Craneway Pavilion

Every major global automaker, without exception, is making a shift to hybrids, electric cars, and alternative fuels. Not because it was their idea. They were forced in that direction by a growing group of passionate consumers fed up with the status quo of petroleum dependence. When carmakers didn’t move fast enough, these consumer-activists converted their cars to run on batteries or alternative fuels.

Green Drive Expo, the Bay Area’s first consumer eco-car expo, will provide an unprecedented opportunity for owners of unique green car creations to show off their work and express their desire for change. The event will take place at the waterfront Craneway Pavilion in Richmond—a renovated 1931 Ford Motor Company assembly plant, sporting a 1-megawatt solar array and stunning views of the San Francisco skyline.

The event will take place on Oct. 9 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $10 at the door, or you can register for free admission by using this discount code: HYBRIDCARS on this page:
http://greendriveexpo.com/greendriveexpocoupon

Attendees will be offered free public test drives of prototypes of Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid and other hybrid and electric cars. Ford, Mitsubishi, Nissan, and Think will display their latest green vehicles. Auto company representatives will be on hand to discuss future products. But in many ways, the most exciting part of the show will be owners showing off their vehicles and discussing the issues with one another.

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Lexus has released details about the four driving modes that will be included in its forthcoming CT 200h hybrid. The sporty compact is the second dedicated hybrid offering from the carmaker and is intended to boost the fun factor for luxury hybrid drivers—while still being capable of delivering fuel economy approaching the Toyota Prius's 50 MPGs.

For the CT 200h, Lexus will essentially replace the Power mode found in its other dedicated hybrid, the HS 250h, with a new Sport mode which will be tooled towards maximum performance and handling. In Sport mode throttle is cranked up considerably, power control from the battery increases by about 15 percent, and the CT's Electronic Power Steering is adjusted to be more responsive. Lexus will also make its Vehicle Stability and Traction Control systems more passive, allowing for more driver control.

These adjustments obviously cut into fuel economy, but much of the joy of owning a car like this isn't so much the extra performance it provides in all driving situations but the knowledge that it's there if you're in the mood for it.

The three more efficient driving modes are called Normal, Eco, and EV. EV mode allows drivers to go all-electric for up to a mile—so long as the car is kept below 25 mph. Normal mode utilizes Toyota's Electronically Controlled Continuously Variable Transmission, allowing the car to respond to changing driving conditions by instantaneously adjusting its gear ratios. Eco mode alters that formula to provide maximized fuel economy for gas-electric driving—slowing cabin cooling, limiting throttle and accelerating battery charging.

The CT 200h will essentially be smaller, more aerodynamic, 5-door hatchback version of the HS 250h—which had the same sized wheelbase as the Toyota Prius but dialed-down aerodynamics for the sake of a roomier, more luxurious interior—at the expense of about 15 MPGs of fuel economy. Lexus has essentially reversed that process for the CT 200h, with the result being a smaller, more efficient luxury small car that can still pack a punch when needed.

The car will hit dealerships in the United States early next year.

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By Roland Hwang

Today, a consumer group, Consumer Federation of America, released a new study that clearly shows stronger pollution and fuel efficiency standards that result in 60 miles per gallon by 2025 is good for consumers’ pocketbooks. But not only do consumers win, it also means less pollution, less oil dependency, and a stronger, more competitive auto industry. It’s one of the best examples of why good environmental and clean energy policy goes hand-in-hand with lowering consumer fuel bills and restoring American industry to a leadership position.

Achieving 60 mpg by 2025 can be done by using and improving on technologies that already exist, such as hybrid electric cars and electric vehicles. In fact, according to a new study released yesterday by the University of Michigan, the technical potential is to triple fuel economy to 74 mpg, even before considering plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles. We have learned from cell phones, microwaves, and computers that higher volumes can lead to dramatic improvement in innovation and drive down costs.

Raising standards to 60 mpg is good for consumers, good for the environment and good for jobs. Here are the top three reasons why we need stronger pollution and fuel efficiency standards:

Reason #1: Pays for itself. According to the consumer group Consumer Federation of America, cost of fuel savings technologies pays for itself in the first year of ownership.

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Ford Fusion Hybrid

The U.S. auto market experienced its weakest August sales since 1983. Overall sales dropped by 21 percent compared to last August, when the Cash for Clunkers programs gave an all-too-brief boost to car sales.

Gas-electric hybrids, which disproportionately benefited from Clunkers a year ago, took a harder fall in August, dropping by 38 percent compared to last year. In a rare bright spot, the Ford Fusion Hybrid—a vehicle that racked up numerous “Car of the Year” awards in 2010—saw big gains in sales in August. Ford sold 3,010 Fusion Hybrids—up from 1,226 a year ago and nearly double from last month’s sales.

As usual, any single month’s sales figures—whether way up or down—should not be taken as a long-term trend.

