Tag: mpg

This Week’s Top 10: 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Electric takes top MPGe rating, Trump administration and EVs

by Jon LeSage, editor and publisher, Green Auto Market

Here’s my take on the 10 most significant and interesting occurrences during the past week…….

  1. hyundai-ioniq-plug-inBest fuel economy rating: The soon-to-be-released 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Electric took the No. 1 ranking for MPGe (miles per gallon equivalent) at 136 MPGe in combined fuel economy. The Ioniq Electric beat the all-electric BMW i3 with its 124 MPGe rating and 60 Amp-hour battery. The BMW i3 with a 94 Amp-hour battery came in fourth place at 119 combined MPGe. The BMW i3 REX (94 Amp-hour battery) and its range extender gasoline engine came in 7th place at MPGe combined. The upcoming Chevy Bolt took third place at 119 combined MPGe. It will have nearly double the range with the Bolt able to go 238 miles per charge versus 124 miles for the Ioniq Electric. These rankings come from the Fuel Economy Guide for model year 2017, which was just released by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
  2. Trump and EVs: It’s too early tell what actions the Trump administration will take affecting electric vehicle adoption in the U.S. “The short answer is that we don’t know what will happen with the Trump administration and electric vehicles,” said Dave Reichmuth, senior engineer for the Union of Concerned Scientists clean vehicles program. “It might be awhile before we understand the policy priorities for the new administration.” Reichmuth said that the federal EV tax credit, which can go as high as $7,500 per electric car, is embedded in the larger federal tax code; removing it would require action from Congress. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who publicly endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, appears unfazed by the potential of less-EV-friendly regulations. Dan Sperling, founding director of the University of California Davis Institute for Transportation Studies, said the automaker industry’s letter to the Trump transition team should not be interpreted as a plea to drop emission or fuel economy standards altogether. “The industry has made a massive investment in electric vehicles,” Sperling said. “While some would prefer to slow it down, most companies are going to continue along that path.”
  3. Sustainable freight: The two largest North American ports, Los Angeles and Long Beach, have proposed the next version of the San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP) that would aggressively deploy zero and near-zero emissions trucks and cargo-handling equipment. The ports also propose expanding programs that reduce ship emissions. Other proposals focus on freight infrastructure investment, innovation, and technology to improve supply chain efficiency and comprehensive energy planning. The updated CAAP provides one of California’s first opportunities to implement what was laid out in the state’s Sustainable Freight Action Plan.
  4. Toyota EVs: Toyota Motor Corp. is setting up a small in-house unit to develop battery electric vehicles. For now it will be a small team of four, with one from Toyota Motor Corp., Toyota Industries, Aisin Seiki Co., and Denso Corp. The company said it will be part of a larger strategy to develop alternative powertrain technologies. Toyota still emphasizes hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, which it called the “ultimate eco-car.”
  5. Mazda diesel and electric cars: Mazda Motor Corp. is moving beyond fuel efficient Skyactiv gasoline engine vehicles by adding diesel to the next-generation CX-5 crossover next year. Mazda also will introduce an electric vehicle in 2019 and a plug-in hybrid vehicle in 2021 or later, to meet increasingly stringent fuel economy rules. A revamped 2.2-liter Skyactiv-D clean diesel engine, modified to meet more stringent U.S. regulations for nitrogen oxide emissions, will be offered in the second-generation CX-5 during the second half of 2017, the company said. The next CX-5 debuted Tuesday at the L.A. Auto Show.
  6. Faraday factory: Electric supercar maker Faraday Future has stopped construction of its $1 billion electric vehicle factory in North Las Vegas, Nev. The Gardena, Calif., company, which has received backing and recent financial restructuring from tech billionaire Jia Yueting and Chinese company LeEco, said it plans to restart work on the plant in 2017. Last month, a construction firm working on Faraday Future’s factory warned the electric-car startup that it could face a work stoppage over millions of dollars in unpaid bills, raising questions about Faraday Future’s financial condition.
  7. 15 electric buses: California’s Central Valley took a major step to reduce emissions last week with a California Air Resources Board (CARB) funds award. The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District (SJVAPCD) will deploy 15 Proterra Catalyst electric buses, 11 Proterra depot-chargers, and four Proterra fast-chargers in order to improve local air quality and public health in disadvantaged communities throughout the San Joaquin Valley. Buses and charging deployment areas will reportedly include: the Fresno County Rural Transit Agency, the California State University Fresno, the City of Visalia Transit Division, the San Joaquin Regional Transit District, and the City of Modesto Transit Services.
  8. Sound factor: Hybrid and electric vehicles will now be required to make noise when traveling below 19 miles per hour. That ruling came from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration after a long period of research and industry feedback. Known as the “quiet car” rule, regulators have taken a long time to decide on passing the regulation, as a ruling has been in the works since 2013. In the original proposal, the estimate was that it could reduce instances of injuries caused to pedestrians and bicycle riders by 2,800 per year, a figure that has since been reduced to 2,400 per year.
  9. NextEV: Chinese electric vehicle startup NextEV yesterday unveiled its record-breaking electric supercar, the first vehicle launched under the company’s new NIO brand. The new brand and the NIP EP9 electric supercar, which recently broke an electric vehicle lap record at Nürburgring Nordschliefe, were unveiled at a launch event in London. This is the first official launch since NextEV was founded in 2014. The company opened its Silicon Valley headquarters in October. Padmasree Warrior, former CTO at Cisco, is now serving as the U.S. CEO of NextEV.
  10. VW and Didi: Volkswagen announced last Thursday that it has been is in talks with China’s Didi Chuxing to set up a high-end ride-hailing service; the deal would also involve ambitious sales goals for electric and hybrid vehicles in the world’s largest auto market. That would help VW in its bid to beat General Motors as the largest-selling automaker in China. It would also be a channel for selling its ambitious plan for electric vehicle introductions in the wake of last year’s diesel emissions scandal. The automaker plans to sell 400,000 “new energy vehicles” in China by 2020 and 1.5 million by 2025. Didi is China’s largest ride-hailing company, with 300 million users across more than 400 cities.

