The CarGurus Blog

Finally, something from Chrysler-Fiat that makes sense: importing the Fiat 500 to the U.S. Contrary to what some skeptics are saying, this move will help struggling Chrysler regain needed positive press and, perhaps, finally establish a niche market for its new products.

The 500 is a great car: well-designed, well-built, with an Italian flair that cannot be duplicated. A year ago, it was voted Best Compact Car in Japan by some 80,000 people polled. The MINI Cooper and the New Beetle have been named as competition. I think that’s wrong, as each car will appeal to rather distinct market segments: The Fiat is more of a city car, though I recently saw one on the Oaxaca-Mexico City autopista, and it was moving along smartly. The car will be built in Mexico—at Toluca, I think.

Three versions will come to the U.S. First, the basic 1.4-liter will arrive in late 2010 in “metro areas at select dealers that house all Chrysler Group LLC brands and will include a dedicated salon inside the dealership.” This will be followed in 2011 by the 500 convertible, with rollback top (above), and in 2012 by an Abarth 500 with turbocharger and, we assume, some suspension mods. Go to Carscoop for a slew of photos.

I honestly don’t see how Chrysler can survive with its present products. The company needs a dramatic and meaningful renaissance with new cars and a new thrust. The 500 could provide the beginning of that if, and it’s a big “if,” it is marketed to the buyers who will respond. The idea of putting it in select dealerships in metro areas makes good sense.

What is nonsense is the proposed merging of Lancia and Chrysler to create, in the words of one blogger, a “Frankenstein’s Monster.” This would be the ultimate rebadging folly, as both companies have become losers, though Lancia still survives by making small numbers of quality cars. Putting a Chrysler badge on the Lancia Delta 1.8 Di (above) which some think likely, would immediately transform a good car into an also-ran, in my opinion. Kind of like putting a Saturn label on an Alfa.

Give us your opinion on whether the Fiat 500 can carve out a niche for itself in the U.S. market.

—jgoods

Car Industry News, Car Minded, Cars Coming Soon, Domestic Cars, Foreign Cars, General Chat

The annual SEMA Show in Las Vegas is all about the mods. And we’re not just talking paint jobs and rear wings, we’re talking completely rebuilt and heavily modified aftermarket car heaven.

The show wrapped up yesterday, and here are the eight best cars that were there:

Delta Tech Engineering’s Suzuki Kizashi

While the stock Kizashi looks pretty darn good (for a Suzuki), this version makes it look downright hot. It was given a big open grille, a cold air intake, custom exhaust and all LED or HID lights. Sweet!

Carbon Fiber Mustang

Carbon fiber use was a bit of a theme this year, and no one used if better than Vaughn Gittin Jr. His carbon fiber RTR-C Mustang uses real carbon fiber panels, cutting about 500 pounds of weight. Only 10 cars were made, and each will cost you about $135K. But you also get a supercharger, if that helps make your decision easier.

Hennessey HP700 Camaro

Take a Corvette ZR1 LS9 engine, stuff it into a Camaro and tune it to deliver 725 hp, with 0-60 coming in 3.5 seconds. Flat-out coolest thing ever? Quite possibly.

Rhys Millen mid-engine Hyundai Genesis Coupe

We gave you a teaser of this thing a little while ago. Here’s the finished product! Car mods don’t get much more extreme than this: A 4.6-liter V8  producing 500 horses has been mounted where the back seats should be. Add a carbon fiber roof (why not, everyone else is), a body kit and before long you’ve got yourself a Ferrari-fighting Hyundai. Imagine that!

1959 Fiat 500 Funny Car

I don’t know whether to laugh or be in awe of this thing. Either way, it’s the epitome of why the SEMA Show exists. Legacy Innovations took a 1959 Fiat 500 and gave it a 725 hp (!) 427 small block. Go, little Fiat, go!

2010 Ford Raptor 6.2

Drool drool drool…

Of all the cars and trucks at SEMA, here’s one you could potentially buy from your corner Ford dealer. Even by Raptor standards, this is one extreme truck, boasting a 6.2-liter engine rated at 411 hp and equipped with more off-road capability than any one human ever needs. And it’s a bargain too… coming in at about $42K.

Pagani Zonda R

Any of the world’s most exclusive supercars get an automatic spot in my lists. Especially when outfitted in exotic carbon fiber. You kind of have to wonder though, now that carbon fiber has shown up on a Hyundai, how long before the material is remembered as sooooo 2009?

