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Considering the fact that Toyota executives including CEO Akio Toyoda are currently being peppered with questions from Congress about recalls and safety issues, it seems especially ironic that Consumer Reports just named the Lexus LS 460L as their Best Car Overall for 2010 as part of their annual Top Picks list.

Granted, the Lexus line has not suffered from the braking and acceleration issues present on models branded directly with the Toyota name, but what really gives pause here is the message the selection sends in the middle of a recession with unemployment hovering around 10% nationally and exceeding that figure regionally and by socioeconomic class. The LS 460L has an MSRP of $76,572.

Sure, it’s a great vehicle, scoring 99 out of 100 on the survey’s rating scale. Sure, the description on the survey page talks about a luxury sedan that “pampers passengers with a comfortable ride and luxurious driving environment.” Sure, you can get a spiffy, optional self-parking system. Yeah, it has a 380hp V8 and gets 21 miles to the gallon overall. Oh, and there’s a hybrid version.

But the truth of the matter?

The vast majority of Americans will probably never be able to afford a car like this again — if they ever could. This is a best overall pick that speaks to the bygone days of credit fueled excess that landed us where we are — in national and international financial hot water. Is this really the best message to send to Americans who just want a reliable, fuel-efficient, affordable car?

Yes, you can drill down through the list and find that the Hyundai Elantra SE at $18,695 was named the top Small Sedan, but clearly reviewers still have their eyes on luxury in a land of famine. Shame on you, Consumer Reports. Stick the Lexus models over in the pie-in-the-sky dreamer list where they belong and find a car all of us can realistically hope to own. Showcase that car and you encourage carmakers to put their creativity and their excellence where it solidly belongs — in cars that operate cleanly and efficiently and are affordable.

Filed under: Buying Trends, Economy, Hyundai, Lexus by Mel
Tags: « Buying Trends - Economy - Luxury Cars »
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According to a report by Reuters printed by Auto News, Houston, a city whose wealth and prominence was established by its oil and gas companies, now wants to be the electric car capital of the world.

Speaking at an event on February 5 to promote the all-electric Nissan Leaf, Houston mayor Annise Parker said, “We are the Petro Metro, but we are also a car city. To have an electric vehicle that appeals to a car culture will make the real difference for market penetration.”

The Leaf, a five-passenger vehicle that can travel 100-miles on a single charge, hopes it will be that car, not just for Houston, but for other cities like San Francisco, that are actively forging alliances with car makers and power companies. These metropolitan areas don’t just want to bring EVs to their streets, they want to see electric charging stations to their street corners.

In Houston, Nissan has brokered a deal with both the city and Reliant Energy to construct public charging stations. These efforts are key in overcoming the doubts of would-be buyers fearful of being stranded with no juice under the hood.

General Motors will be debuting its much-anticipated Chevrolet Volt later this year, and partnerships like the one Nissan has struck with the city of Houston could be key to the car’s success. The Houston metropolitan area has about 4.5 million cars and trucks ticking off approximately 86 driving miles a day.

Promoting the EVs in tandem with charging stations is a win/win for all concerned. Thanks to the recession, power utilities in the United States have seen demand drop off about 5% over the past two years. Widespread adoption of electric vehicles serves multiple masters:

• It gives the auto industry exciting new products.
• Electric vehicles cater to environmental concerns.
• EVs will help lessen our nation’s dependence on foreign oil.
• Charging stations will generate jobs in cities where they are located.
• Cities like Houston with air-quality problems will gain access to more federal funds if they can cut emissions.
• A new area of electrical use will reclaim some lost profits for the power utilities.

Critics of electrical vehicles have long pointed to the lack of infrastructure as a significant stumbling block to the cars’ practicality. Partnerships with cities and power companies who have their own problems to solve could make that criticism go away, and give products like the Leaf and the Volt the leg up they need to be real contenders in the world of alternative-powered vehicles.

Filed under: Chevy, Going Green, New & Notable, Nissan by Mel
Tags: « alternative fuels - Chevy - Green Tech - Nissan »
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We’ve heard a lot from T. Boone Pickens about alternative energy, but until recently his main focus was wind turbines. Then the economy crashed, investors didn’t have money to spend on those kinds of projects, and Pickens quit running his TV commercials about big West Texas wind farms.

Speaking in Orlando on Monday, February 15, 2010, the Texas billionaire emphasized natural gas as the first step toward energy independence for the nation. He, like many natural gas advocates, are counting on the Barnett Shale Formation of North Texas, a field spreading over a minimum of 17 counties, as the source of all that fuel.

In a story for Automotive News by Chrissie Thompson, Pickens is quoted. “I’m not here to sell the guys today on switching over to natural gas,” but then tailored most of his remarks to the National Automobile Dealers Association in that direction — with a sideline or two into saying electric powertrains would be okay too, but with an interesting caveat.

“We’ve got to make sure that we don’t get off Saudi oil and end up with a Chinese battery.”

