Category Archives: Automotives

Scoopful of GM News – April 21, 2009: Fiat rumors, Corvette Magazine Pause, Additional $5B Gov’t Bailout, Four “Core Brands”

April 21, 2009 at 7:06 pm

(Source: Jalopnik, AutoBlog, TreeHugger)

Rumormill: Fiat could step in for GM in Europe, Latin America

…GM, Opel, Vauxhall, FIATForget about letting the ink dry: even while negotiations have been ongoing between Fiat and Chrysler, there have been rumors of potential additional or alternative alliances which the Italian auto group has purportedly been considering. Things may have been put on hold with Chinese automaker Chery and with Nissan, but ta..

Stop the Presses! GM suspending publication of Corvette Quarterly magazine?
…GM, LifestyleCorvette Quarterly, General Motors’ official publication all about Chevrolet’s iconic sportscar, is apparently going through some major changes. According to a posting at the top of the magazine’s web site, the publisher will not be printing spring or summer editions. The official quote: Because we value the readers of Corvet… 
SAIC to use GM fuel cell propulsion system in new experimental vehicle
…part of GM‘s Project Driveway. GM and SAIC will build ten of the new vehicles for a test program in China. Engineers from the two companies have been collaborating on the new vehicles and optimizing the powertrain to fit the new package. The partners will have a joint pavilion at next years World Expo 2010 Shanghai where technology like this wil…
REPORT: GM to get $5B, Chrysler $500M from gov’t
…GM, Earnings/Financials, RumormillIs General Motors about to get an additional $5 billlion from the Feds? Will Chrysler be getting another $500 million? The Detroit News seems to think so. Citing Obama Administration sources and a leaked 250-page government report, they say that those figures are accurate. The money will reportedly come in the f…
What Are The “Four Core” GM Brands? [Bonus QOTD]
…GM CEO and possible cyborg, said the company’s plan is built around “four core brands.” He also said people shouldn’t speculate, which we’re guessing was a joke. What will the four brands be? GM currently has eight brands to contend with: Hummer, Chevy, GMC, Buick, Pontiac, Cadillac, Saturn and Saab. We’re curious to hear what you think about th..
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Tata Motors sends executives on an environmental tour to Europe – looks to raise eco-awareness;

April 21, 2009 at 2:46 pm

(Source: Autobloggreen & Financial Times)

Executives at India’s Tata Motors admit that their company is a bit behind the times when it comes to environmental awareness when compared to established players in Europe. “We are behind as far as the world is concerned. There are many Scandinavian companies because they are more conscious of this than the rest of us,” says JJ Irani, a director for Tata’s automotive business. He adds, “We are not shy of learning.”

Img. Source: Flickr

“Tata is new at this game,” Mr Irani told the Financial Times, explaining that the Indian group had not concentrated much on environmentally friendly products until now.

 “What we wanted was the experience of other global conglomerates who have been on this journey before,” he said.

For this reason, Irani and a few of his colleagues are currently visiting a number of large European companies in an attempt to pick up a few pointers on how to improve their eco-credentials. In addition, the group has plans to meet with executives at some of the world’s largest oil companies. Irani hopes these meetings will allow Tata to “catch up faster” than if they were on their own.  Mr Irani said he was taking managers from Tata companies to see how other groups behaved. “We want to see what sort of problems they face and how they deal with it so we can catch up faster.”

Tata has come in for heavy criticism from some environmentalists about the Nano, the world’s cheapest car, but the Indian company retorts that it is more fuel-efficient than a motorbike.

Tata sees a big opportunity because it operates in some of the biggest polluting sectors such as power generation, steel manufacturing and chemicals and carmaking. It has set up a group dedicated to exploring ways of becoming more environmentally friendly and has about 100 people working on it across all its companies.

The Tata managers will also meet some grandees of the oil industry including Lord Browne, the former BP chief executive, and Lord Oxburgh, ex-chairman of Shell.

They will also visit executives at banks Standard Chartered and Deutsche Bank as well as Siemens, Europe’s largest engineering group.

On a related note, TATA is releasing its all-electric Indica for the Norwegian market and eventually for the rest of the world. 


