(Source:  Forbes)

GM. Those two letters call up a lot of emotion these days. People ask, “What went wrong?” “How could a company that large, that successful, go bankrupt?” The less polite say: “General Motors’ leadership is corrupt.” “They ignored customers.” “The union killed them.” “Government interference.” “Idiots.”

We used to expect size to benefit a company. Being large and established meant you were supposed to have market clout, and you could protect your profits. According to Michael Porter, Harvard Business School professor and author, being biggest meant you had created entry barriers that kept your turf safe. With economies of scale in manufacturing, procurement, distribution, marketing, sales, financing and research and development, you could get so giant no competitor could effectively attack your products or prices. And for many, many years, nobody was bigger than General Motors ( GMGMQ.PK– news – people ).

The myth of the invulnerability of the large company is dead. We all know that by now. But other than depressing us, what does it mean? What have we learned from these failures that can help us be more successful in the future?

Many theories of business–from the work of Fredrick Winslow Taylor, who introduced modern management practices a century ago, to that of writers like Jim Collins today–have posited that success comes largely from figuring out what business you want to be in and then focusing on it intently. Pay attention to the resources on which you rely, invest to gain advantages of scale, operate with a tight focus on your goals and you should succeed.

This approach is based on an industrial-age understanding of oligopoly, where over time a pool of competitors shrinks to just the most efficient handful that can all be profitable in the long term. In other words, as Jim Collins has argued, if you set yourself a big, audacious goal and focus on tight management, you should expect to grow large and profitable in the end.

It’s good that GM’s situation raises people’s blood pressure. The company’s trip through bankruptcy is a highly visible sign of how markets have changed. To pull out of this recession, we need to make sure other companies don’t follow GM’s route. Leaders need to stop focusing on traditional market leadership, size and scale. They must abandon that approach to success. Now, more than ever, they have to identify market shifts and reposition their organizations to play in growing markets.

Profit comes from leading customers into new markets, not from optimizing your position in historical ones. To pick a winner, look for companies that shift with markets rather than trying to wield clout. To create a winner, build such a company.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: Natural Resources Defense Council)

America’s addiction to oil continues to threaten not only our national security and global environmental health, but also our economic viability. Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) analyzed how heavily drivers in each state are affected by increases in oil prices and ranked states on their adoption of solutions to reduce their oil dependence — measures they are taking to lessen their vulnerability and to bolster America’s security. NRDC found that rising gas prices, combined with the economic downturn, are making people more vulnerable to changes in oil prices. But many states are taking significant steps to reduce oil dependence through smart clean-transportation policies.

Our analysis shows that:

• Oil dependence affects all states, but some drivers are hit harder economically than others.
• The trends in states’ vulnerability to oil price increases over the past couple of years are not encouraging — drivers in every state were more vulnerable in 2008 than they were in 2006.
• While some states are pioneering solutions and many are taking some action, a fair number of states are still taking few (if any) of the steps needed to reduce their oil dependence.

Image Courtesy: NRDC - Percent of Income Spent on Gasoline by the Average Driver, 2008

The NRDC report says that although some states are adopting strong measures to reduce their oil dependence, too many others are still taking little or no action. The solutions rankings in this report are based on the range of key actions that states can take to reduce oil dependence, with particular focus on policies that can have substantial impact and can be replicated by other states.

NRDC research shows that the 10 states doing the most to wean themselves from oil are:

1) California
2) Massachusetts
3) Washington
4) New Mexico
5) Connecticut
6) New York
7) New Jersey
8) Pennsylvania
9) Oregon
10) Florida

In contrast, the 10 states doing the least to reduce their oil dependence are:

1) West Virginia
2) Idaho
3) Wyoming
4) Mississippi
5) South Dakota
6) Oklahoma
7) Alabama
8) Arkansas
9) North Dakota
10) Alaska

Click here to download the full issue paper. A Fact Sheet developed by the study team can be downloaded here.

(Hat Tip: Elena Schor @ Streetsblog, Capitol Hill)

(Sources: Autoblog Green , Green Car Congress, NY Times Wheels, Green Car Reports)

The internet as well as the automotive world has been abuzz with a lot of discussions since this morning after General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson revealed what the company’s mysterious ‘230’ ad campaign was about.  It turned out to be the official mileage rating for GM’s upcoming 2011 Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric car.