These comments went along with predictions that the price of oil, currently at $77 a barrel, will hit $300 or even $400 in ten years time.

Pickens said he supports pending legislation in Congress that would grant tax credits of $65,000 on purchases of new heavy-duty and medium-duty trucks powered by natural gas.

The fact that Pickens made his money on oil and gas and is promoting natural gas as the alternative fuel of the future with a side dish of xenophobia is troublesome. Certainly the United States has a dangerous degree of dependence on foreign fuel, but energy isolationism is not the answer either.

Truth be told, a wide-range of alternative fuel vehicles are likely in our future, and “Chinese batteries” will play a role in that. There’s going to be a great deal of money to be made in the green economy of the future, but if that economy is run with nothing but the wildcat oil ethics of the last century, the problems will just shift from one commodity to another and no real progress will be made — environmentally or politically.

Filed under: Going Green by Mel
Tags: « Economy - Green Tech »
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Amidst stories of tragedy on the luge track, and complaints that NBC isn’t giving enough coverage to athletes from countries than the USA, it may have gone largely unnoticed that VANOC, the organizing committee for both the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, has been pushing to make this year’s games, “…the greenest Olympic Games ever…” and we’re not talking just in terms of carbon footprint reduction tactics like heating the Athlete’s Village with waste heat from a municipal wastewater plant.

Vancouver is already home to Ballard Power Systems, which manufactures fuel cells, and it serves as the northern terminus of the “Hydrogen Highway” which runs up the west coast of North America. Given these two factors, it should come as no surprise that the Olympics and Paralympics are being used to showcase hydrogen fuel cell technology and vehicles.

How are they doing it? Well, there’s a fleet of 20 buses powered by fuel cells, and operated by BC Transit, in Whistler (site of many of the skiing events). The buses were built by New Flyer Industries of Winnipeg with fuel cells provided by the afore-mentioned Ballard, and hydrogen storage supplied by Calgary-based Dynetek Industries. The hybrid drive system came from ISE Corp, in California. Each of the low-floor buses has a top speed of roughly 55 mph, and can carry up to 60 people. Even better, these buses have zero tailpipe emissions, and are twice as efficient as their smelly diesel counterparts

BC Transit’s Whistler Transit Centre, which cost $89.5 million to build, is the world’s largest hydrogen refueling station, as well as being a joint venture between the governments of British Columbia, Canada, the Resort Municipality of Whistler, and the Canadian Hydrogen Fuel Cell Association. In addition to the buses, there is also a fleet of eight Chevrolet Equinox SUVs, being used to ferry VANOC officials, media representatives, government officials, athletes, and other VIPS back and forth between Olympic venues. These Equinoxes were built by General Motors Canada.

Also provided by GM Canada is an extensive fleet of vehicles that includes several thousand fuel efficient Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC vehicles, over 30% of which sport green technology, like flex fuel or hybrid systems.

Clearly VANOC has gone for the gold when it comes to green tech at the Olympics.

Filed under: GM, Going Green, In the News by Mel
Tags: « Green Tech - Olympics - Vancouver »
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Kia may be mocked by some as being a low-price, low-status brand, but the concept car being shown at the 2010 Chicago Auto Show, the The Kia Ray concept is definitely high style – even better, it’s a high sign from the folks in South Korea that green is defiinitely the way a sleek styling exercise to tell the world that the South Korean automaker is working on plug-in hybrid technology.

Introduced just this morning, the Kia Ray is a plug-in hybrid that, according to company claims, can travel 50 miles in electric mode, with a total range of 746 miles. It’s actually being marketed via EcoDynamics, the Kia sub-brand designed to develop and showcase technology to cut emissions and stretch fuels. Under that label Kia as introduced more than one concept car, with power sources as diverse as fuel cell electrics, diesel engines, and hybrids.

Kia spokespeople say that the Ray demonstrates the combination of exciting design and fuel efficiency, rather than cutting corners or producing copy-cat car designs.

In a news release published by Automotive News, Peter Schreyer, chief design officer at Kia Motors Corp., said, “It is important to imagine what people will want in the future from a green perspective early in the design process. People want to reduce their carbon footprint without driving carbon copies.”

Despite the sportscar-sounding name, the Ray is a compact four-door sedan based on the Forte design platform. It’s powered by a 153-horsepower, direct-injection 1.4-liter gasoline engine mated to a continuously variably transmission, working in tandem with a 78-kilowatt The Ray is a four-door compact sedan based on the Forte vehicle platform. Power comes from a 153-hp, direct-injection, 1.4-liter gasoline engine attached to a continuously variable transmission and linked to a 78-kilowatt electric motor. It also has solar cells embedded in the glass roof panel, which can power the climate control system, or fuel extra lighting.

This concept car is the fifth such design created by Irvine, California-based Kia Design Center America, in the last year. The others are the 2010 Forte, Forte Koup, and Soul, and the 2011 Sorento.

Filed under: Going Green, Kia by Mel
Tags: « Chcago Auto Show - Kia Motor Corp - Kia Ray »
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