According to Contra Costa Times, tonight's public hearing at the Richmond, CA city council chamber is likely to be "packed and emotionally charged." Before Chevron can upgrade its local refinery, the Planning Commission must decide whether an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) issued in January is complete. The oil company wants to use new equipment to refine a wider range of crude into gasoline. Refinery reps say the upgrades would make the refinery more reliable and efficient, and create about 1.2k (temporary) construction jobs. Critics want an EIR do-over; they fear Chevron would process crude oil that's "more contaminated," increasing pollution for residents and wildlife. Chevron says uh-uh, and points out the refined refinery will make the "cleanest fuel in the world." Even if Richmond approves the deal, Chevron must then secure permits from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and the California Energy Commission. Year three of Chevron's effort continues.
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All great athletes have one. Kareem's Sky Hook. Ali's Rope-a-Dope. Brett Favre out of the pocket, loose and on the run. Mariusz Pudzianowski flinging them the Atlas Balls. I figure all great drivers have a signature move, too. And I'll just go ahead and assume that all TTAC readers are great drivers, right? Of course right. And so we ask, what's your secret weapon? Can you hit an apple on the apex? Powerslide around corners? Jump from stump to stump? Maintain complete control in the pouring rain? Before it was taboo, my buddy Rob was proud of the fact that he could yak on the phone, smoke, eat a donut and shift all at once. Hey, this is LA where Rob's feat is a real accomplishment. Now his wife won't let him do three of the four. I'm quite good at heeling and toeing, using the technique every single time I want to slow a car. Hey, it's good on the brakes at the expense of a little gas. But my best move? I can parallel park circles around you. Yours?
But really, they say, it's not a concept. The Transit Connect compact van (already confirmed for the U.S.) will be a taxi, especially in the taxi capital of America, New York City. With the Crown Victoria going out of production, Ford needs a big car to take its place in the taxi lineup. So it's a hybrid, right? Wrong. Despite Mayor Mike Bloomberg's insistence that all NYC taxis must be hybrids by 2012, the Transit Connect taxi is internal combustion as usual. It'll have the same 4-cylinder gas engine, front wheel drive, and not-cutting-edge 4-speed automatic as the private sale versions of the TC. Still, it makes a fantastic taxi because it is so easy to get in and out of, and it's loaded with legroom. Sliding doors will be especially welcome on Manhattan's absurdly clogged streets, and it's one of the nicest things about the Toyota Sienna minivans already on the road. Ford's reps also confirm that the wheelbase of all American TCs will be stretched from the standard short wheelbase on sale in Europe. Pity it only seats 4 passengers but a third row was probably a bit of a stretch.
This is the first anniversary of the Ford Flex [not being on sale]. Ford debuted a concept that looked production-ready at last year's NY Auto Show. This year, it's pretty much ready to go, in finished pre-production form, and off to dealers this summer. Ford's PR folks, who join Toyota in warming up to TTAC, gave me a 20 minute ride in the Flex. Without driving it, what I can say hit me the most is how it feels fully thought through, as opposed to previous cars in which someone started a good effort and then went out to lunch (the Mustang's missing interior, e.g.). The seats are extremely comfortable, and the prepro car was silent inside – which is a feature I hope stays on the actual production models. It's very heavy on creature comforts and goes as far as having a compressor-driven refrigerator as an option, so odds are that it'll be heavy in general. Fit and finish is a huge improvement over most other Ford products, and there's even some character – the cloth version's seats were described as having a tweed pattern. Huh? Engine will be the 3.5 liter V6 from the Flex and Taurus, although one of the marketing guys admitted he wishes Ford's 2.7 liter diesel from Europe would be available. In the future though, the EcoBoost version will be available with a turbocharged V6. Sadly, the packaging isn't what we hoped for, because while the seats totally fold flat, this still ain't rivaling a minivan or the Expedition for space. For example, the third row is still only for children and Napoleonic adults (like me). Looks slick in person, so much so I don't have any idea why Ford's going to sell it alongside the extremely similar Taurus X.