Although the all-electric Tata Indica on display at the SAE World Congress in Detroit this week is not the soon-to-be-released model, there’s a lot we can learn from the vehicle – and from TM4’s Eriz Azeroual – about how the technology will be implemented when the new model goes on sale in Norway either later this year or in early 2010 (yes, this is later than previously expected).  A limited number of the Indica’s are already testing in Norway and the TM4 reps are heard saying that Tata Motors is “a cool company. Very aggressive.” Even though they’re most famous for the Nano and apparently wanting to dominate the low-end automobile market, in Europe market they want to be known for electric vehicles.   Norway is a perfect entry point to bring an EV to Europe because there is a high tax on gasoline-powered vehicles. The high cost of electric vehilces isn’t totally equalized by the taxes, but EVs and gas-powered vehicle prices end up being “comparable” in Norway.
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Why should I win a Ford Fiesta? – A young customer has an awesome message for Alan Mullaly, CEO of Ford & his staff

April 21, 2009 at 12:06 am

Dear Mr. Mullaly, 

I am sure you and your design staff heard the message from “Mr. EmptyisAwesome”.  If you have a response or if your marketing team has a response to Mr. Empty, please feel free to write to him at 

Twitter: http://twitter.com/EmptyIsAwesome (pls. do not forget to CC-TransportGooru in your message)

For others, who are simply curious about Mr. EmptyisAwesome, please check out his work @:  http://www.youtube.com/user/EmptysAwesome 

TransportGooru is proud to play messenger for Mr. Empty and is doubly excited to carry this message to Mr. Mullaly.  

P.S: TransportGooru ran an article last week about Fiesta’s growing popularity in Europe.  Check it out here. 

(Source:  Jalopnik); Video: Emptysawesome@YouTube)

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Sobering Statistics: How long will it take for your car to decompose?

April 20, 2009 at 11:39 pm

(Source: AutoblogGreen; Photo: Jalopnik)

Take a walk through any junkyard in the world and you’re likely to come across any number of vehicles that are a mere rusted-out shell of their former selves. That’s mostly because sheet metal is thin and, as the outer-most skin of an automobile, takes the brunt of the weather’s nastiest beatings. Underneath, it’s a different story entirely.

Photo: Netwind.ru via Jalopnik

An article on AOL Autos examines the major bits and pieces of an automobile and offers rough estimates of how long it takes for the average vehicle to rot away, and there are a few surprises.

  • Rubber tires decompose naturally over a fairly reasonable-sounding period of 50 to 80 years.
  • Engine blocks will take at least 500 years to break down.
  • And finally, the windshields take more than a million years.  That’s the figure that the figure that the U.S. Park Service uses for glass objects, and some experts in waste management think that is an understatement. Theoretically, glass lasts forever, and it would take eons of geological action to grind it into anything resembling the sand, or silica, that it comes from.

Fortunately, nearly every bit of modern automobiles is recyclable, and automakers have been making serious advancements to bring that figure as close to 100 percent as possible. USCAR says that about 95 percent of vehicles go through the end-of-life recycling process. Still, AOL Auto’s sobering figures should serve to remind us how important it is to properly dispose of used-up vehicular machinery, especially with the advent of government-sponsored scrapping programs.

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Electric cars not enough to meet transport emissions targets – UK Energy Research Council warns Brits must reduce their dependency on cars to meet country’s climate targets

April 20, 2009 at 7:09 pm

Transport account for 22% of emissions in the UK - more than half of that comes from cars

 (Source: Guardian, UK;  Photo: thingermejig @ Flickr)

Government must encourage motorists to get out of their cars and walk or cycle, say scientists

Britons must reduce their dependency on cars if the UK is to meet its climate targets, scientists warn today. In a new study they said that simply switching wholesale to cleaner or all-electric cars, as announced by the government in its low-carbon car strategy last week, would not be enough for the transport sector to cut its carbon emissions.

The report by the UK Energy Research Council (UKERC) said the government had to tackle driver behaviour as well as car technology to reduce transport emissions. That means incentivising overall changes in the way people travel by encouraging walking and cycling, for example, and also discouraging the use of cars through taxation or other levies.

Last week the government announced a £250m plan for incentives of up to £5,000 each to consumers to buy low-carbon or electric cars from 2011 to help decarbonise transport.

Speaking ahead of this week’s 2009 budget announcements, Jillian Anable, head of transport research at UKERC, said the electric car plans were welcome but not enough to tackle the transport emissions problem alone. “They’re being billed as policies to affect the low-carbon car market and that’s very one-dimensional. [The government needs] a set of policies around low-carbon transport transformation so the grants that we see need to be more widely […] targeted to low-carbon travel behaviour.”

She added: “Without managing travel patterns themselves, it is very difficult to meet the technological challenges, including how the electricity is generated, at the scale and pace required. Without effective policies to manage demand for travel, emission cuts through vehicle technology will be made much more difficult and may come too late.”

Road transport accounts for 22% of the UK’s total carbon emissions, with more than half of that coming from cars. In trying to work out how to cut these emissions, the UKERC report reviewed more than 500 international studies looking at different policies aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions from road transport. The scientists looked for methods and incentives that seemed to work best and where well-intentioned policies led to unintended consequences.

