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News Archive
Monday, December 22, 2003
NATURE Gets Revenge in ZAP Ad Campaign
News from Market Wire (press release):
On behalf of Mother Earth, the creative team of David Swope and Neil Levy is launching an ad campaign for electric car pioneer ZAP (OTC BB: ZAPZ). The ads poke fun at SUVs, while introducing the new compact electric ZAP L.U.V.™ (Light Utility Vehicle).
One poster shows a fallen tree crushing two SUVs, while sparing the smaller ZAP car between them. The headline is upbeat, "Hello, Parking Karma." A second in the series shows a line of birds on a wire above a parking lot. The only car left 'untouched' is the ZAPCAR™ near the headline, "Nature Thanks You."
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Monday, December 15, 2003
VOLKSWAGEN skeptical about benefits of hybrid powertrains
News from AutoWeek:
TOKYO -- Volkswagen is skeptical about the benefits of hybrid powertrain solutions.
VW's Franz-Josef Paefgen said the company isn't developing a hybrid because it doesn't feel its needs the technology. But he admits VW and other automakers may be forced to develop hybrids, if emissions standards taking hold in California are adopted elsewhere.
Paefgen, who is the VW Group board member responsible for research and development, shared his views during an interview at the Tokyo auto show.
The German automaker thinks the development of better combustion engines and cleaner-burning fuels are the ways to meet tougher emissions rules.
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Monday, December 15, 2003
The POD Car
News from New York Times By Bruce Grierson:
If your car really loved you, it would not treat you as a simple payload to be moved crosstown or cross-country. It would be sensitive to your feelings, responsive to your wishes, attentive to your midnight ramblings and indulgent of your occasional urge to communicate with other cars.
One hit of this year's Tokyo Motor Show -- the traditional showcase for the unbridled ids of Japanese auto designers -- was the Toyota Personal Mobility device, or ''P.M.'' Less a car, really, than a sort of insectlike pod for a solitary driver, this concept vehicle, powered by an electric motor, was loaded with anthropomorphic features. The prototype could adjust its ''posture,'' chivalrously standing its chassis up to let you in and then slowly rolling into a recumbent position as you picked up speed. It could sense if you were driving erratically and ask if everything was O.K. It could even blush -- a tubular light around the cockpit would change from placid blue to aroused crimson, mirroring your own emotional state (which it detects with biosensors). The color-coding would help you connect with other P.M.'s whose drivers were demonstrably on your wavelength -- or avoid those who were having bad days. And if you really wanted to get to know your new friends, a wireless text-messaging system would allow you to bounce bons mots back and forth while driving.
The P.M. is not a vehicle you will see on the road any time soon. It's a rolling bundle of still-in-the-oven technologies designed to get car owners dreaming about the existential possibilities of the cyborg commuter. Concept cars are often used to float technologies that could be spun into other, more immediately marketable vehicles. While some of the P.M.'s features seem fated to further distract motorists already driving with a cellphone in one hand and a Go-Gurt on their knees, John Hanson, Toyota's national manager for product communications, insists that we will love them. One day, he says, all of the car-to-car and car-to-driver chatter will be voice-activated and absolutely second nature, a safe and seamless give-and-take between metal and flesh.
''What happens is that the vehicle begins to anticipate what you're going to want to do, what your priorities are, what your agendas are,'' he says, speaking into his own cellphone headset while driving through the Nevada desert. ''It knows what kind of music you like. It knows where you live and how you usually drive home. It can say, 'John, I think you'd better take an alternate route 'cause there's a pileup on I-5.' So it thinks ahead. It begins to know you as a person the way a good friend would.''
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Thursday, December 11, 2003
Toyota to release hybrid SUV model in U.S.
News from JapanToday.com:
NEW YORK — Toyota Motor Corp said Wednesday it will launch the Highlander hybrid midsize sport-utility vehicle (SUV) in the United States in late 2004.
