Even frugal cars need to be desirable. Most electric vehicles are anything but. Right now, EVs are slow, ugly, cheap, and not good to drive. In contrast, the Tazzari Zero from Imola, Italy, wants to be a “wanna have”: great to drive, good to sit in and easy on the eyes. Here’s the data: cast-aluminum, glued frame, central motor, RWD, low center of gravity, Li-Ion Fe batteries. A two-seater that is a bit longer, but lower than a Smart. Weighing just 545 kg (1202 lb), 150 N·m of torque and 15 kW engine power would seem to go a long way. The top speed is 56 mph and it has a range of 88 miles. Gorgeous looks (if you ask me), with a dose of NSU TT attain the right balance of aggressive and cute.
Find Editorials by Category:
Category: Green
Three days before launch, the Department of Transportation has finally released the rules [PDF] for car dealers participating in the federal Cash for Clunkers program. Dealers must disable the trade-in’s engine [official powerplant-killing technique after the jump] and then send the clunker to an approved salvage auction or an authorized disposal company, which will kill, crush and destroy (not to mention recycle) the remaining bits. The doc also contains a word to the wise: “The CARS Act specifies that while many parts of the trade-in vehicle are permitted to be removed and sold, in the end the residual vehicle, including the engine block, must be crushed or shredded. Therefore, the trade-in value of the vehicle is not likely to exceed its scrap value. Purchasers should not expect to receive the same trade-in value as they might if the vehicle were to remain on the road.” I wonder how many consumers will make that calculation, or how many dealers will help them in that regard.
Autocar reports that Honda is fast-tracking an upgrade to the its Insight “dedicated hybrid,” which debuted this year to mixed reviews. After much hype, Honda’s derivative hatch is off to a weak start in the US and falling behind in Japan (where it now sells worse than the Fit). But don’t expect the Prius Lite to go from “biblically terrible” to “Clarksonian.” Catching up with 3rd-gen Prius efficiency levels and sorting the low-speed ride quality are said to be the areas of focus. While I’d agree that the latter needs improvement, you know that when even Consumer Reports cries for more power, boosting efficiency alone probably isn’t the answer.
I’ve been monitoring the Association of British Drivers (ABD) for some time. I’ve refrained from reporting on their longstanding assault of the UK’s transportation policies, based (as it so often is) on their deep skepticism about anthropogenic global warming (AGW). TTAC’s Best and Brightest tend to get a bit “enervated” about AGW, and I didn’t want to add fuel to the fire (and thus raise global temperatures). But WTH. We haven’t had a good punch-up on this topic in some time. So I’m letting loose the dogs of war. On yer bikes, boys!
The imposition of more taxes and restrictions is the real agenda behind computer modelled climate alarmism via the unjustified demonization of CO2.
If car nuts have learned anything over the last decade, it’s that few categories are easier to stereotype than the hybrid car driver (thanks, South Park!). But how accurate are these images we carry of hybrid drivers as left lane-clogging, smug eco-weenies? A couple of recent reports indicate that we still have much to learn about our high-mileage friends. For example, TheCarConnection reports on a study which shows that hybrid drivers drive more than average, receive more moving violations, and incur more collision costs. And if that isn’t surprising enough, consider an online poll showing that hybrid drivers don’t even care about the environment.
The Telegraph reports:
“The recession has hit our industry hard,” said Thomas Goetz, owner of [Germany’s] Maison d’envie brothel.
“Obviously we hope that the discount will attract more people,” he added. “It’s good for business, it’s good for the environment – and it’s good for the girls.”
Customers who arrive on bicycle or who can prove they took public transportation get a 5-euro ($7) discount from the usual 70-euro ($100) fee for 45 minute sessions, Mr Goetz said. He said the environmentally friendly offer was working a charm.
“We have around 3-5 new customers coming in daily to take advantage of the discount,” he said, adding the green rebate has helped alleviate traffic and parking congestion in the neighbourhood. [hat tip to Justin Berkowitz]
Everyone knows that automobiles are changing. The more curmudgeonly of us might even suspect that the glamor and freedom that once defined cars is fading fast. Heightening this paranoia is a design studio (via Core77) by Google smartphone designers Maaike Eversand and Mike Simonian depicting their vision for the future of cars: the Autonomobile. At this year’s Detroit Auto Show, Mike and Maaike came to the realization that “today’s car industry is brainwashed by its own car culture, with its obsession for speed, styling and fantasy. The car business has become one of repackaging, steering people’s focus towards style and a narrow definition of performance, not on our true needs.” And what, pray tell, are our true needs? “Most cars on the road today can go 120 mph. Why? The reality is that cars are mostly used at moderate speeds and for sitting in traffic. It’s time to look at performance in a new way.”
