Looking for a place to recharge your electric car? Pretty soon you might be able to plug in on Capitol Hill.
Eye Opener

A bipartisan klatch of senators is trying to tackle rising gas prices by installing automotive battery recharging stations in Senate parking lots and garages.

The group plans to introduce a bill Wednesday that Senate aides said would cost about $7,000 initially for the installation of the plugs. But they said the program would pay for itself by charging users $20 to $30 a month.

“Passage of this legislation will be an important statement of leadership from the Senate,” said Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich), one of the bill’s lead sponsors. “It will provide an example to other employers of how they can support both the needs of their employees and our national interest in energy security.”

“We’re stuck in this crazy period where congressmen boast about bringing back plastic forks to the House cafeteria because they’re against recycling and composting,” Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said in a statement. “That’s nuts. Instead, we should be taking steps like this so Washington leads by example. The clean energy innovation we need right now will shape our global competitiveness, so let’s do the small and big things that are needed to lead.”

Read the full and original article from the Washington Post online addition here.

Each year, the Michelin Challenge Bibendum — arguably the world’s largest and longest-running green car expo — pulls together the latest in cutting edge alt-fuel autos with some of the brightest engineers, thought leaders and innovators in the world of sustainable transportation.

But don’t be fooled, it’s not all Priuses and hippies.

In its 11th iteration, the Challenge Bibendum — held mostly annually since 1998 — found itself schizophrenically burning rubber and hypermiling at the same time on the tarmac of the historic Tempelhof airport in the middle of Berlin, Germany. The runways and terminals that once hurried defecting East Germans out of West Berlin were enhanced by the presence of hundreds of vehicles from most of the world’s major automakers — and a few unknowns — who willingly gave participants test drives and rides in some of the rarest vehicles on the planet.

Metropolia Raceabout Front Three Quarters

More to the point, the Berlin Bibendum clearly illustrated there’s a place for fast, good-looking, performance and luxury vehicles in our low emissions future, if the posse of electric racecars, plug-in hybrid luxury cars, and one-off sexy prototypes on hand were any indication.

Some of these vehicles will reach production in the next couple of years, some are the offspring of hopeful startups, and some are little more than the fanciful efforts of designers and engineers recapturing the excitement felt during the early days of the automobile, when the innovations came at a breakneck pace. All of them, however, are the products of an automotive world trying hard to blend two seemingly incongruent desires: fuel efficiency and performance.

Citroen Survolt Rear End

As Citroen electric drivetrain engineer, Cristophe Schwartz, said during the event, “Speed has always pushed the automotive world to new discoveries, and it’s exciting to be on the cutting edge. Developing electric cars for racing brings racing back to what it used to be — when innovation was happening by the seat of our pants and creativity won the day.”

After spending the week behind the wheels and in the passenger seats of some of these creatively conceived creations, we’re more hopeful that increasingly stringent regulations won’t strangle fun of driving in the future. On the following pages are ten cars that give us reasons for that hope.

Read the full and original article from MotorTrend Magazine online addition here.

Americans in the Midwest of all political persuasions say they’d support a minimum 60 mpg fuel economy standard by 2025, says an environmental group that conducted a survey this month.

The 60 mpg figure has come up several times in the past few months as automakers, lobbying groups and government officials try to set new standards for the future. New fuel economy figures are due out Sept. 1 from the federal government.

Ceres, a two-decade-old non-profit environmental group founded in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez Alaskan oil spill, says bipartisan voters in Ohio and Michigan say they want to see 60 mpg as the new fuel economy standard.

“In a democracy, public opinion should matter,” says Mark Mellman, CEO and president of The Mellmann Group, which conducted the survey of 1,600 voters in the Heartland.

But what consumers say in surveys is very often the exact opposite of how they behave in a new car showroom. People say they want better fuel economy, but when it comes time to choose between paying an extra $3,000 for a hybrid system or getting a bigger car with heated leather seats and a Bose sound system, their dreams of driving green often evaporate.