Local Motors Rally Fighter

Local Motors is showing us that a different way of building and selling cars is possible. The Rally Fighter was designed using an open-source model and will be sold by the company directly. Buyers even get to travel to a factory and help build the car with their own hands before driving it home. The Rally Fighter uses a BMW 335d drivetrain and is said to achieve 30 miles per gallon.

If you could have one of these, which one would you drive home from Vegas?

-tgriffith

Car Accessories, Car Industry News, Car Minded, Car Parts, Car Shows, Domestic Cars, Exotic Cars, Foreign Cars, General Chat, Trucks & SUVs

Fiat 500 Abarth: the most exciting car from Chrysler coming in the next two years

My memories of Chrysler are not good.

When I was a kid, my parents had a Chrysler Le Baron. It trapped my younger brother in a seat belt that refused to unclick. Not long after, the engine blew up. Thankfully, my brother was already released from the Le Baron’s ugly grasp.

I’ve been resentful of Chrysler ever since, and I have to admit I even felt a little bit of glee as I watched the company’s quality and sales numbers sink.

Today, I think it’s time to give up my long-standing ill will towards Chrysler and look toward a very different future for the company and its cars. Why now? Because yesterday was new Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne’s marathon (seven-hour) press conference unveiling his five-year plan for Chrysler. It’s mostly good, though it doesn’t inspire much confidence within the next two years. The hope, and the major change, begins when the Fiat platforms start entering the market around 2012.

Autoblog ran a great minute-by-minute recap of the entire conference. Here are some highlights, divided by brand, of what vehicles we can expect in the coming years from Chrysler, and which ones will (finally) go away:

Dodge

First, have a look at the new logo. The traditional ram-face logo is gone, replaced by bold Dodge lettering. Simple, but cool.

Dodge cars that we can expect to stick around through at least 2014 are: Charger, Challenger, Journey, Avenger, and Grand Caravan. Avenger and Journey will be refreshed for 2010 with a new interior, new engine, refreshed exterior, and a healthy dose of comfort, convenience, performance, and fuel economy. Expect a 2010 refresh of Grand Caravan, too, with some interior and exterior mods, a new engine, a complete suspension retune, and improved fuel economy. Avenger will get a Fiat platform in 2013.

Also, expect a new full-size CUV in 2010, a Fiat-based compact sedan in 2012, and another small car in 2013.

The Dodge Viper will go away in 2010, followed by the Nitro in 2011 and the Caliber in 2012. Viper fans rest easy, though, because it could come back in 2012 with some Italian influence (Fiat owns Ferrari too, remember!).

Ram

Remember Ram is becoming its own brand, separate from the Dodge brand. Dealers will get the above logo for their stores. There’s not much to report here, except:

The Dakota will be killed in 2011, possibly replaced by a unibody pickup (think Honda Ridgeline). Fiat will add some commercial vans to the lineup in 2012, while the Ram light duty and heavy duty pickups continue with a refresh in 2012.

Jeep

The Jeep brand will see a few changes. A new Grand Cherokee will arrive in 2010, along with major refreshes for Patriot, Compass, and Wrangler. Patriot and Compass get new interiors, while Wrangler gets a new engine. And check this out: Wrangler will get a diesel option, though it may not be offered in the U.S.

The Patriot and Compass will go away in 2013, replaced with a Fiat-based model. There will also be a new small SUV in 2013. Liberty will get a Fiat platform in 2013, too.

The Wrangler will get another refresh in 2011 to commemorate the Jeep brand’s 70th anniversary.

Chrysler

It’s hard to get excited about much here, aside from that Aston-esque new logo (even though the leaked version, above, looks more like clip art). There is a huge gap of anything new between now and 2012. The Sebring will get refreshed in 2010 and survive until 2013, when it’ll be replaced by a Fiat platform. Chrysler will get a new Fiat-based small car, compact sedan, and crossover in 2013, with a new Town & Country minivan in 2014. PT Cruiser will die at the end of 2010, while the 300 gets a 2010 refresh to last it through 2014.

Finally… the American-ized Fiat 500 will begin arriving in select Chrysler dealerships in 2010. We’ll even get an Abarth!

So there you go, fellow Car Gurus. I’m excited for some Fiat-based Chryslers in the next few years. Are you?

