Energy Business Review reports that French hypermarketeers System U are pulling the plug on their bio-ethanol pumps for one simple reason: no one's buying E85. Needless to say, critics of the critics who criticize E85– including the publication's "staff writer"– view the move as insupportable. "Plans to stop selling the fuel are being driven by a lack of consumer demand, perhaps because the French government has not yet developed a taxation system that offers sufficient incentives for motorists to purchase E85 vehicles." Zut alors! Meanwhile, System U has betrayed the farmer-friendly French government's best laid plans. "This marks a further setback for the French government, which had set an objective to open 500 E85 stations by the end of 2007, but has seen only approximately 200 installed to date." In Total? "French fuel retailer Total made an agreement with the French government through which it was to open 400 of the 500 planned E85 sites by the end of 2007. However, Total has only installed E85 pumps at 35 of its service stations." So who's the scélérat here? "By focusing tax benefits purely on tailpipe emissions, to the detriment of the fuel's carbon-positive effects, the government has been unable to provide an environment in which demand for E85 can flourish. 'End Intelliext." C'est la vérité, n'est-ce pas? 

Pistonheads (PH) reveals that the Nissan GT-R that pushed aside Porsche's Nurburgring record is not– as previously reported— a current production car. Nissan's 'ring-er was a modified Japanese GT-R: a better-handling version GT-R that's headed for the U.S. and European markets. Allegedly. More specifically, PH says the record holder had a "number of tweaks that are intended for its European launch… Nissan is understood to be including three harder engine mounts and a stiffer transaxle mount for the US version, resulting in an even finer tuned suspension and powertrain. The European GT-R will be enhanced further with a recalibrated rear diff and slightly revised steering, although this will be signed off in September." Bottom line: it's unclear if the GT-R that lapped the Green Hell in 7:29 is/will be the exact same car that will go on sale… anywhere. Not that TTAC GT-R reviewer Stephan Wilkinson could give a shit.

The Department of Energy's predicts that soaring U.S. gas prices will reach their zenith in June. After adjusting for increased ethanol use [gag], the DOE expects oil prices to decline to $110 a barrel this year, with a resulting drop in pump prices. That's $9 more than the agency's previous prediction– and down $11.84 from yesterday's price. As The New York Times points out, this supposed peak will occur just before the summer driving season begins. The aluminum foil hat-wearers amongst you might wonder how the price of anything can peak immediately prior to a large increase in demand (not to mention soaring foreign use), and play connect-the-dots with the American tourist industry/carmakers/presidential election, but I couldn't possibly comment. In any case, the Lehman Brothers reckon this is gonna hurt. “In the past, high prices could be offset by borrowing or making more money,” said analyst Adam Robinson. “It’s really when you have the triple bite — a weaker economy, less access to credit, and higher prices — that you see the consumer recoil.” Recoil? Maybe. Drive less? For sure. See lower gas prices? Not likely. The Old Gray Lady leaves us with "analysts’ forecasts for the price of gasoline over the next few years run as high as $7 a gallon."

Loooooook. Loook at the new FX! According to the PR people (who invented the Dark Side), Infiniti FX buyers are what they call “progressive independents:” consumers who like trendy styles and show a rebellious “hint of the dark side” in their personalities. Yeah, yeah. While the suits blow were busy blowing smoke up their own Powerpoint presentation, WardsAuto.com reports that Nissan's engineers tackled everything we didn't like about the old model— and more. Hard ride? Gone; [allegedly] banished by a more "refined" four-wheel independent suspension with front double-wishbone and rear multi-link. Sneaker styling? Toast; [supposedly] macho-ed by with a lowered, stretched platform with more forward front wheels, a longer hood and shorter overhangs. More complex toys that can break? Got 'em; especially a lane departure warning system. Some kind of compelling reason not to buy the smaller but almost equally-horsed variant? Done; FX50 gets 21" wheels, a 5.0-liter V8 and all-wheel drive; the FX35 "makes do" with a 3.5-liter V6 with optional AWD. As for that dark side thing, the FX is this writer's first choice for SUV/CUV on-road hoonery. I look forward to putting the FX50 through its paces come June. The force is strong with this one.  

TTAC commentator Bunter1 sent us a link to Design News: "Accelerating Engineering Innovation." And that's what GM's doing with its oft-delayed, highly-touted electric – gas plug-in hybrid Hail Mary (a.k.a. the Chevy Volt). As anyone who follows such things knows, it's the batteries, stupid. It's a point well worth repeating. "To an engineer, it looks obvious. Gasoline packs 80 times more energy per kilogram than a lithium-ion electric vehicle battery. It holds 250 times more energy than a common lead-acid battery. So, it’s a no-brainer. Batteries can’t possibly deliver the energy needed to power the future of the auto industry, right?" Readers tempted to shout "Right!" are, obviously, corrected. Scribe Charles Murray places the effort to create a commercially viable electric vehicle somewhere between implausible and very, very difficult. The big news is text-embedded: the director of the Materials and Processes Lab. at GM Research Labs is not cool with his bosses' 2010 timeline for Volt production. “The big risks we have to overcome if we expect to see widespread implementation are quality, reliability, and durability,” says Mark Verbrugge. “We’d like to get at least three to four years (of testing) on these batteries.” But won't. And what does THAT tell you?

