Posted by admin on September 27, 2009
WASHINGTON — A tiny car company backed by former Vice President Al Gore has just gotten a $529 million U.S. government loan to help build a hybrid sports car in Finland that will sell for about $89,000.
The award this week to California startup Fisker Automotive Inc. follows a $465 million government loan to Tesla Motors Inc., purveyors of a $109,000 British-built electric Roadster. Tesla is a California startup focusing on all-electric vehicles, with a number of celebrity endorsements that is backed by investors that have contributed to Democratic campaigns.
Fisker’s Karma hybrid sports car, above, will initially cost about $89,000.
The awards to Fisker and Tesla have prompted concern from companies that have had their bids for loans rejected, and criticism from groups that question why vehicles aimed at the wealthiest customers are getting loans subsidized by taxpayers.
“This is not for average Americans,” said Leslie Paige, a spokeswoman for Citizens Against Government Waste, an anti-tax group in Washington. “This is for people to put something in their driveway that is a conversation piece. It’s status symbol thing.”
DOE officials spent months working with Fisker on its application, touring its Irvine, Calif., and Pontiac, Mich., facilities and test-driving prototypes.
Matt Rogers, who oversees the department’s loan programs as a senior adviser to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, said Fisker was awarded the loan after a “detailed technical review” that concluded the company could eventually deliver a highly fuel-efficient hybrid car to a mass audience. Fisker said most of its DOE loan will be used to finance U.S. production of a $40,000 family sedan that has yet to be designed.
“It’s the ability to drive significant change in fuel economy across a large market segment” that swayed the department to approve the Fisker loan, Mr. Rogers said. “We got quite excited.”
Henrik Fisker, who designed cars for BMW, Aston Martin and Tesla before starting his Fisker Automotive in 2007, said his goal is to build the first plug-in electric hybrids that won’t sacrifice the luxury, performance and looks of traditional gas-powered luxury cars.
The Karma will target an exclusive audience — Gore was one of the first to sign up for one. Mr. Fisker says all new technology starts out being expensive. He pointed to flat-screen televisions that once started at $25,000 but are now affordable to the mass market.
The four-door Karma, powered by a lithium-ion battery, will be able to run solely on electric power for 50 miles, and will achieve an average fuel economy of 100 mpg over the span of a year, the company says. Production is scheduled to start in December, with about 15,000 vehicles a year expected to hit the U.S. market starting next June.
Many of the 1,500 people who have made deposits on the Karma are former BMW and Mercedes owners who want an environmentally friendly car without sacrificing luxury, Mr. Fisker said.
He said he pitched the Karma to Mr. Gore at an event hosted by KPCB last year, and that the former vice president almost immediately submitted a down payment for the car.
Kalee Kreider, a spokeswoman for Mr. Gore, confirmed that the former vice president backs Fisker and purchased a Karma. “He believes that a global shift of the automobile fleet toward electric vehicles, accompanying a shift toward renewable-energy generation, represents an important part of a sensible strategy for solving the climate crisis,” she said in a statement.
Fisker’s top investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a veteran Silicon Valley venture-capital firm of which Gore is a partner. Employees of KPCB have donated more than $2.2 million to political campaigns, mostly for Democrats, including President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks campaign contributions.
Officials at Kleiner Perkins didn’t return requests for comment.
Asked whether Mr. Gore had any influence on Fisker’s application, the DOE’s Rogers said, “None at all.”
“This is a very attractive, very across-party-lines kind of vehicle,” Mr. Rogers said. “All of the detailed due diligence [was] done by independent review teams.”
Other Fisker investors include Eco-Drive (Capital) Partners LLC, an investment consortium, and Qatar Investment Authority, a state-run investor based in Qatar.
Fisker’s government loans will come from a $25 billion program established by Congress in 2007 to help auto makers invest in the technology to meet a new congressional mandate to improve fuel efficiency. In June, the DOE awarded the first $8 billion from the program to Ford Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co., and Tesla, which are all developing electric cars.
Some companies that have been turned down for loans from DOE say they did not get much feedback from the department about their applications. O. John Coletti, president of EcoMotors International of Troy, Mich., said his company applied for a $20 million loan from the agency last December, and last month got a one-page rejection letter from the loan program’s director, Lachlan Seward. EcoMotors’ lead investor is Vinod Khosla, himself a former Kleiner Perkins partner and a longtime campaign contributor to Republicans and Democrats alike.
“I don’t have an issue with the winners … it’s possible somebody has better ideas than us,” Mr. Coletti said. At the same time, he said, “More feedback from DOE on a timely basis would be wonderful. When you’re running a business you’d like to know whether you’re going to be able to take advantage of this opportunity.”
