Gas 2.0 |
- Mahindra’s Diesel Pickup’s MPG Only 19/21
- Nissan ESFLOW is the RWD Leaf Sports Car We Need
- White House Announces Another $53 Billion for High Speed Rail
| Mahindra’s Diesel Pickup’s MPG Only 19/21 Posted: 09 Feb 2011 04:17 PM PST
The Big Three has all but abandoned the small truck market to Toyota and Nissan, leaving little Mahindra a chance to differentiate itself from the competition with a four-cylinder diesel engine that was supposed to get up to 30 mpg on the highway. That would put it far above any of the competition, while still offering a 5,000 pound towing capacity and about 2,700 pounds of hauling from a small four-cylinder engine. That was the promise at least. Unfortunately, the Mahindra rollout has been delayed time and time again, with protracted litigation between Mahindra and Global Vehicles, which was supposed to distribute the little pickup to over 300 franchises across the country. That obviously hasn't happened yet, and while a set sale date is nowhere in sight for the TR40, the EPA has managed to rate the Indian pickup at an unimpressive 19 city and 21 highway in crew cab configuration with 4×4. Let's not be too quick to judge though, because the crew cab/4×4 configuration is undoubtedly the heaviest, least fuel efficient of any of the models. Would a fleet operator making local deliveries need a crew cab or 4×4? Probably not. So I still have hopes that this little diesel truck can deliver decent gas mileage, but even I have to admit, this is a bit of a downer. Is it so much to ask for a high mileage diesel pickup? Source: Autoblog Chris DeMorro is a writer and gearhead who loves all things automotive, from hybrids to HEMI’s. You can follow his slow descent into madness at Sublime Burnout.
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| Nissan ESFLOW is the RWD Leaf Sports Car We Need Posted: 09 Feb 2011 01:23 PM PST
Nissan plans to unveil this sporty electric vehicle at the Geneva Auto Show next month, which ditches the Versa-sourced body of the current Leaf for something new and unique. The sporty two-seater features the same powertrain as the Leaf, but with just two seats and a lot less sheet metal and in all likelihood a lot less weight. Why? Well Nissan says that this concept gets about 150 miles to a charge, 50% better range than a Leaf in "ideal" conditions. And if that doesn't tittilate you, how about a 0-60 time of under five seconds? That's equivalent to a car with 400 horsepower, but with zero emissions, no gas…and a distinct lack of engine rumble. I guess that's the one pitfall of electric performance cars, no mean growl, but it wouldn't stop me from buying a rear-wheel drive electric car. I think this thing looks hot, and it's got all the right numbers to keep me interested. It sort of looks like a smaller 370Z, and I can totally dig that. Would you buy this bad boy if Nissan built it? Source: Nissan    Chris DeMorro is a writer and gearhead who loves all things automotive, from hybrids to HEMI’s. You can follow his slow descent into madness at Sublime Burnout.
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| White House Announces Another $53 Billion for High Speed Rail Posted: 09 Feb 2011 07:24 AM PST
The goal is to make high speed rail accessible to most of America within a generation. That's a laudable-yet-lofty goal considering the high costs and anti-train attitude of many older people, whose parents ironically relied on trains as their principal form of transportation. It's about damn time the government sank some serious money into high speed rail though, as to date just $13 billion has been spread out among at least a half-dozen different HSR projects. That's hardly enough money to even start one project (the California HSR project is estimated to cost $40-50 billion alone.) However, $53 billion over the next five years is a serious chunk of change and should go a long way towards obtaining Obama's goals. The money aims to improve or create three kinds of high speed rail corridor:
It's an ambitious plan to be sure, but it will create millions of jobs and give commuters an option other than traffic jams for getting to work. If Obama wants to get reelected though, he's going to have to get these projects going sooner rather than later and convince elder Americans that trains are the future…again. Source: The White House Chris DeMorro is a writer and gearhead who loves all things automotive, from hybrids to HEMI’s. You can follow his slow descent into madness at Sublime Burnout.
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