Manny Lopez is The Detroit News ' head cheerleader. The Auto Editor hires the team, chooses the cheers and makes sure everyone stays on message. Manny's megaphone emits the same hoarse polemic the paper's been shouting since the 60's: "they" don't understand us. His latest: if the "Planet Protectors" (Nancy Pelosi, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Al Gore) watched the Woodward Dream Cruise they'd leave us the fuck alone [paraphrasing]. Manny's madder than that though. He launches a personal attack that posits what cars the terrible trio MAY have owned before their rise to power, to show their possible hypocrisy. Nancy's imaginary past puts her at the wheel of a "sun-drenched yellow Bug that was dressed up and clean." Arnie drove "a 1974 Cadillac Eldorado with a 500-cubic inch V-8 engine pulling 300-plus horsepower." And Al Gore piloted "a 1970 Plymouth Barracuda complete with a 426 Hemi engine." And then Manny plays CYA. "Perhaps they drove econoboxes and my guesses are all wrong, but I bet they have distinct memories of classic cars, nonetheless." I don't suppose the Auto Editor thought about actually establishing the facts of the matter, any more than Detroit considers the possibility that "outsiders" may have something valid to say about the industry.

If you live in Massachusetts, and you're among the roughly one in a million Americans that drives a hydrogen-powered car, you can refuel it without crossing state lines. The The Lowell Sun reports that PowerTap in Billerica, near Boston, is now open for biz, courtesy of Nuvera Fuel Cells. The hydrogen station opened just in time to replenish a parade of H-powered cars on a 13-day cross-country cavalcade from Portland, Maine to LA. The cross-country parade included a Honda Clarity, VW Tiguan, Toyota Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicle, Nissan X-Trail, Merc S-Cell and BMW H7. Speaking to your intrepid reporter, the Director of Technology and Communications for the National Hydrogen Association revealed that these and other H-powered vehicles can fill-up at 62 stations nationwide (25 in California, 'natch). Serfass also proudly pointed out that the hydrogen provided by these stations is produced entirely via renewable energy or natural gas, although he doesn't know what percentage comes from which source.

We aren't the only ones who question the viability of the Volt. U.S. News has jumped aboard the bandwagon, asking "What is the Chevy Volt, and Why is GM Advertising it During the Olympics?" Observing that GM is pushing the Volt as though it was readily available at your corner Chevy dealer, they state "The car won't reach showrooms until 2010, if it reaches them at all." They wonder about Chevy advertising director Kim Kosak's statement to Edmunds: "We wanted Volt to be an important punctuation to the spot. It's the first [ad] where we've brought [Volt] to the market this clearly." I have to wonder about that one too. After all, don't you have to have a viable product before you can bring it "to the market?" No, wait, that's right… GM's marketing the concept, not the vehicle. And apparantly they're doing a good job of it. Right after the commercial, the Volt jumped to the number eleven search on Google. "Now," as U.S. News notes, "all GM needs to do is actually build one."

Information Week reports that Cobasys can't make shipments of NiMh batteries to Daimler. The battery firm, a joint venture between Chevron and Energy Conversion Devices (ECD), lost $76m in 2007. The owners mixed like oil and water. Both "partners" are keen to foist the money-loser on someone else. Daimler's filing a lawsuit (or two) against Cobasys accusing Chevron, ECD and Cobasys of conspiring to keep the plan to bail a secret from Mercedes officials– so that the automaker wouldn't pull the battery deal. Daimler also alleges that Cobasys hadn't begun production on its $6m NiMh contract "in case new owners don't want the contract." And so… "Without a reliable source for this critical part, (we) will be unable to produce the hybrid vehicle in accordance with its scheduled launch date, and will likely be forced to either cancel the vehicle entirely, or delay the launch for an extended period in order to identify and develop a substitute battery, and to redesign other portions of the vehicle to accommodate it." Ouch. Meanwhile, we are still anxiously waiting to hear if rumors of a Cobasys sale to GM were correct or not. After this debacle, with GM's cash flow issues, we can only hope the answer is not.

