By Carl Malek

When smart unveiled the for-us urban pickup truck concept on the floor of the 2012 North American International Auto Show, it was hard for me to decide which aspect of smart’s press conference was the strangest, John Lovitz of SNL fame helping to introduce the concept to the assembled press, or a smart “pickup truck” that has somewhat reasonable cargo capability. While I could not make a clear choice when it came to that particular debate, the smart For-Us concept car does bring some fresh ideas to the brand as well as what the future could hold for smart.

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By James Wong

Perhaps in unfortunate coincidence, while writing this article, news spread like wildfire across London over Westminster council’s new plan to scrap free parking on single yellow lines on weekday evenings and weekends. Yet another knot has been tied around the driver’s neck, reducing what is essentially the only reason for driving in London to a potentially profitable venture of the authorities to, as they say, reduce congestion.

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By Chris Haak

There is more than a little chatter over the past week or two in the autoblogosphere about the Chevy Volt.  Normally, in these media frenzied times, that would be good news for GM’s environmental halo vehicle, but perhaps there *is* a such thing as bad publicity.

You see, the Volt seems to have a bit of a problem with catching fire following crash tests.

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By Kevin Miller

From an engineering perspective, Chevrolet’s Volt is a technological tour de force that both highlights GM’s commitment to technology, and their engineering muscle as a global organization. It is able to travel around 35 miles on full charge, and nearly 300 more using its onboard ICE “range extender” to make electricity.  While our Editor-in-Chief separately spent five days in another Chevrolet Volt, I had two days in one in which I was able to experience some of the ups and downs of EV ownership.

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By Chris Haak

Back in the sixties – a decade which, scary enough, began more than a half century ago – the creators of the cartoon The Jetsons imagined a future world in which robots served humans, there were pushbutton conveniences that automated mundane tasks, and the cars could fly (and fold into a space the size of a briefcase).

We’re now halfway to 2062 when The Jetsons was allegedly taking shape, and we certainly do have many automated conveniences, but we seem to be barely any closer to all having flying cars.  People living in 2062 also only have to work three hours per day; it seems that we’re trending in the opposite direction from that.  However, I really do believe that the Chevrolet Volt is about as close as you can get to driving (ahem, *not* flying) the car of the future.

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By Carl Malek

Following the Boxster E program’s formal debut earlier this year, Porsche has revealed the official specifications of the three Boxster E prototype electric vehicles that are part of this advanced research program. The first two Boxster E prototypes are rear-wheel-drive and are powered by a single electric motor which produces 121 horsepower and 199 lb-ft of torque. As one may expect, the performance of these two prototypes is not exactly what one may call exciting, with a rather leisurely 0 to 60 time of 9.8 seconds, and an equally modest top speed of 124 miles per hour.

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By Chris Haak

The business case for EVs and hybrids has been on less-than-solid footing for years, both from the consumer’s point of view and the manufacturer’s vantage point.  For instance, the payback period of the price premium that hybrids cost (in terms of savings at the gas pump) often extends beyond the typical ownership duration of a new car.  And we know that it costs GM about $40,000 to build a $41,000 Chevy Volt, and that’s probably excluding considerable promotional and advertising expenses.

Now, Fiat CEO Sergio Marchonne, who has a reptuation for speaking his mind, had this to say about the economics of EVs while on the sidelines of Fiat S.p.A.’s general meeting earlier this week:

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By Chris Haak

We haven’t given much attention to the EV spy scandal that has rocked Renault and drawn the attention of the French government.  But it’s become a pretty big deal, and has now cost Renault and Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn his Renault bonus, and quite nearly cost his top lieutenant at Renault his job.

Luckily for Ghosn, having rescued both companies from the brink of failure over the years, and continuing to hold himself and other executives accountable for financial results, he’s built up considerable political capital and goodwill among investors and his board.  It seems that he has now had to cash in much of that goodwill, however, to survive this one.  And that survival is not a certainty at this stage.

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By Kevin Miller

Electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles virtually littered the floor of Cobo hall this year. It seems as though near as many vehicles have an SAE J1772 charging port as have a standard gasoline fuel filler. Show stands on the main floor and the basement of Cobo featured a variety of EV charging equipment. Into this environment, Volvo injected their focus on safety. In combination with the battery supplier ENER1, Volvo showed a C30 Electric which had been subjected to a 40 MPH frontal offset collision.

In C30 models with internal combustion engines, the engine forms a part of the crash-absorbing structure at the front of the car. Because the C30 Electric has a much smaller electric drive unit, with a relatively heavy load of batteries located farther back in the car, additional structural members were added to the front of the vehicle to provide occupant protection in a collision. Continue Reading

Odds and ends about cars and the car business

By Chris Haak

On the eve of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, there are a few news items that may not necessarily warrant a full article.  However, they’re probably still worth mentioning.

FORD’S new Focus Electric, slated to hit the market in late 2011, made its worldwide debut not at the Detroit show, but at Las Vegas’ CES show.  In the keynote address in which he revealed the car, Ford CEO Alan Mulally called his company as much of a technology company as a car company, and he may be right.  Ford has been on the leading edge of infotainment with its SYNC and MyFord Touch system, and has done a great job of pushing high tech features such as self-parking down from luxury cars into more mainstream offerings.

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