Mr. Coletti’s company — which makes diesel engines and is still waiting to hear from the Department on a separate loan application to help it build a manufacturing facility — isn’t without politically well-connected patrons, either. Its major investor is Vinod Khosla, himself a former Kleiner Perkins partner who has donated to campaigns.
Scott Redmond, CEO of XP Vehicles Inc., said he met with DOE officials twice in Washington after applying for a $40 million loan to develop a $15,000 to $25,000 hybrid, and that both times he was told his application looked good. Since receiving a rejection letter from DOE in August, Redmond said, he has been unable to get a full explanation as to why his request was turned down.
Mr. Rogers said he was not at liberty to discuss individual applications that had been turned down, but said the process has been handled fairly and objectively.
By JOSH MITCHELL and STEPHEN POWER
http://online.wsj.com
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Ford Motor Company has done some remarkable things with its 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid car. The Fusion drives with comfort and is built with every tool to help inform the driver of its fuel economy and coaching. The hybrid car delivers superb quality with a well-planted suspension.
For the most part, the Ford Fusion is the best car in its class, and it drives with character. While the previous hybrid model only offered a five-speed transmission, the 2010 model has a six-speed lineup, which is available with either a manual or automatic transmission. The vehicle is also equipped with a remote anti-theft alarm system, an engine immobilizer, and tire pressure monitoring.
The Ford hybrid has electronic brake-force distribution, a rear center 3-point belt, an emergency interior trunk release, and 2 front integrated and 2 rear height-adjustable headrests are also standard on this model. The Fusion features a combination of power entities including a 2.5L 155hp 136 lb-ft 4-cylinder engine with variable intake cam timing standards and an integrated electric motor.
The electric motor is housed along with the CVT transmission and mated to the Atkinson engine. The 2010 Ford automobile is a spiritual successor to the original award-winning Taurus that was gobbled up by the masses. The world of mid-size family sedans has radically changed and the Fusion Hybrid can easily compete with its foreign competition.
The Ford Fusion delivers the smoothest driving experience of any hybrid which I have driven. I did not notice the transitions from gas to electric mode. The vehicle is rated independently at 41 mpg, the highest fuel economy of any midsize sedan, and does more than 700 miles on a tank of gas.
Another fascinating thing about the Ford Fusion Hybrid is its ability to run on E85 ethanol as well as regular gasoline. When you take the wheel, you witness gauges that greet you while the leather bucket seats feature ideal firmness and supportive bolstering. The ambient lighting system offers the option of illuminating the front and rear foot wells and front cup holders.
This car also qualifies for a hybrid tax credit of $3,400 until October 1, 2009. This credit can help you save money from the sticker price. If you are looking for a new domestic hybrid car, get behind the wheel of the new 2010 Ford Fusion.
By: Kara Gilmour
http://www.newsoxy.com
Posted by admin on May 15, 2009
With new 2010 models, impressive fuel economy and advanced technology, industry leaders Toyota and Honda square off over hybrids.
You’d never get either Honda or Toyota to admit it, but the Insight and Prius are rivals. The Honda Insight is all new, and the Prius was redesigned for 2010. Both are entering an uncertain but brightening hybrid market.
In March, U.S. hybrid sales (about two to three percent of the market now) shot up 34% compared to February. Overall car sales were up 24%. Incentives have something to do with this, but a better economy, higher gas prices (up 20% since December, and six percent in March alone), more choice (the Insight, the new Prius, the Ford Fusion/Mercury Mariner twins) are also pushing people toward hybrids.
If the Japanese market is any indication, the Insight will do well: It is currently the best-selling car, bar none, in the Land of the Rising Sun — the first hybrid to so place.
I have weekly test cars, and by sheer coincidence had a 2009 Prius and a 2010 Insight back to back (literally; their rear ends are quite similar). I haven’t been in the Insight all that long, but first impressions favor the Prius. Not having been in a while, I’d forgotten what great cars they are: Roomy, quiet, versatile, innovative — and this isn’t even the new one!
The slightly smaller Insight doesn’t seem quite as sophisticated as the Prius, but it performs well in every way that should matter to the marketplace. It gets 40 mpg in the city and 43 on the highway. Oddly, the EPA is still calculating annual driving costs with $4.10 gas, but if you drove 15,000 miles under those conditions it would cost $1,501. Both hybrids are AT-PZEVs, which translates into super-low emissions.
The loaded Insight EX I’m driving (with navigation) bottom lines at $23,770. The new Prius has an entry-level price of $21,000, but that’s for a stripped car (no rear wiper, Touch Tracer Display or electric-only EV mode). The one people will actually buy starts at $22,000 but with a lot of features included — EV mode, a smart key, cruise control, seven airbags, a six-speaker stereo and even heated mirrors.