Or any other U.S. industry for that matter. WardsAuto.com dropped in at the Consumer Bankers Assn.’s auto finance conference in mean old Frisco and reports that no one in the car world expects the election year sop to economically downtrodden voters to stimulate sales. Emily Kolinski Morris cites historical precedent to conclude that no one's gonna buy nothing with their refund money. “An estimated 25% of rebate checks were spent in 2001," Ford's senior economist declared. "And that is expected this time around, too." Which raises an interesting question, why'd they hold a conference, then? Meanwhile, Morris cited a more recent survey showing similar stats: 43 percent of today's Americans will use the refund bucks to pay off debts, 26 percent will save it and 24 percent will spend it. Apparently, "that leaves one banker at the conference torn. 'As an automotive lender, do I want people to take the money and pay off debt or take it and buy a car?' says Nicholas Stanutz, senior vice president of the Huntington National Bank. 'I have mixed feelings.'” Consumers saving money? Bankers with feelings? Strange times. 

The GT-R is the blind date everybody’s been telling you about for months: incredible body, second in her class at Harvard, fabulous conversationalist, star athlete. Then you meet her. Yes, she has obvious “assets,” but nobody mentioned the halitosis. She graduated with a B.A. in accounting. She’s a great conversationalist, but her voice sounds like run-flat tires with three-inch sidewalls running over a concrete-aggregate rumble and tar-strip slap. She's an athlete, but a grunting shot-putter, not a Sharapova. In short, the GT-R is SO not a supermodel.

General Motors has stopped production of the lion's share of their 2008 truck line-up. Automotive News [AN, sub] reports that GM's told its dealers that "the allocation volume for the Dealer Order Submission Process cycles beginning May 8, 2008, and May 15, 2008, have been canceled." Translation: the American automaker will no longer fill orders for the vehicles listed above. The General blames the shutdown on the ongoing United Auto Workers (UAW) strike at American Axle, which has caused a paucity of parts. The situation could be worse for GM, but it's hard to see how. Even thought the strike and resulting shutdown provide a convenient excuse for GM to cut production on an entire genre of vehicles– vehicles that can't be sold at a profit, or, indeed, sold– GM's cash burn demands some kind of cash flow. From one perspective, there is no end in sight to General Motors' North American profit drought. "If the [American Axle] strike continues, there might be additional production cuts," GM spokeswoman Susan Garontakos admitted to AN. From another perspective…

eBay Motors is a great site. Although our resident sharp end guy Steven Lang has, uh, moved on, he still reckons there's no better gauge of a car's worth than the completed items section. And these guys are serious about providing a safe place to buy and sell an automobile over the internet– an inherently dicey proposition. As Automotive News [sub] reports, eBay has 2k– count 'em two thousand– staffers who "handle complaints and investigate sham auctions and dishonest sellers." OK, now, in February, eBay announced they were going to list GM's Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles (CPO) on the site. All sorts of alarm bells went off. Knowing GM as we do, it seemed obvious that eBay would make it difficult (if not impossible) for consumers to cross-shop the price of these CPO-mobiles against the same cars sold independently. To its discredit, eBay still refuses to provide details of the agreement. In fact, eBay now says they're talking to "other automakers" about replicating the deal. We call on eBay to disclose enough information about this arrangement to reassure its base– the hundreds of thousands of people who buy cars via the service– that eBay's not going to sell the end users down the proverbial river by firewalling CPO and non-CPO vehicle sales.  

A while ago, James Fallows at the Atlantic Monthly asked readers to submit suggestions for "the stupidest policy ever." He rigged the deck by taking The Gulf of Tonkin resolution off the table, but the winner, by a landslide, is the blind support our "independent" politicians gave to the bio-ethanol scam. (And you're the victim.) The mag gave two of the winner's proponents, Justin Cohen and his father Reuben, special mention for their comprehensive summation of all that's wrong with bio-ethanol. "I think bi-partisan support for ethanol is more stupid [than the McCain-Clinton 'gas tax holiday' plan], because it's actually harmful and because it not only panders to the public… worse it panders to a special interest group (Midwest farmers and their regional politicians). It's harmful because: 1) it helped to catalyze higher levels of food inflation, 2) it consumes as much energy to make and distribute as it provides, 3) it deflects attention from developing/trying sound policies to enhance our energy security, 4) it didn't allow for removal of taxes on the import of truly energy efficient ethanol produced in Brazil from sugar, and 5) it's a such an extreme example of government dysfunctionality it causes people like me to become truly disillusioned with the political process."