Good news! The April issue of Ethanol Producer Monthly (EPM) is already online! Actually, if Sarah Smith's article "Ethanol's Excedrin Headache: Where Have All the Good Sites Gone?" is anything to go by, the news isn't that great for the mag's target market. EPM has identified organized ethanol plant protests in 14 states. "Rural communities that once heralded the arrival of an ethanol plant are now thumbing their noses at them." Before listing litigation from California to Wisconsin, Smith gives ethanol boosters a quick course in how not to win friends and influence people. "Plaintiffs swap strategies over the Internet, trade petition forms, success stories, failures, even going so far as to design T-shirts and coin the perfect acronym for their groups. Their reasons for filing causes of action are as myriad as the ethanol technology itself: not in my back yard, zoning board decisions, economic benefit, industry distrust, environmental concerns and water use issues. The view from the third tee box, listed in one cause of action, illustrates the lengths plaintiffs will go to halt a project in its tracks. After all, golf is life, isn't it?"
The Mazda2 (Demio) has won the 2008 World Car Of The Year prize. How was the diminutive Demio chosen for this honor? According to the WCOTY press release "Rather than being just a popularity contest, the objective was to ensure that the World Car of the Year would be the product of a fair and thorough assessment process that considered the needs and wants of consumers the world over. The process began with individual jurors evaluating and rating the candidates using a variety of standardized parameters – everything from styling and quality, to performance and safety." Hmm, somehow we have a hard time believing that "standardized parameters" can objectively measure things like "styling," but whatever. The Mazda, which beat out the Ford Mondeo and Mercedes C Class for the award, had previously won national Car Of The Year awards in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, New Zealand, and Japan. You should be able to buy one in this country sometime in 2009 as the Ford Fiesta, but as Frank Williams pointed out, nobody should buys cars just because they win ridiculous awards.
It turns out we got it semi-wrong when we reported that FoMoCo's new tagline is "Ford. Drive One" (pearl two). Wandering around their auto show stand, it's clear The Blue Oval Boyz' marketing mavens are hedging their bets. They're rotating their taglines a la Nissan (Shift BLANK), Pontiac (is BLANK) and Mercedes (BLANK like no other). Three separate LCD's proclaim three separate reasons to drive a Ford product: "Drive Smart," "Drive Green," Drive Safe." (It hardly seems likely that Ford will stop at three taglines, so feel free to suggest further variations on the theme below.) The lack of a single sales message does not bode well for branding, but it certainly should satisfy the divisional mandarins within Ford's Byzantine bureaucracy (our turn!). Meanwhile, a word of warning to prospective Flex buyers: if you want to put adults in the way back, opt for the convex non-sunroof sunroof option. Otherwise, neck compression is a given.
MarketWatch reports that GM is going to business with Uzbekistan's state-owned automaker Uzavtosanoat (pronunciation anyone?). GM VP Eric Stevens said the new joint venture, General Motors Uzbekistan, would boost economic growth in the former Soviet state and provide GM with "a real opportunity" to grow in Central and Eastern Europe. The venture will utilize an existing Uzbek factory and will produce up to 250,000 Chevy Epicas, Captivas and Tacumas. Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch (no relation) reports that all kinds of awful things happen in Uzbekistan. Look for GM to trumpet this fact in forthcoming "corporate responsibility" press releases. !
Suzuki, despite its 55 percent market share in India, is not the most exhilarating brand in the United States. Their best car in production, the Swift, isn't even sold here. So to entice all the journos to hit up their press conference, they gave out free lunch. At their new concept car unveiling, they showed us a new D-segment sedan concept (Accord/Malibu/etc competitor) that looks fantastic and a little like the Lexus LS460 from the side. What percent production ready is it? Hard to cut through the PR talk, which says it communicates a new design language, yada yada yada. It's front wheel drive, has a 3.6 liter V6 (sound like any General Motors cars you know?) and a six-speed automatic transmission. The concept car has AWD, though whether that comes through in a production model is questionable.
Another day, another hybrid prognostication from Maximum Bob Lutz. We reported yesterday that Lutz said that one-third of GM's sales would have to be hybrids by 2015 to meet CAFE standards. Overnight Lutz has maximized his vision to 80 percent hybrid sales by 2020. The Freep reports Lutz spouting such cheery bromides as "Ultimately by 2020 we figure that 80% of vehicles will require some sort of hybridization. We cannot get to 35 miles per gallon with anything resembling the current product portfolio with anything resembling current technology." Gee Bob, ya think? To be fair, we know that all this CAFE standards talk isn't really the Car Czar's forte. In fact, it seems like just talking about it is making the poor guy depressed. "Around 2015 we're going to have to sell a ton of hybrids whether people want them or not," Lutz told the Detroit News. "It's basically going to result in the quasi-disappearance of V-8 engines." Now that doesn't sound like the Maximum Bob we know and love.
