(Source:  Autobloggreen)

Upon returning from a recent trip to Thailand, some friends of mine related experiences of what it’s like to travel on somewhat primitive roads in somewhat primitive vehicles. Disconcerting at first, apparently, but totally acceptable after a few trips prove that it’s (relatively) safe. The vehicles of choice in Thailand, along with a bunch of other far-away locales, are Tuk Tuks, three-wheeled machines that marry the front end of a scooter to the rear end of a passenger car. Soon, you’ll be able to get one in America.

We just got an email message from Tuk Tuk North America informing us that the company has officially been granted both DOT and EPA approval for its line of Mitsubishi-powered three-wheelers. This means that the Tuk Tuk will be completely road legal here in the United States. We’re not so sure you’d want to drive one cross-crountry (though we understand it’s fully capable of such trips), but as an around-town errand-runner, the little scoots might work out just fine, returning an estimated 55 miles per gallon.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source:  Greenwire – New York Times; AutoBlogGreen)

Chuck Hurley - Image Courtesy: Dickinson College

Hurley has served as CEO of Mothers Against Drunk Driving since 2005 and has spent more than three decades working on a host of driving safety initiatives. He previously held senior leadership posts at both the National Safety Council and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a nonprofit research group funded by auto insurers.

The insurance institute has been critical of past CAFE proposals and has backed an auto industry argument that a disproportionate focus on increasing fuel mileage would lead to smaller and less safe cars (See a related article on TransportGooru that discussed the latest IIHS crash test results correlating vehicle safety during crashes to the size and fuel effieicency factors of small cars). The group helped lead a successful industry push for CAFE standards that use an attribute-based system that requires cars and trucks to achieve different standards depending on each vehicle’s footprint.

Hurley’s work with the institute during the 1990s was enough to worry Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign, which has advocated for fuel economy increases. “It would be awkward to have an administrator of NHTSA who’s spent much of his career attacking fuel economy standards that NHTSA administers,” he told the Wall Street Journal.

With exception of the fuel economy concern, Hurley’s nomination drew near-universal praise from highway safety advocates.  In addition to his extensive work on drunk-driving issues, Hurley has also worked with law enforcement agencies on air bag and seat belt issues, child passenger safety and teen driving initiatives.  “Chuck is a passionate safety advocate whose career has been dedicated to reducing motor vehicle deaths and injuries on the highways,” said Vernon Betkey Jr., chairman of the Governors Highway Safety Association.

(Source: Washington Post) 

Without higher gas taxes, ‘cash for clunkers’ won’t do the job 

CAR SALES in Germany jumped an astonishing 40 percent in March, thanks in large part to a “cash for clunkers” program in which the government gave those handing over old-model cars roughly $5,000 toward the purchase of newer, more fuel-efficient vehicles. Lawmakers in the United States have crafted similar proposals, hoping both to provide a boost to the U.S. auto industry and to spur sales of environmentally friendlier cars. But even the best of these proposals is not likely to provide the punch of the German initiative.

Click here to read the entire article (free regn. required).  

Note:  Below is a list of articles on this issue, previously published on TransportGooru.  This compilation of articles offer an insight into state of various “Cash for Clunkers” style programs implemented (or currently being debated) across the globe (Germany, UK, etc,). Stay plugged in to TransportGooru for more on this topic in the days to come.

 Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save (CARS) Act revives “Cash for Clunkers” scrapping plan in U.S

Germany plans to extend Abwrackprämie aka “Environmental Bonus”

The bickering starts over the implementation of the Cash for Clunkers legislation

Obama Favors “Cash for Clunkers”

Germany increases subsidy to 5 Billion Euros, tripling incentives for its “Cash for Clunker” (Abwrackprämie) program

Britain mulls implementation of “Cash for Clunkers” scheme to boost ailing auto sales 

Where the US stands in pushing “Cash for Clunkers”- Four bills in Congress; Details Needed

One giant container ship can emit almost the same amount of cancer and asthma-causing chemicals as 50m cars, study finds

(Source: Guardian via Tree Hugger)

The Guardian has a pretty shocking piece about giant cargo ships and the pollution they emit. The title of this post is a line from “confidential data from maritime industry insiders”, and according to them, the low-grade ship bunker fuel that powers cargo ships has up to 2,000 times the sulphur content of diesel fuel used in US, and European automobiles and emission control is practically non-existent.  Here we can see that the primary concern with shipping is air-pollution (“US academic research which showed that pollution from the world’s 90,000 cargo ships leads to 60,000 deaths a year in the US alone and costs up to $330bn per year in health costs from lung and heart diseases”). It does contribute significantly to global warming, but about 5-6 times less than land-based transportation.

Shipping by numbers (From Guardian)The world’s biggest container ships have 109,000 horsepower engines which weigh 2,300 tons.