When The Robb Report decided they didn't want to work with me anymore (surprise!), the Managing Editor cited my unauthorized off-road excursion in a Cayenne as one of the prime reasons I was persona non grata. Of all the shit I'd got up to, this was my cardinal sin. Huh? What red-blooded American doesn't harbor a deep-seated urge to not do what a bunch of heavily-accented Germans tell him to do? And what automotive journalist who's been on a meticulously-timed press launch doesn't understand the compulsion to leave the "designated route" for, somewhere, anywhere else? And it's not like I broke the thing– although, at the time, I thought I had. I'd simply embedded fist-sized rocks into the Cayenne's tires in my [ultimately successful] attempt to rock the SUV free of knee-deep mud, that I'd mistaken for a hard surface. Still, I genuinely liked Robert Ross, and miss working with him. I appreciate real talent, and understand the stresses that serving two masters can put on a man. I broke my Porsche IWC watch that day, clearing the mud away from the tire with my bare hands. Somehow, I can't bring myself to fix it. Go figure. 

My buddy Mayor sent me this paleolithic (in internet terms) clip of Jay Leno hooning it up in a Tesla Roadster. Production model #1, owned by RSA-born Elon Musk of PayPal, SpaceX and Tesla Motors, in fact. And it looks like a lot of fun (the car). Sure, Leno glad hands the Tesla suit a bit (like when the guy says it "only" takes 3.5 hours to charge), but the car itself  looks pretty damn drool-worthy. 100% torque at any time, at any speed– what's not to love? Now, of course I'm skipping over the part about Tesla Roadsters not– you know– actually existing. And if they did, costing $100k. But let's ignore all that. As "car guys" (and gals), should the opportunity arrive for you to drive electric, would you? I'm a fence sitter.

With HillRod and McNasty calling for a summer vacation from reality gas taxes, populist posturing on the price at the pumps is hitting an all time high. It's one thing for presidential candidates to propose sweet, feel-good nothings. It's another when the sitting Secretary for Transportation disses the dollars that help fuel her agency's good works (and the rest). Although Mary Peters held short of weighing-in on the tax holiday proposal, the SecTrans did tell The Detroit News that "as family budgets strain under the burden of record gasoline prices, it is increasingly clear that fuel taxes are not only ineffective but also wildly unpopular. Increasing dependence on gas taxes to fund infrastructure makes zero sense when Detroit and other automakers are working so hard to make more efficient cars every year." Oh, so Detroit is going to solve the energy crisis, is it? Why didn't we see that one coming? Peters made no mention of what would be taxed so as to pay for such trivialities as roads and bridges. After all, if gas is cheap enough for us to all buy SUV's again, who needs the infrastructure?

Autoca reports that the new-to-Europe Infiniti brand wants to compete with the BMW 1-series and the Audi A3s of the world in the hot "premium compact" segment. But don't expect a carbon-copy of the German whips, as Autocar hints that Nissan's luxury marque will unleash an entirely unique model on the segment. Speculation has centered around a baby-SUV model (rendered here) that would slot under the new EX35, currently the smallest Infiniti model. But wait, it might be a coupe-cabriolet with a folding hardtop. Actually, Autocar has no idea what the model will look like. But they do know that it will launch in 2010 (as will everything) at a price point around $40k. We'll be checking out forthcoming Infiniti concept cars for hints at the final design of the "Infant-iti." And here's hoping it's not a "small, high-end SUV crossover." 

Green Car Congress reports that GM is road testing a Saturn Aura equipped with a homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine. HCCI technology compresses a lean air-fuel mixture in the cylinder, which ignites without spark plugs, creating low-temperature, flameless combustion. GM says HCCI combustion reduces NOX and particulate emissions and offers 15 percent better fuel efficiency. The 2.2-liter modified ECOTEC engine is set up to use traditional spark ignition when starting, driving over 55mph and other low-temperature or high-load circumstances. It switches to HCCI mode for most driving. The modified mill makes 180hp and 170 lb/ft of torque, with additional help from direct injection, variable valve lift, dual electric camshaft phasers and individual cylinder pressure transducers to "control the combustion as well as deliver a smooth transition between combustion modes." Props to GM for developing technology which doesn't require them to reinvent the wheel battery, but it'll be a while before HCCI is ready for prime time. That said, direct injection– as seen on the new Porsche Cayenne and other, more prosaic VeeDubs– had a rocky start.