It doesn’t much matter what I think. The Insight is the cheapest hybrid on the U.S. market, and that will mean a lot to cash-strapped American buyers. If I were Toyota, I might think about undercutting it with a smaller hybrid, based perhaps on the tiny, so far non-U.S. iQ. Now that would be affordable — and hugely fuel-efficient.
Source: http://www.thedailygreen.com
Posted by admin on May 14, 2009
Here are the top 5 best selling hybrids of 2008:
1. 2008 Toyota Prius
MPG: 48 city /45 hwy
2. 2008 Toyota Camry Hybrid
MPG: 33 city/34 hwy
3. 2008 Honda Civic Hybrid
MPG: 40 city/45 hwy
4. 2008 Toyota Highlander Hybrid
MPG: 27 city/25 hwy
5. 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid
MPG: 34 city/30 hwy
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An air-powered car? Sounds almost too good to be true - so a sceptical Alex Benady took one for a test drive
How would you react to someone who tried to sell you a car that runs on fresh air? Perhaps you would think he was peddling a potentially planet-saving technology. More likely you would dismiss him as a conman or a fantasist. Yet that is precisely the pitch being made by French auto engineer Guy Negre, a good-humoured man in his mid-60s who claims to have developed a car powered by compressed air: one that produces a fraction of the carbon emissions of a standard engine, reaches speeds of 30mph-plus, that can travel 65 miles on a one-minute recharge and, best of all, costs from just over £3,000.
Negre is quick to point out the drawbacks of existing eco-car technology. “Hybrids are only marginally less polluting than the most efficient combustion engines,” he says. “Hydrogen power is expensive and impractical. Fuel cells are expensive and unproven and electric cars are reliant on expensive, unreliable battery technology.”
Given the number of false green-auto dawns, you might wonder why air-powered cars should be any different. While Negre’s air cars have similar carbon emissions to electric cars (it all depends how the electricity to power the pumps that fill their air tanks is generated), he argues that air-power is a superior technology. “Compared to electric cars, air-powered cars cost a fraction of the price to buy, they don’t need expensive batteries to be replaced every five years or so and crucially they take only a fraction of the time to recharge.”
Negre previously designed racing engines for Renault and has devoted the last 13 years to developing compressed air technology at his factory in Carros, outside Nice, in southern France. He believes air power has a real chance of putting a rocket up the $2tn-a-year global auto industry, radically improving the quality of urban life and making a serious dent in global carbon emissions in the process.
I confess I was so sceptical that I reserved judgment until I had driven one of his cars. On the day I visited the factory, most of the cars were at Schipol airport in Amsterdam, where from next month they are being trialled as replacements for the huge fleet of electric service vehicles operated by Air France KLM. So the version I drove was an early prototype, a three-wheeler with no bodywork, steered by a joystick.
OK, it didn’t deliver the smoothly upholstered power so beloved by conventional car enthusiasts. And it possessed all the glamour of a souped-up lawnmower. But it worked, easily reaching speeds above 25mph in the limited space of the factory car park, which doubles as a test track.
In full-scale production, air-powered vehicles will range from three-wheeled buggies to a four-wheeled, five-door family saloon. Although the number of models on offer now is limited for cost reasons, they could eventually include vans, buses, taxis and boats.
The cars are made of fibreglass, which is lighter and 10 times stronger than steel, claims Negre. The compressed air is stored at high pressure in shatter-proof thermoplastic tanks surrounded by a carbon-fibre shell. (The same tanks used to contain the fuel in gas-powered buses.) The air is released through pistons in the engine, which drive the wheels. Unlike conventional internal combustion engines, air-powered engines run very cold and thick ice quickly forms on the engine. This means that the only feature that comes for free in the air car will be air-conditioning.
Each car has an onboard pump that can refill the tank overnight. But Negre has also developed a high-pressure air pump - imagine a heavy-duty version of the tyre pumps found on a garage forecourt - that can fill the tanks in less than a minute. These could be powered by clean electricity - hydro, wind or solar - making the air car completely pollution-free. Even if carbon-generated electricity is used, CO2 emissions are still only 10% of a petrol engine’s, claims Negre.
That’s great for urban driving where journeys are typically a few miles. For longer journeys there’s a hybrid, battery-assisted version, which Negre claims can reach 100mph and travel 900 miles on one gallon of petrol.
Clearly the idea is being taken seriously by KLM. Independent energy experts are also cautiously optimistic. “I’ve looked at this technology and it can work,” says Ulf Bossel, a sustainable energy consultant and organiser of the European Fuel Cell Forum. “It looks good over 50km or so. I see no reason why this shouldn’t be a successful form of urban transport in the near future.”
