GM’s burning its way through a reported $1b per month. So shelling-out $250m on a new research and development campus in Shanghai is no biggie. And here’s some PC for your PC: a significant part of the new research facility will focus on developing new green and alternative energy technology (whatever green means). When fully operational in 2009, the new facility will employ some 2500 people. And for those of you inclined to say “yeah right,” General Motors’ Asia Pacific President Nick Reilly says any problems in the Chinese market are all in your head. “Reilly attributed the downturn in the auto market to the Beijing Olympics in August, a sharply declining Chinese stock market, and an increase in fuel prices in June,” the GM suit told CNN Money. “But he added that ‘underlying demand is still there.’ Reilly said he expects vehicle sales to return to double-digit growth this month or next. He said he expects China’s auto market to maintain 10% to 15% growth after this year, without elaborating.” Elaboration? We don’t need no stinkin’ elaboration!

Audi’s dabbled in small cars for some time. Not all of their attempts have been successful. Despite all-aluminum construction and clever packaging, the A2 was a flop. Audi is back at it, though, unveiling their A1 city car at the Paris show. Considering Audi’s proclivity for up-to-the-second trendiness, it can’t be long before they announce– and maybe even build– an EV. The model would probably share a basic platform with compact VWs, most notably the VW Up! Concept. Ingolstadt’s boffins would need to elevate the floor to provide battery space. The “service hatch” first used on the A2 could also make a comeback on the EV, especially if we consider that it makes a good place for a plug-in socket. Add some chrome and lacquer finishes, LEDs and optic fiber in the lights, some fancy wheels and there you go: small, electric, trendy and premium.

GM has a long history of offering second rate products that are “nearly as good” as the industry standard, and then telling people to buy them because they’re made in America. The CTS may not be the best RWD sedan on the market, but it’s made in America. The Aveo falls flat compared to say, the Fit, but dammit, you love your country, right? Needless to say, the Volt’s “made in  America” badge is going to be a big selling point as GM searches for those willing to justify dropping $40k on the EREV. Well, the WaPo (a nest of America haters if ever there was one) reports that GM’s Rick Wagoner “refuses to promise” that Volt batteries would be built stateside. “As we sit here today I can’t give you a guarantee that it will be made in the U.S.,” Wagoner said. “If we want to get the Volt in the market, as we do by the end of 2010, we’ve got to make some relatively near-term decisions about how we are going to do all that.” But wait, isn’t the proposed bailout (which will certainly benefit Volt production) supposed to address America’s emerging dependence on foreign batteries? Didn’t Chrysler’s Jim Press frame the bailout in those very terms just a short week ago, saying “right now, the major sources of batteries are other countries. So are we trading our dependence on foreign oil, which is a natural resource, for a dependence on other countries to produce something in a factory? We need to stimulate that development here — here in Michigan.”? By putting the hype before the cars, Detroit is either damnably stupid or wickedly cunning. There’s no doubt that there’ll be some egg on GM’s face for increasing our dependence on foreign batteries, but once they actually build the cars (with help from Uncle Sam) they can bring back the battery independence talking point. Then it will be time for bailout round 2.

It was only a matter of time until someone had something negative to say about the ever-expanding fleet of hybrid taxis in New York City. While I’m not in the hybrid car fan camp generally, they make perfect sense for a place like Manhattan. Driving takes place nearly exclusively short of 30 mph (except for costly interboro trips), meaning the electric motor really gets a workout. They’re quieter, and considering the traffic density in Manhattan, the reduced emissions actually are appreciated. Not to mention, hybrids need high intensity field testing. What better than 24-hour a day abuse? Well, not everybody agrees with me. C. Bruce Gambardella, P.E., an engineer that claims to be nothing short of a world renowned expert in the field of taxi cabs, thinks the hybrids totally suck (paraphrasing). Mr. Gambardella’s report was funded by a lobbyist organization called the Metropolitcan Taxicab Board of Trade. We’ll give you one guess who they represent – the taxi owners. The report claims that the modifications required for hybrid taxis make them inherently unsafe. Among the charges: plexiglass partitions between the drivers and passengers will interfere with side airbag systems (how often do those go off when everybody drives under 20 mph?), that hybrids are unsafe as taxis because they aren’t built for heavy duty driving (Manhattan potholes apparently better the Rubicon), and because hybrids are horrible, terrible vehicles. Also, Gambardella reports, hybrids are for grandmothers and liberals. Taxicabs need to be robust Panther platform cars that get 11 miles per gallon. Oh, and the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade filed a lawsuit yesterday against the City of New York, fighting the requirement that all cabs switch over to hybrids in the next several years.

