GM likely to launch new plug-in hybrid

Vehicle will be unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show, newspaper says, citing company officials.

DETROIT (Reuters) -- General Motors Corp. will likely unveil a prototype plug-in hybrid at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January, a local paper reported Friday.

The advanced technology vehicle would have an extended driving range on battery power and would also have a diesel or gasoline engine that could power the car when the battery was low, the Detroit News said, citing unnamed GM officials.

Plug-in hybrids are gas-electric vehicles that can recharge their batteries with an extension cord and a normal wall outlet.

GM, which is trying to recover from a $10.6 billion loss in 2005 and stop a slide in U.S. market share, has been criticized for relying heavily on gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles. This year, it has also drawn sharp criticism for its decision to kill its EV1 electric car program.

The EV1 was introduced at the 1997 Los Angeles Auto Show and leased to selected customers. But GM pulled the plug on the project in 2002, citing insufficient public support.

The automaker eventually collected and destroyed almost all of the 1,000 EV1 cars, prompting the making of a documentary titled "Who Killed the Electric Car?"

The film was released this summer to wide acclaim from environmentalists and others concerned about the country's dependence on oil.

In an interview with Motor Trend published in July, GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said killing the $1 billion EV1 program was his worst decision. He said it did not affect the automaker's profitability, but did hurt its image.

The Detroit News said Wagoner will talk about GM's emphasis on advanced technologies in a speech he plans to deliver at the Los Angeles Auto Show later this month.

Other automakers are also researching plug-in technology, including Toyota Motor Corp., the world's leading producer of hybrid vehicles.

Honda Motor Co. Ltd. has also called for exploring plug-ins and is conducting advanced research on hydrogen.

Ford Motor Co. has a fleet of hybrid hydrogen fuel cell vehicles as part of "real world testing of fuel cell technology."

Gallery: Consumer Reports' Most Reliable Cars

Source: CNN dot com

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Most fuel-efficient cars for 2006

Hybrids and diesels tops in EPA's new Fuel Economy Guide. Ford Escape Hybrid top SUV.

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The Honda Insight, a gas-electric hybrid car, edged out the Toyota Prius as the most fuel-efficient vehicle in the U.S., according to new mileage ratings from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy.

Both get an estimated 60 miles per gallon in city driving.

The Insight, a two-seat car, gets an estimated 66 miles an gallon on the highway, though, while the Prius gets 55 miles per gallon.

The Prius, a car that's classified as mid-sized, uses a different hybrid system that delivers better mileage in stop-and-go driving than in steady highway cruising.

The EPA's fuel economy figures are based on laboratory tests. Drivers in real-world conditions generally report lower actual mileage.

Mileage estimates for the redesigned 2006 Honda Civic hybrid are not yet available. The 2005 version ranked fourth overall last year, behind two versions of the Insight and the Prius.

The Prius is the most efficient "mid-sized" sedan by a wide margin. The Hyundai Elantra is listed as the most efficient non-hybrid mid-sized sedan. It gets an estimated 34 miles per gallon on the highway and 27 in the city.

Diesel-powered cars from Volkswagen took the top spots in the "compact" and "sub-compact" car categories. The diesel VW Beetle with manual transmission is the most efficient sub-compact and the VW Golf diesel, which is built on the same vehicle structure as the Beetle, is the most efficient compact. Both get an estimated 44 mpg on the highway and 37 in the city.

The Beetle and Golf tied for third in overall mileage rankings.

Among SUVs, the Ford Escape hybrid is the most efficient. It gets 36 mpg in city driving and 31 on the highway.

The Mercury Mariner hybrid and Mazda Tribute hybrid are very similar and get the same mileage. All tied for eighth in overall mileage rankings.


