Ford Fusion

A much needed update to the American Fusion will arrive at the end of the year. The image below shows a notable improvement of the front design while at the rear the modified car is set to loose the "rice" lights. Interior will be even more mature with some subtle chrome detailing added. Great emphasis will be placed in engines also: a new inline-4 is expected to have class-leading mpg numbers and the hybrid version will finally arrive. Ford really needed this car, now!... Anyway, looking at the image below I prefer the new American Fusion to the European Mondeo...

2009 Mazda 3

A new CGI shows a wonderfull design for the next Mazda 3. Too good to be true? Probably!

Electrics in the Pipeline

These are exciting times for electric vehicles. Major auto manufacturers are refining plug-in systems and testing them in fleets.

Toyota has announced that it will sell plug-in electric hybrid vehicles (PHEV) in the US in 2010.

Tony Posawatz, Vehicle Line Director for the Chevy Volt says that though "we haven't said exactly when the Chevy Volt will come to market, we've set our internal targets to complete the vehicle by the end of 2010."

Today Tesla Motors opened a new showroom for their 100% electric cars, & the cars are now in production.

Manufacturers are talking with Utility companies to be sure that the path is ready for cars to be plugged into the electric grid. There are many interesting prospects here:

• Intelligent electric meters (already in development) will give lower rates during low power demand periods -when most people will plug in their PHEVs.
• Possible the electrical grid (and customers like you and me) could benefit from selling power from the hybrid's electrical system back to the utility.

Later I'll have some news from the Plug-in Conference held in Silicon Valley this week.

Spyshot scandal: French magazine Auto-Plus under investigation...

... and our view on the subject one year ago!

The offices of French magazine Auto-Plus were raided by officials, accusing the magazine of industrial espionage against auto maker Renault. Auto Plus published pictures and details of new models not due to launch for two to three years and Renault retaliated with a complaint to authorities resulting in an investigation being launched since last August. So far this has resulted in the confiscation of computers, documents and the detainment of Auto Plus journalist, Bruno Thomas. Renault said the complaint was intended to protect its intellectual property: "It kills creativity, you may as well just give our models to the newspapers and our competitors. What's the point of doing any research?" a spokesman said.

The interesting bit of this newstory is that the complaint originated from the publication of detailed images of the Megane III by Auto-Plus that we at Auto-Future decided not to show at the time, anticipating that these would hurt Renault's business really hard. The original post in Auto-Future is from July 2007 and you can read all of it here, or an excerpt below... our opinion on the subject one year ago!

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"Finally, what’s with the “not presented below” picture? Some stolen images of what looks like a final design and unmasked version of the car were presented by a French magazine and could be illustrating this entry. Auto-Future reports on a lot of these scoops (and other stuff like technical information, EV future series, inside tips, etc), but we believe that showing those images means bad business to Renault. We are still more than one year before introduction of the model so this leak is much more serious than photographing masked prototypes or uncovered vehicles a couple of months before presentation. The interested reader can find those images very quickly on the internet so we are doing this as an editorial statement. We love all car brands and wish no harm to the folks that design and build cars all over the world. So if we feel that we could be hurting their business with a scoop image we don’t present it. And in this case Renault had a very serious security problem with this leak, such thing can not happen more than one year before the presentation of the car!"

EV Future: new picture of 2009 Toyota Prius

A new picture of the highly awaited next generation Prius with Plug-In capability. It actually looks a bit like a photoshop image presented in this blog sime time ago. Anyway it does not have to look spectacular, it will carry the Prius design theme but more modern and a bit bigger. The important stuff is the Plug-In availability.

EV future: Fisker Karma is for real?

Really we never bothered about the fisker Karma because it looked like the series-hibrid was not for real... but now we know that Fisker Automotive has signed a letter of intent with Valmet Automotive to assemble its Karma plug-in hybrid sports sedan in Finland beginning in late 2009. So is this for real after all?... Plug-In series hybrid and 4-door coupe?...Loving it!