Friends of the Earth’s transport campaigner Tony Bosworth said the UKERC report was “further evidence that we need a green transport revolution. Low carbon cars, though important, are not enough to tackle transport’s contribution to climate change — we must also change how and how much we travel. The RAC revealed this week that people use their cars for over three quarters of journeys between two and three miles long — with proper facilities in place, there’s no reason why these journeys couldn’t easily be made by bus, bicycle or on foot.”   He added: “The government must rapidly steer its transport policy in a greener direction and make alternatives to cars more attractive by improving public transport services and make walking and cycling far safer.”

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “We agree that in order to tackle climate change we need to do more than support electric cars. That is why in addition to the £400m to encourage development and uptake of ultra-low emission vehicles, we also spend £2.5bn a year on buses, £140m on cycling and require local authorities to factor in the impact on the environment when developing their transport strategies. Tackling climate change is one of the single most important issues we face, and transport is central to how we deal with it.

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Sprinting for “green” stimulus dollars, plug-in hybrid manufacturer brings vehicles to Washington, DC; invites law makers to test drive

April 20, 2009 at 6:52 pm

(Source: New York Times)

AFS Trinity

The chase for stimulus dollars now includes a sprint up Capitol Hill, quite literally.

The stimulus package has $2.5 billion for batteries and hybrids, and one of the many companies seeking a slice, AFS Trinity, arrived in Washington on Sunday with two Saturn Vue S.U.V.’s — “crossover” vehicles that General Motors sells as hybrids, but which AFS Trinity has extensively modified as plug-in hybrids.

The company is inviting members of Congress and their employees to drive them, and a favorite stretch is a steep hill up Constitution Avenue on the north side of the Capitol building.

AFS Trinity, of Bellevue, Wash., added two kinds of batteries to the Vue: A bank of lithium-ion batteries with 16 kilowatt-hours of usable storage (enough to go more than 40 miles), and a small bundle of ultra-capacitors — devices that hold only a little bit of energy, but can deliver or accept it very quickly.

The ultra-capacitors smooth out the start-and-stop flow of that comes with everyday driving, buffering the main batteries in a way that extends their lifetime. And they deliver real “vroom,” even though the electric drivetrain is silent.

The original Saturn comes with a four-cylinder, 170-horsepower gasoline engine. As a plug-in, normal practice would be to charge the battery overnight and drive around without the engine for the first 40 miles or so, but AFS Trinity put a button near the cigarette lighter. Push it, and the electric motor kicks in, creating a 370-horsepower street rod.

The vehicle can also run in gasoline–only mode. And it can run in something called “charge-depleting mode,’’ in which it uses electricity from the battery to assist the gasoline engine. In that mode, it gets 68 miles a gallon, the company said, and it can operate that way for 60 miles — far longer than most peoples’ daily drive. 

From the outside, the prototypes look like ordinary Saturn Vue’s, except for the big lettering on the side that announce them as 150-mile-per-gallon vehicles (that number assumes the owner drives it in all-electric mode most of the time).

Edward W. Furia, AFS Trinity’s chief executive, is looking for $40 million to build 100 cars, probably for use by a government agency like the Postal Service, then $200 million for the next thousand vehicles. Eventually he would like $1.3 billion to re-tool a GM factory to produce hundreds of thousands of plug-in hybrids. The company’s long-term plan is to produce vehicles with a price premium of $8,000 above the cost of the regular, nonhybrid version. If it could reach that point, the consumer’s extra investment might be quite small, after federal and state tax credits.

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A road warrior, from Pakistan! Inspection certficate not needed!

April 20, 2009 at 6:29 pm

Pakistani men pray next to a bullet-ridden vehicle parked in the compound of radical Lal Masjid or Red mosque in Islamabad.

Though it has no direct significance to transportation, this image was too impressive to pass.   Captured from Time’s Today’s Best Pictures (Friday 17 April, 2009 edition), it paints a grim picture of the dangers of living in today’s Pakistan.  It also serves as a warning sign for the dangers that lurk in one of the world most dangerous places – Pakistan.   The question that naturally arises here is – what is the criteria for clearing a vehicle safety inspection in this country where AK-47s are much more feared than the law or those who guard them.  TransportGooru assumes that this vehicle was pockmarked by bullets that flew around during the Pakistan Government’s  crackdown on militants in the Lal Masjid (Operation Sunrise) during July 2007.  A standing testimony for the carnage that happened inside the mosque’s premises that resulted in 154 deaths, and capture of 50 militants.  

Here is an article from BBC with the same vehicle (with captured nearly a few moments before/after the previous one was taken).

(Image Source: Time.com)

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Road Rage Re-defined! State Police Photo-Radar Van Driver Shot to Death

April 20, 2009 at 5:09 pm

 (Source: Fox 10 News via Jalopnik)

Rage against cameras taken to another level

PHOENIX, AZ – Phoenix police arrested a suspect in the fatal shooting of a man who was operating a state police photo radar unit that was parked on a north Phoenix freeway to catch speeders, police said Monday.