Londoners know (because a fleet of almost 100 is already running): the electric Smart fortwo is an big improvement on the original. It’s economical and smooth, without the wheezy engine and the miserable, jerky transmission of the gas-powered (or God forbid, Diesel) version. Greeny Berliners think: electric cars would be the zero-emission way to go, if you could just charge them somewhere (who has a garage in the city?) Bringing both factors together and hoping that they gel, the German government has started a project with the generic-sounding name “e-mobility Berlin”. It will be the world’s biggest e-car pilot project, involving Daimler and RWE, a utility, which will install 500 public charging stations. The charging stations will have token solar cells, but are basically about coal-derived electricity (take that, global-warming activists!) Daimler’s main motivation is to field-test its e-Smarts, scheduled for massive roll-out in the magic year (guess!) On TV, I saw Angela Merkel, Germany’s often dour, physicist-by-training head of government talk about the project with bright eyes: “It only takes two hours to re-charge the batteries? Just the time you need to go shopping!” As they say, some ways of thinking die hard.

Automakers should start taking a page from the survival strategies of other easily-maligned industries, starting with the slogan “fuel-efficient cars don’t save the world, people save the world.” This blame-deflecting maxim encapsulates the lessons learned by researchers at UC Davis’s Institute For Transportation Studies while studying options to reduce California’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 80 percent (of 1990 levels) by 2050. Green Car Congress has all the technical minutiae on the study (as usual) for those who care much and work little. Bottom line: the “reference scenario,” which projects current trends forward, predicts a 50 percent reduction in average vehicle fuel economy. But a doubling population projected for the 1990 – 2050 period will cause GHG emissions to rise by 62 percent. Several “silver bullet” scenarios centering on large-scale shifts to biofuels, fuel-cell vehicles, electric vehicles and ICE efficiency improvements all fail to meet the ambitious 80in50 goal. The 80in50 goal can be met, albeit through either second-gen biofuel breakthroughs or a new hydrogen-based transportation infrastructure. The only way to meet the goal with only hybrids and EVs: a radical reduction in miles driven. Even then, hitting the goal exactly is only possible if you exclude inter-state transport. As the report notes, “advances in other vehicle subsectors are largely erased by activity growth in air travel and domestic and international shipping by sea and air.”

The “Solar Taxi” has arrived in Philadelphia a year, two months and 27k miles after it left Switzerland. A substitute high school teacher from Lucerne named Louis Palmer built the contraption, with help from four universities. The three-wheeled cluchtless, gearless gizmo weighs 1,000 lbs, including 500 lbs of sodium-nickel-ceramic Zebra batteries, manufactured by MES DEA in Stabio, Switzerland. The latter give the car and its 500 lb trailer toting 6 square meters of PVs a range of nearly 200 miles at night. Top speed is an electronically limited 55 mph at 1800 rpm. The 20 hp motor pulled the car up the Rockies at 40 mph. Though billed as 100% solar, Palmer tells TTAC the trailer produces half the car’s energy, the “other half” produced by solar cells on a collaborator’s rooftop in Switzerland that feeds the grid with power equivalent to the supplement the car requires from the grid. In any case, the car’s top speed sinks to 10-15 mph when powered by direct sunshine alone. But Palmer’s goal is to show the world that solar-powered automotive transportation is feasible. He says that $5,000 worth of rooftop solar cells in the US Mid-Atlantic could provide enough electricity for 10,000 miles/year.

The LA Times blog reports that Aptera Motors, makers of press releases and $500 deposit waiting lists, have hired a new CEO. With its $30k EV still in development, Aptera has tipped to former Ford, Chrysler and Saleen man Paul Wilbur for the top spot. In a move that echoes Martin Eberhard’s ouster from Tesla, Aptera founder Steve Fambro has been pushed down from the CEO job to “chief technology officer.” This hiring of a new executive and exiling the founder to technical pursuits is fast becoming a rite of passage for up-and-coming EV companies. While Eberhart’s downgrade allowed him to “focus on…the advancement of our core technologies,” and Fambro’s demotion is being spun as allowing him “to concentrate on vehicle development,” the trendsetter was actually Phoenix Motors. Way back in 2006, Phoenix bumped its founder Daniel Riegert from CEO to (wait for it) chief technology officer. The LA Times sees a trend here, and unsurprisingly it has to do with money. Eberhart was demoted just as Tesla embarked on a $250m investment round, Riegert left Phoenix when a Dubai-based investor dropped $40m on the company, and Aptera just closed on $24m worth of venture capital. As these companies grow, their new investors do not always see eye to eye with their contrarian founders. Eberhard and Riegert both left their companies entirely after stints as technology gurus, and it would not be surprising to hear of Fambro following suit. Maybe the three former founders could start an EV supergroup?