Martin Eberhard now has driven 1000 miles on his Founders Series Tesla Roadster. Tesla's first CEO (now punted) took delivery of his lithium-ion-powered sports car two weeks back. (It's got orange stripes on grey, if you're in his neck of the woods and want to flag him down.) Eberhard estimates the Roadster's range at 125 miles on the "normal charge" settings, and 160 at "max range". "The 'normal charge' setting (accessed via the touch screen) limits charging the battery to something less than full. (I guess they go to 85 percent) and limits discharging to something above fully-depleted. The max range setting allows full use of the battery, though it warns you that doing this often will cause reduced battery life. It also reduces torque noticeably." And there you have it. He also notes that the rear suspension is harsh on sharp bumps, but that's to be expected from the Kim Kardashian version of the Lotus Elise.

For the red-blooded enthusiast, it's the ultimate nightmare: a car that just doesn't want to be driven hard. For the under-frugal and over-cited drivers of the world, Nissan's ECO Pedal could be the mechanical conscience they need to adjust to our eco-friendly, speed-kills society. "Each time the driver steps on the accelarator (sic)," flubs Nissan's press release, "a counter push-back control mechanism is activated if the system detects excess pressure, helping to inform the driver that they could be using more fuel than required." Required for what exactly? An electronically-determined "optimal acceleration" based on transmission efficiency and fuel consumption rates. You know, like how polite people and Buick owners drive. Nissan claims that with the killjoy-graft "drivers can improve fuel efficiency by 5-10 percent, depending on driving conditions." Sadly, the intrusion is not limited to the gas-pedal recalcitrance. An "eco-driving indicator" on the dash stays green if your driving style does (get it?), but flashes and turns amber "to advise the driver of their driving behavior." Or remind the driver that they are merging onto an interstate. Luckily, you will still be able to eke whatever id-fodder is available to Nissan drivers who would consider this option by switching the nagging thing off. Nissan will "commercialize" the system in 2009, but they don't say what models it 'll be on. If it's cheap and it can be turned all the way off when the less-better angels of our natures need to have their way, it could be worth a look… if you're into that kind of thing.

Car makers like to take the credit, but auto suppliers have invented much of contemporary car technology. So when the boss of Germany's Bosch (the world's biggest auto supplier) talks about the future of automotive technology, people listen. Here's what Bernd Bohr had to say to Auto, Motor und Sport . "For the year 2015, we expect a total world market of 80 million new cars, of which only about 2.5 to 3 million will be hybrids and 800,000 will be purely electric. So gasoline and diesel engines will continue to predominate. Actually, we calculate that the world market share of diesel cars will rise by another 5 percent, to reach 28 percent." How come? "Despite disproportionate price increases for diesel fuel, in places such as France the share of diesels has increased from 70 to 80 percent, because of a new CO2 tax. Diesels are 30 percent more efficient, too. There is a political dimension: the EU's ambitious plans to reduce CO2 emissions are only reachable if Europe stays at least 50 percent diesel." But the U.S. has shown that diesel is a no go, no? "This is mainly because of high prices for low-sulfur diesel fuel which is caused by low refinery capacities. This bottleneck should be gone around 2010. We expect a diesel market share for the U.S. of 15 percent by 2015". Are you betting the company on these predictions? "We plan to reduce our dependence on auto technology from currently 61 percent to 50 percent."