The Highlander, which is sold as the Kluger in Japan, will join the popular Prius hybrid sedan as Toyota's second vehicle with a gas-electric hybrid system. (Kyodo News)
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Tuesday, December 09, 2003
Reva to export 500 electric cars to Britain
News from New Kerala:
Bangalore, Dec 9 : The makers of India's first compact electric car Reva have entered into a marketing tie-up with Going Green Plc to export 500 cars to Britain over the next nine months.
Reva Electric Car will sell the vehicle in Britain under the brand name G-WIZ.
Chetan Maini, the firm's managing director, said here Tuesday, "We began test-marketing Reva in Britain early this year and modified its features based on customer feedback to suit their requirements, including climate control seats and remote control heating.
Of the 2.5 million cars sold in Britain in the last 10 months, 875,000 were in the super mini category. With 38 percent having single occupancy and 34 percent double occupancy, the potential for G-WIZ is about 100,000 in the next couple of years.
"As the second largest electric car producer the world (behind) Ford in the US, Reva has the first-move advantage in the emerging trend for zero-pollution cars," Maini said at a preview of Reva Classe, the new export model with additional comfort and safety features.
Reva hit the Indian roads in mid-2001. The company has sold about 550 units in India and 50 overseas. About 50 percent of the cars were sold in Karnataka.
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Tuesday, December 09, 2003
EDTA Adopts Aggressive Work Plan For 2004
Press release from: Electric Drive Transportation Association
(CSRwire) Washington, D.C. - The Board of Directors of the Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA) established an aggressive agenda and strong leadership team for calendar year 2004 at their year-end meeting last week in New York City. Topping plans for the New Year is a concerted “push” for swift enactment and then successful implementation of comprehensive energy legislation that is currently stalled in the U.S. Senate. The measure would provide important tax incentives for battery, hybrid and fuel cell electric vehicles and related infrastructure, as well as authorities to undertake significant new federal programs to assist industry in the research, development, demonstration and commercialization of electric drive technologies. “EDTA’s policy agenda tops the list of important initiatives that EDTA will undertake in the coming year; Congress must act immediately to put in place the financial incentives and programs that can help to assure that our nation reaps the national energy security, environmental and economic benefits promised by the advent of electric drive transportation,” stated EDTA Co-Chairman Eugene Zeltmann, President and COO of the New York Power Authority.
A second priority for EDTA is the conduct of its third “Electric Drive Transportation Industry Conference” (ETIC-04), which will be held in Kissimmee, Florida, September 21 to 23. Following on the heels of EDTA’s successful EVS-20 symposium, next year’s conference promises to be 2004’s largest gathering of the international electric drive industry. “EDTA has a growing, and well-earned reputation as the world’s premier organizer of electric drive industry events. ETIC-04 is being planned to offer the industry the most comprehensive and ‘hands on’ forum for information exchange, business venture development, market forecasting and sales,” stated EDTA Co-Chairman Douglas West, Senior Vice President of Government and Industry Affairs for Toyota.
EDTA also plans to overhaul its website in 2004 to provide more information and better navigation to the more than 15,000 visitors it welcomes each month to www.electricdrive.org. The website also is an important grassroots lobbying tool for the organization. Through the EDTA “Legislative Action Center”, the organization generated nearly 3,000 e-mails to Congress this year calling for incentives and government support for electric drive.
Finally, EDTA will continue and expand services to its membership, including the Association’s newsletter “Electric Drive Update”, the “Industry Leaders” interview series, and its electronic news clipping service, “E-Media Watch”.
The Board elected its leadership team for 2004, retaining all of the officers from this year. Returning as Co-Chairmen of EDTA are Douglas West and Eugene Zeltmann, cited above. The Secretary will be Ed Kjaer, the Director of Electric Transportation for Southern California Edison; and the treasurer will be Frank Ingriselli, President of Global Venture Investments, LLC. “EDTA will continue to reap the benefits of a strong and proven leadership team in 2004. I am delighted that these ‘veterans’, who oversaw the aggressive and successful execution of the EDTA program this year will be returning in 2004, thereby insuring that EDTA will pursue its goals and objectives aggressively and successfully,” stated Kateri Callahan, President of EDTA.
