It's no secret that when strapped for cash the Detroit automakers often turn to Uncle Sam. Typically, these efforts involve a bailout, loan guarantees or tax breaks. But the Detroit News reports that Ford is trying a new method of squeezing cash from the feds: suing for overtaxation. Last Thursday, FoMoCo filed suit against the IRS seeking over $445m in interest on taxes it overpaid between 1983 and 1989, and between 1992 and 1994. There's no dispute from the IRS that Ford overpaid its taxes in those years, but… "We believe the IRS failed to pay the correct amount of interest," said Ford spokeswoman Marcey Evans. "We tried to resolve it at the administrative level without success. Because of the size of the amount and the dispute, we had no choice but to file." And having backed away from its promise to restore profitability by 2009, Ford could sure use a few hundred mil right about now. If Ford wins this lawsuit, it could cement its status as the best-positioned American automaker during the next several years. Then again, when that distinction is being earned by lawsuit, you have a good sense of how screwed American automakers really are.

"Everyone" knows that electric vehicles (EVs) are going to be a big part of America's long-term transportation mix. Unfortunately, the sector is currently dominated by either largely hypothetical super-expensive roadsters, far-off Hail-Marys and glorified golf carts (e.g. Zap's Xebra). At the mo, Chinese EVs are the most viable of the three for everyday use. While their classification as low speed vehicles (LSVs) helps the not-so-crashworthy vehicles circumvent strict safety standards, it limits the EVs to a 25mph top speed AND restricts them to roads with 35mph speed limits or below. The Tennessean reports that their legislature has joined Montana and Washington in lowering the regulatory bar for EVs. Starting July 1, Tennessee's LSVs are allowed to drive up to 35mph on roads with up to a 40mph top speed. The law reclassifies electric LSVs as medium speed vehicles (MSVs) if they are physically able to reach the 35mph top speed (which, ostensibly, excludes golf carts). Some 211 qualifying EVs have been registered in The Volunteer State so far. If more states adopt higher speed limits for EVs, there may be enough market demand to justify investment in more capable, versatile and SAFE battery-powered vehicles.

The new 3G iPhone went on sale on July 11. So people lined up overnight. In the first three days, Apple moved one million iPhones worldwide (but none of them into my pocket, thank you). Meanwhile, the Blackberry folks have confirmed their next generation models: the Bold and Thunder. No release date's been set. No specs revealed. In fact, The Thunder might not even be called The Thunder. So I have my hands up in the air, waiting for RIM to let us know. It strikes me that GM's Volt is running along the lines of this second business model– even if phones are infinitely easier to develop than cars. What GM really ought to do is shut up about their plug-in electric – gas hybrid Volt until the automaker can tell us exactly what, how, and when. That said, I continue to believe the Volt per se will never be offered for mass consumption. GM will merely say the Volt was an excellent tech development platform, and maybe lease a few prototypes to celebs or government agencies. Its R&D and innovations will trickle into other vehicles. I'd be thrilled for them to prove me wrong. God knows they're working hard on it. But I'm having a really hard time paying attention.  

Kia sent out some press shots of its new Forte compact sedan last week. But real world pictures of cars are always a step up. Those candid photos, along with scans of the Korean brochure, are here for you to peruse, thanks to the fans at Kia-World.net. IMHO, the Forte looks quite good in the metal. The biggest improvement over the Spectra: the interior. It appears to be made from something other/better than cardboard this time (no word on whether the traditional Hyundai-Kia interior crayon smell will remain). Americans probably will not get the 1.6-liter with 124 horses; the 2.0-liter engine with some 150 horses is a lock. And we're all holding out to see if Kia decides it wants to put its money where its auto show mouth is and give us a version of that 2.0-liter with a turbocharger. Not surprisingly, the Korean brochure shows all sort of high-end kit, from keyless go to Bluetooth to navigation. How many of these doo-hickeys will make it to North America is your guess. Looks like it might be the best Kia yet, though. And that's saying something. I think.

Things are bad for Chrysler, Ford and GM. The Big 2.8 are burning precious cash, shedding valuable market share, choking on unwanted trucks, attempting to nurture (or excise) damaged brands and outmoded models, and struggling to bring relevant products to market. Bankruptcy looms large. And yet, there’s a silver lining to the recent, calamitous downturn in the U.S. new car market. But before we reveal the sliver of hope, let’s check in with the main engines of their destruction: Honda, Nissan and Toyota…