Each ship expects to operate 24hrs a day for about 280 days a year

There are 90,000 ocean-going cargo ships

Shipping is responsible for 18-30% of all the world’s nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollution and 9% of the global sulphur oxide (SOx) pollution.

One large ship can generate about 5,000 tonnes of sulphur oxide (SOx) pollution in a year

70% of all ship emissions are within 400km of land.

85% of all ship pollution is in the northern hemisphere.

Shipping is responsible for 3.5% to 4% of all climate change emissions

The calculations of ship and car pollution are based on the world’s largest 85,790KW ships’ diesel engines which operate about 280 days a year generating roughly 5,200 tonnes of SOx a year, compared with diesel and petrol cars which drive 15,000km a year and emit approximately 101gm of SO2/SoX a year.

(Source: Jalopnik)

It’s not often that you quickly look past blonde and presumably Italian (or maybe Swiss) “booth professionals,” but the Alfa Romeo 8C Spider has that affect on a man. Yes, friends, the highly anticipated Geneva debut of the Spider is finally here. This car has the same 450 HP 4.7-liter V8 as its brother, the 8C Competizione, which earned its own Very Special Jalopnik Day. If you haven’t already noticed, the Spider features a fully automatic electro-hydraulic convertible top that has been engineered with the same aerodynamic and performance precision as the rest of the ride. 

The car’s sexy enough on it’s own. But adding a couple of  super good looking, electric red wearing, smoking hot babes, strutting their wares around that dream machine to some fine rhythms – makes it absolutely irresistible (i.e., if you are ready to do some explaining to your wife/girlfriend why you decided to spend $200K).  Watch the video below and tell me if you disagree:

(Source: Jalopnik, Wired, Autoblog, Detroit News)

GM chair fears deal can’t be reached: Kent Kresa, interim chairman of General Motors Corp., is not optimistic money-saving concessions can be reached with bondholders and the United Auto Workers to avoid bankruptcy before a June 1 deadline. “I’m hopeful we can get there,” Kresa told The Detroit News today. “Everybody understands we would be in a much better situation if we can resolve this among all the players without going through bankruptcy.” GM is trying to restructure about $28 billion in unsecured debt held by GM’s bondholders and $20 billion in obligations to the United Auto Workers. The federal government also may agree to swap some of its $13.4 billion in General Motors Corp. debt for new equity in the company in a move to help boost GM’s balance sheet.

GM chairman looking to turn over half of board of trustees by June? According to the Detroit Free Press, General Motors interim chairman, Kent Kresa, has been asked by president Obama’s administration to replenish the automaker’s board with fresh blood. Kresa said that while the board did achieve “historic things” recently, like renegotiating the UAW pay scale, he also said that the board didn’t fully comprehend the magnitude of the downturn. 

 GM Says Volt Won’t ‘Pay the Rent’ : General Motors won’t make money on its electric car for quite awhile. That’s to be expected, and it should be supported. The Obama administration doesn’t understand that.

GM, Task Force preparing for “surgical” bankruptcy: According to a lengthy report by the New York Times, the Treasury Department is directing General Motors to begin work on a bankruptcy filing by June 1. Based on sources close to the talks who were unable to officially discuss the process, the report outlines the “fast ‘surgical’ bankruptcy” of the automaker if GM is unable to reach an agreeme…

GM‘s new offer for bondholders may contain no cash, just equity: …GM, Earnings/FinancialsGM’s most recent offer to its bondholders offered a little bit of cash and a little bit of equity. GM CEO Fritz Henderson’s example was that a holder of $1,000 in bonds would end up with $333 and a some equity. After conferring with the Auto Task Force, however, that offer was deemed excessive in light of GM‘s situation so…

Smart USA quickly responds to IIHS crash test results

(Source:  Autoblog, Jalopnik & IIHS)

“There are good reasons people buy minicars,” says Institute president Adrian Lund. “They’re more affordable, and they use less gas. But the safety trade-offs are clear from our new tests. Equally clear are the implications when it comes to fuel economy. If automakers downsize cars so their fleets use less fuel, occupant safety will be compromised. However, there are ways to serve fuel economy and safety at the same time.”

The three tests we have are between the Honda Accord and the Honda Fit, the Toyota Camry and Toyota Yaris, and finally the Mercedes C300 and the Smart ForTwo. With each we get a full speed offset frontal crash with both cars traveling at 40 MPH, destruction and carnage ensue and rightly so, there’s a lot of energy involved here. These are hardly scientific tests, and they represent the absolute most extreme crash scenario for these speeds, especially for the smaller cars. Ratings got from “Good” at the top of the scale through “Acceptable” and “Poor.” Considering this is one car bashing into another, the evaluation is somewhat subjective, but it gives an idea of relative performance. Let’s take a closer look at each.