This Week’s Top 10: The state of federal mpg standards, Fiat Chrysler purchasing greenhouse gas emissions credits

by Jon LeSage, editor and publisher, Green Auto Market

Here’s my take on the 10 most significant and interesting occurrences during the past week…….

  1. Federal fuel economy standardsFederal mpg standards… Automakers have been seeing the mpg progress continuing to slow down as cheap gasoline drives demand for more pickups, SUVs, and crossovers. Even with that trend, the industry did continue to get cleaner and meet U.S. targets for 2014 and 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said. EPA projects fleet-wide fuel economy to average 24.7 mpg in the 2015 model year – that’s part of a 5 mpg increase in the past 10 years, a 26% improvement. Consumers are leaning toward more fuel efficient cars and trucks, which is offsetting declining sales in electric vehicles and hybrids. Automakers with the highest mpg ratings also have lighter and smaller vehicles than do OEMs selling a lot of trucks and SUVs. Mazda finished first in the 2014 model year, followed by Subaru, Hyundai, Honda, and Nissan.
  2. In news related to the 54.5 mpg by 2025 mandate, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) has purchased greenhouse gas emissions credits from Toyota, Tesla, and Honda – about 8.2 million megagrams (equal to 1,000 kilograms) of emissions credits. Even without acquiring credits, Fiat Chrysler still would have been in compliance in the 2014 model year, according to the federal report. FCA said it earned credits through improvements to air conditioning systems and other technological changes. The automaker had previously purchased nearly 1.7 million megagrams of emissions credits from Tesla, Nissan, and Honda, and more recently acquired another 6.5 million credits through the end of the 2014 model year. Tesla has sold all of its 2013 and 2014 greenhouse gas emissions credits to Fiat Chrysler.
  3. Along with Faraday Future, Chinese companies are continuing to play a role in the future of EVs in the U.S. and China. NextEV is a well-funded electric-vehicle startup backed by firms in China. The startup has an 85,000-square-foot U.S. headquarters and R&D center based in San Jose, Calif. The company has named Padmasree Warrior, Cisco Systems Inc.’s former technology chief, to lead U.S. operations. NextEV plans to take on competition with Tesla Motors in the luxury electric car market. Warrior has been considered a leading advocate for women in technology in Silicon Valley, and has recently joined Microsoft’s board of directors. Martin Leach, former CEO of Maserati and president of Ford Europe, is president of NextEV. The startup plans to roll out a battery electric supercar in late 2016 that can match Tesla’s “Ludicrous” speed mode.
  4. Saab Automobile is now part of National Electric Vehicle Sweden, or Nevs, which bought the Swedish automakers assets in 2012. Nevs now has a $12 billion deal to supply 150,000 electric cars to Chinese leasing firm Panda New Energy. Nevs will provide Panda with 150,000 9-3 sedan electric vehicles by the end of 2020 and 100,000 other electric vehicle products and services from companies associated with Nevs and its owners, the company said.
  5. The 2016 Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo will be offering a sneak-peak webinar on electrified transportation issues to be explored at the annual conference. This complimentary, one-hour webinar will highlight what we can expect from the electric vehicle charging infrastructure industry, including issues of “roaming” and being able to pay by credit card; pricing structures; challenges and the promise of inductive charging; and fleet applications. Panelists work with the nation’s premiere electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) companies. This webinar takes place on Tuesday, January 12, 2016, at 10:00 am PST. ACT Expo will be taking place May 2-5, 2016, in Long Beach, Calif.
