If you aren’t already on the list to purchase a 2011 , you’re officially out of luck. During a speech to the Detroit Economic Club today, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn announced that the U.S. market allotment for the first year’s production of Leafs is already sold out more than six months before the EV even goes on sale. Nissan has now received 13,000 orders for the $32,780 – quite impressive for a vehicle almost no one’s driven.
So far, the orders are comprised of refundable $99 deposits, so it will be interesting to see how sales and orders hold up once people begin getting calls from dealers. Prior to going on sale in 2008, the also received thousands of orders before deliveries began – and we all know how well that turned out. While the Leaf will undoubtedly be a much more pleasant and practical car to drive than the Smart, it remains to be seen how customers will react once they get used to the real world electric range.
Ghosn remains extremely bullish on electric vehicles and will be adding production capacity in both the United States and Europe over the next three years.
When gets around to expanding its line-up next year, the first model to benefit from the badge will be a compact MPV reportedly badged the Alpha. The small van will apparently be based on a stretched version of the current Prius platform, will add a third row of seats and should be the first production Toyota hybrid with a lithium ion battery pack. Toyota is currently testing a fleet of plug-in Prius hybrids with lithium batteries, but those aren’t slated for production until 2012.
The seven-seat Alpha is expected to be about one foot longer than the current Prius hatchback, while a shorter, five-seat version of the Alpha that may look similar to the from 2007 and could retain the nickel-metal hydride batteries of the current Prius to keep costs down. If all goes according to plan, expect the Prius Alpha to launch around March of next year.
Car & Driver has begun assembling pieces of fact and hypothesis to come up with a picture of the next-generation MkVII . Word is that a larger, edgier, lower and wider evolution of the bread-and-butter hatch will show up earlier than planned in order to make a better case for itself against an up-market Polo and to take advantage of cost savings.
The savings will come from the use of Group’s new modular platform, which could eventually be a workhorse for 60 different models throughout the company’s various brands. That would eliminate 16 of the current platforms it needs to use. Sixty might seem like a large number at first, but the new Golf is being prepped to fit new powerplants including electric and , and that will quickly add branches to the family tree.
The interior will be replete with tech as well, with “higher-quality materials” joining an eight-inchtouchscreen with iPad-like operability that controls navigation, audio, and Internet access. We’ve seen a prototype of VW’s GLORIA touchscreen system and it should be impressive. A note of caution, though: C/D starts the piece off with the note that VW CEO Martin Winterkorn wants to make VW bigger than Toyota. All we’ll say is we know what happened when Toyota wanted the top spot, so please, VW be careful.
Geely Panda strutting its stuff – Click above to watch video
We hate to say this, but until now, we didn’t realize it was physically possible to do a stoppie in a car. We thought launching a vehicle onto its front rollers was generally left to the two-wheeled crowd, but a new video of the Panda has officially proven otherwise. The company has let loose a video of a fleet of the tiny cutesy hatchbacks being flogged in the best way possible. Want to see a Panda do in reverse? No problem. How about cruise along on two wheels? You got it.
We have no idea what the text in between the shots of the cars suffering the kind of abuse that only stunt drivers can inflict and video of the assembly line says, but that’s okay. We understand the cute-as-a-button Panda paw print, and, as you all know, hooning is a universal language. Besides, it makes us think of and various Saab stunt team exhibitions, and that can’t be all bad. to see the mad skills for yourself. Thanks for the tip, JPHyundai!
Honda EV-N Concept – Click above for high-res image gallery
Carlos Ghosn and may be plowing head first into the EV world, but isn’t so certain buyers are going to be willing to accept the range and charging woes that go along with driving an all-electric car. Tomohiko Kawanabe, president of research and development for Honda, has been quoted as saying that while his company is currently researching the possibility of an EV, he isn’t going so far as to recommend them. We’re not sure whether that means he won’t recommend his company produce an electric car of its own, or if he just wouldn’t tell his mother to cruise on over to the Nissan dealer to pick up a .
Either way, we’ll probably see some form of plug-inhybrid or EV from Honda within a few short years. California has mandated that a certain percentage of vehicle sales must be either plug-in hybrid or EV starting in 2012. Given Kawanabe’s chilly assessment of the EV game, though, odds are we won’t be seeing anything like the adorable all-electric on our streets. Chances are cars like the CR-Z, Civic Hybrid and will come with a plug-in option and larger batteries instead.
