General Motors Corporation says it will do the “heavy lifting” to help achieve the grand goal set by United States President Barack Obama of having 1 million plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles on the US roads by 2015.  Major US-based makers of automobiles, including General Motors, have been planning an array of electric-drive vehicles aimed at meeting higher fuel-economy standards and also an expected rise in the demand for more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Chevy Volt

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I remember the gas wars when I was a kid. I once filled up my ‘60 VW bug (I bought it used) for less than $2.00. Gas was 24.9¢. That’s right, less than a quarter a gallon. Yeah, yeah. I’m old.

The point is, when there are price wars, the consumer wins.

Toyota and Honda are going to go at it with their hybrid cars. Remember those three reasons why Honda’s New Insight Will Beat Out Toyota’s New Prius? We may have been right, eh? Honda introduced its hybrid Insight last month and it has already received 18,000 orders, more than three times its monthly sales target.

Toyota is countering by preparing to lower the price of its Prius and roll out a new hybrid less than Y2 million (Insight costs Y1.89million). But their new hybrid with an engine smaller than 1.5 litre, isn’t expected out until 2011.

In the end, however, the consumer is going to win this war.

Via: AFP

Toyota says it will launch as many as 10 new hybrid gas-electric models within the next four years IF the economic downturn doesn’t prevent them and IF there is renewed consumer demand.

When gas was $4+ gallon (US) consumers didn’t mind paying an extra $3-5,000. They seem to mind now that gas is half that price.

Toyota has a fleet of 500 plug-in Priuses that it will unleash next year. A new redesigned Prius and Lexus luxury sedan will be unveiled in Detroit.

Toyota will also unveil a concept car – a battery-electric vehicle for city use that the company hopes to put into production by 2012. Sales were down by half in December.

How soon we forget! Save gas when it is expensive. Gulp it down when it is not. Now is the time to save on gas, BEFORE the next oil crisis comes.

Edmunds.com, an online car research service, estimates that, as a result of the drop in gas prices, a Prius owner must now wait more than eight years to recoup the extra cost of the vehicle in fuel savings, compared with 3.5 years when the gas price climbed above $4 a gallon last spring.

Meanwhile, Honda’s “Prius-Fighter” the Insight Hybrid is coming, GM’s Volt is on its way – sometime in late 2010, while Cadillac has the Converj which is expected in 2012. I wonder if that will turn out to be true, or not …

Source: Nikkei (sub req)

I am a little slow sometimes. Okay, a lot slow. I spotted an eBox at the SF Auto Show. I thought to myself, “This car sure looks like something to me.” Duh…it’s a modified 5-speed Scion xB wagon.

The way it works is after buying a Scion for $15K “engineers will remove the internal combustion engine and related components, and install AC Propulsion’s electric drive and battery system composed of more than 5,000 small cells.” The cost of the conversion is $55K. At that price, we wonder why people aren’t knocking down the doors.

I wonder how much it’d cost to make the car from scratch? Why can’t we be Earth-friendly without breaking the bank?

There’s got to be a better way. There’s got to be a better way. Repeat after me. There’s got to be a better way. At least two more ‘better ways’ have taken a step forward in the past couple of days.

Germany’s Robert Bosch GmbH has agreed to work with South Korea’s Samsung SDI Co to develop the next-generation batteries for hybrid cars. Bosch is the world’s top parts maker and Samsung is, um, Samsung. In a 50-50 joint venture, the two giants will spend some $500 million over the next five years to improve on the lithium ion battery for hybrids, then sell them to GM, Ford Motor, Hyundai and any other takers.

In short, they will spend the next five years chasing Toyota and Nissan. Toyota is working with Matsushita Electric and Nissan has formed a partnership with NEC Corp.

The goal – bring down the costs of the hybrid car battery and in turn bring down the overall costs of the more eco-friendly cars. Presently hybrids go for as much as $5000 more than their gasoline counterparts, they are better on the environment but not the wallets of consumers. That’ll change.

Meanwhile, Honda Motor Co is even farther ahead with the launch of the Clarity hydrogen-fueled car for lease in the United States.

Source: Nikkei (sub req)

Bertrand Delanoe, the actual Paris mayor said that if re-elected he will build the “Autolib” which is a self-service electric and/or hybrid-electric car system, that will include 300 free re-charging stations in different parts of the city and 2,000 cars (electric and hybrid). This car-sharing system may be a solution that would reduce car congestion and may solve some of the parking issues in the city, but Parisian taxi drivers don’t see it in pink.

Norwegian company THINK, is considering a bid on the project with their “City” and “Ox” models, the modern urban car that have zero local emissions, that can travel up to 200 kilometers on a fully charged battery and reaches 100 km/h.

Just for that project and Bertrand Delanoe will probably get a lot of votes, but from saying to making it the real thing, there’s a long way.

via Wikio