GM must be basking in the new found glory (though it sounds more temporary as the intelligent folks around the web are starting to dig out the details behind this 230mpg claim). GM’s Twitter account was proudly re-tweeting a post that goes like this: 230 mpg city, great. More than 100 mpg combined, even better. Not being stranded after 300+ miles, priceless.   Mind you!  This is just a sample of what’s been such a flood of good PR for GM. after this 230 unveiling.

For many smart folks, a number like that seems outlandish, absurd. How can the US Environmental Protection Agency possibly measure fuel consumption that low? The answer, it turns out, is all in the assumptions.

Our friends at Autoblog says “Without access to the actual method that the EPA is tentatively going to apply to plug-in vehicles (we have requests for clarification out to the EPA), all that GM’s Dave Darovitz would tell us is that the number is “based on city cycles and we’re not really talking in detail yet.” Instead, the press release says that: Under the new methodology being developed, EPA weights plug-in electric vehicles as traveling more city miles than highway miles on only electricity. The EPA methodology uses kilowatt hours per 100 miles traveled to define the electrical efficiency of plug-ins. Applying EPA’s methodology, GM expects the Volt to consume as little as 25 kilowatt hours per 100 miles in city driving. At the U.S. average cost of electricity (approximately 11 cents per kWh), a typical Volt driver would pay about $2.75 for electricity to travel 100 miles, or less than 3 cents per mile.

Which leads to the big question: What assumptions should the EPA make in its emissions and gas-mileage tests about how the Volt is used (also known as the car’s “duty cycle”)?

For decades, gasoline cars (and ) have been testing using two cycles: city and highway. That gives us the two quoted EPA mileage ratings, and the EPA also calculates a “blended” number for overall usage. The distance driven doesn’t really matter.

But for the Volt, mileage assumptions become much more political.  If the EPA tests a Volt over a cycle of less than 40 miles, it will never burn any gasoline, and it’ll get that “infinite” mileage. The daily distance matters much more for the Volt than for a gas engined car.

The answer appears to be the EPA has adopted a cycle described by GM-Volt.com, among others, that assumes the Volt is driven until the battery is discharged–and then slightly more on gasoline power.

A similar test routine proposed by Mike Duoba at Argonne National Laboratories repeatedly drives the car on four EPA highway test cycles until the battery is discharged, then drives one city cycle–totaling 51 miles. (The EPA city cycle is roughly 11 miles, the highway cycle about 10 miles.)

If the engine runs for 11 miles at 50 mpg, that will use 0.22 gallons of gasoline. But that amount is used over a total travel distance of 51 miles, which works out to 232 mpg. Sounds like 230 mpg to us!

Jim Motavalli wrote on his Wheels column on  New York Times : The problem with claiming 230 miles a gallon was that to get at numbers like that you can’t simply measure its fuel consumption. The plug-in hybrid’s small gas engine is there to provide power for the electric motors, not drive the wheels, and the first 40 miles are on the batteries alone.

G.M. can plug its numbers into the E.P.A. city driving cycle and get stellar results, but, as they say, actual results — and planetary impact — will vary quite a bit. How and where you drive the Volt will matter quite a bit, too. “If you’re heavy footed, you’re not going to get 230 miles per gallon,” said Roland Hwang, transportation program director at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

In a detailed article published by Green Car Congress one can learn how this fuel economy rating is measured.  While the fuel economy (FE) for combustible fueled vehicles (such as gasoline, diesel, compressed natural gas, or an ethanol blend) can easily be expressed in mpg, and fuel economy for an all-electric vehicle can be expressed in miles per gallon of gasoline equivalent (mpge), the arrival of new technologies that can operate in all-electric mode, a conventional hybrid mode, or some combination of the two complicates the situation.

The EPA is revisiting the FE label provisions as they apply to those types of vehicles, and is working with automakers, the SAE, the State of California, the Department of Energy and others to address these issues. The EPA anticipates issuing guidance and/or a rule this year.

