The V6 wars may show no signs of stopping. However, Ford is quietly making contingency plans for a future conflict: The war of the four-bangers. Start hoarding your big bore brutes and head for the hills. Ford may want to take them away.
Ford will use the upcoming SAE World Congress, to be held from April 13-15 in Detroit, to showcase its engine-building prowess. Ford will demonstrate to the world’s most eminent confab of piston-heads that there is a replacement for displacement. Read More >
Chinese automaker SAIC has concluded its deal to assume control over its joint venture with GM [via the WSJ [sub]], and to keep its momentum going, it will be releasing its first hybrid vehicle this year. Reuters reports that the Roewe 750 Hybrid will be released this year, making SAIC the second Chinese firm to offer a hybrid drivetrain after BYD. SAIC may even deliver … Read More >
Nearly everything ever written about BYD in the Western press has focused on the Chinese automaker’s hybrid or electric drivetrains, or the firms and investors who have bought into their future promise. It’s an understandable state of affairs: after all, the firm started life as a cell phone battery maker, providing OEM cells for firms like Nokia. Meanwhile, BYD sold nearly a half-million cars in China last year, all gas powered, doubling both sales and profit over 2008 levels. And with plans for a pure EV now on hold, BYD is going back to basics, readying a range of new, allegedly more upscale, gas-powered cars for the Beijing Auto Show later this month. Read More >
If Automotive News’ [sub] dealer sources have heard right, then Daimler might sacrifice their S-Class on the altar of the almighty EPA and its newly announced CAFE standards. Read More >
Ever dozed off at the wheel? Buy an upcoming Mitsubishi plug-in hybrid, and you’ll get a not quite rude, but nonetheless resolute awakening. Read More >
After nearly 20 years of racing abstinence – his hast race was 1991 in Hockenheim – the legendary rally world champion Walter Röhrl is back on the circuit. At the ripe age of 62, he is part of the Porsche team that races the VLN cup at the Nürburgring. In a Porsche 911 GT3 RS. The high point of the VLN Cup will be the 24 Hours Nürburgring, the very same that Akio Toyoda regretfully decided to avoid this year due to unfortunate circumstances back home. Read More >
The NY Auto Show? Let’s talk about what is not there: The star of the Geneva Auto Show, the gas-electric hybrid Porsche 918 Spyder Concept. It is not there because it’s, as Motortrend reports, “en route to the Beijing Auto Show.” Read More >
Hyundai’s just-unveiled Sonata Hybrid is the latest step in the Korean brand’s assault on the American automotive landscape, and it looks to have been a good one. No licensed bits from Toyota here, in fact Hyundai’s new powertrain does away with Toyota’s powersplit-CVT concept, simply replacing the torque converter on its automatic transmission with a starter-generator motor and a high-efficiency oil pump. Ok, maybe not simply.
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Suzuki is saying sayonara to plans of hybrid and V6 equipped versions of their new Kizashi sedan. It’s not that they are against those mills. They just don’t like the company that makes them. That company is GM. Read More >
There is a new Japanese bride on the Match.com equivalent of the international auto business. It’s Mazda. Despite pronouncements that Mazda’s “strategic alliance with Ford will remain unshaken” (as uttered at a Monday press conference by Mazda Executive VP Masaharu Yamaki,) everybody who knows the business knows: The bloom is off the rose between Mazda and Ford. What’s more, Mazda is on the prowl to do some nampa with another potent partner. Who will it be? Read More >
Ford already sells a Ford Fusion Hybrid and a Mercury Milan Hybrid, but according to the Detroit News, a Lincoln MKZ Hybrid is en route as well, giving Ford a hybrid model for each of its three brands. Too bad they’re all the same model. As Jim Hall of 2953 Analytics points out: Read More >
Despite their huge drive to wring every last drop of mileage out of the ICU, with new direct injection engines and idling stop function for all cars, Mazda will not stand around idle while the rest of the world is hyper to jump on the hybrid bandwagon. In 2013, Mazda wants to introduce a midsize hybrid. And out of what hat did they pull that Flemish Giant of a rabbit? As predicted by our resident sage Cammy Corrigan, the essential gadgetry comes courtesy of Toyota. Read More >
Honda is perplexed and overwhelmed by the demand for their just launched CR-Z small sports hybrid car, says The Nikkei [sub]. Honda had planned for 1000 a month, which turned out to be a big mistake. After one month, they already have more than 10,000 orders, and a hard time filling them. They’ve sold in one month what they wanted to sell in a year, more or less, and the orders keep pouring in. Read More >
In the leadup to its bailouts and bankruptcy, Chrysler seemed to have suddenly gotten religion about zero-emissions technology, parading around several ENVI electric vehicle prototypes. By the time Fiat had cleared the cobwebs from new product development in Auburn Hills, the EV vaporware had faded into nothingness. With the need to impress politicians ostensibly in Chrysler’s past, the ENVI program was rolled into Chrysler’s normal product development process, and we no longer had to choke back laughter at the idea that Chrysler would replace its unloved Sebring with the pure-electric 200C concept. Chrysler’s embarrassing Two-Mode hybrids were also hidden from view, with only a vague indication that a hybrid Ram might someday become available. When we talked to Ram CEO Fred Diaz at last November’s Five Year Plan announcement, he said that a hybrid Ram was still being considered. Now, egmcartech reports that the Ram hybrid is dead from a commercial standpoint, and that the program will turn into a plug-in hybrid test fleet for Chrysler’s best partner: The Department of Energy, which gave the form $48m to develop a fleet of 140 plug-in Rams. But don’t worry consumers, there’s an alt-energy Chrysler in your future… sort of.
“Leading San Francisco product liability attorney, Mary Alexander states if you or a loved one has been injured or killed due to stuck accelerator pedals, break issues, or steering problems prompted by a defective Toyota vehicle, you may have a product liability claim that would entitle you to compensation for your injuries and damages.”
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