-tgriffith

Car Industry News, Car Minded, Cars Coming Soon, Domestic Cars, Foreign Cars, General Chat, Trucks & SUVs

The new BMW ActiveHybrid 7 was recently spotted by an alert Autoweek reader in Los Angeles. Car and Driver gave it a skeptical first-drive review, suggesting (without saying so exactly) that this is a somewhat ridiculous, redundant car in the BMW lineup.

What makes the ActiveHybrid 7 strange is BMW’s boast that it is the quickest hybrid sedan on the market. If speed is the objective, we’re not sure why a hybrid is the answer. Likewise, if fuel economy is the end goal, tuning the twin-turbo V-8 gas engine for an additional 40 hp and 30 lb-ft of torque seems silly. However, if a 7-series customer believes he needs a car more powerful than the 750i but doesn’t want to step up to the 12-cylinder 760Li—which we think he should—and also wants 15 percent or so better fuel economy, BMW has just the model.

Looking at the many entrants in the rarefied-price stratum of hybrids, the question we finally ask is “Why?” Particularly since the BMW goes head to head with the Lexus LS600h L, available now for at least two years. Why would one spend all that money to get a car that offers minimal performance and fuel economy advantages? To be hybrid hip, I guess.

Fisker has a different idea. They don’t want to build $110,000 BMW or Lexus-type hybrids but “affordable” plug-ins. We wrote last week that they were in negotiation for the old GM factory in Wilmington, Delaware, where they will reportedly build in three years a “family-oriented plug-in hybrid sedan that will come in at around $40K” after federal tax credits. The Karma S sedan (right) will start at $87,000. CEO Henrik Fisker isn’t all that concerned about engines. He told Autoweek that he “envisions a future where hybrids will get their own niche powerplants, specially tuned to the need of alternative technologies. A hybrid for example, probably doesn’t need to rev to 8,000 rpm.”

Fisker got a very good deal from a Department of Energy grant to buy and refurbish this plant, and that surely will give the company a leg up on the competition. Tesla just received a $29 million tax break from the state of California, which makes that state the likely home for the company’s future production.

Another stimulus, this one for electric car production, has come to Seattle to build a network of more than 2,000 car charging stations. “By December 2010, drivers in Seattle should be able to buy mass-produced, plug-in electrics that create no emissions and run for pennies a mile.” And the state has aggressively pursued not only federal money, which will fund this effort, but also the efforts of many hi-tech businesses that are greening up.

Another reason is that lots of “Generation Y” folks live in the Northwest, and they are partial not only to hybrid powertrains, but also to considering the purchase of Chinese or Indian brands of hybrids. This according to a study by AutoPacific reported in egmCarTech. If they are really hot for hybrids, they would do well to use the Hybrid Payback Calculator, which you can download here. It helps you determine whether the cost of a hybrid is really worth it. You enter in the car’s cost, miles per gallon, price per gallon of gas, and the estimated miles you drive in a month. Clever, eh? Maybe a prospective BMW ActiveHybrid 7 purchaser could use one.

What’s your opinion on high-priced hybrids? Are they worth it—and to whom?

—jgoods

Car Industry News, Car Minded, Domestic Cars, Exotic Cars, Foreign Cars, General Chat, Green Updates, Hybrid Cars

The Chinese car industry has slowed down somewhat but, as most of you know, is still thriving. Much of its manufacturing capability has been traditionally grown by foreign carmakers who planted the seeds years ago. For instance, GM in 1997

established two joint ventures with the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation in China. One was for manufacturing. The other venture, for design and engineering, is the Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center. The center has done the engineering to adapt various G.M. global models for the Chinese market.

This from The New York Times, recently reporting how the design of a new version of the Buick Riviera is being led by a team in China, as was done with the LaCrosse (above), the car responsible for much of GM’s sales success in that country.

My correspondent in Xi’an, Yue Han, remarked that the popularity of Buick has remained very steady over the years and is increasing in this decade. In Xi’an (home of the terracotta warriors and the giant wild goose pagoda), the LaCrosse is considered a highly desirable upscale car, as evidenced by the numbers seen on local roads. The car has become a status symbol because of its comfort, styling, and electronic amenities. Says Yue, “It is really an upper-middle-class car. But the Big People still drive Mercedes and BMWs.” That’s no different from what Buick’s market has almost always been in the U.S.

Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) partnered not only with GM but also with Volkswagen in a joint venture in 1984. They created Shanghai Volkswagen, one of China’s largest car factories, producing 500,000 vehicles a year. The plant makes everything from Polos (right) and Santanas (below) to Škodas (the Czech marque owned by VW since 1991). Amidst a plunging third-quarter profit, VW was pleased to announce that it was still in the black, thanks basically to its China sales.