EV Future: Comparison of electric cars

A nice video from WhatCar showing a comparison between 4 electric cars. Some of these are not real cars (the Nice and the Reva) but neverthless an interesting review and without some of the prejudice that I've noticed lately of motor-journalists against electric cars.

EV Future: Mitsubishi i-MiEV in 2009?

According to Greencarcongress news the Mitsubishi i-MiEV could be made available for retail sales in mid-2009 in Japan, one year ahead of previous schedule. This is could have been triggered by good results in the current test program although we suspect that since Nissan has been very vocal about its EV plans for 2010 Mitsubishi might want to establish a lead.

Even better than the public availability such news shows how alternatives can be available very soon and is a sign to speculators already buying oil for 2015 futures market: chill down because you could end up loosing money!

EV future: a Mercedes story

So here is an interesting Mercedes and EV-related story. Recently Mercedes decided to bring diesels to the US market. For that purpose the company invested millions in the Bluetec systems to comply with strict emissions regulations. Eventually, while arriving the US market, the diesel fuel prices in the USA miraculously rised well above gasoline... Mercedes was not happy and bitched against Big Oil.

Well everyone bitches against big oil, but Mercedes is a special company, the next time one notices they are sort of announcing that future A-Class, B-Class and Smart models will have electric versions available. That is Mercedes way of answering the tricks that were played in the US fuel market... One day, sooner than later, we consumers will also be able to give appropriate answers to the current energy market domination.

EV future: New Toyota Prius CGI

Looking good as it should. Slightly weird to please the green crowd. More important, the specs: plug-in availability (later); option of roof-mounted solar panels to power AC and other equipment. Check the full details here.

Plug-In Hybrid Conversion Alert

Less than a month ago a Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) caught fire and was destroyed. No one was hurt. The vehicle was a Toyota Prius with an after-market conversion to make the Prius a PHEV. The maker of the conversion kit (Hybrids Plus, of Boulder, CO) and several other organizations are investigating.

Hybrids Plus said, "After the incident we notified all owners of Hybrids Plus conversions, described to them the sequence of events in the incident, advising them not to drive until further information was available, and to call Hybrids Plus if there was any sign of a problem with their vehicle.

Over the past week we have conducted two extensive forensic examinations of the vehicle and of the battery pack using a team of experts that included Hybrids Plus technical staff, our cell manufacturer, and experts in electric vehicles." Read the complete statement.

This report from CRN (Cooperative Research Network, A Service of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association):

On June 7, 2008, the converted Prius plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) owned by Central Electric Power Cooperative in Columbia, SC, was destroyed by an internal fire that occurred during a routine drive. Thankfully, there were no injuries. But the converted Prius was destroyed. The cause of the fire is not known.

Until further investigation, CRN has advised grounding all test vehicles in the PHEV demonstration and is undertaking a detailed investigation. CRN has employed Electric Transportation Engineering Corporation (ETEC) of Phoenix, AZ, to perform an initial investigation on the PHEV. This firm has come highly recommended due to its experience with failure analysis and electric cars. The firm will work to determine the cause of the fire and make recommendations if more specialized forensics experts are needed to complete the investigation. The six other vehicles in CRN’s PHEV demonstration program have experienced only minor technical issues to date.

General Motors is expects to have the first OEM Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle available in 2010.
Read Toyota's perspective on the challenges of commercially viable OEM PHEV's.

The PHEV has a lot of promise, and it's good to know that studies are being made to learn how to use this exciting technology in a safe manner.

Straight Vegetable Oil Fuel Running Afoul of Law?

In 1895, when Rudolf Diesel invented the diesel engine, it could run on variety of fuels-even vegetable oil! Bio diesel is becoming increasingly popular, with more stations around the nation having it available at the pump.


Some people, are installing conversion kits (www.greasecar.com), & using SVO-straight vegetable oil, which they pick up from restaurants. It seems like a win-win situation, waste is put to use, the restaurant saves money on disposal, and the driver saves money on fuel.

However the US Environmental Protection Agency is raising concerns about not having tested the vehicles or fuel. On top of this, some government agencies are worried about losing out on tax revenue. Hmmm. What do you think about this?