Chrysler set up its "ENVI" electric vehicle (EV) program  last September to develop advanced propulsion technologies for the Pentastar brand. Ten months on, Chrysler's green-eyed program has finally produced a weapon for Chrysler to use in the mounting EV wars: a press release. Today's Detroit Free Press reports that "Chrysler LLC's answer to the much-anticipated Chevrolet Volt could be three to five years away." Which is like telling the kids in the backseat that "we'll be there when we get there" five minutes into a road trip. So why even report on Chrysler's late-starting EV hopes and dreams? Because the dealers in the backseat of Chrysler's road trip to bankruptcy are starting to get antsy for some fuel-efficient product. Says one dealer: "You don't have to have every car — not everyone wants a hybrid — but it's obviously a profound proportion of the industry right now." J.D. Power's mob predicts that Chrysler will launch [non two-mode] hybrid versions of the Caravan, Avenger and and Journey over the next five years. But just like GM, Chrysler wants to do some leapfrogging. "If you want to go ahead and make everything a full hybrid system, fine, but what if you can turn everything into a range-extended vehicle and take it beyond the 2020 campaign for 35 miles per gallon?" asks Chrysler spokesperson Nick Cappa. "The new technology ENVI is developing could do that." The operative word here being could. In five years. Possibly.

Automotive News [sub] reports that the plug-in electric – gas hybrid Volt will be sold as a Chevrolet in the U.S. only. When they go on sale in Europe in 2012, they'll have different styling and wear Opel and Vauxhall badges– even though they'll be built on the same assembly line in Michigan. So why, with GM's push to make Chevy their "global" brand, are they rebadging the Volt for their Euro-brands? GM claims Opel and Vauxhall have larger dealer networks than Chevy. But let's face it… with Chevy's image as a bargain-basement brand in Europe and their current offerings of rebadged Daewoos, how many people would consider buying a high-tech, high-priced electric hybrid at a Chevy dealership in Europe? About as many as would consider buying a Corvette at one. Which is why Corvette is marketed in the Eurozone as a separate brand with Hummers and Cadillacs, and why Volts will become Opels and Vauxhalls. Stimt?

The four-door coupe niche is really catching on. After VW's entry into the chop-top genre, Ford is set to present an [almost] low-cost version of the "eye candy sedan." Naturally, I'd like it to be what the current Mondeo could have been when I first saw the Iosis concept. And I expect it to be what the current Mondeo isn't: exciting. I was extremely disappointed when FoMoCo released the Mondeo sedan. Why would they say they were going to base the four-door's design on that stunning concept and then… you know? The only cool thing about Mondeo is that Bond drove it for a while. Actually it wasn't that cool; looking back at the scenes, it was kind of boring. Anyway, back to the four-door coupe: four individual seats, frame-less doors, high-tech lights (but not Iosis-droopy) and some genuine sex-appeal. Done.

Tesla Prez and CEO Ze'ev Drori has e-mailed customers with important news! "In large measure we deliberately limit the production until we install our own born and bred final transmission by mid-September, at which time production will start to ramp up leading toward a monthly rate of over 100 cars in December." Translation: Tesla owners at the front of the line will receive damaged goods. And the aspiring EV maker's got another promised production date for the rest of its "non-founders" customers, who were told Tesla went into "full production" on March 17 (of this year). Ze'ev also proudly touts Tesla's high-profile hire: 24-year Chrysler vet, ex-VP, and former chief engineer of future midsize products Mike Donoughe (out of the frying pan into the frialator?). Tesla's Prez highlights the fact that The Big D was tapped to head-up ChryCo's Project D. Uh, wasn't that the "emergency project" designed to rescue the craptastic Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Avenger from being the worst new cars sold in America? Whatever happened to that, anyway? Was it ever finished?

The average U.S. consumer is done with SUVs and full-size pickups. Although the shift may have had something to do with safety concerns, political correctness and environmental awareness, probably not. The simple truth is that rising gas prices killed the genre faster than Old Sparky took out Pedro Medina. Of course, that hasn't stopped the left – right debates surrounding the private ownership of gas guzzlers, or, indeed, cars. We've been chronicling the UK's anti-car jihad for some time; recently highlighting their oppressive, CO2-based tax regimes (which even have the left up in arms). The Huffington Post's Sean-Paul Kelley provides us with a U.S. equivalent of the UK hard-core anti-car elite, penning a dietribe against personal transportation. "To me a car is like a prison sentence," Kelley opines, before totting-up the cost of running a car. "Wouldn't you rather save $8,000 a year and only pay $2,000 a year in infrastructure taxes to ride the subway? Or an excellent bus system? And improve our national rail network? As a part of the bargain you would walk more, get exercise, be healthier and as another bonus spend more time in closer quarters with your fellow Americans, building communities, making new friends, the chance meetings of people reading the same book on the metro or bus?" Kelley cuts non-urban dwellers a bit of slack, but not much. Look for more of this in the days, weeks and years to come…