Recent trash-talking about all-electric range by GM’s Bob Lutz highlights a crucial benefit of the Volt’s Extended Range Electric Vehicle (EREV- nee “serial hybrid”) concept. Though an EREV may be less cost-effective than a plug-in parallel hybrid over the long haul (or not), its initial EV-only range is better. Which means EREV marketers can claim “zero fuel use” for many standard commutes. Autocar reports that Mazda has fallen under the  EREV spell; they’re hard at work on their own system using a rotary engine as a battery generator. According to “senior sources,” testing is “sufficiently advanced that Mazda has a working prototype in a Mazda 5 MPV bodyshell.” Unlike GM though, Mazda isn’t relying on its EREV to fly it to the moon by late 2010. Start-stop is the first step on Mazda’s voyage of eco-discovery, set to deploy in Japan next year and around the world thereafter. There are currently no plans to bring an EREV to market. Still, using a small rotary engine as an electricity generator has lots of potential upside. It eliminates the engine’s thirstiness by running constantly at lower rpms, and could actually be more efficient at battery-charging than a standard ICE. Hopefully the system won’t be entirely dependent on rotary engines though, as Mazda’s sister company Ford will doubtless be interested in appropriating the technology.

As much as we criticize ethanol around these parts, we all use it. E10 is a fact of life, thanks to ethanol’s anti-knock properties and lack of groundwater contamination lawsuits. So what if ethanol were used more intelligently as an additive, instead of being hawked as an alt-fuel? PickupTrucks.com has news that Ford’s second-generation EcoBoost turbocharged engines could go that very route. Although the first round of EcoBoost engines aren’t even on sale yet, the second generation is being developed under the codename “Bobcat.” These new engines are said to feature “ethanol boost technology,” not-so-coincidentally developed by Ethanol Boosting Systems of Cambridge, MA.  In essence, a variable ethanol direct-injection system allows turbocharged engines to operate at a higher compression ratio. This means more power and up to 15 percent better efficiency than a first-gen EcoBoost engine. Plus, you only have to top-up on ethanol every month or so. With talk of getting 500 hp and 700 lb-ft from a 5.0 turbo-V8, developers are positioning the Bobcat as big-pickup diesel competition. And Ford is already saying Bobcat engines will be a $1,100 option (give or take), which compares well to diesel’s $5k premium. But don’t start looking for the Bobcat option box any time soon. “The first Bobcat test engines may be built before the end of the year, but they have not received final approval for production,” according to PickupTrucks’ “industry sources.”

The storied Detroit Electric (DE) marque is a Dutch company nowadays, zombified to provide a palatable brand name for Zap’s spurious Alias and buses (built by China Youngman Group).  Earth2Tech reports that neither Zap nor Youngman came through with their promised $100m joint investment, nor the $5m consoloation investment they offered later. “Most of it had to do with they wanted to do buses first and we wanted to do cars first,” claims Zap CEO Steve Schneider, invoking long-cliched “creative differences.” So Owner/CEO and former CEO of Lotus Engineering Dan Lam shook off the losers and found new investors. Though none of the $300m in sum Dutch, American and Malaysian investors were named, Proton’s in. Paul Tan got to check out DE’s three new whips at the irony-free Detroit Electric launch in Kuala Lumpur, and they’re all based on Proton models. The good news: the EV Elise’s 4.3 second 0-60 time, 6.5-hour charge time and 200-mile range prove that Tesla didn’t exactly reinvent the EV Elise. (Especially considering DE have somehow managed to get a manual transmission to work in theirs.) DE wants to get cars on the road within 18 months; the Malaysian government is reportedly rolling out the pork carpet. We shall see.

Most hybrid/EV companies run on deposits. With most “game-changing” products still deep in development, firms often squeeze deposits out of prospective customers to keep cashflow coming before their cars come to market. Not so with Toyota. The LA Times blog notes that Toyota has asked its Palo Alto, CA dealer to stop taking $500 deposits on plug-in Prius models that are still several years from launch. “We asked the folks at Magnussen (Toyota of Palo Alto) to back off a little bit,” Toyota spokesman Irv Miller said. “Let us get our product to market and figure out where we’re going with it before we start putting the cart in front of the horse.” Magnussen has refunded all 25 cash deposits it received, and has created a free waiting list that has already grown to 44. But Toyota’s warning to Magnussen isn’t stopping other Toyota dealers from collecting cash deposits. “I’ve got a few people in town who wanted to come in and leave deposits” on a plug-in hybrid, says Matt Meyer, Sales director of Toyota San Louis Obispo. “I’m not going to tell them ‘No,’ because I don’t tell my customers ‘No.'” Both dealerships say the deposits are fully refundable, but Toyota could still go after San Louis Obispo with a cease-and-desist. That Toyota is trying to reign in hype rather than spur it on is telling. Not only does it show that its future products will face astronomical demand, it also proves that short-term cash is not worth even a few possibly disastisfied customers. Contrast this approach with Chrysler’s un-product EV hype for a quick lesson in how white-hot demand for next-gen powertrains should and should not be exploited.

