Filed under: AutoblogGreen Exclusive, Legislation and Policy

We're from the government and we're here to help. Those words strike fear into the hearts of conservatives anywhere. Right now those words probably should be terrorizing those hoping for a loan deal for the Detroit automakers as well. Before and after Congress declined to provide quick passage to loan package until the carmakers put a forward a plan, many people wanted to attach strings to the deal requiring the three companies to transform their fleets with a green lineup.

To a large extent this was already in process before the situation turned into a full blown crisis this fall. Product plans at Ford and General Motors (nobody really knows what's happening at Chrysler) had already been completely revamped over the last 18 months as the price of fuel skyrocketed. Most of the future "gas guzzlers" had been canceled or put on hold while more efficient cars were fast tracked. The programs that were moving forward were meant to be both greener and profitable. All of this was being driven by the market, specifically high gas prices, not CAFE. So, what's a good proposal for Congress to implement? My thoughts are after the jump.

[Source: Detroit News]

Continue reading Congressional plan for green Detroit could be financially fatal

Congressional plan for green Detroit could be financially fatal originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Sun, 30 Nov 2008 15:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Etc., NEV (Neighborhood Electric Vehicle)

The U.S. military, like so many other giant organizations, is making the case for going green. From hybrid tanks to bio-fuel jet fuel, reducing fuel is becoming more and more important. The latest move is towards more electric cars, thousands of little NEVs to use on bases around the world. According to the Army Times, the Army, Navy and Air Force are looking into the battery-powered vehicles, with the first deployment coming to Fort Belvoir in Virginia in the middle of December. Some of the NEVs will come from E-Z-Go, the golf cart maker, which is a subsidiary of defense giant Textron. The military said that the $400 in annual electricity costs was a big improvement over $2,400 in gas costs that the average gas-powered vehicle uses. All told, the 4,000 EVs the military plans to use will save 11.5 million gallons of fuel a year. The new military slogan for the endeavor? "Army Green, Army Strong."

[Source: Army Times]

U.S. mililtary looking for a few good EVs originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Sun, 30 Nov 2008 13:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Green Culture, Hybrid, GM, GMC, Green Daily, USA

General Motors is the Official Vehicle Supplier for the Macy Thanksgiving Day Parade. There, now you've learned your requisite something new for the day. This year, The General decided to trot out hybrid versions of the full-size GMC Yukon to pull various parade floats and giant balloon-things. Oddly, GM did absolutely nothing to advertise the fact that it would be having the hybrid 'utes take place in the event, leaving various other media outlets to find out about it themselves. No matter. Find out they have, and now that the event is over, the news has hit the wires.

We are also left wondering if Macys did any promotion of the event, considering that the large clothing retailer has recently begun touting its own green efforts. If it did, we must have missed it. Whatever the case, slow city running is the perfect place to use a hybrid vehicle such as this. GM's full-size hybrids are fully capable of towing large loads, and something had to pull the huge number of parade floats for the 82nd installation of the classic Manhattan parade, right? May as well be a hybrid.

[Source: Star-Telegram]

GMC Yukon hybrid featured in Macy Parade originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Sun, 30 Nov 2008 10:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I'm willing to bet that immediately after Thanksgiving, Google sees the number of searches for "leftover turkey" skyrocket. A comparable search for vegetarians would have to be "leftover pumpkin," though having half or two-thirds a can of leftover pumpkin after the holidays is certainly not a strictly vegetarian problem. Many recipes call for just a half or a whole cup of pureed pumpkin, but the

Filed under: Manufacturing/Plants, Chrysler, Nissan, South/Latin America

As we told you last January, Nissan is going to build a small Versa-based car for Chrysler. We now find news that production is set to start in early 2009 at Nissan's Aguascalientes assembly plant in central Mexico, the same plant where all the North American Versas are built. However, this Nissan/Chrsler model will only be sold in Brazil, where it'll be called the Dodge Trazo. Another Nissan plant in Mexico, in Cuernavaca, produces the Versas that are exported to other countries, including Europe (where they get a great 1.5-liter 105 hp diesel engine by Renault). Both companies announced back in April that Nissan would manufacture a new fuel-efficient small car, designed by Chrysler, at Nissan's Oppama plant in Japan. This model is targeted for both North America and Europe.

[Source: Automotive News (subs. req'd)]

Nissan selects plant for building subcompact Chryslers originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Sun, 30 Nov 2008 08:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Green Culture, Chrysler, Ford, GM, Legislation and Policy, Green Daily, USA

The plan to drive a slew of Detroit's best new cars from the Motor City to Washington, DC is over before it even got started. Amazingly, there was just too much support for the idea, which led to a complete lack of control over the event and leading to its cancellation. It's just as well, really. While it would have been an awesome display of support for the ailing Detroit 3, the notion of packing Washington's already busy streets with a few hundred more vehicles, not to mention their occupants, would have been a complete nightmare. Even worse, the plan was to show how fuel efficient vehicles from America can be, but the proposal would have equaled the burning of hundreds of gallons of gasoline, which doesn't exactly strike us as particularly green.