Top 10 vehicles overall:

(City/Highway)
1. Honda Insight (hybrid) -- 60/66
2. Toyota Prius (hybrid) -- 60/51
3. Volkswagen New Beetle and Golf (diesel, manual) -- 37/44
4. Volkswagen Jetta (diesel) -- 36/41
5. Ford Escape Hybrid FWD -- 36/31
6. Volkswagen New Beetle and Jetta(diesel, automatic) -- 35/42
7. Volkswagen Golf (diesel, automatic) -- 33/44
8. Ford Escape Hybrid 4WD (Also Mazda Tribute and Mercury Mariner 4WD hybrids) -- 33/29
9. Lexus RX 400h 2WD and Toyota Highlander Hybrid 2WD -- 33/28
10. Toyota Corolla (manual) -- 32/41

Taken from cnn dot com

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BMW invents steam-powered hybrid system

Turbosteamer turns engine heat into steam which is used to boost power and efficiency.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Engineers at BMW have created a new type of hybrid powertrain for cars. Instead of electricity, though, this system relies on steam power to boost the engine's performance and save fuel.

About 35 percent of the energy created when an engine burns gasoline is lost as heat, according to the book "The Isaac Newton School of Driving: Physics and Your Car," by Barry Parker.

BMW's Turbosteamer system relies on a heating unit that replaces the muffler. It heats water to temperatures up to 550 degrees. The resultant steam is then carried to what is essentially a small steam engine.

With much of its heat energy converted to motion in the engine, the cooler steam -- now about 150 to 200 degrees -- goes through a system that combines the steam's heat with heat from the car's regular cooling system.

That second system is used to operate another, lower temperature, motor that further boosts the car's power.

A more refined system may be ready for production in about 10 years, the company said.

Taken from CNN dot com

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Hybrid Cars Quietly Take to the Road: Autos Save Gas, Easy to Drive

by Michael Taylor, Chronicle Staff Writer

It's a typical Monday morning, and here's the Doughty Commuter in his 1998 verstuffed V8-engine SUV, fearlessly slogging along with 140,000 other commuters as they creep-crawl their way toward the Bay Bridge toll booths.

The Overstuffed's V8, a wise and proven if overly thirsty design, is idling away, slurping up the $2-a-gallon fine stuff. The Doughty Commuter is watching his fuel gauge sink sadly toward the bottom, nearly as fast as last week's Nasdaq.

But in the next lane over, what do we have here? This silent little bug of a car, and we do mean silent. It is a Toyota Prius -- or it could be a Honda Insight -- and it is driven by a hybrid power train, a combination of gasoline-powered engine and electric motor.

Depending on the model, it gets anywhere from 45 to 68 miles per gallon, as much as five times the efficiency of the Overstuffed V8, and when it comes to a halt, it shuts off and burns nothing.

Hybrid cars are finally with us on a routine basis, brought to market by two of the most successful automobile manufacturers on the planet. They are being sold as everyday vehicles that, unlike their purely electric (and mercifully temporary) predecessors, do not need the tether of an electrical recharge to get the car going when it runs out of juice.

Instead, a hybrid, in its simplest form, works like this: When it is more efficient for the electric motor to be working, onboard computers switch it on.

The gasoline half of the equation works the same way.

On the road, the computer-controlled switch between gas and electricity is practically seamless. Perhaps the most eerie thing about a hybrid is when you brake to a stop -- in that endless traffic jam on the Bay Bridge, for example -- and the car goes into "sleeper" mode. It feels as if you have shut down the engine completely. But when you tap on the accelerator, the car "wakes up" and moves along.

"It's not like driving any other kind of car," says Prius owner Brian Roberts, a 29-year-old project manager for a company that makes telephone switching devices. "But it's enough like driving a normal car so you get used to it pretty quickly."

Roberts, who lives in Pittsburg, is typical of the Bay Area hybrid car buyer: curious about new technology and tired of ransoming his paycheck to the oil companies.

"I had a Toyota 4Runner, and I was only getting about 17 miles to the gallon," he said. "It was costing me a lot of money."

He checked out the Honda Insight, "but it had no back seat." The Insight, which gets an advertised 61 to 68 miles per gallon, is indeed a two-seater. It also comes only with a five-speed manual transmission, but Honda says an automatic is on the way.

Needing a family car, Roberts bought the Prius, a four-door whose interior, Toyota says, is only slightly smaller than that of the bigger Camry sedan.

"What I found is that this car goes everywhere you need to go, and it comes pretty much loaded," Roberts said. Asked about the car's uniquely chunky design -- a cross between a Toyota Corolla and some granite boulders -- he said, "I haven't had any negative remarks. It looks different enough that people are interested."

They're also interested because there just are not very many of these cars rolling around the country.