Opposition to a 60 mpg standard will be met with catcalls from environmentalists. Indeed, the findings of apparent public support put the auto industry in the unpopular and politically incorrect position of saying no to this noble goal. The industry has an illustrious and pock-marked tradition of pushing back against environmental and safety mandates — safety belts, airbags and higher fuel economy — that clearly benefit society and the planet.

But on this one, they might be right.

Without standards like CAFE, which was passed in 1977, the industry has been loath to increase fuel economy on its own. Average fuel economy remained about flat from the early 1980s until the late 2000s when those figures started creeping up. New federal mandates, which the industry also opposed, call for the industry to have a minimum 34.1 mpg by 2016.

And, as could have been predicted, fuel economy has started to improve as the industry works to reach that goal. We are seeing more cars topping 40 mpg in highway driving, and 30 mpg in combined city/highway driving, than ever before. The new Ford Explorer is much more fuel efficient than the old one, and is selling much better than the old model did in the last few years. The new Subaru Impreza has jumped from highway mileage in the mid-20s to the mid-30s, using every engineering trick available to hit those numbers.

But amidst the progress, the 34.1 mpg goal is a stretch. There are concerns that people won’t want to pay for the added technology — hybrid systems, direct injection engines, turbo chargers and stop-start systems that shut an engine down at idle and stop-lights — needed to get to a 34.1 average.

Pushing for 60 mpg sounds like a good idea. It would wean us off our addiction on foreign oil, and could help improve national security as we became less dependent on getting oil from places where people hate us.

Automakers can build a car that gets 60 mpg, but few would choose it for the family ride.

Automakers would have to contort car designs, and would fill up showrooms with tiny, really expensive vehicles. Given that the most popular vehicle in the U.S. has been the Ford F-150 pickup for 34 years in a row, there’s no evidence Americans want tiny cars. The smart fortwo has been a bust in the U.S., and has never made any money for automaker Daimler. And every time gas prices slip below $3.50 per gallon, sales of all small cars soften up almost overnight.

Gloria Bergquist, a spokeswoman for the lobbying group Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, says a 60 mpg mandate would essentially mean all cars would have to be electric cars.

She has a point: The smallest car Kia Motors sells, the Rio subcompact, will get maybe 50 mpg on the highway when it debuts this fall. It has all the gas saving bells and whistles except an electric or hybrid drivetrain, which would add between $5,000 and $12,000 to its cost.

Given that electric cars only hit the market this December, it’s unclear where we’ll be with that technology in 13 years. The Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf are certainly cool, but they have their limitations. The Volt only seats four people, because its large battery cuts the back seat in half. The Leaf can only go 100 miles at best (and often less) because it doesn’t have a gas backup, so it rules out a large segment of the population who like to drive their cars farther than 45 minutes from home (because you need to save battery power to get back.)

The 60 mpg average goal that would be set for 2025, still 14 years away — which seems like plenty of time to ramp up infrastructure to put recharging stations all over the country and dial up production of batteries. But it’s not. It takes four to five years to develop a car, and even longer to invent new technologies, test them for quality and durability, and then get them on the road. That’s not even considering the infrastructure development needed to provide recharging stations across the U.S.

The auto industry should sell between 13 million and 16 million new vehicles a year between now and 2025. For automakers, in the next fourteen years, to make 10% of those a year electrics and hybrids would be an enormous achievement.

The auto industry has a very powerful lobbying group, one that doesn’t hesitate to throw about its weight when it doesn’t like proposed legislation. Yet given the industry’s history of stonewalling, it would be a mistake to pass a 60 mph CAFE standard. If the U.S. seriously wants to encourage consumers to start driving small cars, it needs to adopt higher gas taxes, a wildly unpopular idea with voters. History has shown that higher fuel prices are the only thing that drives U.S. consumers to smaller cars.

In Europe, they understand the connection between high gas prices and better fuel economy. Drivers opt for smaller cars, sacrificing storage space and other niceties to have a more efficient vehicle. The Ceres survey did not ask consumers if they would be willing to pay $8 a gallon gas to support the 60 mpg goal.

If it had, the survey would really be interesting.

Bottom Line
It’s worth remembering that while the federal government can mandate that automakers build vehicles that get 60 mpg, they can’t mandate that consumers buy them.