2011 Ford C-Max – Click above for high-res image gallery
has just provided more details about its first European market hybrid models. The company’s plant in Valencia, Spain will be building both regular and plug-in hybrid versions of the new five-seat C-Max MPV starting in 2013. The plant will receive $36 million in upgrades to accommodate hybrid vehicle production of the C-Max, which will be exclusively for the European market.
The new C-Max is the first vehicle being launched this year off of Ford’s new global compact car platform that will also spawn the new . The C-Max is essentially a tall wagon version of the Focus. The hybrid version will use Ford’s next-generation hybrid system that will launch in North America in 2012, though no other details about the powertrain are available at this time. The C-Max is also the first application of Ford’s new 1.6-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder engine, which could be paired with the hybrid system.
The new C-Segment platform has been designed to support the installation of conventional, hybrid and full battery electric powertrains. A BEV version of the C-Max is also possible, though Ford has only confirmed plans for the Focus Electric at this time.
Geely IG Concept – Click above for high-res image gallery
Word on the web would have us believe that has its eyes set on snatching the least-expensive car crown from . The Chinese automaker has announced that it will bring its to market, and that it will cost a mere $2,250 at current conversion rates. If that’s not enough to raise your eyebrows, the company says that its pint-size econobox will be a higher-quality alternative to what’s currently rolling out of India. Granted, that’s not exactly an atmospheric quality goal, but at this price point, every little bit helps.
Expect to see a 70 horsepower, 1.0-liter engine to put power to the front wheels via a CVT gearbox when the car hits markets in China and Russia. The company hasn’t made mention of any fuel economy numbers just yet, but we have to imagine the IG can hold its own in that department.
Autocar reports that the company plans to have the IG in showrooms by 2012, and that there’s some chance that an all-electric version will crop up in both Europe and the U.S. not long after. The company is already planning to swap the gasoline engine for an electric motor with 80 horsepower and 133 lb-ft of torque. There’s no word on what we can expect in terms of top speed, but the company says the concept is capable of cruising for 93 miles on a single charge.
Our first encounter with the Aston Martin DBS left us surprisingly cold, but after a full-bore run from LA to SF in the Carbon Black Edition, we’re ready to declare this particular DBS as the Aston to have.
At the Queensland Raceway run of the Mini Challenge, one race-prepped Cooper trips, flips and flies over the fence into the fans. Miraculously, the driver walked away and only two spectators were injured.
Chrysler’s up 25% over last month, with Subaru taking the top spot again and all but 13 automakers posting double-digit sales increases. Is the worst finally behind us?
Also of interest:
releases details of new lithium ion e-Golf, Jetta plug-in coming
Today in Berlin, unveiled the first of 500 electric drive produced for a consumer test that starts next year. The battery powered Golf was shown at the launch of the National Platform for Electric Mobility, a public-private partnership to promote electric vehicles in Germany.
The e-Golf is propelled by an 85-kilowatt electric motor integrated with a single speed transmission and differential. The motor produces 199 pound-feet of torque from zero rpm which is sufficient to accelerate the Golf to 62 mph in 11.8 seconds. An air cooled 26.5 kilowatt-hour lithium ion battery pack is mounted under the rear seat and cargo floor and center tunnel. VW claims the Golf can go about 93 miles on a charge.
The consumer fleet test will allow Volkswagen to gather real world data before it launches three production EVs in 2013. The first production model with be the Up blue-e-motion city car followed by the next generation Golf blue-e-motion and finally the .
Once a standard internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle gets up to operating speeds, it produces more energy than can go to the wheels thanks to losses from heat and friction. And, since it’s the engine that sends energy to the power outlet in the car (via the battery), does it make sense to charge your gadgets during your commute rather than at home, using energy that would otherwise be wasted? There is no simple answer, but the way that some new vehicle powerplants are changing means it’s going to be more and more likely that you’ll want to charge up on the road, even if you live in a solar-powered house.
