Karma really needs 260 horses and an equal torque figure to spin its generator (which we'll leave up to you in the comments... don't let us down), it's not really as bad as it may seem.

The Ecotec line of engines from GM are solid pieces of machinery, and the more power that the engine and generator are sending to the battery pack, the quicker the whole shebang will be recharged. It's an aluminum engine too, so the weight isn't as bad as it could have been, and it's fairly fuel efficient with its direct injection as well. So, while we'd love to see the Karma get an exotic, lightweight powerplant, the 2.0L DI Ecotec and its 260 horsepower is, in all actuality, a pretty efficient package when one considers its hefty power-to-weight ratio. Discuss.


[Source: Fisker Automotive]

We're still a bit more than a year away from getting Ford's new Fiesta here in North America but the company has launched a micro-site for its new small car. There are downloadable images of the Fiesta and some details of the equipment that will be included on the American version. While Europeans have a variety of engine choices, it appears that we in the states will only get a 1.6L four cylinder with variable valve timing. The Fiesta will be the first US-market Ford with the PowerShift dual clutch transmission. Ford promises to keep the European-tuned suspension when the car arrives here. Production should start just over a year from now with an on-sale date early in 2010. Those interested in getting updates can sign up at the site or just keep reading ABG.

[Source: Ford]

The tireless promoters of the HH2 hydrogen system are in the basement of the LA Convention Center this week, not too far from the Intimate EV. Four vehicles, only one that was actually outfitted with the HH2 materials, are sitting in the tuner hall awaiting visitors. If you go, you'll be full in the mix of information and told that the system costs just $500 and can be installed in any vehicle built after 1960 (and even some previous cars). There are also clip art posters of the Twin-H Hydrogen Power device. In fact, visiting the booth is kind of like looking at the company's website. A lot of all caps, a few typos, and plenty of claims of incredible benefits from putting a little water into a box under your hood. We won't repeat ourselves in full, but will say again that these systems don't work. Instead of visiting, it's perhaps a bit safer to check out the claims in our gallery below.

After debuting the 2010 Fusion at the LA Auto Show this week, Ford has just launched a new micro-site for the Fusion that finally includes pricing information. The base Fusion S starts at $19,270 with the four cylinder engine and 6-speed manual gearbox. The new Fusion Hybrid however, is nearly 42 percent more, starting at $27,290, a price point that includes the SmartGauge instrument cluster, satellite radio, 17" wheels and electronic stability control. For comparison, the Camry Hybrid is $26,150, but that doesn't include $450 for the upgraded audio with satellite radio. It also doesn't include anything quite like the SmartGauge which buyers will have put their own value on. Where the Fusion really jumps ahead of the Camry is fuel economy. The Ford's city fuel economy will now be at least 39 mpg, 6 mpg more than the Toyota. The Fusions should be on sale early in the new year.

[Source: Ford]


Milan live photos copyright ©2008 Jonathon Ramsey / Weblogs, Inc.
Fusion live photos copyright ©2008 Michael Harley / Weblogs, Inc.

Vespa has been building stylish, metal-bodied scooters since the late 1940s and has quite a number of small displacement engines under its stylish Italian belt, so it knows how to make a good powerplant. Although the little scooters are still probably best recognized for their buzzy little two-stroke units, all Vespas have been powered by much cleaner four-strokers since 2001, and Piaggio has been refining these units all the while. The latest edition of the Vespa line, the sporty S model, has just been bestowed with a new version of the SOHC four valve single cylinder engine that reportedly makes more power and uses less gasoline than before. Vespa claims that its new 50cc Vespa S makes a little over 4 horsepower, is quicker than any other scooter on the market with a similarly-sized powerplant, can hit 39 miles per hour right out of the box and will manage somewhere between 70 and 80 miles per gallon of gas. Get yours now for $3,199.


[Source: Vespa]

Charging up the basement of the LA Convention Center this week is the Intimate electric car, a bright red slope with the tagline: "The Quiet Car." Show workers were still unwrapping the tiny vehicle when we happened by, but that didn't stop us from taking some pictures. That blue rectangle by the door handles is just tape, don't worry.

In any case, we discovered that the two-seat Intimate is a bare bones EV, a project of L/E Automobiles, LLC. It'll most likely be regulated as a neighborhood electric vehicle (notice the four wheels?) but the website doesn't come out and say it. What it does say is that the Intimate BEV "will be developed and built in Van Nuys, California," supposedly here in late 2008. Target range is 30-60 miles on a 6-8 hour charge and it'll push you along at 40 mph. Don't want to be going too fast when you're getting intimate, right?

While it's true that we have posted before about extraordinary performances turned in by the batteries of Altairnano before, in light of the recent claim by AFS Trinity that lithium ion batteries in a plug-in hybrid could only achieve 25,000 miles (unless the energy was buffered by ultracapacititors as it is in the AFS design), we thought you might particularly enjoy hearing about a recent test conducted by other entities. The utility company Southern California Edison (SCE) has been putting a battery from Johnson Controls-Saft through its paces for some two and a half years now and have just released some of their results thus far. Simulating the conditions that might be experienced within a light commercial van, the utility has so far racked up 180,000 miles on the pack with minimal deterioration. The results were positive enough for the Department of Energy (DOE) to throw down for a full size battery to test whether it would be suitable for a passenger car. Since it was stated in AFS Trinity's press release that CEO Edward Furia was unaware of the existence of such a durable lithium ion battery, we respectfully suggest he call up SCE for confirmation.

[Source: Canadian Driver]

Believe it or not, catalysts were not mandatory in European gasoline-powered cars until 1988. The reason behind that was that the fuel consumption of European cars, noticeably lower than their American counterparts, was considered less of a harm. Then there is the EU (formerly EC) rule of making all decisions unanimously, which with France and Italy on one side and Germany on the other didn't make the process easy. We're seeing a rehash of this in the current discussion on CO₂ limits. Compared to the US Clean Air Act from 1970, it seems Europeans arrived late to the game. Back in 1985, European cars over 2 liters had to use unleaded gasoline and were fitted with catalytic converter. The rule was extended to all gasoline cars in 1993.

[Source: Le Blog Auto]