VW Chairman Martin Winterkorn noted that while the business climate is still “tough,” China remained the company’s largest market, accounting for one in five vehicles sold. Similarly, Buick sells far more cars in China than in the U.S. Said the Times,

For the first nine months of 2009, for instance, Buick sold 312,798 vehicles in China; in the United States, it sold 72,389.

What are the implications of China’s coming dominance in automobiles? What are its implications for GM’s future? Leave us your thoughts in a comment, please.

—jgoods

Car Industry News, Car Minded, Domestic Cars, Foreign Cars, General Chat

In a shrewd marketing ploy, Maximum Bob Lutz, GM’s noisy vice chairman, challenged all comers (driving comparable four-door sedans) to beat him in a race at the Monticello track in the Catskills. The race was yesterday, and Lutz came in seventh, behind a bunch of other CTS-Vs (driven by GM engineers and a couple of professional drivers) and a BMW M3, driven by a young whipper-snapper (as Lutz later termed his competitors), Michael Cooper.

The event was cooked up to attract auto journalists, and Jalopnik responded first, with an entry of a Jaguar XF R, later to be withdrawn owing to brake concerns. Driver Wes Siler entered a Mitsubishi EVO instead, and came in eighth. The Truth About Cars entered a CTS-V driven by Jack Baruth, which came in fifth.

Now, from one mid-70s guy to another, let me say congratulations to the man who was not only a good loser but a good driver. We all know how badly older people can drive, but here’s a guy who’s not only kept his skills, but shown the world how to get ink for a great product. Everybody from The New York Times to Facebook has been in on this story.

Cadillac recently fired its ad agency—the one that produced spots featuring a sexy lady driving a red CTS and asking, “When you turn your car on, does it return the favor?” Lutz says stunts like his challenge are lots cheaper and more effective in attracting buyers. What do you think?

—jgoods

Auto Racing, Car Industry News, Car Minded, Domestic Cars, Foreign Cars, General Chat

Can you guess what this is?

One of the greatest parts about having kids is getting to raid their candy at Halloween. That way, I get the treats without the work of going door to door.

If you don’t have kids, or are just too ethical to steal candy from them, no worries. Cars Coming Soon has some treats for you, too. You can’t eat them, but they’re sure to raise your excitement level and give you something to look forward to in the coming months and years.

So let’s get to it!

Euro-spec Honda Accord Tourer

First, Honda isn’t known for products that create a ton of excitement. But when any company announces that a much-loved European model will surface in the States, folks tend to go a little berserk. Even if said model is a Honda station wagon. (Proof that Americans go gaga over anything we perceive as being Euro-cool.)

Expect the Honda Accord Tourer to show up in America as an Acura TSX sport wagon. Don’t confuse this with the much ballyhooed Honda Accord Crosstour that is also on the way. The TSX sport wagon, according to the good folks at Autoblog,

will be based on the TSX sedan, which is itself basically a Euro Accord. It is unclear which powertrains we’ll get, or if styling will be tweaked from its European counterpart, but it is expected to arrive next fall. Color us excited.

Ford Kuga

In other Euro news, production of the Ford Kuga SUV will move to America by 2011. Car and Driver suspects that move could lead to the Kuga replacing the aging Ford Escape. Let’s hope that’s true, because the Kuga is sleek and refined, while the Escape is bulky and well…ugly. Feel free to make your own “Kuga on the prowl” joke while gazing at the loveliness of European SUV design.

Reports have been floating around that Volkswagen is working on a U.S.-built sedan that would replace the Passat in 2011. The new midsize sedan, dubbed the NMS (shown on top!) should start at around $20K, making it much more affordable than the $27K Passat. Sketches are emerging, and it appears that Volkswagen is taking a page out of Chevy’s book. Anyone else see the Camaro resemblance here? Regardless, it looks like the NMS will be much sexier than the current Passat.

What other European models do you hope make it to the United States?

-tgriffith

Car Industry News, Car Minded, Cars Coming Soon, Domestic Cars, Foreign Cars, General Chat

We learned today that GMAC has been looking for a third round of bailout money from the Treasury—and they may have gotten it. The latest news is that the company has just put $2.9 billion of junk bonds (rated by Moody’s “two notches above default”) on the market. However, these bonds are backed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, thus giving them a triple-A rating. And because of the FDIC backup, these bonds will sell!