One reason it’s hard to answer the question right now is that, while an engine is capable of producing much more energy than it uses to cruise, it doesn’t necessarily produce that energy at all times. Thus, plugging in a gadget adds a bit of load to the engine, but probably a lot less than running the headlights, heater or defogger. So if you drive a normal vehicle powered by an ICE, keep plugging that iPhone into the wall.
The trick comes with newer vehicles that have brake energy regeneration. In these cars, the difference might actually be negligible because they use an intelligently-controlled alternator that only charges the car’s battery when the car is slowing down and it’s the battery that supplies juice for your gadgets. Thus, the engine isn’t taxed with spending fuel to keep the battery charged. Over the next few years as regenerative braking becomes more common, getting some gadget energy from your car will at least help reduce your home energy load. Of course, if you’re driving a plug-inelectric car, fuhgedaboudit. Sam Abuelsamid contributed to this post.
Look what the hath wrought. Even just a few years ago it was a poster child for the overly hip and crazy-eyed eco warriors, now its wake is full of hybrids from the to the… ? Brenda Priddy’s viewfinder settled on an LFA mule with a flap on the hood that, theory holds, could be covering up a plug-in socket.
The context supposes that is , and , with the conventionally-powered LFA already proving itself in customer hands, could jump the lights with a hybrid and get ahead early in the eco supercar stakes. It’s all conjecture for now, but not entirely impossible to believe. However, if Lexus makes U.S. buyers for the standard LFA, who knows what kind of wire-walking act they’ll need to pull off to get an LFA Hybrid.
For about the first 110 years of the automobile, the gold standard of eco-thriftiness was a car’s miles-per-gallon rating. With the rise of hybrids, plug-ins, biofuels and the like, cost-per-mile might be the better measurement of road-going value. The idea is simple: if a car is powered by a Mr. Fusion or Dilithium crystals or the laughter of children and only costs $.01 per mile to operate but it carries a sticker price of $500,000, its efficiency is never going to balance out its initial cost.
Well, the has compiled a list of seven popular hybrids along with estimates of how long it would take for each car to pay for its higher cost compared to non-hybrid models in gasoline savings. The winner by a long shot is the at a mere 5.6 years. Which car fared worst? The at a whopping 21 years. We have to wonder, 21 years from now, will they still be making batteries for a 2010 Altima Hybrid?
In short, if you’re going by gas savings alone, hybrids don’t really pay in the short term. Then again, if gasoline taxes shoot up or peak oil really is right around the corner, the cost per mile of these vehicles could very quickly tip in their favor. Read the full article .
2020 Toyota Venza as realized by Lotus – Click above for high-res image gallery
When got to work seriously changing the from to , company engineers discovered that by improving the aerodynamics by 80 counts, the car netted a six mile per gallon improvement in its highway fuel economy rating (note: a “count” is a thousandth of a point of a Cd number, so reducing a Cd of 0.150 by 50 counts would give you a Cd of 0.100). On the flipside, taking out 400 pounds of stuff only improved the car’s highway mpg by one mile a gallon, though that’s largely because of the Newtonian “an object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force” hubbub. The lesson for the Volt? .
Not everyone agrees that aerodynamics are key to better cars, however. On the performance side of things, let’s not forget : “Aerodynamics are for people who can’t build engines.” When it comes to building more fuel efficient cars, weight reduction can play a big role. Lotus, in particular, is a big proponent of shaving pounds from its sportscars. The , to cite just one example, weighs less than 2,000 pounds.
Today, Lotus Engineering and the International Council on Clean Transportation released a study that found that weight reduction should not be forgotten and is, in fact, a cost-effective way to improve fuel efficiency. Specifically, the engineers calculate that you can have a “vehicle mass improvement” of 38 percent compared to a conventional mainstream vehicle (in this case, a ) and that it can be achieved with “only” a three percent increase in component costs. One important detail: this is “using engineering techniques and technologies viable for mainstream production programmes by 2020.” Even though 2020 is a decade away, it’s interesting to see how much fuel might this save. The DOE estimates that reducing a vehicle’s mass by 33 percent means a 23 percent drop in fuel consumption. Not bad. Find more details after the jump.