The event's organizers, made up of suppliers, dealerships and Union officials, have instead started a new website called TheEngineOfDemocracy.com. At the site, individuals will be able to show their support for Detroit's automakers in a peaceful and hopefully meaningful way. One delegate from each of the 50 states plus one from DC will make the trek to show their support in person.

[Source: The Detroit News]

Motown to Washington caravan a bust originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Sat, 29 Nov 2008 19:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, Ford, LA Auto Show

Following the reveal of the Ford Fusion Hybrid at the Los Angeles Auto show last week, Ford's director of sustainable mobility technology Nancy Gioia spoke with Green Fuels Forecast about a number of topics. Top of the list, of course, was the new hybrid sedan and the fact that Ford has decided not to make its hybrids more visually distinct from conventional cars. The Fusion is just the latest of Ford's hybrid programs, but the most advanced is the plug-in hybrid Escape that Ford is testing with Southern California Edison. That program is apparently going very well and in fact Ford will be announcing soon that several more electric utilities are joining the test program. So far the Escape PHEV is averaging 120 mpg running in charge-depleting mode and 70 mpg overall. Gioia also discussed battery exchange programs. She told GFF that while battery technology is still changing so quickly, such systems may not prove to be technically viable. Check out all of what Gioia had to say at Green Fuels Forecast.


[Source: Green Fuels Forecast]

Nancy Gioia discusses hybrids, plug-ins and battery leases originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Sat, 29 Nov 2008 17:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Emerging Technologies, Chevrolet, Tesla Motors, On Two Wheels

Time Magazine has released its annual list of the Top 50 Inventions of the Year, and the 2008 edition features a good deal of green automotive technology. In fact, the Tesla Roadster has managed to snag the second spot on the list, with the Chevy Volt nabbing slot 7. Of course, you can't actually go out and buy yourself a Chevy Volt quite yet, so while we agree it is a praiseworthy invention, perhaps it should really be on next year's list.

Number 11 on Time's list is a biofuel currently being developed by researchers at Arizona State University that uses algae for its base. Smog-eating cement shows up at number 37 and an innovative enclosed two-wheeled vehicle called the Peraves MonoTracer grabs slot 41. That's pretty cool, and its BMW motorcycle engine will offer plenty of performance along with relatively high fuel efficiency. The last vehicle of interest to us greenies is the Aptera, which props up the end at number 46, which we think may be a bit too low for an amazing invention such as this. Oh well, we could always make our own list. Wait a second...


[Source: Time]

Time's 50 Best Inventions of 2008 includes assorted greenery originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Sat, 29 Nov 2008 15:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Ethanol, Flex-Fuel, Toyota, USA

Toyota has announced updated pricing information for the 2009 Tundra full-size truck, along with a few new options that weren't available before. Chief among these new features is flex-fuel capability on the largest, most powerful 5.7L engine option. Toyota has been planning on adding this capability since the new Tundra was introduced, which makes sense considering that all of its major competitors offer the ability to run on ethanol mixtures higher than 10 percent. The Japanese automaker will specifically be focusing in on the Midwestern states where E85 is more common, and will in fact be made standard on four-wheel drive models in certain areas. There will be no price increase on models equipped with the ethanol capability, which is good since the 2009 Tundra can top out at well over $40K. Prices have risen only modestly across the line - just an average of four percent, or $109 per truck for the new year.

[Source: Carscoop]

Tundra 5.7L V8 gets flex-fuel option for '09 originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Sat, 29 Nov 2008 13:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Acura

Honda has always been a company run by engineers who like to do more with less. In the 1970s, the Civic got a CVCC system that allowed it to meet emissions standards for many years without using a catalytic converter. Today the company's top of the line Acura RL competes in the luxury sport sedan segment with a V6 engine where others use a V8. The current RL has been somewhat of a sales laggard at least in part due to that powertrain choice. As a result, many have been pushing for Honda to drop a V8 in the RL. The problem is the company doesn't have one. Recently, CEO Takeo Fukui acknowledged the company was working on a V8 for a future RL, but now it has come to light that it won't be the next-generation model in 2011, but rather the one after that, due in 2015. If the company puts off a V8 that along, it seems likely that it won't ever happen. By that time, it's likely that smaller, boosted and direct injected engines will be the order of the day, especially with rising CAFE standards and the expected higher fuel prices. If anything, it would be more likely for Honda to develop a future performance hybrid variant than a V8 for the RL.

[Source: Auto Observer]

Next-next-gen Acura RL may finally get a V8 ... or not originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Sat, 29 Nov 2008 10:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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