PickupTrucks.com reports that Ford's veep for product development, Derrick Kuzak is considering (what's the hurry?) "right-sizing" the F-150's power plant. Ford may stick an EcoBoost four-banger into the base the F-150 pickup truck. And why not? The current V6 F-150 is dead for 2009; the base V8 offers better performance and fuel economy. So FoMoCo needs something smaller and more fuel-efficient underhood to elevate sales from apocalyptic to merely catastrophic. At the same time, FoMoCo needs to satisfy upcoming CAFE regs: 28.6 for light trucks by 2015. Headline: a V6 with the performance of a V8 and the fuel economy of a V6! In the F-150, the 2.5-liter turbocharged direct injection straight four would be good for 260 horses, 300 lb ft of torque and around 28 highway mpgs. This is all just potential product planning (for 2013, no less). With the smaller F100 being planned (and not ten years too soon), the four-banger F-150 would have a kid brother to share engines. Upon hearing this news am I the only person thinking "260 hp EcoBoost Mustang, please" or at least "Mmmm, Compact pickup."

As a privately held company, Chrysler doesn't have to tell anyone anything. But in an enterprise as vast and well-charted as the American automobile industry, you can run, but you can't hide from market reality. Automotive News [AN sub] raises an interesting question: why is "fast moving" ChryCo asking its dealers to pre-order products five months in advance? In a July 3 memo to store owners, Chrysler claimed demand for its Belvidere-built products had 'skyrocketed.' Really? While Patriot sales were up 5.5 percent in June, Caliber sales tumbled by 43.6 percent, and the Compass crashed 38.8 percent. Apparently, "Chrysler is taking aggressive actions to realign our product volumes to coincide with market demand." Really? Chrysler killed Belvidere's third shift in March; it's currently running on two shifts with overtime. Would orders in hand inflate Chrysler's worth to a potential buyer? Anyway, buried in the article: an assertion [by AN] that "Chrysler is trying to stick to its guns on slashing unprofitable fleet sales." According to ChryCo, they've cut fleet sales by 20 percent. In truth, even the rental fleets don't want the cliff face depreciation cars, SUVs, minivans and pickups (despite a recently revealed, post spin-off, long term contract with Thrifty). And the automaker's retail/fleet mix is getting worse, not better. AN reckons fleet sales account for about 35 percent of Chrysler's total– not including dealer fleet sales.

The "bubble" is the point in a poker tournament where the next player out will not win any money– but the rest of the players will. A player "on the bubble" is on the verge of ignominious defeat. Automotive News [sub] reporter Amy Wilson deploys the term to flag Ford's plans to kill development of its large, rear-wheel drive (RWD) platform. Or not. "[Ford product chief Derrick] Kuzak told Automotive News last week that he is reconsidering the program. 'We need to understand the role of those vehicles, given the change in the market mix,' he said. In the meantime, Ford is developing those vehicles at full speed, he said." So it's all systems go! Right until it isn't. Lincoln dealers taking delivery of the new meh MKS await Ford's final decision with bated breath. Meanwhile, here are three more decision Kuzak hasn't made, but might. 1) sticking a turbocharged, four cylinder engine into the F-150 2) adding more European-sourced small cars to the lineup and 3) amping-up EcoBoost engine production past the 500k mark. Note: Lyndon Johnson said a bad decision is better than no decision. 

I lusted after Infiniti’s “Bionic Cheetah” from the moment I saw the renderings in a buff book (remember those?). After climbing behind the wheel of the first-gen FX, I knew that if I ever needed an SUV without cargo space or off-roadabilty, the FX45 was the truck crossover for me. For one thing, it was carved from a block of sex. For another, the stiff-legged handling was righteous. But there's a new sheriff in high center of gravity town: the FX50. Can Infiniti’s new model match the moves, let alone the lines, of it's much admired (by me anyway) predecessor? Well, lemme tell ya…

The drop in fuel consumption continues. The Wall Street Journal reports that "gasoline consumption dropped 3.3% from last year to 9.347 million barrels a day." This puts current domestic gas usage at the lowest level since 2003, effectively rolling back five years of growing demand. Consequently, fuel supplies at refiners are growing, up by one million barrels in the last week alone. Of course, compared to 9.347m barrels per day of consumption, having an additional million barrels in inventory is hardly a glut. The reduced consumption started with a one percent drop (compared to last year) during April, ramped to a 2.2 percent drop in June and then hit 3.3 percent during the week surrounding the 4th of July. But, while consumers are cutting back, trucking and farming are doing the drunken sailor routine. U.S. diesel consumption is up a full six percent compared to last year– even though diesel fuel prices are up 65 percent while the price of gasoline rose by only 38 percent. Ironically, some of the boom in diesel fuel use is down to increased ethanol feedstocks and the fleet of tanker trucks required to move the stuff around. (Gasoline can be transported over long distances in pipelines; ethanol has to go one tanker truck at a time.) As for the clean diesel car revolution, dead on arrival.