Not to be confused with Reagan's Surgeon General, Dr. Koop, Kia debuts the Koup concept car today. It's a real classic "beats the Scion tC at its own game" by being a reasonably nicely shaped four-seat FWD sport coupe. The concept engine – which Kia says is real and functional – is a hopped-up turbo four with 290 horsepower …. routed to the front wheels. What this concept should mean to you is a realistic preview of the upcoming (and disappointingly not revealed this week) Kia Spectra sedan and coupe. Considering the current model has been on sale since 2000-2001, it's about frickin' time. Still, if they can bring something that looks like this into actual production, PR Dir Alex Fedorak's hope of "standing out in traffic" might inch closer from PR dreamland to real life.
The Detroit Free Press "reports" that some 300 people traveled to the New York Auto Show specifically to gush about GM's Hail Mary PHEV, the Volt. Basic reporting standards are out the window as the Freep climbs aboard the Volt love train, boldly giving a forum to bloggers to voice their fearless and unimpeded admiration for a vehicle which is still little more than a concept. An event titled "Volt Nation," organized by Neurologist Lyle Dennis, was the focal point for throngs of (presumably) unpaid Volt cheerleaders. Let the Freep take you there on the wings of its elegant prose: With the Volt Nation event, Dennis said earlier in the day, (his) Web site (gm-volt.com), which is independent of the automaker, has achieved a milestone."For the first time in history, a major U.S. automaker will hold a conference not for the press, not for the government … but for the consumer," said Dennis, who has become something of a cult hero among those who frequent his Web site. That's right folks, if you become a legendary shill for a failing automaker's last gasp at relevance, you too might just get your own personal conference with Bob Lutz. Sure, he'll probably just slap you on the back and commend you for working harder and cheaper than any marketing hack he's met, but that's just just the price of "cult hero-dom," isn't it?
Despite some, ahem, similar products like the Kia Optima/Hyundai Sonata, Kia Rio/Hyundai Accent, Kia Sportage/Hyundai Tuscon, Kia's Director of Public Relations Alex Fedorak says "the two companies' products are apples and oranges." In an interview with TTAC today, he outlined Kia's future product strategy. Kia is meant to be oriented toward youth, and sporty, with edgier designs, and more performance. In contrast, "Hyundai is more luxury oriented." Which is why yesterday Hyundai introduced the new Genesis coupe by doing burnouts on stage. What the heck? But really, the Kia brand is evolving – the next Spectra will come as a sedan and coupe. "In sum," Mr. Fedorak said, "we are going to be design led." Look, I love the Rondo, but that ain't no beauty queen winner.
Okay, we're a couple of days late with this story, but we think chuckgoolsbee would approve anyway. Finally, a high-school class with real-world implications from KPRC: the students in a chemistry class at Dobie High School in Houston, TX are spending their spare time turning donated vegetable oil into biodiesel. Sure, the students could have purchased a biodiesel reactor (processor). But as reporter Courtney Zavala points out "that wouldn't be very much fun." So, they built their own, "piece by piece." Senior Russell Zuber says it's, like, pretty cool stuff: "It's fun. It's interesting. We're working with our hands, learning a lot of advanced science and a lot of like, getting ahead." And according to junior Jennifer Linares, "you get to learn a lot and it also helps you for future careers if you're interested in engineering or the oil industry." The students' goal is to operate a diesel car for one year with the biodiesel they're making in class. Of course not everyone "gets it" when it comes to home-brewing biodiesel. Near the end of TV's station's story, one of the female news anchors turns to her colleague and says: "It strikes me a lot like the airplane, Dominique: over my head." Why are we not surprised?
"Farago better cover his ears," former TTACer Chris Paukert said, kneeling by one of his colleagues in the floor of the press room. As if. Turns out Porsche has issued a cease and desist order against Paukert's current employer, windingroad.com, after the website referred to the new Solstice hardtop as a "Solstice Targa." Within hours, the automaker sent a legal document ordering them to stop using the word "Targa" for anything other other than a Porsche Targa (named after the Targa Florio). They "suggested" the alternative: "T-top" or "removable glass roof." While we understand Porsche's Kleenex-like desire to protect their model nomenclature, perhaps a quiet word in the website's proverbial ear would have sufficed. We also wonder if Porsche would have been satisfied if Winding Road had used a small "t" instead of a capital "T." I know: let's see what happens. Solstice targa. Anything? Just for fun: Solstice Targa. Frank, put Ms. Brown on standby.
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