The 2011 Honda Civic Hybrid is still a much sought-after vehicle, giving rival Toyota Prius a run its money, but this past spring, Honda introduced next year’s model – the first to sport a lithium-ion battery – at the New York Auto Show. Here’s the video review, courtesy of YouTube:
While Toyota has not announced any revised predictions for 2011 sales, the automaker announced today that it expects to sell more of it’s hybrid Prius cars by the end of the year than it did in 2010, despite setbacks in production after the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in early March.
In some parts of the United States, the supply of Toyota Priuses is only enough for a single day’s worth of sales, but the company is estimating that full production will be back by September.
Prius sales were down 61% last month because of Toyota’s inventory issues – the lowest sales level since September, 2004. As a result, industry analysts are calling the Prius the poster-child for inventory issues.
Last year, 140,928 Toyota Prius hybrids were sold. The highest number of sales for this car was in 2007, when 181,221 units left dealerships. Only time will tell what the ultimate sales total for 2011 will be.
There’s only one natural gas car available in the United States and made by a mainstream auto company, and that’s the Honda Civic GX, but despite this, General Motors formed an agreement to work with Westport, a manufacturer of natural gas engines, on the joint development of small compressed natural gas (CNG) engines that could be incorporated into future GM models. When he spoke with the press last week, executive Micky Bly said that his company has no plans to be left behind on CNG technology. He also told Reuters reporters that CEO Dan Akerson has, “…has made it pretty transparent this is an area we need to get back into in the North American environment.”
While GM is primarily focused on smaller engines – as tiny as half a liter – Westport’s area of expertise is mainly with medium and heavy-duty truck engines.
GM isn’t the only American automaker hoping to overtake Honda in the CNG market, however. Earlier this spring, Bloomberg reported that Chrysler has an aggressive CNG development plan in place, and is working in partnership with its parent company, Fiat. Fiat already has six natural gas models for sale in European markets, and is likely to use its experience with that technology to aid Chrysler in complying with federal fuel efficiency standards that are likely to increase as much as 6 percent a year over the next decade. Rumor has it that there’s a CNG-powered Dodge Ram in the works that could be available in American markets by 2017.
So why is CNG suddenly so popular? There are several reasons, not the least of which is that while gasoline prices continue to soar, natural gas remains fairly inexpensive. Then, too there are those afore-mentioned increases in fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks (read: pickups, vans, SUVs).
There are also a bundle of proposed federal incentives likely to pass by the end of the year, including the NAT Gas Act that is credited to T. Boone Pickens, a Texas energy billionaire. It’s recently picked up bipartisan support in Washington, D.C., thanks to Pickens’ history as a natural gas-as-transportation-fuel activist and his ability to court heavyweight allies like the White House.
If it passes, the NAT Gas proposal could be a $4.1 billion bundle of incentives, including purchase credits of as much as $7,500 per personal vehicle and a subsidy of up to fifty cents a gallon on natural gas at the pump. Retailers willing to install CNG pumps would benefit also, receiving generous tax breaks.
Ahh, the 4th of July. A day to celebrate Americana, whether it’s with hot dogs and watermelon, apple pie, or Chevrolet. Not just any Chevrolet will do, however – we’re a decade into the twenty-first century so for this Independence Day, we’re celebrating the 2011 Chevy Volt, which represents the perfect blend of environmental consciousness and American branding.
Here’s the CNET video all about it. Enjoy:
Despite severe shortages in the Infiniti inventory, which resulted in a sales dip of 24% for that brand caused by last March’s earthquakes and tsunami in Japan, Nissan’s sales increased by 17% in June, with the sales for Nissan North America Inc. rising to 71,940 units – an 11 percent increase.
All totaled, Nissan Division sold 65,659 cars and trucks, an improvement over the 56,266 sold in June of last year.
Most people would consider a 17% sales uptick a good thing, but Automotive News is reporting that Nissan’s vice president for sales, Al Castignetti was disappointed by the results of his company in particular and the industry as a whole, and that he had been projecting a sales increase of 20%.
The strongest performers in Nissan’s stable were the Altima and Sentra, which saw sales increases of 23% and 31%, respectively. This is especially pleasing to Nissan since the Sentra is due for a redesign, yet managed to outsell the lower-priced Nissan Versa during the month of June. Last year, the positions were reversed, and Versa was the better selling model.
The 2011 Nissan Leaf, the carmaker’s all-electric pride and joy, was also a strong performer, with 1,708 units – 200 more than expected – delivered last month.
Other increases were seen in the Nissan Rogue (8% improvement) and the Nissan Juke, though inventory shortages hurt those cars as well.
Reports from Nissan say that Infiniti’s supply issues should end this month with the arrival of 10,000 vehicles to the United States.