New posts from Gas 2.0! |
- Ford Exec Says Diesels Don’t Make Sense for America
- Pininfarina to Build 4000 Tiny Electric Cars
- 2 Steps Forward, 2 Steps Back: 2012 Ford F-650
- The Twizy to be the World’s Cheapest Electric Car
| Ford Exec Says Diesels Don’t Make Sense for America Posted: 15 Mar 2011 01:00 PM PDT
Derrick Kuzak, Ford's VP of global product development, told a group of European auto journalists and Automotive News that Ford could "easily" bring diesel powertrains to America, before adding that he thinks American customers "are pragmatic." What does that mean? Well, after I tried (and failed) to get a Ford representative to sign my petition to bring the diesel-powered global Ranger to America, I was told it was because retooling an engine factory to build oil burners would run upwards of $400 million. That is quite an investment, which would mean that a diesel engine option would add a hefty price premium to the final cost of the car. Add to that the higher-than-gas prices of diesel, and Kuzak says it would take around 10 years for diesel customers to see any return on their more-efficient engines. And I hate to say it (because I really, really, really want a small, efficient diesel pickup) but that argument makes a lot of sense. Instead of premium diesel engines, Ford is focusing on fuel-efficient EcoBoost engines for American customers, which still carry a price premium, but less than diesel engines (on the F-150, the EcoBoost V6 only costs $1,500 more than the 5.0 liter V8 engine.) Ford thinks it can squeeze diesel efficiency out of gasoline engines, and that strategy could pay big dividends as Americans seem unlikely to embrace diesels any time soon. Not that I am complaining about Ford's turbocharged future…I was just really hoping to experience European-like levels of diesel burning efficiency in an American car for once. At least I can still hope for a diesel-powered Cruze or an oil-burning Jeep. Source: Automotive News Chris DeMorro is a writer and gearhead who loves all things automotive, from hybrids to HEMIs. You can read about his slow descent into madness at Sublime Burnout or follow his non-nonsensical ramblings on Twitter @harshcougar.
      |
| Pininfarina to Build 4000 Tiny Electric Cars Posted: 15 Mar 2011 10:00 AM PDT This is the Pininfarina B0 electric city car … and 4000 (four-thousand) of these slick little Smart-slayers will be hitting the roads of Paris as early as 2013. 4000 is quite a number (especially in the green car universe), but this isn’t some commonplace vaporware project – although Pininfarina is most famous for designing some of the most achingly beautiful automotive forms of the past 50 years, the company is no stranger to limited automotive production. Indeed, the small Italian firm manufactured 21,000 examples the Cadillac Allante for GM throughout the 1990s, and continues to offer such services to manufacturers around the world. It was, then, only a matter of time before the design firm decided to finally “pull the trigger” on its own car … which is exactly what you see here. The B0 (that’s a “zero”, by the way, not an “o” … it’s not the “bee-oh”) is destined to be the vehicle of choice for Autolib, a car sharing/rental initiative that will offer the electric cars throughout Paris. The B0 itself will be manufactured as a joint-venture project between Pininfarina and Bollore (a company that specializes in “batteries and supercapacitors”), and will be powered by a unique 300 kg lithium-metal-polymer battery that makes use of quick-charging and a scaled-down version of KERS to boost off-the-line performance and push the B0′s operating range to just over 150 miles. No word, yet, as to whether or not you’ll be allowed to buy one of these little cuties for yourself. Source: Motorpasion.