  6. General Motors has stepped up its efforts to become a zero waste manufacturer by adding more facilities and turning byproducts such as polystyrene foam packaging into footwear. GM’s Toluca, Mexico, facilities take byproducts to a warehouse, where it is turned into pellets and combined with other polymers to create shoe soles. The Toluca complex (which has two engine plants, a warehouse and a technical center) joins GM’s Luton Assembly and Ellesmere Port Assembly plant in Europe to achieve landfill-free status. These moves have increased the landfill-free sites to 131 – another step forward toward achieving 150 landfill-free sites globally by 2020.
  7. In the wake of the Volkswagen emissions reporting scandal, Daimler said test results from the German environmental lobby group DUH allegedly showing that a Mercedes C class 200 CDI exceeded emissions of nitrogen oxides were “questionable.” DUH claims that the test model released NOx emissions that were more than twice the legal limits for Euro-5 standards when tested under new European testing cycles. “The test results are questionable as the conditions of the test are not clear. We don’t know the specific car, the temperature at the time of the tests, the loading weight,” a Daimler spokesman said. In other VW scandal news, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk co-signed a letter to the California Air Resources Board (CARB) urging it to direct Volkswagen to accelerate production of zero emission vehicles (ZEVs). Musk and 44 other prominent people in the electric vehicle and charging sector sent the letter addressed to CARB chair Mary Nichols. In the place of fining VW and forcing the automaker to fix non-compliant diesel vehicles on the road, it was suggested that VW instead be forced to significantly increase the production of ZEVs. As of yesterday, CARB said it was extending a deadline to approve or reject a diesel emissions repair plan submitted by Volkswagen AG for nearly 500,000 2.0-liter vehicles until January 14.
  8. NGVAmerica applauded the U.S. Senate and House for passing tax legislation that will extend the natural gas fuel and infrastructure tax credits for two years – retroactively for 2015 and for all of 2016 – if signed into law. The credit is retroactive to 2015 and extends through 2016 and applies to compressed natural gas and liquefied natural gas. President Obama has yet to sign the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes (PATH) Act of 2015. “Passage of the alternative fuel tax and infrastructure credits means hundreds of millions in savings to NGVAmerica members and their customers for using clean-burning natural gas for their transportation needs,” said NGVAmerica President Matthew Godlewski. “Congress clearly recognizes the economic, environmental and energy security benefits of natural gas in powering fleets across the country.”
  9. BMW and Nissan are partnering in an effort to set up fast-charging stations at 120 locations across the U.S. The automakers plan to install dual-port chargers at 120 locations in 19 states. That list of states includes California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, North and South Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin. The chargers include two different types of ports to service Nissan Leaf and BMW i3 battery-electric vehicles – and a number of others that can use CHAdeMO and CCS connectors.
  10. Clean transportation investments funded by market-based user charges would reduce greenhouse gas emissions while also providing a net economic benefit, a study for five Northeastern states and the District of Columbia concludes. Reduced fuel costs and other economic benefits would more than offset new fees, the report found. Georgetown University’s Climate Center released the study; Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont participate in the Transportation Climate Initiative which is headquartered at Georgetown University. The study was released to coincide with COP21 in Paris and a joint pledge by the six jurisdictions to jointly “develop potential market-based policies that, when combined with existing programs, are targeted to achieve substantial reductions in transportation sector emissions and provide net economic benefits.”

This Week’s Top 10: Hyundai and Kia get a steep penalty for incorrect mileage ratings, Nissan Leaf sales still breaking records

by Jon LeSage, editor and publisher, Green Auto Market 

Here’s my take on the 10 most significant and interesting occurrences during the past week…….