Hybrid cars represent a small fraction of 1 percent of Toyota and Honda's total output. Toyota sold 422,961 copies of its best-selling model, the Camry, in the United States last year. Since the Prius was introduced in July, the company has sold slightly more than 8,000.

Honda, whose top seller, the Accord, accounted for 404,515 U.S. sales last year, has sold fewer than 4,000 Insights since the car's introduction four months ago.

One reason for these low numbers is that, according to industry sources, Toyota and Honda are losing as much as $10,000 on each $20,000 hybrid car they sell in the United States because the new technology, still being made in small batches, is far more expensive than it would be if it were in mass production. In fact, Honda says the Insight is "an investment in our future." The future, in the form of next year, according to Honda spokesman Art Garner, will bring a hybrid power train in Honda's popular Civic line.

"When you tend to integrate (hybrid technology) into mass-market vehicles like the Civic," Garner said, "it won't be long before we'll turn a profit on the hybrid cars."

Outside the auto industry, environmental and consumer advocates alike have little but praise for the hybrids. But they caution that despite this quantum leap from a century-old way of doing things (the internal combustion engine as the sole way of powering a car), the hybrid may well be only temporary, until something better comes along.

"We tested both cars," said David Champion, director of automobile testing for the magazine Consumer Reports. "We had both cars for some time, and we haven't seen any problems in them. They seem to be fairly reliable, and they come from Honda and Toyota, who make reliable cars anyway."

Last year, the Sierra Club, normally no fan of the auto industry, gave Honda the club's "Award for Excellence in Environmental Engineering," the first product award in the organization's 108-year history. A few months after honoring Honda for its Insight, the club gave the same award to Toyota for its Prius.

But Champion, like others, says that "over the long term, we see the hybrid vehicles as a stopgap. They're relatively heavy for what they are, and they're carrying around two engines and two fuel sources -- a battery pack and the electric motor, and the engine and its tank of gasoline."

The other problem is that cars powered by plain old diesel or gasoline engines have become so efficient that they can challenge hybrid cars in the annual mileage sweepstakes held by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Volkswagen's diesel-powered Jetta, Beetle and Golf cars get up to 49 miles per gallon, and various gasoline-powered models made by Honda, Toyota, Suzuki, Mitsubishi and Chevrolet get up to 41 miles per gallon.

Many experts say fuel cells are the wave of the future. Using any kind of readily available fuel -- such as natural gas, methanol, gasoline or ethanol -- the fuel cell, like a battery, creates electricity using an electrochemical process that extracts hydrogen from the incoming fuel.

But mass-produced fuel cell vehicles are probably five to 10 years away, and for now the choice is what we've been using for the past 100 years or hybrids.

And if you want to be probably the only one on your block with something different, then the names are either Prius or Insight.

"I like it," Roberts says, "because it's unique."

Taken from San Francisco Chronicle

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Hybrids: Save gas, lose money

Consumer Reports says hybrid cars will lose value faster than other cars. Are they right?

By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNNMoney staff writer

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Buying a hybrid will save you money on gas...but you might still come out behind.

One of two main reasons, according to a recent analysis by Consumer Reports, is an additional cost that has typically been treated as an unknown: depreciation. Another factor, the report found, is purchase price -- hybrids simply have higher sticker prices than their non-hybrid counterparts, and gas savings don't do nearly enough to close the gap.

According to Consumer Reports' analysis of six hybrid gasoline/electric vehicles, they will lose 2 percent to 3 percent more in value over five years of ownership than otherwise identical non-hybrid vehicles.

With the purchase price difference, depreciation and other costs like financing and insurance factored in, only the Toyota Prius and Honda Civic Hybrid would save owners any money -- $406 and $317, respectively, over 5 years. That final figure includes the impact of a federal tax incentives for hybrids. Without those incentives, Prius buyers face a net cost of ownership of $2,700 more than Corolla buyers.

Other hhybrid vehicles would cost owners thousands more than non-hybrids over five years of ownership, even after federal tax credits.

For example, a Toyota Highlander Hybrid costs $7,185 more to purchase than the non-hybrid version. That results in $558 more in sales tax and $2,653 more in financing costs. It also will cost $358 more to insure for five years and $12 more in repair and maintenance costs. In addition, the hybrid will also lose 3.9 percent more in value than the non-hybrid.