 Click here to read the entire article and to watch two other awesome videos.  Seen below is the IIHS report in PDF format.  To download the report, please visit the IIHS website. 

P.S:  According to AutoBlog, folks over at Smart USA were not pleased to see the results of the latest batch of crash testing from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The IIHS did a series of frontal offset crash tests between small and mid-size cars, one of which included a smart ForTwo versus a Mercedes C300. While the results may have been what most people expected, they don’t correlate with the ForTwo’s results in standardized tests where the IIHS rates the smart as good in front and side impacts. The feds at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration give the smart 4 stars on frontal impact and 5 on side impact. 

The problem, as Smart USA sees it, is that the IIHS devised a test that no automaker has designed to and that they claim only represents about one percent of real world accidents. Smart has even set up a site for customer testimonials about the crash safety performance of their ForTwo. Typically, in the past, Smarts have actually done quite well in similar vehicle-on-vehicle tests, such as the ones conducted by Mercedes and Auto Motor und Sport after the jump.

(Source: BBC via Autoblog; Photo: Saudi Jeans via Autoblog)

Saudi Arabia recently instated a new type of license plate that is expected to be fitted to 49 million cars in the kingdom. As opposed to the old Arabic-only plates, the new plates feature Arabic and Latin letters and numbers. Drivers can even request that the three letters on the lower right form certain 3-letter English words, like “nut.”

But according to the BBC, authorities have published a list words that definitely cannot be placed there, and heading the list of words like “SEX” and “ASS” is this one: “USA.”  It hasn’t been explained why “USA” is on the list of Saudi Arabia’s banned words, but such plates and 90,000 others like it are being recalled and replaced with something more acceptable.   Personalised plates are popular with wealthy young Saudis. One plate recently sold at auction for 6m riyals ($1.2m), the newspaper reported.

Such license plate controversies are not new in many parts of the English speaking world.  Often plates implying profane matter are restricted in the U.S. and for those who remember the recent one from Colorado touting a woman’s love for tofu got a lot of media attention.  PETAf iles blog reports that no one driving through Colorado will be seeing the personalized license plate “ILVTOFU” anytime soon, thanks to the DMV’s rejection of the message as “possibly offensive to the general public.”  Wait, what? How is loving tofu offensive? As it turns out, the license-plate approver had an entirely different interpretation of the message, as in I-LV-TO-eff-you.

While it’s a creative interpretation, it’s not exactly what the Colorado mother of three vegetarian kids had in mind. Coffman-Lee is a vegan, and as she puts it, “I’m very expressive. I’m anti-fur, anti-rodeo, anti-circus when they come to Denver, and I thought, ‘Here’s a chance to be positive and say I love something.'” She even says that a friend at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animal (PETA) liked the idea so much they were willing to pay the $60 plate fee.Hopefully, with a little explanation and maybe even a tasty sample of the jiggly white stuff, the rejection will be overturned and her car can become the vegetarian-message-on-wheels that it was meant to be.  

(Source: Tree Hugger)

Leader in the Pack 
Rep. Sutton’s Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save (CARS) Act would give consumers incentives of $3,000 to $5,000 for turning in vehicles that are 8 years or older to buy more fuel-efficient vehicles or to obtain a transit voucher. She says that support is growing every day. The bill has gathered 21 co-sponsors so far, up from 19 a couple of weeks ago. The bill is still working out the metric of how cars would need to be traded in and what fuel efficiency would need to be for the new car. Sen. Dianne Feinstein has a similar proposal (with a short title of Accelerated Retirement of Inefficient Vehicles Act of 2009) that would mandate that the new car be 25% aboveCAFE standards . There has not been anything mentioned about how many cars one person or family can switch for the credit. Also, some states already have incentives for buying cleaner cars, so will individuals be able to get both state and federal credits? If so, in places like Texas , a person could get a combined total of as much as $8,500.00 for a new car.

Click here to read the entire article.  Here is the CNBC video of  the Cash for Clunkers featuring industry experts Dave McCurdy, Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and John Wolkonowicz, IHS Global Insight.

 Note:  Below is a list of articles published on TransportGooru, offering insight into state of various “Cash for Clunkers” style programs implemented (or currently being debated) across the globe (Germany, UK, etc,).

Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save (CARS) Act revives “Cash for Clunkers” scrapping plan in U.S

Germany plans to extend Abwrackprämie aka “Environmental Bonus”

The bickering starts over the implementation of the Cash for Clunkers legislation

Obama Favors “Cash for Clunkers”

Germany increases subsidy to 5 Billion Euros, tripling incentives for its “Cash for Clunker” (Abwrackprämie) program

Britain mulls implementation of “Cash for Clunkers” scheme to boost ailing auto sales