According to US Department of Transportation data, nearly eight of 10 Americans commute fewer than 40 miles a day. A Volt driver’s actual gas-free mileage will vary depending on how far he or she travels and other factors, such as how much cargo or how many passengers they carry and how much the air conditioner or other accessories are used. Tony Posawatz, Vehicle Line Director for the Volt, said that the Volt is delivering 40 miles all electric in both city and highway cycles.

However, Posawatz notes that since the Volt results are based on a single charge per day—and that given the recharge time of 6-8 hours on a standard 110V outlet or half that on a 240V charger, the Volt has the potential to deliver better than 230 mpg performance if it can charge multiple times per day.

Click here to read the entire article.

ITS World Congresses gather some 5,000 participants from around the world looking to share experiences and build networks. As a decision-maker, manufacturer, supplier or consultant within the private or public sector, the World Congress is an opportunity for you to learn more about what ITS can do to improve the efficiency of your operations. What’s more, it is an excellent opportunity to show the general public how ITS can help them in their daily lives.

Delegates will include representatives from:

• International organisations and national governments
• Regional, local and municipal authorities
• Security and safety organisations
• CEOs from industry
• Equipment manufacturers and suppliers
• Service developers and service providers
• Software developers and systems integrators
• Automotive and industrial designers
• Public transport and freight operators
• ITS project management and financiers
• ITS consultancies and advisors
• ITS users and members organisations
• Public interest groups and press

There will also be an opportunity for the public to visit the Exhibition and demonstration sites on the last day of the World Congress in Stockholm.

The Congress format consists of several different types of sessions.  Along with the traditional types of sessions (Plenary, Executive, Special Interest and Technical/Scientific), this year the Congress organizers are introducing the two new formats: Interactive Sessions and Lunchtime Debates.  Sessions typically last 90 minutes.

The Exhibit Hall provides a venue for public sector organizations and private sector vendors to show off their latest technology.  The Exhibit Hall will be open to Congress delegates September 22-25; on Friday, September 25, it will also be open to the public.

The 2009 ITS World Congress will also feature four demonstration sites where Congress delegates can watch ITS in action: one is located inside the Exhibit Hall, two are located just outside the building in the parking lot, and one is accessible by shuttle bus.  Congress delegates can also go on any of 11 technical visits to see ITS in action in and around Stockholm.

Social events include receptions on Monday (September 21) and Tuesday (September 22) evenings and a gala dinner Wednesday (September 23) evening in Stockholm City Hall, famous as the location where Nobel Prizes are awarded.

For all other event related information, please visit the ITS World Congress website.

The proceedings from the recently held Intelligent Vehicle Technology Transfer (IVTT) Joint Military/Civilian Workshop on IntelliDrive are now available online for your perusal and downloading.   The Workshop was held at the Holiday Inn, Gaithersburg, Maryland on July 30, 2009.

For those who are not in the know, the Intelligent Vehicle Technology Transfer (IVTT) Joint Military/Civilian Workshop on IntelliDrive^sm is sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA); and it is supported by the Department of Transportation Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office (DOT ITS JPO), the Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC), the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI); the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America); and the Intelligent Systems Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (ISD NIST)

Please link to the IVTT website at www.Intelligent-Vehicle.com and go to the “Prior Events” tab and then click on “Workshop 2009” to access the Presentations and other Workshop information. (Alternatively, you can copy paste the following link: http://www.intelligent-vehicle.com/index.php/events-2009). Or you can simply click each of the following hyperlinked files to simply download them.

