Infiniti gets into the luxury-hybrid game.

Japanese manufacturers have been leading the hybrid movement from the beginning, but so far Nissan’s only entry has been the Altima hybrid, which licenses its powertrain from Toyota and is only sold in eight states. Now, shortly after announcing the Leaf electric car, Nissan tells us that its Infiniti luxury arm will be getting into the hybrid business with the 2012 M35 hybrid.

Keep Reading: 2012 Infiniti M35 Hybrid – Official Photos and Info

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Filed under: Car Buying, Hybrid, Sedan, SUV, Cadillac, Lexus, Luxury

Surprise! Lexus and its parent company, Toyota, are apparently finding that it's not as easy selling $106,000 hybrids as it is for $25,000. The Lexus LS 600h L is certainly an excellent piece of automotive engineering, delivering gobs of horsepower and torque with at least a modicum of efficiency thrown in for good measure.

Still, sales of the LS range are down over 50%, leading the the Japanese auto giant to place a whopping $10,000 cash incentive on its range-topping hybrid model. Moving down the Lexus lineup a notch will net you a $3,000 incentive on the GS 450h. What's more, Edmunds' Auto Observer reports that the company is throwing another $1,000 at any Lexus sales associate that manages to sell one of its pricey hybrids.

Not into expensive hybrid sedans? How 'bout we move to the opposite end of the fuel-saving market and into the driver's seat of a 2009 Cadillac Escalade Hybrid. Signing on the dotted line for General Motors' top-of-the-line 2Mode hybrid 'ute will cost you from about $73,000 to over $87,000... minus a five-digit discount, of course. Such a deal!



[Source: Auto Observer]

Looking for $10k off on a Lexus or Caddy? High-priced hybrids reportedly getting hefty incentives originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The electric vehicle hype won’t be a mass-market phenomenon, and gasoline hybrids will be the core technology for the next decades: That’s the gist of a technical workshop by Toyota in Cologne, Germany.

In a speech by Toyota Motor Europe R&D chief Masato Katsumata, the company points out that EVs are mainly feasible for city cars and small commercial vehicles. “We don’t expect any short-term breakthrough in battery technology,” says Katsumata.

Dirk Breuer, technological advisor and spokesman for Toyota Germany, points out the sadly insufficient energy density of current battery technology: to store as much energy as you have in a 12-gallon gasoline tank, you need nickel-metal-hydride batteries with a volume of over 400 gallons, he points out. The FT-EV fully electric car, Toyota’s current concept, has a range of only 50 miles.

Heating and cooling cars will be a major problem, says Breuer: “For a heater, you need about 5 kilowatts, for air conditioning, about 4 kilowatts—even in a small car.” Customers might have to choose between arriving home freezing, or getting stuck with empty batteries. “Some say that fast charging stations, which would give you a sufficient boost within 20 minutes, are a solution. You should know they cost about 30,000 euros (about $44,000) each,” Breuer warns. He adds that about 50 percent of electric power is lost in the transfer from outlet to the battery.

Breuer further points out that while EVs are best suited to city driving, 80 percent of European city dwellers don’t know on any given day where they will park their car at night. EVs would also have to communicate with the charging stations, another unsolved problem. “The infrastructure is a very costly problem,” he says. Shai Agassi’s Better Place project seems to be well thought out, Breuer acknowledges. “I don’t see how it can be offered at the projected cost,” adds Breuer.

Unsurprisingly, Breuer goes to lengths defending the Toyota-style full hybrid. The mild hybrid offers too little for too much cost, says Breuer; range-extender style hybrids, on the other hand, suffer from too much loss within the powertrain.

What about diesel? Diesel technology currently enjoys a privilege when it comes to emissions, Breuer frets. Compliance with upcoming EU6/BIN5 regulation, on the other hand, will make the diesel hugely complex and expensive. “At that point, we need an 11-step cleaning process, basically a chemical factory attached to the engine,” Breuer says sarcastically. “Gasoline hybrids are already cheaper to produce than diesels,” he adds.

Given that diesel engines are far more efficient than gasoline engines, wouldn’t a diesel hybrid, such as the one French carmaker PSA is working on, make sense? Too complex and expensive, says Breuer.

But with a European diesel market share of about 50 percent, Toyota is not ready to give up diesel technology, contrary to widespread reports. “We stopped work on one particular engine, a 1.6 diesel co-developed with Isuzu,” says Breuer. “But we will continue selling and refining our 1.4-liter and the bigger 2.0/2.2-liter turbo-diesel.”