Read the full and original article from AOL Autos online addition here.

Last year, owners of conventional hybrids received a six-month extension of the privilege to drive solo in the carpool lanes. Prius-driving John Burton-the California Democratic Party chairman and former state Senate leader-is one of many hybrid drivers upset about losing the perk and asking for more time.

Enough is enough, according to Ford, Honda and advocates for the next wave of green automobiles that operate on grid-supplied electricity, natural gas and hydrogen.

On May 9, those carmakers sent a letter (PDF) to Mark DeSaulnier, chair of California’s senate transportation and housing committee. “It is… unfortunate that there is an effort underway yet again to extend the yellow sticker program, and that legislation to do so is being sought,” the letter states. “We do not support any further extensions of the yellow sticker program.”

The groups believe the incentive is effective in creating markets for vehicles with new advanced technologies-but believe regular hybrids benefited from the perk, and are no longer relevant to the incentive. The letter explains, “Continued extensions of the program do not serve to incentivize sales of hybrid vehicles as the cap on yellow stickers was reached approximately seven years ago, shortly after the program’s inception.” The letter complains that the extension to July 1 was granted “without any public airing of the issue during two years of debate over the future HOV program.”

Ford and Honda are neck-and-neck for the title of the second biggest seller of hybrid cars, behind Toyota. Both companies, as well as Toyota, Nissan, General Motors and others, plan to sell plug-in and alternative fuel cars, which are eligible for white stickers granting HOV access to solo EV driver, and green ones for those piloting a plug-in hybrid.

California Senator Leland Yee, the author of the bill that granted the extension to July 1, at the time said the goal of extending hybrid HOV access for an additional six months is to give California hybrid owners time to purchase the electric cars and plug-in hybrids coming to the market. Those cars have arrived. The all-electric Nissan LEAF, as well as the Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid expected in 2012, qualifies for stickers. The 2011 Chevy Volt is not currently eligible, but is expected to receive the necessary certification for the 2012 model.

The letter opposing another extension of hybrid HOV access was signed by officials from Honda, Ford, the California Natural Gas Vehicle Coalition, Clean Energy Fuels, and Plug In America.

Read the full and original article from Reuters online addition here.

Q: My wife and I are expecting our first baby next month. We are now trying to decide whether we should buy a small SUV crossover or a midsize to big SUV so we don’t get sized out when we have our second baby. Our list consists of the Subaru Forester (small), Toyota Highlander (medium) and Acura MDX (large/luxury).
—Jose Gonzales, Albany, N.Y.

A: A smaller vehicle like the Forester has enough room and will use less fuel than the others. The Highlander and MDX will give you more room to spread out and carry cargo, but you really don’t need anything that big unless you have three kids. Our Subaru station wagon carries our two children without feeling cramped. But it lacks the roomy feel of a large SUV. We may also feel less fond of the car when the kids are bigger and fighting for legroom. Smallish SUVs like the Forester and crossovers would have similar interior space, so you have to decide if the room you may want is worth the higher cost of a larger vehicle.

Q: I have a 2004 Honda Civic Hybrid and the tires are showing some wear. I will be purchasing new ones but from the feel of things I may need a front-end alignment. Does it make any difference if I get an alignment before or after I get the new tires?
—Rosemarie Durkin, Perry Hall, Md.

A: You should wait until you get the tires to have your wheels aligned. There may be other adjustments and repairs your car’s suspension may need along with the alignment service. Those can be made more accurately with the new tires on the vehicle. You should also think about getting all four wheels aligned. In some cases getting the front end aligned may not help much because the rear wheels aren’t tracking properly.

Q: I have a 1998 Jaguar XJ8. I put about 4,000 miles a year on the car. Some mechanics tell me that I should change the oil after six months, regardless of the mileage. Others tell me to wait until the car is driven at least 5,000 miles. Which view is correct?
—David F. Rock, Atlanta

A: It depends on the oil to some degree, since synthetic engine oil typically lasts longer than conventional oil. But either way I think you should be fine waiting until the 5,000- or 6,000-mile mark before changing the oil. I was a longtime advocate of changing oil every 3,000 miles, but experts convinced me that in most cases that is too often and winds up wasting oil and money. A modern car like yours should be able to travel between 5,000 and 7,500 mile between oil changes.