The Highlander Hybrid will save you about $1,392 in gasoline over that time. So, even with a $2,200 federal tax credit in your bank account, the Highlander Hybrid will ultimately cost you $5,508 more after five years than a similarly-equipped non-hybrid Highlander.

Figures originally published in Consumer Reports magazine on March 1 showed the cost gap being much larger and none of the hybrid vehicles saving owners any money. A correction posted to the magazine's Website Wednesday morning adjusted for a miscalculation in the rate of depreciation. The corrected figures narrow the gap, but all the hybrid vehices still depreciate at a faster rate than non-hybrids, according to the magazine.

Depreciation debate

Depreciation is a major factor in Consumer Reports' analysis. But, experts say, it's difficult to accurately predict depreciation since few mainstream-targeted hybrid vehicles have entered the used car market.

Hybrid supporter and Prius owner James Bell, publisher of the automotive guide IntelliChoice, recently sold his two-year-old Prius for just $4,000 less than he originally paid for it -- a remarkably low rate of depreciation

Even Bell acknowledges, however, his experience isn't a perfect indicator. Unlike most hybrids, the Prius is a uniquely designed vehicle that exists only as a hybrid. There are still waiting lists for new Priuses at dealerships, so some impatient buyers will look for used ones instead.

And even for the Prius, some experts are saying that, because of hybrid cars' technical complexity and additional costs, used car buyers will become wary of them in years to come.

Still, Bell thinks hybrid cars will hold their value at least as well as, if not better than, regular, non-hybrid vehicles. "We don't see any reason at this point to think that a hybrid is going to track along as an outstanding value and then suddenly crash," he said. In spite of increased production, hybrid systems will likely remain rare enough to command a premium among used car buyers, Bell said.

Nonetheless, there may be more effective ways to save on gas than buying a hybrid. Buying a smaller car, for example, or just getting a smaller engine. "Hybrids are kind of a luxury item," points out Jeff Bliskell, who wrote the feature for Consumer Reports.

Some luxury items that provide a tangible benefit, like heated seats, generally add to a vehicle's resale value. Whether a hybrid powertrain provides a real benefit, and will add to the car's value, will depend on a potential buyer's feelings about the social and environmental impact of fuel consumption.

Raj Sunderam, president of Automotive Lease Guide, a company that predicts residual values of cars for the purpose of calculating lease terms, also sees hybrid cars possibly losing value faster than non-hybrids.

"We would agree with Consumer Reports that this is an area of caution," he said.]

But among the unknowns, Sunderam said, is long-term durability. "There's no track record of how they hold up after 80,000 or 100,000 miles," said Sunderam.

As the number of hybrid vehicles available increases, that could also drive used hybrid prices lower. But it could also increase familiarity with the systems and ease potential used car buyers concerns about getting the car serviced, said Sunderam.

Still, said Sunderam, given the issues surrounding hybrid vehicles, the prudent course is to assume they will lose value faster than non-hybrid cars. It will be up to future used car buyers to prove that assumption wrong.

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Gas-guzzlers and variable engine displacement

by Zatni Arbi

This year we saw a new era emerge in the automotive industry. We began the year with engines getting larger and larger.

People flocked to dealers to check out the latest SUVs. Suddenly, we had a worldwide oil crisis and the price of gasoline skyrocketed. Right away, the sales of gas-guzzling cars, trucks and SUVs plummeted, even in the U.S.

So car buyers now look for smaller cars or family sedans that do not compromise too much on interior space and utility. They were so pampered with the spaciousness of full-sized SUVs, but now fuel economy reigns supreme.

Here in Indonesia we used to think that diesel engines were cheaper to operate. As the government hiked the price of diesel fuel (known as "solar" locally) to Rp 4,300 per liter, the price difference was no longer significant.

If you included cleanliness, noise and, most of all, the faster depreciation of diesel-engine cars, it would no longer be attractive to have one. Its fuel consumption, however, still beats the average miles per gallon (mpg) of a gasoline-powered car, though.

Hybrid cars, which automatically shut down their internal combustion engine and use an electric engine when traveling at a low speed, when coasting or when idle, were still a premium in 2005.