This is but the latest in a series of sand-bagging moves on the part of the Feds to make the levee hold. GMAC Financial Services, the lending arm for both GM and Chrysler dealers and customers, is really the lifeline for these companies. The government has already put $12.5 billion (35 percent ownership) into GMAC, which may have become a bottomless pit. Here are the problems, as I interpret them out of one messy situation:

1. The company was made a bank earlier this year so that it could gain access to the FDIC’s loan guarantee program, the one being used for the new bonds issued today. As a bank, it failed the government’s stress test and couldn’t raise investor capital, posting a $3.9 billion second-quarter loss. Treasury concluded “it needed to raise $11.5 billion more in capital by mid-November.”

2. GMAC also operates a mortgage lending business, Residential Capital, which has experienced enormous losses in the housing market. Its commercial successor, Capmark Financial, just filed for bankruptcy. Most of the second-quarter losses came from real estate. GMAC also has an online banking company, Ally Banking (formerly GMAC Bank), which has come under fire for offering very high rates for deposits, since they’re guaranteed by the Feds!

3. These financial tie-ins to the struggling car business and the disastrous real-estate loans are bound to result in collapse—unless Treasury keeps pouring money in. Since GMAC is now the primary financing source for both GM and Chrysler, dealers for Chrysler are in particularly big trouble, according to Freep.

Chrysler Financial, which Treasury has demanded go out of business by the end of 2011, is asserting its first-lien rights on loans to Chrysler dealers. At the same time GMAC, due to its capital shortfall, has asked those same dealers to pay additional collateral on the vehicles they order from Chrysler Group. Many of those dealers borrowed $10 million or more to expand their showrooms, and can’t sell the property for anywhere near what they owe Chrysler Financial.

The true reason for this revolving bailout is that, in a credit economy, somebody has to front the money to buy cars. The banks aren’t doing it, consumers aren’t doing it, so you the taxpayer will have to do it. The craziness is that taxpayers are lending money to themselves in hopes that the industry will finally earn a profit to pay them back.

Is the spiral endless? Are we in a financial Catch-22? Lay your thoughts on us in a comment.

—jgoods

Car Industry News, Car Minded, Car Politics, Domestic Cars, General Chat

Compare a Ford corporate ad...

Do you believe advertising?

TV advertising has less effect on me every day. Heck, I worked as a creative director at an ad agency, and I still don’t trust 90 percent of the ads I see. This is because companies don’t seem to sell their best attributes anymore – they’ve turned to using tactics designed to sell product regardless of how far the truth is stretched.

Advertising for the auto industry is especially complicated, because it seems to have its own set of rules. How can any company properly advertise something that has no real set price and many different features that appeal differently to many different people? It’s a tall, tricky order, and I think it’s being done wrong for these reasons:

1. The price can’t be clearly stated
Consumers are confused and on guard right away, because we know a car’s price is never set in stone.

• We know the price the manufacturer thinks a car is worth (the MSRP).
• We know we don’t ever need to pay that much.
• We look online and at newspaper and TV ads and see all kinds of special offers and prices.
• We go to the dealer and find out they would like us to pay more than the MSRP.

This is a pricing nightmare that is specific to the auto industry (you sure don’t see it at the grocery store).

2. No car does it all
When consumers start car shopping, we look at the selling points of cars (and carmakers) we are interested in. Some of us are looking for the best performance, while others want the best fuel efficiency. Some want cars that are visually appealing, while others would rather have a car that can comfortably haul a family. Some want cars that will hold their value, while others simply want the lowest price up front. Some of us want all of that in one package, as promised by some car ads, and are disappointed when we can’t find it.

...with a Ford dealer ad (combined with Toyota).
Where is the brand experience?

3. Advertising messages fall flat
We are bombarded with car ads every day. We see ads from Ford, Chevy, Toyota, and more that strive to make vehicles look amazing while artfully showing off features and performance. But minutes later we see ads from car dealers that scream (literally) about insanely low prices. From a consumer’s point of view, this is confusing, because we are having two very different experiences with the same brand. In our eyes, dealers are extensions of the manufacturers, and any sales schemes they create are reflected right back onto the automaker, which cheapens the brand message instead of reinforcing it.

I think dealer advertising tends to cancel out manufacturer advertising, leaving consumers to trust only their judgment and the opinions of people we trust.

How to fix it
The first issue, price, is something we can’t do anything about. When taken with the other two issues, though, that works itself out. We pay what we feel the car we want is worth to us.