    |
| 2 Steps Forward, 2 Steps Back: 2012 Ford F-650 Posted: 15 Mar 2011 09:00 AM PDT Last week, Ford announced that it would be resurrecting the discontinued 6.8L V10 gasoline engine for service in the 2012 F-650 commercial truck … a move which, to me, seems baffling. Keep in mind, we’re not talking about consumer vehicles here. Instead, we’re talking about medium-duty trucks and chassis cabs (class 4-7) in general, which aren’t subject to the usual emissions and CAFE standards we tend to think about when we think about vehicle regulations – and that’s precisely where the disconnect is. On the one hand Ford has straight-up earned a lot of love in recent months by building class-leading new cars and trucks that are objectively better than the competition (see: Ford 3, Chevy 0) and pulling off PR miracles by convincing the general public that the company didn’t take any “bailout” money from Uncle Sam and is “pulling its own” introducing new, green models by the ton. On the other hand you have, well – the new-for-2012 gasoline-powered F-650 truck. Ford is betting that the new truck will find an audience at a price-point that’s some $8,000 less than a comparably-equipped diesel F-650. Offsetting that price advantage, though, is the truck’s fuel economy, as many large diesel engines are up to 30% more efficient than comparable gas engines, but at a price premium for both the engine, and the fuel. With gas at $4 and climbing, that projected $8,000 price advantage is sure to disappear pretty quickly – and don’t expect government-subsidized E85 to come to the rescue, either: Ford builds plenty of flex-fuel vehicles, but the big V10 isn’t one of them. To be fair, Ford has promised that a CNG version of the V10 is coming, and claims that its all-new six-speed 6R140 automatic transmissionwill allow the V10 to get within 10% of the diesel F-650′s fuel economy. Keeping that fairness going, though, it should be mentioned that a CNG conversion will wipe out any initial cost advantage the gas engine has over the diesels (and return even fewer mpg). Even a relatively simple E85 conversion (which doesn’t require a new, high-pressure fuel tank to be installed) won’t be less expensive than opting for the diesel F-650 and running bio-diesel. Maybe I’m being overly cynical here, though, since the 6.8L V10 is being marketed as “CNG capable” on Ford’s website. Maybe this isn’t a truck-sized loophole in CARB and the truck really does represent Ford’s first, well-intentioned baby-steps into an ultra-low-emission, CNG-powered future … … either way, expect to see “with prices starting at just -” start to feature prominently on Ford’s fleet marketing materials by 3rd Quarter 2011. The score, in case you’re wondering, is:
Source: PickupTrucks.com
    |
| The Twizy to be the World’s Cheapest Electric Car Posted: 15 Mar 2011 05:00 AM PDT
That’s about the price of many electric motorcycles coming to market, but a little less lethal thanks to four wheels and a golf kart-like body. The Renault Twizy is being designed for drivers to be able to travel about cities as economically and environmentally friendly as possible. With its tiny frame I don't think owners will have to worry about high electricity bills. Renault states that the vehicle will appeal to "busy, car-owning city dwellers looking for a second vehicle, as well as to younger drivers interested in a safe way to gain experience in traffic thanks to the availability of a version that will not require a driver's license (depending on country)." A version of a vehicle that does not require a license…sounds more like a scooter than a car. You get what you pay for, and in this case, you’re just not getting a whole lot. The Twizy measures to be a little over 7.5 feet in length by four foot wide and is just less than five feet tall. It weighs 922 pounds and has a 5 horsepower motor and a 7 kilowatt-hour battery that owners lease on a monthly plan for around $62 dollars, which is why the car is priced so low. This size Twizy is designed for those without a license, but a larger Twizy with a 20 horsepower motor is available for those licensed drivers who want more power and wish to travel quicker, and it should have a range somewhere around 60 miles at city speeds. It’s interesting to note that Renault really seems to be targeting mass, affordable EV’s. The Zoe EV will also have a battery lease (though close to $100 a month) which drops the price of the compact French EV by more than $10,000 compared to its cousin, the Nissan Leaf. It looks promising for European countries, however, there are no current plans to bring it to the US, and why would there be? How could anyone feel safe in a car of that size, on a U.S. roads where huge SUV's and trucks dominate traffic? It may be a good move for Europeans, but for now US consumers should consider other options – and if cheap is what they are looking for, then perhaps they should take a look at compact car instead. At least those have trunks! Sources: Inhabitat
    |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Gas 2.0 To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment