Don’t worry my fellow Americans, your supercharged Elises and Exiges are safe. In Europe, however, the introduction of the new 1.6 liter Elise means the old 1.8 supercharged cars are on their way out, victims of the new Euro 5 standard.

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You can test drive a CR-Z for yourself starting on August 24, and goodness knows we’ll be lining up for a crack at it. Early reviews from Europe confirm the impression left by the stat sheet: the CR-Z is neither the re-birth of the CRX, nor the re-birth of the Mk1 Insight. And starting at $19,200, it’s not exactly cheap either [press release here]. Yes, it offers AM/FM/CD/USB audio system with six speakers, automatic climate control, power windows and door locks, remote entry, and cruise control at that base price, and quite a bit more in the $20,760 CR-Z EX, but is there a market in the US for a hybrid that’s smaller than a Prius but less efficient? And didn’t the Mk2 Insight already answer that question? We’ll wait to put the CR-Z through its paces before we pass (further) judgment, but this has the look of a Fiero-style “commuter car” rather than a legitimate sports coupe.

While GM has problems trying to get the Volt price point to a point where customers won’t suffer a coronary (even with help from the DC sugar daddies), Nissan has a few problems of their own. Nissan is still reeling from the news that a Nissan Leaf would save you the princely sum of $361. Now, Automotive News [sub] reports another black eye on Nissan’s “Prius Killer”. Automotive News says that Nissan’s “100 miles range” may be slightly off in real world conditions. How far off? Read More >

Possibly not, says the National Federation For the Blind. According to the NYT the group is

disappointed that the [Nissan Leaf’s] driver is permitted to turn off the sound because it in effect, allows drivers to deactivate this important safety feature and thereby endanger pedestrians, especially those who are blind.

Interestingly, Tesla’s IPO presentation opens with a customer describing the contrast between Corvettes “making all that noise” and Teslas which allow the driver to “hear the birds and the ocean.” With the Motor Vehicle Safety Act likely to mandate NHTSA rules on EV safety noises, expect that marketing angle to go the way of the PeaPod…

People really viewed the Peapod as an incredible case study in how you could – in modern times – bring forward a completely new idea in the automotive sector in the space of just several months. It was pretty phenomenal

Remember the PeaPod? It was “the new wave car for the younger set” masterminded by former Chrysler “Chief Innovation Officer” Peter Arnell, during the chaotic “try anything” years of Cerberus ownership. It was supposed to start going on sale last October, but the division (formerly known as GEM) was spun out of new Chrysler during bankruptcy and hasn’t been heard from since. Surprised?

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Japan’s boutique car builder Mitsuoka may be more known for the retro-classic cars depicted above – if Mitsuoka is known at all beyond the realm of Nippon. Now, the folks at Toyama’s most famous car manufacturer can’t help themselves any longer, and must join Japan’s current fad … Read More >

Now here is the perfect place for  electric vehicles: Hong Kong. Range anxiety? Not here.  Hong Kong is a city where no trip is more than 20 miles or so one way. Driving into the hinterlands is blocked by a border and by the necessity for secondary mainland Chinese license plates. Registration taxes on cars are high, they vary from 35% to over 100%, based on the size and value of the car.  Gasoline prices are high, about half of the price is tax. Fertile grounds for EVs. Read More >

So, Nissan has released video of its production Leaf making “forward” (above) and “backward” noises, but it seems that there may still be some details to work out. For one thing, the Leaf’s official battery range stretches from 138 miles to 47 miles, according to gm-volt.com. Your mileage may vary, etcetera. But wait, there’s more! One blogger recently tried to insure a Leaf… actually, he tried to get an insurance quote for a Leaf. Can you tell where this is going?
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When Toyota announced their share purchase / NUMMI deal with Tesla, the greenies rejoiced, the skeptics said it’s just an elegant way to unload NUMMI. Toyota said they are mildly interested in Tesla, in a venture capital kind of way. As in: here is some money and a factory we no longer need. Would be great if something comes of it. Well, they will actually build a car together. Not the Model S as many thought. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s build a prototype first. Read More >

Slate‘s Robert Bryce reckons so. With ethanol producers and blenders bouncing off the ethanol “blend wall” and into bankruptcy court, Bryce figures

Now the industry is counting on a president beleaguered by the made-for-TV crisis in the Gulf of Mexico to help it out. And he appears ready to do just that. On April 28, six days after the Deepwater Horizon rig sank, President Obama visited an ethanol plant in Missouri and declared that “there shouldn’t be any doubt that renewable, homegrown fuels are a key part of our strategy for a clean-energy future.” Obama also said, “I didn’t just discover the merits of biofuels like ethanol when I first hopped on the campaign bus.”

The strongest indication that an ethanol bailout is imminent came last Friday when Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack (former governor of Iowa, the nation’s biggest ethanol-producing state) said, “I’m very confident that we’re going to see an increase in the blend rate.”

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The remote Goto Islands in the East China Sea, about 60 miles west off the port city of Nagasaki are turning into the world’s laboratory for massive EV deployment. The islands used to be known for heir unspoiled nature and their old churches. Soon, they’ll be know as the island of EVs. That because of a large-scale pilot project that began on the islands in April. Read More >

2000 Honda Insight 5MT CVT (49/61/53)

2010 Toyota Prius (51/48/50)

1986 Chevrolet Sprint ER 5MT (44/53/48)

1990-1994 Geo Metro XFI 5MT (43/52/47)

1986-87 Honda Civic Coupe HF 5MT (42/51/46)

1994-95 Honda Civic Hatchback VX 5MT (39/50/43)

2006-2010 Honda Civic Hybrid CVT (40/45/42)

2010 Honda Insight CVT (40/43/41)

2001-2003 Toyota Prius CVT (42/41/40)

1989 Chevrolet Sprint/Suzuki Swift 5MT (38/45/41)

Keep in mind that this list [via our pals at Autosavant] is for EPA ratings, adjusted to the new post-2008 methodology (city/hwy/combined). Luckily, the EPA also accepts real-world mileage submissions from citizen-motorists to help illustrate the whole “your mileage may vary” thing. That list is after the jump.

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The National Academy of Science’s National Research Council has released a comprehensive report on fuel-saving technologies and their associated costs [full report available online here, summary in PDF format here], and it’s data-licious. Just about every currently-available (within the next five years) efficiency-improving technology was assessed, not just for efficiency gains, but for cost as well… but let’s wait on the cost part for just one moment. Above, you can see the study’s findings in regard to efficiency gain available through various near-term technologies, as applied to vehicles with 4, 6 and 8-cylinder engines. It should come as no surprise to find that conversion to Hybrids, diesels and dual-clutch or continuously-variable transmissions offer some of the greatest benefits… but what about those costs?

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Remember that the Google seismometer registered tectonic movements at Nissan’s future plug-in, the Leaf? In Japan, it rocks. Nissan planned to make 6,000 of them in the Fiscal year ending on March 31, 2011. On April 1, they started taking pre-orders. Yesterday, Nissan had received advance orders for 6,000 units, says The Nikkei [sub]. Sales target met, long before the car will go on sale in December. Read More >

Got a nice empty property in an industrial park in Germany? Centrally located, close to a major airport like Frankfurt, or Munich would be a plus? Then we know some Chinese you may want to talk to. They are in Shenzhen and work for BYD. BYD is coming to Europe. And they want to put their European HQ right into the German hornet’s nest. Read More >