Earlier this week we heard from Sergio Marchionne, the demanding CEO of Fiat-Chrysler, that a hybrid version of the new 2011 Chrysler 300 sedan would arrive sometime in 2013. Now, at Chrysler’s Windsor plant in Canada, Marchionne has revealed that the hybrid 300 will be joined in 2013 by a new hybrid minivan model.
Marchionne was on hand at the Windsor plant to celebrate the production launch of the new 2011 Dodge Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country, the latter being the most likely recipient for Chrysler’s latest hybrid technology.
That brings us to another point. Chrysler will no longer rely on the aging Two-Mode hybrid system co-developed with GM, Daimler and BMW and last used on its Dodge Durango and Chrysler Aspen SUVs in 2008. Instead, Marchionne boasted that Chrysler will use its own in-house developed system.
The hybrid minivans will almost certainly be based on Chrysler’s next-generation minivan design, which will stick with a sliding door and offer all-wheel drive as an option.
The story doesn’t end there, as Marchionne also used today’s meeting in Windsor to confirm that a replacement for the Dodge Neon would arrive in April of 2013 and be the first model in Chrysler’s lineup to feature a new nine-speed automatic transmission.
Ford was clearly one of the stars of last week’s Detroit Auto Show, launching green vehicles and concepts across a wide range of fuel-saving technologies.
The company unveiled just a single concept, the Vertrek crossover, but it’s an important one. The production version of the Vertrek will be the replacement for both the Escape crossover in the U.S. and the similarly-sized Kuga crossover in Europe.
We don’t yet know if it’ll keep the Escape name for the U.S., shift to a new name–Vertrek, perhaps?–or even convert over to the European Kuga label. Regardless, this is the hybrid crossover that Ford will offer, along with a raft of other non-hybrid fuel-saving technologies.
Partying like 1999, no more
The 2011 Ford Escape Hybrid is the last year of a model whose basic design dates back more than a decade to the launch of the original 1999 Ford Escape. The hybrid model, added in October 2004, was both the first hybrid sport utility and the first U.S.-built hybrid of any kind.
Now we know what the 2012 Ford Escape Hybrid will look like: Imagine a Vertrek with slightly smaller wheels, and with door handles added.
Add or subtract a few of the flashier trim elements and design cues, and there you have it: a fully modern Escape, with the company’s MyFord Touch audio control system and all the electronic goodies you could want.
‘Kinetic design’
The new crossover sports a raked-back windshield and carefully shaped body surfaces, both to lessen aerodynamic drag. The trapezoidal lower front grille offers a family connection to the 2012 Ford Focus compact.
Ford calls this its ‘kinetic design’ theme, and it will be used across most of Ford’s lineup of global vehicles. Following the Fiesta and Focus, the first two cars Ford adapted from their European roots to sell in the States, the Vertrek will be the third truly global design to be built and sold all over the world.
The swoopy design resembles the current Kuga far more than than the upright and slab-sided Escape. But the dimensions of the Vertrek are much closer–especially in the all-important wheelbase–to today’s Escape, meaning it should have more legroom and interior volume than the slightly smaller Kuga.
The Vertrek show car shows off a panoramic glass roof, which–in light of stringent new rollover roof-strength requirements–may give way to more conventional rectangular moonroof panels.
Fuel-saving technologies
There’s also a power bulge on the hood, which on the concept car is meant to highlight Ford’s 2.0-liter EcoBoost turbocharged four-cylinder engine.
That will be one of two engines offered, and may replace the optional 3.0-liter V-6 offered today. The other engine is likely to be an evolution of the current Escape’s 2.5-liter four.
One or both of the gasoline engines may be offered with the engine start-stop technology Ford has said it will offer on various vehicles to eliminate gasoline wasted in idling at stop lights.
Best MPGs of all
But the hybrid is likely to offer the best fuel economy of all. Today’s 2011 Ford Escape Hybrid is EPA-rated at 34 mpg city, 31 mpg highway in front-wheel-drive form (30 mpg city, 27 mpg highway fitted with all-wheel-drive).
If Ford stands by its promise to offer ‘best-in-class’ fuel economy on every new vehicle it sells, those numbers are likely to rise for the new-generation hybrid.
Among other changes, the Escape/Vertrek Hybrid will switch to a lithium-ion battery pack from today’s nickel-metal-hydride technology, which holds less energy per pound.