Yet, August once again proved that the fortunes of the hybrid market are dominated by the Toyota Prius. Sales of the iconic hybrid model fell by nearly 38 percent compared to a year ago—the same percentage drop as the overall hybrid market. Toyota sold 11,799 Priuses, well below the nearly 19,000 sales from August 2009, when the vehicle was one of the most popular models during Cash for Clunkers.

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A University of Michigan Auto Researcher says it’s possible to triple fuel economy of cars—without plugging them in.

In a new study released today, John DeCicco (who has been a contributor to this site) shows that optimizing internal combustion engines plus rising adoption of “grid-free hybrids” will enable new fleet efficiency to reach 52 MPG by 2025 and 74 MPG by 2035.

“To push efficiency really far, it means a lot more hybrids than previous studies have indicated,” DeCicco said, in an interview with HybridCars.com. “Hybrids are going to rule the world, that is, if we want to be serious about reducing oil use and greenhouse gases.”

DeCicco questions the prevailing wisdom of public support for cars that use energy from the grid. DeCicco, a senior lecturer at the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan, is apparently referring to plug-in cars when he advocates for avoiding “politically trendy breakthrough technologies” that will remain too expensive for most consumers. "If we really prioritize efficiency, we can get just as far with less sticker shock," he said, in a press release issued by University of Michigan.

It’s a Policy Thing

“I’m not opposed to plugging in, but there’s no justification for massive subsidies,” DeCicco told us. “Let automakers and willing customers explore this on their own nickel. We ought to have policies that give us the biggest bang for the buck, and most efficiency can occur without plugging in.

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Infiniti will debut the company’s first hybrid model at this fall’s Los Angeles Auto Show. The 2012 Infiniti M Hybrid goes on sale this spring.

The Infiniti M35 hybrid uses a front-engine rear-wheel-drive approach—with a one motor-two clutch system. The first clutch is installed between the engine and the electric motor. This clutch allows the full decoupling of the V6 when running in electric modes—in order to reduce mechanical drag and boost the efficiency of the electric motor. The M35 is one of the first hybrids to use lithium ion batteries.

Pricing, MPG and other details are not yet available. The base MSRP for the 2010 conventional M35 is $45,800. The M35 Hybrid should be priced just below $50,000 and will likely qualify for a tax incentive of about $1,000. Nissan first unveiled the Infiniti M35 Hybrid at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show in March 2010

Infiniti touts the new luxury hybrid as giving V-8 performance with four-cylinder fuel economy.

Rear-Wheel-Drive Hybrids on the Way

As Infiniti prepares for the unveiling of the M35 Hybrid, Nissan engineers are already planning other hybrid models. Larry Dominque, Nissan North America's vice president of product planning for the Americas, says the M hybrid system was designed to fit all of Infiniti's rear-wheel-drive models, including the G sedan and coupe and the EX and FX crossovers.

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Will consumers stay away from cars that get a "D" on the environment?

After many months of deliberation, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have released proposed ideas for new fuel economy labels that consumers see on windows of new vehicles. The designs recognize that advanced technology vehicles, from plug-in hybrids to electric cars, require a modified approach to communicating the benefits of various fuel-efficient technologies.

The boldest scheme uses a prominent report-card-style letter grade, ranging from A+ to D, to communicate overall fuel economy as well as greenhouse gas emissions. A second tier of information assigns a dollar value to the anticipated fuel savings over five years of a vehicle compared to the average vehicle on the road. A third tier provides an entire set of efficiency numbers of varying degrees of complexity depending on the type of technology in use.

Conventional gas-powered cars will carry familiar metrics such as city and highway MPG, but also add gallons per 100 miles, CO2 per mile, and anticipated annual fuel cost. For electric cars, plug-in hybrids, and natural gas-powered vehicles, the label will identify driving range, annual fuel cost, and a translated equivalent of MPG (referred to as MPGe). For plug-in hybrids, such as the Chevy Volt and the Prius Plug-in Hybrid, the label gets even more complex, featuring two rows: one for different modes of operation—such as when a plug-in hybrid is primarily using electricity and after it has depleted its batteries.

This design is more familiar, but requires an awkward conversion to MPG equivalent (or MPGe) for plug-in cars.

A second proposed label design retains the current label’s focus on miles per gallon and annual fuel costs. In this scheme, converting the efficiency of plug-in cars—which use electricity as fuel—into an MPG equivalent becomes paramount. In the sample design, the efficiency a plug-in hybrid (or “dual fuel vehicle”) is rated with an MPGe of 98 while using electricity during its first 30 miles of operation, and then 38 MPG when “electricity is used up.” Vehicle efficiency experts warn against “dumbing down” plug-in car efficiency to numbers that could be irrelevant or meaningless to consumers.

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In developing car markets like China and India, the short-term strategy for carmakers seems to be "small, cheap and fuel-efficient." Fully electric powertrains are expected to catch on eventually, but where the intermediary step for the United States is expected be hybrids—and turbocharged diesels in Europe—small, 4-cylinder engines that deliver high MPGs at a low cost are the name of the game in most of Asia.