The suspect was being questioned Monday morning, Phoenix police spokesman Sgt. Andy Hill said in a news release. Police said more information would be released at a briefing later in the day.

The victim, 51-year-old Doug Georgianni, was shot just before 9 p.m. Sunday on the Loop 101 freeway and 7th Avenue.

Video equipment on the photo enforcement SUV, which is marked as an Arizona Department of Public Safety vehicle, showed a vehicle that was believed to have been used during the shooting. The driver of that vehicle was described as a man who appears to be in his 60s and has white hair and a white mustache.

Georgianni had worked for three months for RedFlex Traffic Systems Inc. The company has a contract with DPS to operate photo enforcement vehicles and fixed cameras on state highways.

When he was shot, Georgianni was inside the Ford Escape and monitoring data collection, the DPS said.

DPS Director Roger Vanderpool called the killing “appalling (and) senseless.”

Before police announced the arrest, Redflex said it took its 40 radar vehicles out of service out of concern for the safety of its employees. “The entire Redflex family is grief-stricken for Doug and his loved ones,” Chief Executive Karen Finley said in a statement.

Scottsdale-based Redflex Traffic Systems is a unit of Redflex Holdings Group, based in South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Arizona’s groundbreaking photo enforcement program is controversial, with state lawmakers considering legislation to eliminate the program when the contract expires in 2010. Meanwhile, critics have proposed initiative measures to put a repeal on the 2010 ballot.

The program sends notices to owners of vehicles photographed going at least 11 mph above the posted limit. Civil violations are punishable by a fine and surcharges totaling $181. Through Jan. 31, 34,000 motorists had paid.

In a previous act of violence involving the photo system, a 26-year-old man who damaged a fixed camera with a pickax in Glendale pleaded guilty to criminal damage and was sentenced in Maricopa County Superior Court last month to probation and fined more than $3,500.

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Charge on Run! General Dynamics RST-V Series-Hybrid With Cool In-Wheel Motors

April 20, 2009 at 4:53 pm

(Source: Jalopnik)

The General Dynamics Reconnaissance Surveillance and Targeting Vehicle is one cool piece of kit. It’s powered by four electric in-wheel motors and can export thirty kilowatts directly to the grid. It’s also got neat-o gauges.

This piece of military could-be is part of a larger push from the US Army to reduce their fuel consumption and use smarter technologies to make future land vehicles better in the field and more useful tools for soldiers. The RST-V is a technology demonstrator built entirely by General Dynamics to show what’s possible on a smaller-sized vehicle built around a series hybrid drive system.  (For those interested in reading about the Pentagon’s forays into alternative fuels take a look at this article : Pentagon Prioritizes Pursuit Of Alternative Fuel Sources).

It uses a small diesel-engine powering a generator to charge on-board batteries or power the in-wheel electric motors. Instead of mounting the wheels to studs on the motor as is normally done on hub-motor concepts, this concept works a bit differently. First the wheel is assembled on a bearing riding on an stub axle, then on goes the 90 kW peak, 50 kW continuous pancake motor mount installed on the splined hub shaft, then on top of that a pancake gear reduction unit which interfaces with an eccentrically mounted geared track one the rim of the wheel. Very, very clever. Each wheel gets an independent motor controller so even if three motors get shot out, forward motion is still possible.  Aside from being able to operate in all-silent mode, it can also export over 20 kW of power to the grid.

Click here to read the entire article.

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Sources: Chrysler Financial Refused Government Loan Over Limits on Executive Pay

April 20, 2009 at 4:35 pm

(Source: Washington Post)

Top officials at Chrysler Financial turned away a $750 million government loan because executives didn’t want to abide by new federal limits on pay, sources familiar with the matter say.

The government had been offering the loan earlier this month as part of its efforts to prop up the ailing auto industry, including Chrysler, which is racing to avoid bankruptcy. Chrysler Financial is a vital lender to Chrysler dealerships and customers.

In forgoing the loan, Chrysler Financial opted to use more expensive financing from private banks, adding to the burdens of the already fragile automaker and its financing company.

Chrysler Financial denied in a statement that its executives had refused to accept new limits on their pay.

The company’s decision comes amid a firestorm on Capitol Hill and elsewhere over the lavish pay of executives at companies being aided by government money. The uproar has made companies skittish about taking federal aid and hindered the Obama administration’s effort to revive lending by replenishing the coffers of the nation’s financial firms.

The Treasury Department previously had loaned Chrysler Financial $1.5 billion, when less stringent requirements on executive compensation were in place for recipients of federal bailout money. Since that first loan was announced on January 16, the Obama administration and Congress have toughened the rules.

During March, when it seemed that the first loan would run out, the Obama administration began working on a deal to lend the company another $750 million.

Click here to read the entire article.
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