Which brings us to the second issue: No car does it all. You know what kind of car appeals to you and why. If you’re a speed freak, you might want a Cadillac CTS-V simply because it was a few seconds faster around the Nurburgring than a BMW M5.

If you have a family, you might be in love with the Honda Odyssey because of its reputation for reliability and for holding its value. The fact that a Kia Sedona might be less expensive or a Ford Flex might be more attractive has no impact on your purchase decision.

Instead of trying to be everything to everyone, carmakers need to give it up and just honestly say what they are best at and why. Instead of searching for a new agency to produce a new gimmick every time sales take a dive (which GM is doing with Cadillac), why not work with the agency to identify core values and then build up the brand around those?

When a company focuses on its core values, the advertising falls into place (at least on the corporate level). Going a step further would be controlling dealer advertising and forcing it to conform to the corporate brand, which I think absolutely must be done.

Car consumers are smart. We know what we want. Automakers: Just tell us what you stand for, tell us what you do best, and we’ll buy your cars. Simple as that.

Does automotive advertising influence you, or do you rely on reviews and opinions of others when car shopping?

-tgriffith

Car Industry News, Car Minded, Domestic Cars, Foreign Cars, General Chat

With a population of 20 million growing at 2 percent a year, Mexico City has long been the smog capital of the hemisphere. It’s the third-largest urban area in the world and has been fighting air pollution with greater and lesser success for years. At the heart of the problem, of course, is the automobile, and specifically the proliferation of old, stinky, polluting taxis.

Now we have a far-out proposal from industrial designer Alberto Villareal for a fuel-cell-powered, drive-by-wire, solar-paneled (on the roof) taxi called MX-Libris (above), which may be just radical enough to do the job. The car won the Red Dot Design Award in 2008, and two Mexican firms have shown interest. Funding would come from the Centro de Transporte Sustentable, which promotes green transport. Go, Alberto!

Toyota FT-EV-II

Why do most electric cars look so ugly and commonplace? Do their designers deliberately turn out plug-ugly plug-ins because of some kind of group-think? These and other questions are delightfully addressed by Alice Rawsthorn in a New York Times piece. They are boring and ugly, she says, because of the problems inherent in new-car design, the reluctance of the industry to experiment and take chances, and the fears engendered by the huge investments required. As ever, however, there can be no reward without risk. Tesla has done it. Why can’t others?

New (U.S.?) Mazda 2

The Japanese want to take the lead in green car technology and production, and they are making noises as if they can and will do it. In particular, Mazda is working on the feasibility of diesels for the U.S. and, not surprisingly, they are looking at VW’s ability to market the diesel here with some success. The Mazda2 might be a diesel candidate, and there has been much speculation on what the 2008 World Car of the Year will look like, what will power it, etc., when it comes here. The car will get to the U.S. most likely in late 2010.

Honda CEO Takanobu Ito spoke out last week to a group of journalists (we mentioned it here) on Honda’s commitment to hybrids, EVs, fuel cells, and a really green, i.e., hydrogen-powered, sports car, “not like the Lexus” (the V10-powered, $375,000 Lexus LFA supercar). Plans include hybrids for the larger Honda models (Accord, etc.), but all this will take time. In any case, the CR-Z is coming soon, and that is good news.

Proof that green technology is catching on comes with the increasing competition for manufacturing facilities. Reva, the Indian carmaker, announced it was opening a plant in upstate New York; the Nissan Leaf will be made in Tennessee as well as Japan; and Fisker is redeveloping a GM plant near Wilmington, which event will naturally be announced by Delaware arch-booster Vice President Joe Biden.

Finally, we were caught up last week by a Wall Street Journal piece on “Five Technologies That Could Change Everything.” One of these is truly pie in the sky (space-based solar power panels), and another would trap and bury CO2 underground. The rest are: advanced car batteries, utility storage, and next-gen biofuels. Each clearly involves the concept of storage, which, as all car gurus know, is what finally, instrumentally, enables our vehicles to move. The costs and engineering challenges will be enormous, but in the end what choice do we really have but to move ahead? Just where to put the bets down will be the first problem.

How about letting us know what kinds of energy topics you would like to see covered in future Green Updates? Please leave us a comment.

—jgoods

Car Industry News, Car Minded, Domestic Cars, Exotic Cars, Foreign Cars, Gas for your car..., General Chat, Green Updates, Hybrid Cars