Ford's Escape, the first hybrid SUV, was joined by others including the Lexus RX400h and the Toyota Highlander Hybrid. In the compact segment, Toyota and Honda have been selling the hybrid Prius, Insight and Civic in the U.S. for a couple of years. Most car buyers are still waiting for the time when the price differential between the hybrid and non-hybrid versions drops substantially.

Whether hybrid cars can be used in Jakarta remains to be seen, as the water level on the road rises so quickly during a short downpour. Remember, even the energy from the brakes is transformed into electrical current that will recharge the battery.

By the way, hybrid technology has also been implemented in a RST-V (Reconnaissance, Surveillance and Targeting Vehicle), the battleground SUV that inspired the Hummer. It combines a diesel engine and one electric motor on each wheel to push it to more than 100 kilometers per hour (kph), and during a surveillance mission it can travel silently into enemy territory.

Blurring of distinctions

One clear trend in 2005 was the expanding range of car designs, which makes it more difficult for us to continue using the conventional categories. If you see a new model on the street, is it a subcompact, a compact, a full-size, an estate, a van, an MPV, an SUV, a crossover, a truck or just a sports car?

It's not easy to decide.

Today, as car buyers begin to abandon the large SUVs, they are setting their eyes on the smaller wagons with a high roof.

Consumer Reports calls them "microvans" or tall wagons". They have a high seating position, can accommodate up to six people and are equipped with fuel-efficient engines.

They are not a sports car that can take you off from 0 to 100 kph in under 10 seconds, but they can take you to the supermarket in comfort. One example is the Chrysler PT Cruiser, which has been around for some time and may soon see the streets of Jakarta.

Talking about the PT Cruiser, car buyers in the U.S. will certainly be reminded of Chevy's HHR. The van, which has been designed with a retro look and reminiscent of those fabulous Chevrolet trucks of the late 1940s and early 1950s, has been accused of being a copycat of the PT Cruiser. (Take a look at the accompanying picture.)

By the way, the HHR stands for Heritage High Roof. Quite a show of the need for more creativity, but you may also know that Chevy launched a retro-looking truck/roadster/sports car under the name SSR in 2003.

More carmakers are coming up with seven-seater, family-car models. While this configuration has been quite common in Asia for some time, the European and American carmakers are just beginning to introduce theirs in more varieties. One of the latest arrivals is the new Mercedes Benz B-Class.

It can take a family of three generations on an outing and spoil them with a lot of the creature comforts. From the U.S., there are the Ford Freestyle and Jeep Commander. The latter is an off-roader rather than a family hauler, though.

There is also a trend of replacing the metal roofs with hardened glass. Here, in Indonesia we first saw the panoramic roof in a Peugeot 307 SW a couple of years ago, but now they are common in many models-including the Land Rover LS3. The new midsize SUV -- also a seven seater -- has three separate sunroofs, one for each row of seats.

If the sun becomes too hot, you can cover your head with its built-in drape. The new Jeep Commander has one sunroof for the front row and a pair for the second row seats. And, of course, Maybach has the most versatile glass roof panel.

What about the tranny?

A continuously variable transmission (CVT) is what Ford used in its 2005 Escape Hybrid. It was also used in the relatively new Ford Freestyle SUV/car crossover. Other carmakers actually started using the CVT on their models much earlier, and we can expect this type of transmission to become more common in new cars and SUVs as it generally increases fuel economy.

VW, however, has developed its own solution for reducing fuel consumption. Currently implemented in the Audi 3, VW's DSG six-speed gearbox is actually a dual-clutch transmission. It is said that this is more effective than the CVT, the manual transmission and, certainly, the conventional torque converter automatic transmission.

Drive-by-wire is also being adopted in a growing number of cars. The mechanical link between the steering wheel and the front wheel is based on electrical current, and speed variable means that the faster you go the heavier the steering wheel will be. The result is a lighter vehicle, and it translates into a better fuel consumption.

Following the trend in the last two decades or so, car engines have become much more reliable. Some engine makers claim that their products are maintenance-free: Even the spark plugs can stay in for over 20,000 km.