Q: I will be looking for a new car next year that must have stick shift and all wheel drive. I have a 2007 BMW 328xi that I really like. Would the Acura TL be worth looking at instead of a 2012 BMW 3 series? I am looking for fun, excellent handling, an excellent road car, and a classy interior (safety also).
—Barry Perlman, Oshkosh, Wisc.

A: I recently test-drove the Acura TL with all-wheel drive and a 6-speed manual transmission. While I didn’t like its styling, the drive was wonderful. It accelerates and handles athletically and is a good competitor for the BMW 3 Series. You might also try the Subaru Legacy GT, which is also fun though not as luxurious as the other two.

Read the full and original article from The Wall Street Journal here.

Last month’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan severely reduced the supply of certain vehicles including fuel-efficient models that tend to grow in popularity when gasoline prices rise. Now vehicle shortages and anticipation of gas prices heading toward $5 per gallon this summer is pushing prices of some cars higher.

But the group of vehicles whose prices are expected to rise in the next week is surprisingly varied, according to TrueCar.com, an auto industry research and forecasting company.

While many of the cars on the list are fuel-efficient models that are getting hard to find in dealerships. But the mechanics of supply and demand are pushing up the prices of some big luxury vehicles like Lexus sedans and SUVs that are scarce in part because of quake-related production cuts .

Here are a few vehicles whose transaction prices are expected to rise this week. The chart shows prices as of Monday and the predicted increase.

Make/model April 17 price Expected increase

Toyota Prius $25,455, $522

Honda Insight $20,817 $227

Honda Civic Hybrid $23,484 $300

Chevrolet Volt $42,429 $697

Lexus LX 570 $83,920 $1,100

Lexus LS 460 $70,198 $919

Read the full and original article from The Wall Street Journal here.

The terms “luxurious” and “economical” needn’t be mutually exclusive. Whether you’re looking to reduce your carbon footprint or are just tired of having your pocket picked at the pump, there’s a growing number of top-shelf models on the market that boast top fuel efficiency. And we’re not talking about oddball six-figure hybrids that save a few mpg for the sake of environmental street cred among one’s peers – these are mainstream luxury cars that get at least 30 mpg and give up little in terms of either performance or comfort.

For instance, the BMW 528i is not only one of the most pleasurable-to-drive midsize luxury cars, it’s also among the most fuel-efficient. A manual transmission is standard for enthusiasts with a responsive eight-speed automatic transmission available at no extra cost for the clutch-averse. Cutting-edge amenities like a rearview camera with top-down side-view perspectives for easier parking and an infrared Night Vision system make it one of the best-selling luxury cars on the road. It’s base-priced at around $45,500 and is rated at 22/32 mpg.

For those looking to buy American, the Lincoln MKZ hybrid (Lincoln’s version of the Ford Fusion Hybrid) treats its occupants to a luxurious interior while presenting onlookers with a fierce and edgy facade. The car can run at speeds up to 47 mph solely on battery power. Best of all, the MKZ is the only hybrid that’s priced on a par with its gasoline-powered equivalent at about $35,000. It’s rated at 41/36 mpg.

Whoever came up with the moniker “gas guzzler” may have to rethink how they define SUVs thanks to the Lexus RX 450h’s 32/28 mpg rating. Available in front- and all-wheel-drive versions, the stylish midsize hybrid luxury crossover SUV is quicker and gets better mileage than its gasoline powered equivalent. Starting at around $44,000, it remains both practical and a pleasure to drive, with a spacious and comfortable wood-trimmed five-passenger cabin that includes 10 airbags.

Read the full and original article from Forbes online addition here.

Mazda is showing off a fairly macho crossover SUV concept at the New York auto show that has a fairly economical powertrain.

It’s being called the Minagi, a concept SUV that will be produced as the CX-5. It was given Mazda’s latest design direction, one that will apply to all of its future vehicles. it’s supposed to remind you of a cheetah, fastest animal on earth.

