Props to The Car Connection (TCC) for pointing out that the Energy Bill President Bush will sign later today won't resolve the key issue bedeviling U.S. automakers: who controls fuel economy standards? Although TCC misses the fact (as did we) that the 35mpg by 2020 target is an industry-wide standard, they correctly identify California's air quality ambitions as a major threat to the Energy Bill's mpg mandate. Apparently, a "senior GM executive" told TCC that the California initiative– classifying CO2 as a greenhouse gas they can limit– amounts to a 43-mile per gallon fuel economy standard. And, ladies and gentlemen, THAT standard is REAL; although there are generous E85 credits it contains no industry average targets or "attribute based calculations" and phases-in four years earlier than the federal target. The GM exec [supposedly] told TCC that his employer can "probably offset most of the impact from the new CAFE legislation by selling '300,000 or 400,000 Volts' and some hybrid SUVs, there is no way to meet the California standards without a dramatic downsizing of vehicles that would reach across the entire vehicle lines." It's too bad TCC feels obliged to end their insight with a cheer leading quote about the Energy Bill. "It… will reduce its global warming pollution by the equivalent of taking 28 million cars off the road," Phyllis Cuttino, director of the Pew Charitable Trusts Campaign for Fuel Efficiency asserted. "There's nothing underwhelming about that," she said.

Car bombs are the poor man's nuclear weapon. The devastation unleashed by this relatively inexpensive explosive delivery system– to human life, political discourse and military strategy– is staggering, in both scope and scale. Car bombs are, in a word, horrific. So is it alright to joke about them? You may recall the UK viral ad that showed a car bomber blowing himself up in a VW Polo, which contained the blast ("Polo. Small but tough"). And now spoof.com takes it a step further: "Toyota replaces Ford as world's #2 car-bomb manufacturer." The author jests that "Mulally then announced Ford had reworked its Explorer SUV to accomodate [sic] bombs and renamed it the 'Exploder'. [By changing only one letter, Ford was able to save money by re-using slightly modified Explorer nameplates.] But Iraqi insurgent analysts ridiculed the Exploder as just repackaged junk: 'Changing the 'R' to a 'D' – they think that's fooling anyone? That thing doesn't blow up any better than before.'" From there, "websmuggler" sails a LOT closer to the wind: "Meanwhile Toyota stunned the industry by announcing the first vehicle specifically DESIGNED as a car-bomb. Named the Toyota Blast, it features seats easily removed to accomodate [sic] more explosives, 35% more window area than competitors to assure more flying glass shards, a high-capacity gas tank designed to quickly rupture, and controls which arm and detonate the explosives with one touch of a button. Options include having the bombs pre-installed at the factory, with the customer's choice of TNT, napalm or nitroglycerine." Are you OK with this?

There is no truth so inconvenient that it can’t be fixed with clever marketing. With an eco-parade of automakers making promises both daring and dubious in their race to join the green gravy train, some skepticism is in order. But now I’ve been to the fuel cell mountaintop and have prayed to the hydrogen altar in an Equinox FCEV. Say Hallelujah! I’m ready to fall to my knees as a true believer in the New Gas. Well, almost.

The London Assembly's Conservatives have released their 5th Congestion Charge Report. According to thenewspaper.com, the results is… more congestion. Since charges were imposed in 2003, central London's average traffic speed has dropped from 10.6 to 9.3mph. "Excess delay" (as measured by traffic cameras) went from 0.87 minutes per mile to 1.5 minutes per mile. Roads adjacent to the Congestion Charge (CC) zone are clogged with motorists trying to avoid fees. Motorists within the CC are also loitering with intent (to get their money's worth). What's more (or less from a revenue point of view), 41 percent of vehicles entering the zone are exempt from the CC (e.g. taxis, buses, hybrids and mopeds). At the same time, removing lanes from general traffic for buses and changing the light timings is trapping them in jams. So buses are traveling fewer miles at slower speeds– discouraging ridership. The report arrives just in time for a vehicle size-related increase in the charge, which will see some SUV drivers paying $50 to enter Mayor Ken Livingstone's auto zone. Conservative transport spokesman Angie Bray wonders when the madness will stop. "I could bung it up to £50 and then nobody would come in. Would that be your perfect London? Or do you accept that there have to be vehicles at some level traveling around London? Where would you actually stop?" Punk.