Turns out TTAC isn't alone with its Tesla Death Watch and Volt Birth Watch series: Toyota has its own going. EV World's (sub) Bill Moore got this and a few other juicy tidbits from a casual conversation with Toyota's "grumpy old man" Bill Reinert, National Manager of the Advanced Technology Group. Toyota has a Death Watch going on Fisker , Tesla, and…the Chevy Volt. Toyota doesn't think any of them will ever be built in large volumes, because their Li-Ion batteries are simply too expensive to be cost-effective. He also cited concerns over global supplies of lithium. Meanwhile, Toyota is hard at work on next-generation batteries , especially air battery chemistry, including zinc-air, as well as stepping up production of NiMH packs and starting Li-Ion factories. What's the line about not "having all your eggs in one basket"? Reinert also thinks it's unrealistic to expect owners of plug-in to only tap the mains at night. Utilities are going to have to step up capacity. And forget about all the 2010 Prius spy shots floating around the web, they're just cobbled-up mules based on the current Prius. Toyota is famous for keeping their final products under wraps (just one of the many differences with GM). And one more goodie from the grumpy Toyota brain trust: "liquid peak" (every conceivable liquid fuel from petroleum, coal and biofuel) arrives in 2018. That's when global demand will outstrip capacity to produce them all.

Much to GM Car Czar Bob Lutz' chagrin, hybrids are a bit more than the flash in the pan he predicted . A study from RCNOS titled "Global Hybrid Car Market Forecast to 2010" (reported by Research and Markets) predicts global hybrid sales will experience a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 12 percent in the next six to seven years. They also prognosticate that the hybrid battery market will grow by 10.4 percent between 2010 and 2015. From 2008 – 2012, the hybrid component market will increase at a CAGR of 17.4 percent. The U.S. is the top market for gas – electric vehicles. RCNS says American hybrid sales should crest the 1m mark by 2012. At the moment, there are only a few major (i.e. remotely credible) players in the hybrid game. But with the Koreans and the Chinese busily developing their own hybrids, the playing field could become crowded in a hurry. And since competition drives prices down, the consumer will be the overall winner. Not to mention air quality and CO2 emissions. 

BMW's Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) is an F1 innovation: a regenerative braking system which generates electricity to boost power. And while it helps F1 look green and well-behaved, the technology's run into a few… issues. Like when the Red Bull team had to vacate its headquarters due to a fire scare. Or when a BMW-Sauber team technician got zapped by the system in the video above. But crazy innovators that they are, BMW hasn't been scared off from KERS by mere video footage of its mechanic being lifted off the ground by a few thousand volts. Auto Motor und Sport reports that BMW is looking into developing hybrid options for its M-line. Since standard parallel hybrid systems don't offer much performance boost, Bee-Em are looking at using KERS on road-going models. After all, KERS gives F1 cars a .2 to .3 second per lap advantage. Wow! Of course the fact that KERS is five times lighter and smaller than any comparable road car's hybrid elements means expense will be high (as it always is for those precious extra tenths of a second). Accordingly, BMW isn't announcing when KERS will arrive for M-line vehicles. Shocking! (Video Hat Tip to Jalopnik)

There is no question that China's leaders want the Olympics to showcase/enhance The People's Republic's international prestige and power, in that 1936 Berlin kinda way. There's also no question that Beijing's air quality sucks, Big Style. To rectify that politically intolerable situation, The Powers That Be have relocated the city's major polluter (Oy! Beijing Shougang Group! Take your steel plant and piss off!). They've also banned half the city's 3.3m vehicles. Nope. Not good enough. Mother nature is not cooperating, with high humidity, light winds and high temps. As xinhuanet.com reports, China's ready to do whatever it takes to let Olympic athletes gulp great quantities of healthy O2. "A more radical measure would be to allow only vehicles on which had the last number of the license plate matched the last number of the day of the month, effectively banning 90 percent of privately owned cars." Eurozone ministers must be green with envy! Unfortunately… "I cannot ensure whether the government will take these measures," Professor Zhu Tong, air quality adviser to the Beijing Olympics reports, sadly. "Even if the measures are strengthened, the enforcement will last only three or four days." Oh. That's alright then.