“I think it’ll go very quickly, and Congress may have to revisit it in the fall… 250,000 vehicles isn’t enough… We think there’ll be additional phases of this… It’ll probably evolve.”
Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers Prez Dave McCurdy on the CARS scheme in Automotive News [sub]. McCurdy acknowledged that greater improvements in fuel efficiency might be required for a future Senate compromise. Apparently McCurdy believes Senate won’t play ball “if it’s just a truck program for people buying F-150s“. What could have given him that impression?
In the market for a parking lot in Flint, Michigan? Or a nine-hole golf course in New Jersey (needs TLC)? How about some scenic acreage way upstate New York that features prominently on New York State Registry of Hazardous Waste Sites and on the federal superfund list of contaminated places? All—and more—available now to the highest bidder. Come on down!
While the supposedly best of GM is sold to the supposedly new GM, the worst will be auctioned off in bankruptcy court. Call it the Adam and Eve of all foreclosure sales.
Open house in Massena, New York. This fine waterfront property, abutting the St. Regis Mohawk Indian Reservation in the east and the St. Lawrence River to the north, was home to a GM foundry. It made aluminum cylinder heads for the Chevrolet Corvair. It also mass-produced PCB sludge.
The LA Times reports that The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has granted California the right to set its own, independent CO2 standards for car and truck emissions. The controversial waiver comes with a proviso: they can’t toughen the tailpipe regs—de facto mpg requirements—until 2017. Which is no big deal, ’cause the feds have adopted California’s standards until that date. “It preserves California’s role as a leader on clean air policy,” EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said in an interview. “It feels good to know that we are able to move past — address — this issue, responding to the president’s call.” Move past, address now, kick it down the road, satisfy the President’s pre-election pledge, whatever. Meanwhile and in any case, the non-waiver waiver is something of a relief for automakers . . .
Do we really want to have this debate again? You know, the one where Detroit’s defenders claim that federal “loans” are loans not bailout bucks? I guess so. After all, the MSM has been all about Ford being the only domestic not to receive a federal bailout. And now we hear that The Blue Oval Boys have landed a $5.9 billion dollar retooling loan from the Department of Energy. As expected. “Our business plan assumed about the amount we got,” FoMoCo CEO Alan Mulally told Reuters. “It’s very consistent with our plan.” Automotive News [sub] reports that Ford. Wants. More.
Manny Lopez has a cow about Tesla’s $465 million Department of Energy loan over at the Detroit News, concluding that tax dollars shouldn’t “be spent, propping up millionaires and billionaires, who, unlike their Detroit CEO brethren, fly in private planes when they’re not toying around town in their electric cars.” And why is it that Detroit’s CEOs don’t fly on corporate jets? Oh, right. Sweet Pete DeLorenzo lays into Tesla as well, saying it got the loans “so that it can become a real car company instead of a boondoggle that makes outrageously overpriced battery-eating kit cars.” MLive‘s Rick Haglund even figures Elon Musk’s divorce-by-blog reflects an unseriousness that makes his firm undeserving of taxpayer support.
As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama made a campaign promise to have one million plug-in hybrids on America’s roads by 2015. That’s an ambitious plan, considering we didn’t hit the million hybrid milestone until eight years after the Prius was introduced. Back in April, GM’s Volt Man Tony Posawatz admitted to MSNBC that “it certainly is a difficult challenge to achieve that goal.” He went on to say that GM would have “tens of thousands” of Volts on the road by 2015. But, “it’s not readily obvious, based on the product plans that have been communicated, that the 2015 objective aligns with what is currently on the books,” he said. Would someone please tell Tony who pays the bills? Anyway, the tune has changed. “I can tell you we can definitely do the heavy lifting part of that,” GM’s Brita Gross tells Automotive News [sub]. “We definitely will lift up our end of that.” But how?
The Detroit News covers the report by the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute (because TRI texts are behind a password lock). Authors Walter McManus and Ron Kleinbaum write,
Story after story frames the issue of a struggling industry that will not survive tough fuel economy standards. However, there is substantial evidence that the domestic auto industry has ignored customers’ demands for fuel economy, and has consistently undervalued the impact of fuel economy on their profit potential.
Plus,
Our view is that GM is still not prepared to change enough, fast enough to achieve the transformation it needs to make.
Go on . . .
There’s a nasty, drag-out fight going on between current Tesla Chairman and CEO Elon Musk and his predecessor, Martin Eberhard, over who deserves credit for birthing the electric roadster. Musk has posted a lengthy defense of his position at the Tesla Motors blog, and according to him, Eberhard is the bad guy. Lots of e-mails attached. Ugly stuff.
Recent Comments