“I felt a compact SUV was the perfect vehicle to express agility and focused movement; the flexibility of four limbs moving in unison, and in an upright posture,” said Masashi Nakayama, Chief Designer of the concept.

The concept also has the latest in Mazda’s fuel saving technology — SkyActiv. The goal is try to squeeze more mileage out of convention gasoline engines without having to go hybrid, with the expense and complexity.

The engines gets better gas mileage through better compression, more than a Formula One race car. The engine is more efficient, with a 15% increase in torque and 15% reduction in fuel consumption compared to the current 2-liter gas engine.

Weight of the vehicle is reduced by 10%, which also helps fuel economy. Engine friction is reduced by 30%.

Read the full and original article from USA Today online addition here.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Despite all the hype around electric and hybrid cars — and a rapid increase in the number of available models — most car shoppers still aren’t ready to buy, according to a new survey.

When it comes to hybrid cars, the problem is simple… price. Car shoppers want to do their part to help the environment, as long as their part doesn’t involve paying more. Or, in the case of plug-in cars, changing their driving habits.

“The bottom line is that most consumers want to be green, but not if there is a significant personal cost to them,” said Mike VanNieuwkuyk, director of global vehicle research at J.D. Power and Associates.

Hybrid and plug-in cars are expected to make up less than 10% of new car sales through 2016, based on data from consumer surveys and other market research, J.D. Power said in an announcement released Wednesday.

Most car shoppers who are considering alternative-fuel vehicles simply want to save money on gasoline, according to the 2011 U.S. Green Automotive Study by J.D. Power and Associates.

Among those who said they would consider a gasoline/electric hybrid car for their next purchase, gas savings was the cited as a reason by 75% while the environmental benefits were a factor for only about half.

Especially as federal tax benefits for hybrids phase out, hybrid cars are seen as too expensive, according to the J.D. Power survey.

Carmakers are finding ways to close that cost gap, however. Ford (F, Fortune 500) Motor Co.’s Lincoln MKZ Hybrid costs the same as the non-hybrid version and General Motors’ (GM) Buick division will soon begin selling hybrid versions of some of its cars that also cost the same or less than non-hybrid versions.

Ford’s strategy with the MKZ hybrid seems to be working, according to J.D. Power. The hybrid makes up 21% of MKZ sales but just 6% of Fusion sales. (With the Fusion, there’s a less expensive 4-cylinder gas version available.)

Purely electric plug-in cars also face price issues but, for now, limited driving range is a bigger issue for most shoppers, according to the survey. Largely for this reason, plug-in cars have the lowest levels of consideration of the three major alternative fuel options.

The survey also asked about diesel-powered cars, which are more fuel efficient than gasoline cars. Diesel technology is hampered by concerns over the availability of diesel fuel as well as its cost. Currently, diesel costs about 25 cents a gallon more than regular gasoline. Diesel cars themselves also tend to be more expensive than gasoline-powered models.

Diesel also has a serious reputation problem. Car shoppers still remember the smelly, dirty diesel engines of the past but probably don’t even notice modern diesel cars that sound and smell almost exactly like their gasoline-powered counterparts.

The J.D. Power study was based mostly on a survey of 4,000 people who said they planned to buy a new car within the next one to five years.

By the end of next year, every major auto manufacturer expects to have some kind of plug-in car on the market. Industry analysts at J.D. Power and Associates expect 159 hybrid and electric car models to hit the market by the end of 2016 compared to just 31 in 2009.

Read the full and original article from CNN online addition here.

Working at an unprecedented pace, today’s automotive engineers are exploring new technologies to revolutionize cars for a post-petroleum era. Innovative battery chemistries, advanced biofuels, and hydrogen fuel cells-will likely be future game-changers. Yet, it will take many years to convert the American fleet to these new technologies.

Meanwhile, there’s another track of innovation aimed not at revolutionary future technologies, but at reducing the cost of today’s most efficient cars that still run on gasoline. For example, what if a relatively simple change in the technology powering today’s hybrid cars-there are nearly 2 million gas-electric vehicles already on U.S. roads-could make them much more affordable and therefore nearly ubiquitous? How in the world do you disconnect hybrids’ high mpg from its higher cost?