It's for this reason that the Toyota Prius, which in America and Japan has been one of the most influential vehicles on the market for the better part of a decade, only came to India last year. When it did, it was priced and marketed more as a high-priced luxury car than an everyday vehicle for the country's emerging middle class.

But while the Prius was never expected to be major seller in India—just 80 vehicles sold in three months—a dedicated hybrid version of the Etios small car marketed specifically for that market, is apparently on the horizon. While production numbers are yet to be announced, the fact that Toyota is premiering a new hybrid in India suggests that the carmaker is confident in its sales potential. Toyota is yet to announce whether the car will be available in other markets.

The price tag is another big question mark. If Toyota has managed to bring costs down to the point that the fuel savings associated with the vehicle actually surpass its "hybrid premium," the Etios could be an important player. If not, the car will more likely be just another green also-ran. The gasoline version of the Etios is expected to sell 65,000 units next year.

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Once again, the media is declaring the death of hybrid cars. It made for catchy headlines this week, like the Wall Street Journal’s “Hybrids Are Running Out of Gas,” and USA Today’s “As Sales Fall, Is the Hybrid Car Fad Over?” But it simply ain’t true. Global automakers are now preparing for their biggest push ever into gas-electric vehicles.

Yes, it’s true that this year’s hybrid sales are down by about 5% compared to last year. But a closer examination of the trends shows that hybrids got a big boost last year with the Cash for Clunkers program. In addition, the drop in hybrid sales is focused on specific models, like the Honda Civic Hybrid, which is down 72% for the year. Meanwhile, the Toyota Prius is up by 7%; the Honda Insight is up by 2%; The Lexus RX450h SUV is up more than 17%; and the Ford Fusion Hybrid is up 45%.

From Early Adopters to Mainstream Buyers

Yet, the media and other pundits dig up attention-seeking factoids, like the decline of new hybrid registrations in the San Francisco Bay Area, an historic hot spot for hybrid adoption. The Wall Street Journal points to data from R.L. Polk which shows new hybrid registrations in the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose area making up 6.1% of the overall U.S. share last year, down from 7.8% in 2007 and 8.1% in 2006. Could the shift of the hybrid sales balance away from the Bay Area, known for its preponderance of high-tech early adopters, to the rest of the country indicate that hybrids are moving into a much larger mainstream market?

The signs point to yes, according to Toyota’s new production targets, reported yesterday by Reuters and others. After selling nearly 2.7 million hybrids globally in the past 13 years, Toyota yesterday reiterated its goal of selling 1 million hybrid cars annually and an accumulated 5 million units by the first half of this decade. To achieve these goals, the company will eventually introduce hybrids across its entire vehicle lineup, and will soon launch a family of Priuses, ranging from a compact model to a crossover SUV.

Who’s on the Hybrid Bandwagon? Everybody

Moreover, Toyota announced yesterday that it plans to improve its average fuel efficiency by 25% by 2015 compared with that of 2005. Why is Toyota setting that goal? The same reason that every major global auto manufacturer is aiming for unprecedented gains in fuel economy: to meet stricter government regulations. According to our discussions with regulators and environmental organizations, these tougher standards could require hybrids in as much as 40% of automobiles in the next 15 years. Early this month, Hyundai announced that its entire vehicle lineup will average a whopping 50 mpg by 2025—a target that lawmakers could very well establish for around 2020. Hyundai expects hybrids to make up 20% of its sales by that time.

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After three years of speculation about the introduction of a Fit Hybrid, Honda is set to unveil the world’s first subcompact hybrid next month at the Paris Motor Show this September. Not only will the Fit Hybrid be the smallest hybrid on the market, it could carry the lowest price tag.

A hybrid version will go on sale in Japan in October, and is expected in the U.S. in 2011. As we reported earlier this month, Honda plans to sell the Fit Hybrid in Japan for about $18,600. That’s approximately $3,500 less than the Honda Insight, currently the cheapest hybrid, and about $4,600 more than the gas-powered Fit. Pricing for the Japanese market does not move in sync with U.S. pricing—but a similar strategy in the U.S. would put the base MSRP around $17,000.

Exact mpg will be released at the Paris Motor Show, which will run from September 30 to October 17, but we anticipate a significant step up from the gas-powered version, which is rated at 28 mpg in the city and 35 on the highway. The Fit Hybrid is likely to become the second most fuel-efficient hybrid, right behind the Toyota Prius (51/48 mpg). The auto industry is still figuring out how to rate the fuel economy of plug-in cars, such as the Nissan LEAF and Chevy Volt.

The Fit, marketed as the Jazz in Europe, will use Honda’s IMA system— an 87-horsepower 1.3-liter engine combined with a CVT gearbox—currently found in Honda's Insight and CR-Z hybrids.

The new Fit/Jazz is updated for 2011—with revised headlights and rear lights, a new front grille, and restyled bumpers and tailgate. Inside, there’s a darker single-color dashboard and blue-lit dials and instruments. The new hybrid is also available with leather trim, the first time this has been available on a Jazz model in Europe.

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