Ford is also likely to create a luxurious Lincoln version of its new crossover, complete with hybrid option as well. The 2011 Lincoln MK-Z Hybrid midsize sedan made news in July when it was offered at the same base price–$35,180–as the V-6 gasoline-engined version of the MK-Z.
The Pacific Northwest is a remarkably scenic corner of the continental United States. The striking coastal ranges of Washington and Oregon offer dramatic vistas, temperature (if often damp) weather, and dozens of outdoor activities within a few hours’ drive.
Now those drives can be done in electric cars, courtesy of the country’s first scenic byway and tourism route designed specifically for electric cars.
Washington State and several businesses together plan to install a series of charging stations along U.S. Route 2, starting in Everett (just outside Seattle) and reaching 120 miles over the Cascade Mountains to Wenatchee, in the north central area of the state.
The state and the private EV Projectare already building a network of charging stations within Seattle and in the surrounding region of greater Puget Sound. The new route is a linear extension from the urban and suburban concentration through less populated areas, albeit areas that are consistently popular with visitors.
Many businesses along the route are coordinating to install quick chargers, reasoning that the 30 minutes tourists will spend in their establishments are likely to generate revenue many times the cost of the electricity they provide.
And at rates as low as 3 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity from clean hydroelectric sources, those businesses pay some of the nation’s lowest rates for green power.
Sleeping Lady Resort in Leavenworth, Washington, is one of the businesses planning to install a air of charging stations. More than half a dozen others are expected to participate by the time the charger network is up and running this spring.
Among the participating businesses are auto dealers who sell electric cars, including Town Nissan of Wenatchee. It will let members of the public use its 240-Volt charging station, including drivers with plug-in vehicles other than the 2011 Nissan Leaf battery electric car.
Tom Goodfellow, Town Nissan’s New Car Sales Manager, says EV drivers will just have to come inside the dealership and ask permission to use the publicly accessible charging station.
As well as the chargers installed by private businesses, funds from last year’s Federal Recovery Act will pay for two or three DC quick-charging stations along the route that will be installed by the State of Washington by the end of the year, perhaps earlier.
Such fast chargers will let a 2011 Leaf–or, for that matter, a 2012 Ford Focus Electric and other battery vehicles–to recharge to 80 percent capacity in roughly half an hour.
Two or three such charges would permit a Leaf to make it all the way over the mountains, depending (of course) on driving style, weather conditions, and a few other factors.
The Route 2 journey is known nationwide for its beautiful scenery, with the stretch from Everett to Wenatchee renamed the Stevens Pass Greenway.and designated a National Scenic Byway.
More than 3 million travelers a year pass along the route, where fishing, winter sports, camping, hiking, rafting and kayaking, hunting, and winery tours proliferate.
Ford’s Volt and Leaf rival has been revealed, making its world debut last week at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and then reappearing again this week at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show. We are, of course, talking about the 2012 Ford Focus Electric, the Blue Oval’s first mass-produced electric car and possibly the pick of the bunch out of the Ford-GM-Nissan trio.
Below is a video of the new model’s unveiling in Detroit this week, with Ford’s product chief Derrick Kuzak and chairman Bill Ford touting all of its benefits.
The 2012 Focus Electric is set to go on sale towards the end of this year but you can check out our road test of a prototype version by clicking here. And, if you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple of weeks, catch up on all of the car’s details by clicking here.
Despite thousands of automotive gasoline fires in the U.S. every year, we’ve pretty much normalized the risks of the highly explosive liquid that we use to fuel our cars.
But for electric cars, there’s a whole new set of potential fears. One may be driving through water–it’s not like tossing a toaster into a bathtub–and another may be the possibility of accidents, a concern particularly top-of-mind for emergency first responders.
Volvo, of all automakers, may be best positioned to alleviate any fears of errant electricity in crashes involving electric cars.
Its C30 DRIVe Electric, the compact hatchback it has converted to battery electric power, is its first all-electric car. And befitting its reputation for ultimate safety, it not only showed the car at the Detroit Auto Show, it also showed one that had been used for crash testing.
The wrecked C30 Electric on display at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show hit a barrier at 40 miles per hour, a standard element of European crash-safety testing.
Just for good measure, Volvo also posted a video of the crash test itself, in the usual slow motion (see below).