  1. Hyundai Kia MotorsHyundai and Kia will pay a $100 million fine for inflating the fuel economy ratings of their vehicles. The $100 million fine is the largest in Clean Air Act history, and came from an investigation by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice based on the sale of about 1.2 million vehicles with overstated ratings. Reductions in greenhouse gas emissions were far less than what was originally stated – about 4.75 million metric tons of greenhouse gases in excess of what the automakers claimed to the EPA. “This settlement upholds the integrity of the nation’s fuel economy and greenhouse gas programs and supports all Americans who want to save fuel costs and reduce their environmental impact,” said EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy.
  2. Plug-in sales: October saw deliveries of 2,589 Leafs, bringing the year-to-date total to 24,411 – which exceeds the 2013 total of 22,610, the previous record. The Nissan Leaf broke its own record for most electric cars sold in the U.S. in a single year with two months left to sell them this year. The Chevrolet Volt has also been seeing a strong year, already exceeding the annual sales totals for the Volt in any of the full three years it’s been on sale. BMW sold 1,159 BMW i3s – the third month in a row it has sold more than 1,000 i3s. Tesla continued to go unreported in its monthly sales numbers, but the company says that sales went up quite a bit during the month.
  3. Very redesigned Chevy Volt: The refreshed 2016 Chevrolet Volt will be quicker, lighter and more fuel efficient than its predecessor. GM is using the redesign as an opportunity not only to optimize the plug-in hybrid technology it pioneered four years ago. It’s going to be very different with a completely difference drive unit and battery. The car will travel father on battery power, yet GM hasn’t yet said how far it will go compared to its present 38 miles on the battery.
  4. Vincentric, a leader in cost-of-ownership data, released its most recent Hybrid Analysis last week. Among the 10 hybrids with lower ownership costs were the Lexus CT200h and the Toyota Avalon Hybrid, which when compared to their all-gasoline counterparts had savings of over $7,600 and $3,200 respectively. Ten of 31 hybrid vehicles analyzed were identified as having a lower total cost-of-ownership than their closest all-gasoline counterpart. Over the past three years the percentage of cost-effective hybrids has dropped from 44% in the 2012 analysis, to 39% in 2013, to now just over 32%.
  5. Natural Gas Vehicle Conference. The 2014 North American NGV Conference & Expo to be held at the Kansas City Convention Center Nov. 11–14 in Kansas City, Mo. is set to be the largest NGV event of the year and is hosted by NGVAmerica in cooperation with the Canadian NGV Alliance. NGVAmerica has reached out to fleets of all types and sizes with special discounts to register for the conference. For more information on the 2014 North American NGV Conference & Expo, or to plan your attendance, visit the event website at www.ngvamerica.org/conference/2014.
  6. Check out this TedxDetroit video: Debbie Mielewski, the technical leader for plastics research at Ford Motor Co., says she’s been able to get up every day excited to go to work. Much of what is being added to cars these days is plastic, which comes from petroleum resources, and she’d like to do something about it. All of the polyurethane going into Ford vehicles and their seat cushions now comes from soy beans (which Henry Ford would have been proud of, having started that years ago). Using wheat straw (which is the byproduct of the food portion of wheat) to fortify plastic bins in the Ford Flex and Ford Focus, has been another step forward. And there’s more…….
  7. Big numbers from VW: Volkswagen Group claims it will launch more than 20 electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids in China over the next few years. That will include small cars, large-sized SUVs, plug-in hybrids, and battery electric cars, said Jochem Heizmann, head of Volkswagen Group China.
  8. Home energy storage. Nissan is moving the “electric vehicle batteries as a great source for energy storage” campaign along. Nissan will soon begin testing its Leaf-To-Home energy station in Japan; they’ll be testing the ability of electric cars to provide temporary electrical power to buildings in real-world circumstances. The station converts high-voltage direct current from a Leaf’s lithium-ion battery pack into the 100-volt current used by homes in Japan.
  9. Mercedes-Benz B-class electric cars. Daimler AG’s Mercedes teamed up with Tesla Motors to put an electric motor and battery inside its B-class hatchback. Mercedes-Benz has high hopes for the alliance and sales of the B-class electric cars. The German automaker is hoping the image of working Tesla will be impressive while avoiding the pitfalls of spending billions on a technology few may want to buy.
  10. Hyundai vs. Toyota. Hyundai will roll out its first “dedicated” hybrid, designed to be marketed exclusively as a hybrid instead of being merely a copycat of an existing traditional engine edition of that model. Hyundai Motor Co. said that its hybrids will go up again the Toyota Prius.