But perhaps the most credible endorsement of air power comes from a £30m deal the makers recently signed with Indian car giant Tata to license the technology in Asia for use in the ultra-cheap Nano. Negre has also signed deals to manufacture the car in the US, Latin America, and several European countries, but none as yet in the UK. However, he says he is close to sealing an agreement that could see air cars on sale in the UK within three years. But if cars running on fresh air fulfil their promise, why stop there? With just a few alterations, Negre claims a hybrid version of his new engine could even be used to power aircraft.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk
Posted by admin on May 9, 2009
If you demand it, companies will come up with it. This has never been more apparent than with hybrid autos, the companies answer to a consumer nation that has become more environmentally aware.
Any type of trend soon grows attributes that are often not exactly accurate. These can be both positive and negative attributes, depending on who is pushing the point. Two false ones have surrounded the hybrid vehicle.
Everyone hates taxes, but not when it comes to hybrids. The common myth is you can get a huge tax benefit if you buy a hybrid. As with anything involving taxes, you should know this is sometimes true and sometimes not.
When taxes are invovled, it should be no surprise there are pitfalls with claiming a tax credit for buying one. The first requirement is you must buy a new vehicle, not a used one. The second requirement is the IRS must have approved the vehicle.
Many people want to know the amount of the hybrid tax credit, but it is an impossible question to answer. The IRS sets a different amount for each and every car. It then has the option of reducing this amount each quarter of the year.
The interesting and scary thing about the tax credit is it is designed to disappear for each car after a certain number have been sold. For instance, Toyota hybrids are about to lose their tax benefits entirely. Yes, there will be zero tax benefit.
Why does the tax credit phase out for hybrids? Well, you have to realize why it was put into law in the first place. It was intended to motivate people to buy such vehicles in light of our oil and environmental problems. It was not intended to be a windfall for manufacturers.
The batteries used in hybrid vehicles give us our next area of controversy. These are not the run of the mill batteries found in your average automobile or truck. Rumor has it they don’t last long and are incredibly expensive to repair.
In truth, there is no requirement that hybrid batteries be changed every 40,000 miles or so. Most brands come with warranties of up to 100,000 miles. Although hybrids are fairly new, the batteries are reported to last well into the hundreds of thousands of miles.
Should you make your next vehicle a hybrid? If you want to cut your driving costs and help the environment, then the answer is definitely yes. Just make sure to buy it new and check with the IRS on your tax credit amount.
Article Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com
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One of the most well-known ways to saving our environment from absolute destruction that is somewhat recent is the use of hybrid cars. Although many people have shown promise of wanting to save our environment from harmful pollutants, they still continue to buy gasoline engine cars.
This may be a simple case of they can’t afford hybrid cars, as they are not the least expensive on the market right now. Hopefully, within a few years the retail price will drop to the level where more people can afford them. The more hybrid cars on the street, the better our environment.
The first two car manufacturers to really jump onto mass producing hybrid cars were Toyota and Honda. A few other manufacturers that came in after that were General Motors, Ford, and Nissan. But, with so many different hybrid vehicles on the market today, which one is really the best?
With the improvements of science and technology, countless gadgets and equipment for cars are offered along with the standard options in order to suit each persons unique style, preference, and taste. That makes determining the “best” extremely hard, especially with the fact that what may be best for you may not be the best for another. Therefore, by dividing them into different categories and determining the best of each one is much more doable.
Through surveys and research recently done, below is a list of hybrid cars considered to be the “best” of their category.
First off, we have the best sedan, which goes to the Honda Civic Hybrid. Being able to improve on previous year models helped tremendously when it came to putting together a quality hybrid car. Not only is this car sleek and sporty, it doesn’t scream out “hybrid”, although for the owner of the car you will definitely be able to feel it. Essentially, you get all the qualities and great things about a Honda Civic, but you get to fill up less.
And the award for the best SUV goes to… the Ford Escape Hybrid. Being the first one in it’s class, it automatically grew very popular. Even with Toyota and Lexus soon to follow with hybrid SUV’s of their own, the Escape has the edge over the rest. It keeps improving in just about every aspect and is predicted to remain on top for many years.
The winner of the best hybrid car in overall fuel economy goes to the Honda Insight. It’s very aerodynamic body design along with being extremely lightweight allows for this car to produce the best fuel economy. Although this hybrid is not as appraised as the Honda Civic Hybrid, in a head-to-head competition for the best fuel economy, the Insight takes the cake.
Last but not least, we have our winner of the overall hybrid car experience, that goes to the Toyota Prius. With raving fuel economy and many awards to go along with it, the Prius managed to get majority of the votes for the best hybrid car. This includes value, dfesign, performance, basically all aspects that make for a great experience.
Article Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com