When it comes to government-mandated corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) regs, I'm with GM Car Czar Bob Lutz. It's like forcing a clothing maker to sell smaller shirts to get people to lose weight. If you want to reduce obesity, just raise the price of food. [My add; even MB knows you can't threaten to starve people for their own good.] In any case, no matter what MB and his employer's representatives say, they have a consistent record of gaming the system. Flex-fuel credits anyone? The U.S. "light truck" CAFE exemption is/was The Mother of All Loopholes. (Who says there's no such thing as karma?) And now GM's playing the angles in Europe. The Times reports that UK PM Gordon Brown's entourage arrived at the London Auto show in some Indian sedans and SUVs and dangled £90m of UK taxpayer money for electric automobile development. Over five years. Available to someone. Depending on something. To which GM Europe Prez Carl-Peter Forster responded fuck that shit [paraphrasing]. GM's wants a national sponsor for a "super credit" scheme that would allow ultra-low carbon-dioxide vehicles (below 50g/km) to offset larger and more polluting models. "If Britain was prepared to champion this idea within the EU, GM would consider making its electric vehicles at the Ellesmere Port plant on Merseyside." Sweet.

Tata's Nano will officially become the world's cheapest car when it hits the Indian market this October. Sure, Tata blew its 1 Lakh ($2,500) price target, thanks to rising steel costs, but demand is still expected to exceed supply. Or so says Tata Chairman Ratan Tata [via Automotive News, sub]. Judging by the number of variants said to be in development, Tata's putting his money where his mouth is. A diesel version is on the way, and electric or compressed-air models could be next. And adding eco-friendly drivetrains can only help if the Nano actually attempts a launch in Europe in four years, as is rumored. After all, as an EV the Nano's weaknesses (made of cardboard, rolls in crosswinds) are actually strengths (light, cheap). And at the price point, it's more than competitive with the Zap Xebras of the world (pending a convincing road test). This may be why Automotive News Europe (sub) reports that Fiat is considering selling the Nano. "We have held talks about the Nano being marketed in markets where Fiat has already a strong presence," says Ratan Tata. "I am open to consider a partnership." Which means we'll all be able to buy the Tata Nano with a Fiat badge at a MINI store in, say, 2010?

Environmentally friendliness is the flavor of day in the world of marketing. But let's face it: eco-friendly claims usually begin and end with mileage and CO2 emissions. But what about the environment you occupy when you're driving your car? The Ecology Center has released its Healthy Car Report, which monitors toxic chemical levels in car interiors. Using a portable X-Ray fluorescence device, the Ecology Center tests 11 interior components on a range of new cars for toxic chemicals like Antimony, Arsenic, Bromine, Chlorine, Chromium, Cobalt, Copper, Lead, Mercury, Nickel and Tin. Some of the worst offenders? Mitsubishi's Eclipse and the Suzuki Reno, which have more Bromine than the salt marshes of Montpellier. The Kia Spectra has a particularly high lead count. And the Nissan Versa scores a worst-possible 5.0 overall thanks to a smorgasbord of toxic interior materials. For a complete look at the best and worst cars by class, check out the report's vehicles of most and least concern. Or, for an overview on the report, check out the Ecology Center's mildly sensationalistic video "Toxic At Any Speed." And enjoy that new car smell!

Anyone who can't guess where The Gray Lady stands on any given issue simply isn't paying attention. But today's New York Times Op Ed– The Oil Man Cometh– is harder to follow than Eugene O'Neill's seminal work. First, predictably enough, scribe Timothy Egan salutes T. Boone Pickens' anti-drilling, anti-Bush/McCain stance. "The 80-year-old T. Boone Pickens says, in a $58 million campaign, is that we can’t drill our way to lower gas prices. By implication, anybody who tells you otherwise — including the fellow Texan he helped put in the White House — is a fraud." And then, Egan rips Pickens a new asshole. "But before T. Boone poses for his statue, he has to answer to his past. Pickens was the moneybags, to the tune of $3 million, behind the Swift Boat attacks that made Senator Kerry’s honorable service in Vietnam sound like Rambo tangled up in lies." And then, he loves him. "No doubt, the Pickens plan makes sense." And then he loves him not. Or something. "Winning the argument may depend on who has the bigger megaphone. Advantage Pickens. Which means advantage Obama. Unless, of course, McCain wants to Swift Boat him, and then he knows who to turn to." Oy.