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Our 10Best derby was my first experience with the Fusion Hybrid, and for me it was the most agreeable surprise in the 58-car field.

The electronic instrument cluster does a better job of involving the driver than any hybrid I’ve seen, thus promoting the objective of maximizing fuel economy: regardless of my normal driving habits (which I all-too-frequently find myself explaining to police officers), I try to get those gauges into optimum.

However, if the driver has other priorities, the transition between the various hybridic modes, including electric power, is totally transparent, which I regard as a plus. And if the driver finds himself in a hurry, there’s enough muscle to keep pace with traffic—no sense of the anemia that afflicts some hybrids.

Beyond that, this car is exceptionally well put together—not a hint of the dreaded BSRs (buzzes, squeaks, and rattles), and not a hint of quiver in the unibody.

All this and a reasonably high fun-to-drive index. The price premium—over $5000—versus a comparable four-cylinder Fusion is a little tough to digest. But that’s true of all hybrid sedans; all that technology and extra hardware is expensive. And if I was seriously considering a hybrid (as distinct from my purchase choices: Ferraris, Aston Martins, Isotta Fraschinis) the Fusion would be at the top of my list. Unless I found myself seduced by the hybrid version of the Mercury Milan.

Our 10Best winners will be announced in our January 2010 issue. Please check for it on newsstands on December 5.

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1. 10Best Test Notes: 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid
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3. 10Best Test Notes: 2010 Honda Insight vs. 2010 Toyota Prius, 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid

Don’t let my interest in the new hybrids lead you to believe that I haven’t been driving the other 10Best candidates. I have, and I’ll have some tough choices to pare my list down to 10, but it’s the hybrids that have been really testing my driving skills. Yesterday, the best I could do in a Ford Fusion Hybrid was 42.4 miles per gallon. Today, I took the Honda Insight and the Toyota Prius out on our 15-mile loop to see how far I could squeeze a gallon of gas.

After warming up the Insight, and getting used to the awful seatback that feels like someone shoved a Duraflame log into the small of your back, I proceeded to gently accelerate, coast as much as possible, and in general drive like I had absolutely nowhere to be. Compared to the Fusion Hybrid, the Insight’s display is no where near as entertaining as the Fusion’s more informative multi-color display—it’s Atari versus Playstation3. Despite the boring display and the Honda’s inability to drive on solely electric power, I returned to our camp with a 54.2 mile-per-gallon average.

For my next fuel-economy run, I grabbed the key to the new Prius. A curious K.C. Colwell jumped into the passenger seat; I thought about kicking him out because passengers add fuel-robbing weight to the car, but I didn’t want to offend K.C. (he’s sensitive), so I let him come along. At first, K.C. was a bit annoyed with my tepid acceleration and newfound respect for the speed limit, but after we saw the fuel economy on the trip computer jump to over 60 miles per gallon, he started to enjoy the ride. Drive a Prius quickly and it annoys, but at lower speeds when you’re working to keep the gas engine from kicking on, the Prius is a delightful and entertaining car. After covering 15 miles and never holding up any traffic, the Prius returned to the camp with 67.8 miles per gallon displayed on the trip computer. Granted, it took nearly a half hour to complete the loop (our average speed was 33 miles per hour), but even K.C. had to admit that driving a hybrid to maximize fuel economy can be fun.

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1. 10Best Test Notes: 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid
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Skimming through the Subaru Hybrid Tourer concept press release, the second paragraph left us a little confused. “The original point of the ideal grand touring car is its interior design, featuring four independent and comfortably positioned seats. Passengers are enclosed within an atmosphere that provides a surpassing feeling of openness and stress-free reassurance, through the further pursuit of a human-centered philosophy, the essence of Subaru car design, and the incorporation of functions that are friendly to passengers.” Say what? After some head scratching, what we divined from reading that jargon is that this car has four seats and it’s about the essence of nothingness.