Note that in all the photos, the battery pack remained undamaged. It is painted green, and can be seen in photos of the underside of the car as reflected by full-size mirrors sitting below the C30 Electric test car, as well as in the video starting about 0:35.
In accidents, electric cars have a few needs beyond those of regular cars. The high-voltage cables connecting the battery pack, electric motor(s), power electronics, and charging port have to remain intact.
Volvo reinforced the structure around the battery pack, and added new routines to its crash sensors that will automatically cut all electric power within 50 milliseconds (1/20th of a second) after an impact.
This eliminates any chance that the body would become electrically charged if a cable were severed or its insulation damaged, allowing it to ground to the steel body.
Because the engine that usually sits under the hood is gone, Volvo added reinforcements to the under-hood structure to distribute frontal impact force.
Volvo is now testing a fleet of C30 electric cars in Sweden, and it expects to put the car on sale there early next year. Test cars will arrive in the U.S. by the end of this year.
As part of the family of four Toyota Prius hybrids that the carmaker unveiled at the today’s Detroit Auto Show, it showed a concept for a new, compact Prius hatchback.
Low, edgy, and relatively sleek for a highly aerodynamic Kamm-tailed car, the Prius C concept is actually Toyota’s second concept on the compact hybrid theme, the first being the lime-green FT-CH Concept that was unveiled at the same show last year.
The Prius C Concept is still only a styling exercise, but watch for Toyota to launch a production version of the car sometime during the first half of 2012.
Like the Prius V multipurpose vehicle that will go on sale as a 2012 model, the company says the Prius C responds to its customers’ desire for Prius fuel efficiency and design in different packages.
Stay on top of all of the happenings at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show through our show page, where we’re bringing you the latest news, previews, live photos, videos, and more straight from Cobo Hall.
Ford’s U.S. lineup is about to change in a very significant way. And as the automaker emphasized in its Detroit Auto Show press conference, with several high-volume small car models expected to arrive this year and next, you’ll soon see plenty of smaller and greener alternatives in Ford’s lineup.
But to dealerships that have long subsisted on heavy sales of pickups and SUVs, it might take a change in sales attitude—and some new training.
A cadence to focus on one at a time
“Really, we have a nice cadence of rollout this year,” said Jim Farley, Ford’s vice president for global marketing, sales and service. There’s plenty of time, Farley says, to fine-tune the message, and get dealerships ready for these new products.
First, later this month Ford will launch the Focus sedan and 5-door hatchback; deliveries of the 2012 Focus Electric will begin by end-of-year, with high volume ramping up next year; and C-Max models will join the lineup early next year, along with the high-performance Ford Focus ST.
The Fiesta was treated as the beginning of a Ford car line rejuvenation, said Farley, and the automaker treated the model’s launch this past year as a test case for the many other small cars and electrified vehicles to follow.
Marketing strategies gleaned from Fiesta
According to Farley, a number of Focus marketing strategies will be following lessons learned with the Fiesta—and involvement in the Focus Rally: America and the Amazing Race.
There are a host of common-sense EV issues that dealerships (and customers) still need to be informed about, he added, such as that the electrical load of EVs when they’re being charged can be about the same as that of the rest of the appliances in a house together.
EVs to become a core business?
While Ford is delegating Best Buy for charger installation, service, and support for its 2012 Focus Electric, Farley clarified that’s a responsibility that will definitely be moved back in-house to dealerships in the long run. In the meantime, he said, Ford is working with dealerships on fundamental changes to the delivery and service for EVs.
While EVs might create a buzz at the dealership, it could be some time before they’re profitable for the company, however. On the Ford stand, executive chairman Bill Ford commented that there’s no specific time frame for Ford to become profitable on its EVs and electrified vehicles, like the Focus Electric. “But ultimately it’s a business we need to make money with,” he asserted.
Earlier this week we heard from Sergio Marchionne, the demanding CEO of Fiat-Chrysler, that a hybrid version of the new 2011 Chrysler 300 sedan would arrive sometime in 2013. Now, at Chrysler’s Windsor plant in Canada, Marchionne has revealed that the hybrid 300 will be joined in 2013 by a new hybrid minivan model.
“Really, we have a nice cadence of rollout this year,” said Jim Farley, Ford’s vice president for global marketing, sales and service. There’s plenty of time, Farley says, to fine-tune the message, and get dealerships ready for these new products.