Following the passage of the Energy Bill today, Chrysler posted the following statement on the media blog, TheFirehouse.biz. It hails from from Robert Nardelli, Chairman and CEO, Chrysler LLC, regarding new, nationwide U.S. fuel economy standards. "We commend the Congress for passing an energy bill today and we fully support it being signed into law. Chrysler is committed to meeting the fuel economy standards of the bill and doing our part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and our country's reliance on foreign oil. We continue to devote significant resources to develop quality, fuel efficient products that our customers expect. This year alone, we offer six vehicles that get 28 miles per gallon or better, and more are on the way." Wow, SIX whole vehicles? My goodness, that's incredible. Twenty-eight miles per gallon– without the "highway" caveat? Astonishing! And we get to choose from such fantastic products as the Caliber, Patriot, Compass, Sebring, Avenger, or Sebring Convertible! All with the puniest engines Chrysler sells. For fuel economy purposes. Why are they leaving out the amazing E85 Durango that has EPA ratings of 12 highway, 9 city? Just wonderin'…

Hunter Thompson and Ernest Hemingway are my greatest literary influences. The former taught me that writing is important. The latter taught me to use as few words as humanly possible. I mean, to write concisely. But let's not forget technology. I would never have become a writer without the advent of word processing. As someone who suffers from OCD, pre-WP days were Hell. I'd write a paragraph, start editing it, realize I could hardly read what I'd written, copy it over to a new piece of paper, and then start a second paragraph. Then I'd edit the second paragraph, rip it off from the first, and re-write that paragraph. By the time I had three paragraphs on three separate pieces of paper, I had to copy all three on a new piece of paper. A single page of text could take me an hour. And it still wasn't done. The moment I started writing on an Apple II, I was reborn. I accepted highlight delete as my personal savior. I worshipped at the altar of cut and paste. But I never forgot that Thompson's best work was born of personal conviction, not literary perfection. And I never forgot that Hemingway's skills were the intellectual embodiment of his ill-fated quest for a clean, well-lighted place (which is, for me, TTAC). As we've just heard that the Detroit Auto Dealers Association's has reconsidered– they will grant TTAC two presses for the North American International Auto Show (out of four requested)– this thought occurs: while we're heavily out-gunned, I've been training for this all my life. As have our NAIAS writer/reporters, William C. Montgomery and Sajeev Mehta, and Managing Editor Frank Williams. Watch this space. 

Three pedals for two feet. A wheel and a shift knob for two hands– that are supposed to be on the helm at all times. The manual transmission doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, does it? Never mind. For its increasingly marginalized adherents, the manual transmission makes driving a pleasure. Unfortunately, carmakers are deleting the manual option from many U.S.-spec cars. As you’d expect from “ultimate driving machine” fabricators, BMW offers a manual in all of its vehicles save the 7-Series, including the once SMG-only M5s and M6s. These manual-equipped Bimmers sport ZF-sourced six-speed transmissions crowned by a leather shift knob. 

The prolonged wait for the Chevrolet Volt reminds me uncomfortably of waiting for the Chevrolet Vega to appear. For GM’s sake, the outcome had better be radically different. Because no one single vehicle did more damage to GM then the highly-hyped Vega.

Hey Eurocrats, what's the matter? Don't your guys trust the U.S. to continue supplying Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) data for your military and civilian sat nav systems? Or is it simply a question of doling-out billions of Eurozone tax dollars to aerospace contractors for your very own GPS system that you want, but don't really need? And the answer is… yes. Anyway, WardsAuto reports that Europe's Galileo GPS project has floundered on the rocks of the usual government mismanagement and waste, blowing-out its budget by billions and missing its launch date by five years… and counting. So the European Union has shut down the project, declared it an enormous waste of time and money, and apologized to tax payers. Just kidding. The EU Council of Ministers has decided to shovel another €2.4 billion ($3.6 billion) into the project. But hey, the "lion's share" of the money's coming from unspent agricultural subsidies. In their defense, "Galileo’s supporters say the network will provide navigational services that are more accurate than those available through the U.S. Global Positioning System." Oh, that's OK then.

Even (or especially) as the Prez prepares to sign a bill increasing ethanol production to biblical proportions, The New York Times follows the Economist's lead and raises the alarm over ethanol production's impact on food prices. On the uh-oh side, Scott Faber, lobbyist for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, says E85 has the same “magical effect” on politicians as the tooth fairy and Santa Claus has on children. To which the vice president of government affairs for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association adds "We think there will be a day when people ask, ‘Why in the world did we do this?’” In the interests of balance, the Times points out that "experts with no stake in the argument" say ethanol is only one cause amongst many for rising food prices– and then fails to provide a single such expert. Ethanol baron Mark Leonard says nothing of E85's effect on food, only that “This is a national security issue more than anything else. We need to quit sending money to people who want to blow us up.” And [unnamed] researchers for the Renewable Fuels Association "contend that the link between corn prices and grocery prices is weak." I'm going with the guy from the National Grain and Feed Association. David Fairfield attribues "virtually all" of the increase in the price of corn– up 25 to 30 percent so far this year– to the demands of the ethanol industry. Put that in your corn cob pipe and smoke it.

The union between Chrysler and Chery is about to bear fruit. China Car Times reports a rebranded Chery A1 will go on sale in Mexico "very soon" under the Dodge banner. This is the same model they're looking at bringing to the U.S. once they meet safety and emissions standards, with a target of some time in 2009. Wall Street Journal drove an A1 in China last August and came away impressed: "the A1 performed admirably… the ride was surprisingly smooth and quiet.. At 100 miles an hour, there was only a slight vibration in the steering column." They noticed a few quality problems but decided "for such an inexpensive car [around $7K in China], it is hard to complain." There's no word yet on how inexpensive it'll be after it makes the trip across the Pacific.