Keep Reading: Subaru Hybrid Tourer Concept – Auto Shows

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Some might not consider the Ford Fusion Hybrid a performance car, but I do. Unlike high-powered performance cars, the Fusion Hybrid’s performance isn’t based on speed or horsepower, but rather on fuel economy. Around our roughly 15-mile driving loop I worked hard to maximize the Fusion’s fuel economy. Careful throttle applications to avoid using the gas engine, avoiding stops, carrying as much speed as possible through the corners, and stretching out the time spent coasting require concentration and skills that are entirely different from driving quickly, but almost as entertaining. Making the endeavor even more fun was the Fusion’s video-game-like display that monitors the interplay of the electric motor and the gas engine. According to the trip computer, my one lap of the loop yielded 42.4 miles per gallon. Can any of the C/D crew beat my number with the Fusion? Tomorrow I’ll be working on getting the best fuel economy out of the new Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight and we’ll see how they stack up to the very impressive Ford Fusion Hybrid.

Our 10Best winners will be announced in our January 2010 issue. Please check for it on newsstands on December 5.

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Filed under: Hybrid, Performance, Technology, Chevrolet, Rumormill, Alternative Fuel

Is GM really considering a hybrid Corvette? Tom Stephens, GM's vice chairman of global product development, says it's a possibility. However, Stephens' comments are based on the new CAFE standards -- 35.5 mpg by 2016 -- and would only happen if the Corvette's livelihood depends on fitting a hybrid drivetrain.

With Porsche, Audi, Mercedes and others showing electrics and other alternatively powered sports cars, and some companies doing nothing but hybrids or electrics (see: Fisker and Tesla), it isn't hard to imagine an electrically boosted fiberglass flyer. The question is whether or not Corvette buyers would even consider a hybrid.

For now GM thinks they have a good enough plan to keep the Corvette electron-free. Until a hybrid is the only option, expect future 'Vettes to be made lighter, and equipped with low rolling resistance tires, direct injection, variable valve timing, and cylinder deactivation to make them more fuel frugal. Even electric power steering can boost mileage by half a gallon. So although a hybrid Corvette hasn't been ruled out, Stephens does say that we shouldn't expect a six-cylinder in the 'Vette's engine bay anytime soon.

[Source: Auomotive News - Sub. Req.]

REPORT: GM willing to investigate hybrid tech, low-rolling resistance tires if Corvette's survival depends on it originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 21 Sep 2009 15:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’ve associated Mercedes-Benz with big, multi-cylinder engines that extract generous power and torque from the depth of their sheer capacity, you may soon need to change your thinking. Displacement is so yesterday; the future at Mercedes is dominated by small engines (and electrics, if the buying public really opens its wallet).

The OM651 four-cylinder diesel engine, launched in the C-class and now available in the E-class and the GLK as well, will not only power commercial vehicles, but will also be altered and significantly lightened to fit in the next-generation A- and B-class.

Mercedes is also working on a direct-injection, turbocharged four-cylinder gasoline engine to power all vehicles from the A- and B-class up to the E-class and perhaps even the S-class. It could produce up to 270 hp without hybridization—electric motors could add even more power on top.

Even three-cylinder engines are possible—not just for the A- and B-class, but also for the rear-wheel-drive models. “Future customers won’t care about the number of cylinders that much,” Daimler R&D board member Thomas Weber tells us in an interview at the Frankfurt show. “Why shouldn’t we offer a three-cylinder engine that could be turbocharged and hybridized? I think it will be possible,” he says. “Less cylinders mean strong benefits in fuel consumption and weight.”

Weber says that future models will have to be lighter. “We will take 100 kilograms (220 lbs) out of the next C-class. That enables us to add technology such as hybrid modules while keeping the weight constant. If you compare similarly spec’d versions, the new model will be 100 kilograms less.”

We submit that this kind of a weight reduction will be sorely needed as fuel consumption takes precedence over power and performance at the German luxury brand.

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A one-liter car? This moniker describes a car that uses one liter of fuel—about a quarter of a gallon—to propel a car for 100 kilometers, or 62 miles. The one-liter car’s fuel economy translates to almost 240 mpg, and VW has had such a car in its sights for some time now. In 2002, outgoing VW CEO Ferdinand Piëch, now head of the company’s supervisory board, drove a cigar-shaped prototype from VW headquarters in Wolfsburg to a shareholders’ meeting in Hamburg.

Now the idea of the one-liter car has been resurrected. VW’s biggest news at the Frankfurt auto show was the L1 concept, a prototype that “is close to production” and “will be developed,” the company says. Three ingredients were needed to make it happen: a supremely efficient powertrain, great aerodynamics, and lightweight engineering.

Keep Reading: Volkswagen L1 Concept – Auto Shows

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