Yes, it's true: a new series on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as THE FUEL OF THE FUTURE– inspired by T. Boon Pickens' nationally advertised plan to run the whole damn country's auto fleet on CNG. Moron that later. For now, The International Herald Tribune reports that Utah's CNG scene in heating up. And why not? State government mandates have kept a lid on the price of CNG to just above extraction costs, currently running about $0.75 –  $0.80/gallon. A cryo-reinforced tank fill-up in the Beehive State runs less than $10. A $3k state tax credit for purchase or new or used EPA-certified CNG vehicles has led to a run-up on prices of used Contours and Cavaliers not unlike that $7000 Geo Metro XFi. And that's on top of the $4k federal tax credit for new CNG vehicles, currently limited to the Honda Civic GX, if you can get one. (The only Utah Honda CNG dealer has a waiting list over 300 buyers.) Not surprisingly, some backyard conversions are taking place by drivers desperate to save money on the cheap, tax credit be damned. "Number of natural gas conversions explodes" was the unintentionally ironic headline in the Salt Lake Tribune. Reports of unsecured and rusty CNG tanks just might give pause to one's running red lights in Salt Lake City. Anyhow, Utah's natural gas reserves aren't much compared to other states such as Oklahoma or Texas. Texas. Doesn't Pickens live down there?

If business and government both agree that hydrogen is the future, they must be right, right? Well, the "Hydrogen Road Tour 08" has just completed the first hydrogen-powered, cross-country road trip despite the fact that there are only 60 hydrogen stations in he country. So how did the public-private publicity tour manage this feat? Well, they didn't actually. "There were stretches without hydrogen fueling stations when the vehicles were carried on flatbed trucks," reports Reuters. The longest was a 937 mile jaunt from Rolla, Missouri to Albuquerque, New Mexico. But wait, cries DOT Administrator For Research and Innovative Technology (really) Paul Brubaker, all those hydrocarbons were not combusted in vain! One of the goals of the tour was to actually demonstrate the need to build more fueling stations. So, y'know… failure is success. Not to be out-Orwelled, the Department of Energy put out its own fawning "Suggested Talking Points For The Hydrogen Road Tour" (PDF) . There you can learn that the DOE has purchased a fuel-cell Chevy Equinox, and that it is refueled at a Shell station. Furthermore, "data collected from this effort will be integrated with data from the National Hydrogen Learning Demonstration to validate real-world performance." Which is important, because you'll want to know how often you'll have to be towed in a flatbed truck between fueling stations. Unless the hydrogen-producing firms behind the tour get their fat government checks to build an expensive new infrastructure. And all this despite the fact that in a best-case scenario, automakers will only sell about 2 million electric vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells by 2020 according to the National Research Council.

Wesson veggie oil, lye, high quality methanol, an old margarita mixer, and some patience; thats all you need to create your own batch of pure biodiesel, suitable for use in your average two-year old, raceworthy Jetta TDI. Sure, it looked more like something you would dip your bread in at Olive Garden, but I was not only going to be driving like a hooligan at the local SCCA event, I was saving the planet (I should sell some carbon credits)! Using directions I found on-line, I planned to whip up a five-gallon batch of biodiesel (to see if I could) in the 11th-floor confines of my apartment. Not knowing what to expect, I ended up with a huge mess, a ruined margarita mixer, and about three gallons of biodiesel of dubious quality (it was supposed to be nearly translucent). Turbidity issues aside, I put a single gallon in the tank of my Jetta, along with five gallons of regular diesel, and ran around town. No issues, so the weekend's race was on! The other two gallons were then thrown in, and the race commenced. One hundred bhp aside, the Jetta performed admirably with mild body lean, communicative steering, decent brakes, monster torque, and laughable grip. The oppressive Oklahoma heat erased all perception of driving a commuter sedan; no, I was piloting the Audi R10 TDI down the Mulsanne straight in the Le Mans! But unlike Audi, I couldn't claim victory, as I was the only one in my racing class. But my adventure in going green shall not end there. Stay tuned as I attempt to make ethanol for my Porsche!