Video: Monoxitube puts exhaust and carbon monoxide
emissions in your face on Autoblog Green" href="http://green.autoblog.com/2010/04/26/video-monoxitube-routes-exhaust-and-carbon-monoxide-directly-in/">Video: Monoxitube puts exhaust and carbon monoxide emissions in your face
Just a thought.
It sounds as if may be dangerously close to crafting a solid business case to build the fast and frugal . After stealing the show in Geneva, it was revealed that the German automaker was in bringing the hybridsupercar concept to market, if only it were able to find enough applicants willing to plunk down their hard-earned cash.
According to Bloomberg, Porsche has recorded nearly 900 potential buyers for the 918 Spyder. Wolfgang Duerheimer, development chief for Porsche, said in an interview, “I’m confident that we will soon reach the threshold of 1,000,” he said in an April 24 interview. “We need 1,000 seriously interested people to make a sound business case.”
Don’t doubt that Porsche will put such a low-volume halo car into production, either. Nearly a decade ago, the automaker employed a similar tactic with its Carrera GT, which began life as a racing car prototype but was eventually offered for public sale after sufficient interest was generated. We’ve and we’ll say it again – Porsche: build it and they will come.
Geely Emgrand GE – Click above for high-res image gallery
Another entry that Geely has planned for its new Emgrand premium sub-brand is the GE limousine. Like many of Geely’s new models, the GE has a very prominent grille but the rest of the design looks otherwise well-proportioned and attractive. With a 214-inch body sitting on a 124-inch wheelbase, the GE is a big car targeted at executives who prefer to be driven rather than get behind the wheel. The Geely Emgrand GE can be equipped with either a rear bench contoured for two passengers or a single large seat flanked by extra storage compartments.
Underneath, the GE has the same plug-inhybrid powertrain . That means it gets a 2.4-liter inline-four that producing 160 horsepower and 165 pound-feet of torque. The electric drive consists of a pair of 27.5 kilowatt, 132 pound-foot hub-motors for all-wheel-drive capability. The GE is targeted for 2015 introduction.
Gallery:
Photos by Sam Abuelsamid / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.
Geely Emgrand GT – Click above for high-res image gallery
The Geely Emgrand GT is another example of the automaker’s apparent seriousness about being considered a top-flight player in the industry. This coupe features classic sports car proportions and aside from the overdone grille, it looks quite attractive. The GT comes from Geely’s new top-level Emgrand sub-brand and boasts some impressive specs. It’s reportedly a plug-inhybrid with a 2.4-liter inline-four that churns out 160 horsepower and 165 pound-feet on its own.
That output is supplemented by a pair of 27.5-kilowatt hub motors that give the GT all-wheel-drive capability. Those motors each add 132 foot-pounds of torque as well. It’s not clear, however, which axle is being driven by the combustion engine and which gets the motors. The Emgrand GT is targeted for a 2014 introduction.
Gallery:
Photos by Sam Abuelsamid / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.
Nissan Leaf EV – Click above for high-res image gallery
How many people plunked down $99 to register for a ? According to an email from , “As of this morning, 6,635 customers signed up to reserve a Nissan Leaf.” The reservation line has only been open about 70 hours (Nissan ), so that’s a pretty solid rate of ~100 an hour.
Katherine Zachary, who handles PR for Nissan North America, told Autoblog that during the first three hours, 2,700 people registered for the Leaf, and that it’s been a steady flow ever since. However, if you were one of the people with an itchy trigger finger Tuesday, don’t count on getting your Leaf first. Nissan is looking at where the most demand to help determine where to roll out the vehicles. So far, Zachary said, 75 percent of the people registering for a Leaf are from the areas – places like Tennessee, Oregon, San Diego, Seattle and the Phoenix/Tucson region in Arizona. “Through the work we have been going and what those markets have been doing, people are ready,” Zachary said. Most of the reservations are from California, but a “fair amount” are from Georgia, due in part to the extra state incentives for plug-in vehicles there.
So far, the upper SL trim is beating the SV base trim level three to one. This makes sense to us, since does get you quite a few nice features. As for there being any cancellations yet, Zachary said she hasn’t heard of any at this point. Someone will be the first, but apparently no one wants to do so quite yet. Nissan will continue to issue periodic statements on the number of reservations as time goes by. We’ll be ready.