With a single motor, two clutches and a standard transmission, it turns out. Mostly escaping notice, a new crop of 2011 hybrids-including the Hyundai Sonata Hybrid and the Infiniti M35 Hybrid-are using a second clutch to achieve the critical goal of separating operation of the gas engine and electric motor. Some existing hybrids already have a clutch to disconnect and reconnect the transmission from an engine and electric motor, which are integrated and bolted together. That’s Honda’s approach. Alternatively, using two electric motors and a special transmission, as Toyota and Ford do, achieves the same goal of freeing the electric motor from the engine-but at a higher cost.

However, these new parallel two-clutch systems-hence the name P2-could provide 95 percent of the fuel efficiency benefits of an expensive two-motor system, like the one in the Toyota Prius, but at cost reductions of one-third or more.

The P2 hybrids could match or even beat the cost of Honda’s simpler one-motor system, which has the major drawback of not being able to run the electric motor without simultaneously operating the gas engine. In fact, the P2 hybrids are similar to Honda’s IMA (Integrated Motor Assist) technology, but with the key advantage of a clutch allowing the gas engine to shut down, and the electric motor to do more of the work.

Driving Down Cost

“It’s the next evolution of hybrids,” said John DeCicco, senior lecturer at the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment. “What you have with this next round of systems is a lower cost solution to providing the efficiency benefit comparable to a two-motor powersplit system. That’s significant for public policy because it makes higher Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) levels less costly to achieve.”

Hyundai says the Sonata Hybrid can travel up to 75 mph purely on electricity. It also means better efficiency on the highway, rather than the city. Other advantages include the ability to recapture more regenerative braking, eliminate engine drag, and to increase the size of, and acceleration from, the electric motor. It also paves the way to plugging into grid energy and storing that energy in larger batteries-but that would defeat its most compelling advantage: reducing cost.

A September 2010 technical paper-co-published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, and the California Air Resources Board-compared manufacturing costs of various hybrid and electric cars. It showed the price of batteries for P2 hybrids at a quarter the cost of a Volt-like plug-in hybrid and about a tenth the cost of 100-mile electric vehicle, projected all the way out to 2025.

Additional cost advantages also come from being able to use standard off-the-shelf transmissions, and eliminate the use of a torque converter.

Preferred Approach for New Hybrid-Makers

“Look at the manufactures who have not already made a substantial investment in hybrids, who have not locked themselves to the [Honda] IMA or [Toyota/Ford] powersplit design,” said John German, senior fellow for the International Council for Clean Transportation. “Every one of those manufactures is coming out with P2 systems. And it’s not just Hyundai, Infiniti and Volkswagen that have products hitting dealerships this year. Mercedes and BMW are also coming out with P2 systems, just not this year.” To German, this is clear evidence of the cost and efficiency advantages of the one-motor, two-clutch approach.

German believes it will take five to seven years before these new hybrid-makers catch up with Toyota’s technology. “Toyota is so much further down the learning curve, they’re operating at such higher volumes,” acknowledged German. Yet, he believes that by 2020, these P2 hybrids will penetrate the mass market. “They will become standard on vehicles.”

That timing is significant, because the California Air Resources Board, NHTSA, and EPA are all working on legislation out to 2025. Widespread adoption of hybrids in the 2025 timeframe-assisted by a smaller number of electric and fuel cell cars-would make a fleet average of 60 mpg highly achievable at cost. At that point, German believes P2 hybrid systems could mean cost-competitive 40-mpg SUVs.

“Hybrid systems like the P2 will be the mainstay drivetrain to achieve the next round of 2025 standards just like the turbocharged gasoline direct engines are the for the 2016 standards,” said Roland Hwang, transportation program director for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

“Engineering advances are lowering the cost of higher fuel economy levels,” DeCicco said. “Automakers might say that they’ve already picked all the low-hanging fruit. What we’re seeing now is that the tree of innovation grows new low hanging fruit every year.”

Read the full and original article from Reuters online addition here.