Finally, the EDTA Board announced the departure of Kateri Callahan as President effective January 1, 2004. Ms. Callahan stated, “I have both gratitude and profound respect for the Board, EDTA members and staff, and I expect to contribute to their important efforts to advance the use of electric drive technologies through my new position.” Ms. Callahan has been named President of the Alliance to Save Energy. In announcing her departure, Co-Chairman West stated, “Kateri Callahan has been an important voice for the electric drive industry for nearly 15 years. The EDTA Board and membership wish her every success in her new position and are confident that she will continue to be a moving force in the electric drive industry.” The EDTA Board of Directors appointed Gail Hendrickson, EDTA Vice President, as the acting head of the organization while a search is undertaken to fill the vacancy.
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Monday, December 08, 2003
Toyota Prius Hybrid Production Increased by 31 Percent for U.S. Market
News from PRNewswire/Yahoo Finance:
Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A, Inc., today announced a 31 percent increase in production of its all-new, second-generation Prius gas-electric hybrid sedan to help meet the vehicle's heavy demand in the U.S. market.
The original Prius production plan for 2004 calendar year was 36,000 units. With 12,000 pre-orders received before the vehicle launched in mid- October and approximately 10,000 units delivered in its first six weeks on sale, it became necessary to boost Prius production to 47,000 units annually.
"This is all about customer satisfaction," said Don Esmond, TMS senior vice president and general manager. "With record-shattering sales in both October and November, and no sign of demand letting up, it became clear we had underestimated our early sales projections. If 47,000 units is still too low, another request for additional production from our Tsutsumi Plant in Toyota City, Japan may be necessary."
Prius (the name comes from the Latin "to go before") was the world's first mass-produced gas-electric hybrid vehicle when introduced in Japan in 1997 (2000 in the U.S. market). It has since become the best-selling hybrid vehicle in the world. Improved in every metric of comparison, the second-generation, 2004 Prius is the first hybrid vehicle to provide the room, comfort and features of a midsize sedan.
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Wednesday, December 03, 2003
Health groups warn high-tech car tax credit will lapse
News from Newsday.com:
By MICHAEL GORMLEY
Associated Press Writer
ALBANY, N.Y. -- State tax credits to encourage the purchase of "hybrid" fuel cars by individuals and companies are scheduled to lapse Dec. 31, alarming health and environmental groups who fear a setback in clean air efforts.
"The mere act of breathing can put the over 1 million New Yorkers with asthma at risk for hospitalizations and can diminish the quality of life for others with lung disease," said Elizabeth Miller of the American Lung Association of New York State. "It is important for the Assembly to come back to Albany to protect the health of all New Yorkers by passing this legislation to renew these tax credits," she wrote in a letter to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver on Wednesday.
The state Senate has already approved an extension of the personal income tax credit for vehicles partly operated by electricity, which advocacy groups want to see maintained. The tax credit for businesses that operate clean air fleets also will end Dec. 31. The effort to renew the tax break for fleets died in the Legislature earlier this year, a victim of the state's multibillion deficits.
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Monday, December 01, 2003
Hybrid truck a boost for 'green' engines
News from The Indianapolis Star:
By TED EVANOFF
SEATTLE -- An auto engine that sucks in smoggy city air, spews clean exhaust and goes farther on a tank of fuel than a conventional engine clearly has its charms.
Putting this green "electric hybrid" technology in an ordinary car or truck would seem like a no-brainer solution for urban smog.
But although the technology promises fuel economy and reduced emissions, "some people think it's a passing phenomenon. They say the hybrid will not be long-lived," said Walter McManus, director of automotive forecasts in the Troy, Mich., office of the research firm J.D. Power and Associates Inc.
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