If giving away the farm at this year's contract negotiations wasn't enough to convince you the UAW is getting soft in its old age, the Detroit News reports they're beginning a TV campaign to show their warm and fuzzy side. The ads direct viewers to IamtheUAW.org where they can view and share stories about the wonderful things the UAW has done for them (like agree to salary cuts), how secure their future is (with increased health care costs) and how the UAW is going to rid us of toxic toys. But instead of focusing on labor issues, the ads will highlight the charitable causes and community activities the UAW supports. UAW leaders say the ads "aren't intended to recruit more members but rather to raise awareness of the activities and positions of the union." Uh huh. So, why are they only airing the ads in Detroit, where they have to convince screwed-over autoworkers they're still the good guys, and Indianapolis, Indiana, Jackson, Mississippi, Louisville, Kentucky, and Nashville, Tennessee – market areas which include cities where the transplants have large assembly plants the UAW wants to organize?

Driver fatigue causes an estimated 24 to 33 percent of European automotive accidents. Automobilwoche reports that Daimler's Mercedes is developing an electronic Nanny that monitors driver fatigue and then tries to wake up the pilot before he crashes. It's hardly a new concept; Citroen already offers a weird (but effective) system that shakes your buttocks when you switch lanes without indicating (no, we are not  joking). In the great tradition of German over-engineering, Mercedes system monitors steering input– those "typical, hardly noticeable movements that tired  drivers make on a constant basis"– then compares this data to daytime and drive distance information, considering external factors such as side wind and road undulations. If the computer thinks the driver's suffering from fatigue, it sounds an alarm. (Automatic crash avoidance is inevitable.) The anti-fatigue system is set for a 2009 debut; we suggest that the PR folk deactivate it during the press launch.

More than a few industry pundits have taken to calling Hyundai "the next Toyota." The spin: Hyundai is a formidable low-cost automaker whose high quality products are stealing side dishes from Toyota's table, eying the Japanese automaker's main course. As our Steven Lang has pointed out, the Sonata's lackluster U.S. sales help partially put paid to that theory. And now Chosun explodes the myth entirely. The South Korean newspaper reports that the Federation of Korean Industries has discovered that Korea's largest carmaker produced 29.6 cars per worker last year, 57 percent fewer than Toyota's 68.9 cars per worker. "Hyundai Motor’s sales and operating profit per worker were also no more than 40.8 and 22.2 percent of those of Toyota. The Korean company's productivity was worse than that of six other international automakers. Compared to the assembly productivity of 21.1 to 23.2 hours per vehicle by Ford, Honda, General Motors and Toyota, Hyundai and Kia recorded 31.1 and 37.5 hours, respectively." And here's the kicker: "Hyundai paid its workers more than Toyota, with an annual average salary per worker of W57m (US$1=W934) compared to Toyota's W55 million." 

UPDATE This just in from Deep Throat: "Methinks the Korean reporting on Hyundai is wrong. There is no way the production per worker is half that of Toyota and they get paid more. They’d be bankrupt. Also, IIRC, the Nummi plant in NorCal produces something like 400,000 units per year on 4,500 workers… but if you add sales/admin/corp staff to that, I can believe somewhere around 70 units/worker/year. And Toyota/Ford/GM take about 30+ manhours per unit of production, not in the low 20 hour range."

According to the official website, the Coates Spherical Rotary Valve System creates "a quieter engine with higher specific power output and longer life than conventional poppet valve engines due to better 'breathing' capability and higher speed capability." In fact, it's "the single most significant development in engine technology in the past thirty years." Not being the most mechanically-minded pistonhead on the planet, I asked Sajeev Mehta to check it out: "Its a logical extension of innovations like roller rockers: reduced friction, more power, efficiency etc. The general feel I got from people who know more than me: sealing a spherical valve isn't gonna work for a production car. Today's engines have to last over 100k miles without any trouble, and engine "blow by" will be even worse here… and don't even think about pressurizing these valves with a turbo/supercharger/ Good night! As for their claim of their valves not needing oil. Strap on an A/C compressor: sit in traffic in 100 degree weather on a heat-soaked hunk of tarmac and those valves will be begging for extra lubrication. The big red flag for me: their they compared it to a regular engine without an EGR valve. That's like challenging Carl Lewis to a 100m race and making him do it barefoot on hot asphalt. Everyone uses EGR valves for a good reason; they reduce NOx (the third row on their chart) emissions by something like 70% or more. "On the exhaust stroke the poppet exhaust valve stems allow "back" pressure through the valve guides into the engine casing. This pressure is then redirected through the fuel induction system and in turn is reburned in the engine creating yet more hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide." Except that happens on high mileage motors with worn valve guides/springs (valves snap shut plenty fine when new). It took 150k miles for my 5.0 Ford to get weaker/slower/dirtier from valvetrain age. Newer engines are even better at valvetrain durability for many reasons. I seriously question if the Coates engine will fare much better after that type of punishment. I'm skeptical, but would change my tune with better info. EPA-style tests that carmakers do wouldn't hurt."