However, no matter how good an engine is, it will not remain trouble-free for long if we feed it with the low quality, kerosene-mixed gasoline that some of our unscrupulous Pertamina gas station operators pump into our tanks.

On the horizon

In the not-so-far future, more cars will have many more active accident avoidance systems. General Motors' Opel Vectra, for example, will have some kind of automatic pilot. Provided the markings on the pavement are clear, the car will be able to navigate through a turn at speeds up to 90 kph.

Called the Traffic Assist, the system relies on laser sensors to keep you a safe distance from the vehicle in front. Mind you, however, this car will not work in Jakarta, where drivers seem adamantly opposed to even observing the lane markers.

Looking forward, more and more vehicles will leave dealers' lots with some kind of navigation system. I also believe that, as the ceiling-attached DVD screen and the headrests on the rearmost seats block the rear view mirror's line of sight, more cars and vans should be equipped with rear-facing cameras so that the driver will always be aware if a driver fro hell in a Kopaja bus is just one inch behind him.

Night vision will also become more commonplace to complement increasingly effective headlights. What I think should also be implemented in new cars is a sensor that detects the driver's physical condition. The sensor should emit an alert or disable the car altogether if the driver is drunk or sleepy.

A year ago, we talked about the ability of the engine to shut down some of its cylinders to save fuel. General Motors has also implemented a similar system in its 3.9-liter, V6 engine used in its Impala. I believe that, in the future, this variable engine displacement method will be used in more engines to achieve better fuel economy.

At any rate, cars will become more fuel-efficient, safer and more comfortable. They will come in a wider variety of shapes and sizes.

The problem is, there will be just too many of them around.

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Study: Hybrid cars will pay for themselves over time

With higher gas prices and tax incentives, some hybrid vehicles make economic sense, Edmunds.com says.

DETROIT (Reuters) -- Some hybrid cars will make up for their premium cost because of higher gas prices and tax credits from the U.S. government on the more fuel efficient vehicles, a study released Tuesday shows.

Hybrid cars and trucks, which get improved mileage in city driving by running on a combination of gas and electric power, cost between $1,200 and $7,000 more than traditional versions of the same vehicles, according to auto Web site Edmunds.com.

Edmunds.com is a partner providing data and content for CNN.com's automotive Websites.

But a fuel economy study by Edmunds.com showed that the scales were starting to tip in favor of hybrids.

"High gas prices and generous tax credits now offset the high sales prices of some hybrids, assuming owners keep their hybrids for a few years," said Alex Rosten, an analyst with Edmunds.com.

The shift is significant because analysts have said that higher sticker prices were constraining hybrid sales.

Hybrids currently account for 1 percent of new car sales in the United States. But Japan's Toyota Motor Corp., the hybrid market leader, sees its annual hybrid sales topping 1 million units soon after 2010.

The consumer-focused automotive Web site said that, assuming vehicles were driven 15,000 miles per year and gas was priced at $3 per gallon, owners of the Toyota Prius and Ford Motor Co.'s Escape Hybrid would break even within three years.

Buyers of the Saturn Vue Green Line from General Motors Corp., the Toyota Camry and the Civic Hybrid from Honda Motor Co. would break-even within six years, Edmunds.com said.

But federal tax credits for hybrid buyers are being phased out on the most popular models.

Under a provision of the tax code, buyers of a Toyota hybrid after Sept. 30 will only qualify for half of the tax credit for which they would have previously qualified.

Tax incentives will also be cut on other hybrids after auto makers sell 60,000 of the vehicles -- a sales threshold Toyota has reached.

The tax credit on Toyota and Lexus hybrids is scheduled to drop to 25 percent in April 2007 and then be eliminated in October 2007.

In another study released Tuesday, auto industry tracking firm CSM Worldwide cited higher gas prices as one factor driving a shift toward more efficient six-speed transmissions.

CSM forecast that automatic six-speed transmissions would account for 60 percent of the U.S. car and truck market by 2012, up from less than 5 percent today.

GM has already announced plans to shift to a new family of six-speed transmissions for upcoming models.

CSM said three-quarters of the new cars from GM, the world's No. 1 automaker, would feature the six-speed transmission by 2012.

Please check Hybrids: seven worries, seven answers.

Including: What about battery replacement? What about maintenance?

CNN

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