Honda Insight Concept Hybrid

The Honda Insight Concept will debut at the 2008 Paris International Auto Show. It shares many styling cues with the FCX Clarity fuel cell vehicle. The 2009 Insight will be a direct competitor to the Toyota Prius. Honda’s latest hybrid will go on sale in the spring of 2009 and will be the lowest priced hybrid on the market. It will be a five door, five passenger hatchback. Honda is planning production of 200,000 units a year with 100,000 going to North America.

Source CNN Money

Small Car Prices Rise with Demand

Increased demand in small cars will drive up prices over the next few years. Automakers are adding new features to small cars to increase prices and to regain profits that they once earned on trucks. Many people will not want to sacrifice their navigation systems and leather seats as they move to smaller cars. In the next four years, small car prices will go from the high teens to the mid $20,000. Honda’s redesigned Fit has a high end trim that costs $19,430. Ford also added a premium Focus model that is priced from $18,665 to $23,214. Average selling prices are already rising. The Focus’s average selling price is up 4.4% from a year ago and the Toyota Yaris is up 3.6%.

Source USA Today

Ford Truck Plant Converting to Build Cars

Ford is spending $75 million to convert a truck plant to build small cars. The Wayne Michigan plan currently makes the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator. Sales of the Expedition are down 39% this year and the Navigator is down 28%. Car production will begin in the plant in 2010. The plant will build the Ford Focus or another small car. When the conversion at the plant is completed, it will be a flexible production facility able to produce various vehicles on the same production line.

Source USA Today

GM Unveils 2011 Chevy Cruze

The Chevy Cruze will replace the Cobalt small car. It will be a premium small car looking to attract buyers as they downsize due to high gas prices. The Cruze was designed from the start to be sold around the world. Sales will start in Europe next year. Sales start in the U.S. in 2010. The engine for the U.S. will be a 1.4 liter turbocharged four cylinder which could get up to 40 mpg on the highway.

Source CNN Money

U.S. Lacks Hybrid Battery Know How

The next way we are going to be dependent on foreign countries are advanced batteries. As U.S. car manufactures develop electric cars, they have to rely on Asian companies for advanced rechargeable batteries. Those companies have two decades of experience manufacturing batteries for consumer electronics. Batteries are need for hybrids, electric plug ins, and fuel cell cars. The market for batteries will reach $10 billion by 2015. Advanced batteries where developed in the United States, but it has been Japan and Korea who have lead in manufacturing them. We cannot allow a foreign dependence on oil to be replaced with a foreign dependence on batteries.

Source The Seattle Times

New Honda Hybrid Will Be Priced Less Than Prius

The new Honda hybrid will be priced lower than the Toyota Prius’ base price of $21,500. The car will be a five door and will only come with a hybrid powertrain. Sales will begin in April 2009. The car has not been named yet. Honda wants the new hybrid to be affordable to a larger segment of buyers.

Source MSNBC

Exhaust Heat Will Save Fuel

General Motors and a BMW supplier are close to converting heat from the car’s exhaust into electricity. The electricity will reduce the amount of time the alternator runs and improve fuel efficiency. The U.S. Department of Energy is partly funding the research and their goal is to improve fuel economy by 10 percent. These thermoelectric generators could be in production in three years. Today’s engines lose 40 percent of their energy in exhaust heat. Any heat energy that is captured will improve overall efficiency.

Source The Associated Press

Allow Euro Cars to Be Sold Here

John McElroy, from Autoline Detroit, has an excellent idea to bring more fuel efficient cars into the U.S. market fast. We should allow automakers to sell any car that meets the European emissions and safety standards in the U.S. The U.S. and European standards are very close but it can take years to modify a car designed to meet one standard to meet the other. This relaxing of standards should only be temporary, say 5 years, and the manufactures should be forced to build the vehicles in the U.S. This would cut years off the time it is going to take to get more fuel efficient vehicles and will also cut our oil consumption.

Source Autoblog

Auto Leasing Getting More Difficult

The auto leasing business is facing huge loses due to high gas prices reducing the values of SUVs and trucks. Last week, Chrysler Financial announced it will totally abandon lease financing. This forces Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge dealers to find other banks to finance their leases. GMAC will no longer offer leasing incentives on automobiles sold in Canada. Ford Motor Credit is decreasing the residuals in its leases to make them less attractive and to reduce their financial risk. Values for used light trucks have dropped by 30 percent over the last year. With a lease, the consumer pays the amount of expected depreciation over the lease term (typically 3 to 4 years). The lease company incurs a loss when the forecasted residual value is less than the vehicle value at lease end.

Source MSNBC

Saturn Vue Plug-In Development Progressing

The Saturn Vue Plug-In Hybrid is approved for production and development is progressing. Eleven of the Vue plug-Ins are being tested with lithium-ion batteries. Later in 2008, sales of the 2009 Vue Two-mode Hybrid will begin. The Two-mode hybrid system is based on the system currently available on the Chevy Tahoe and GMC Yukon. The Plug-In version will be available in a few years.

Source GM FastLane Blog