• Agenda 31 March 09.pdf
• Presentation 01 Scott Welcome.pdf
• Presentation 02 Finkelstein IVTT Technological Transformation.pdf
• Presentation 03 Dumas Intelligent Vehicle Technology In DARPA.pdf
• Presentation 04 Wilcox Robotic Systems Joint Project office.pdf
• Presentation 05 Rossi Emerging Intelligent Vehicles In FCS.pdf
• Presentation 06 Govers Guardium UGV.pdf
• Presentation 07 Shoemaker Autonomous Intelligent Vehicle Research.pdf
• Presentation 08 Scott Autonomous Intelligent Vehicle Technology At NIST.pdf
• Presentation 09 Schmidt Intelligent Vehicles And IntelliDrive.pdf
• Presentation 10 Fitch Intelligent Vehicle Perception And Autonomy.pdf
• Presentation 11 Pilutti Autonomous Vehicles And Collision Avoidance.pdf
• Presentation 12 Schmitt Intelligent Commercial Vehicles.pdf
• Presentation 13 Langer Autonomous Driving At VW.pdf
• Presentation 14 McBride Autonomous Vehicle Research At Ford.pdf
• Presentation 15 Rajkumar Making Autonomous Driving Real.pdf
• Presentation 16 Kern Intelligent Cars Trucks And Buses.pdf
• Presentation 17 Snyder Autonomous Intelligent Vehicles Now.pdf
• Presentation 18 McCormick Connected Vehicle Proving Center.pdf
• Presentation 19 Dallas Robotics Technology Consortium.pdf
• Presentation 20 Bishop Intelligent Vehicles Global Perspective.pdf
• Presentation 21 Albus Intelligent Vehicle Technology Gaps.pdf
• Presentation 22 Ayyub Intelligent Vehicles Towards Cognition.pdf
• Presentation 23 Finkelstein IVTT Roadmap.pdf
• Registrants List.pdf

The workshop was deemed a great success, and the DOT’s developing IntelliDrive system of systems can help satisfy the DOD’s needs for complex networks of sensors, vehicles, communications, and control centers. Please stay tuned to your website for the announcement(s) regarding the next event.

Do not forget to thank, Dr. Bob Finkelstein, the manager of IVTT Program for making these presentations publicly available.

(Source: Washington Post, Jalopnik, Autoblog)

Car can extend its range to more than 300 miles with its flex fuel-powered engine-generator.

Image Courtesy: Autoblog

In case you missed it this morning, General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson made some big news just one month after the “new” GM emerged from bankruptcy protection.

General Motors announced today that its forthcoming electric vehicle, the Chevrolet Volt, will achieve city fuel economy of 230 miles per gallon, under testing that used draft federal fuel economy methodology standards for plug-in cars.

The Volt will become the first mass-produced vehicle to obtain a triple-digit MPG rating, the company said.

“The Volt is becoming very real, very fast,” chief executive Fritz Henderson said. “The price of oil is going to go up.”

According to Frank Weber, vehicle chief engineer for the Volt, the number is based on combined electric only driving and charge sustaining mode with the engine running. He declined to get specific about the proportions, but did say that the urban cycle would be predominantly EV only. The EPA has been studying real world vehicle usage and is developing the formulas to try and provide a representative number of what most customers could expect to achieve. In addition to the composite number, the new EPA stickers will likely also get numbers for mileage in charge sustaining mode and electric efficiency in EV mode.

Initial prices for the car may be as much as $40,000, analysts said.

But company officials said the car’s price is expected to come down over time. They note, moreover, that gas prices will rise again, making fuel-efficient cars more valuable.

The Volt, which is scheduled to start production late next year, is expected to travel up to 40 miles on electricity from a single battery charge. The company says the car can extend its range to more han 300 miles with its flex fuel-powered engine-generator.

Assuming the average cost of electricity is approximately 11 cents per kilowatt-hour in the United States, a typical Volt driver would pay about $2.75 for electricity to travel 100 miles, or less than 3 cents per mile.

This story’s still developing, but if our sources are correct, it would blow the Toyota Prius out of the water. Heck, it’d blow every other vehicle currently on the market out of the water with the exception of the Tesla roadster — and that’s no four-door mid-size sedan. So for GM this represents a huge marketing coup — the ability to claim the most fuel efficient vehicle in the world and a big blow to detractors who claim the big, sweaty ‘merican manufacturer can’t build quality products.

Click here to read the entire article.

Hotel Monteleone
214 Royal Street
New Orleans, LA 70130-2201

The Texas Transportation Institute cordially invites you to attend the 2009 National Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Safety Training Conference. The Crescent City and the Grand Dame of the French Quarter are ready and waiting to assist us in hosting the nation’s grade crossing safety experts who will present information on the latest legislative issues, research, innovations, and technologies in grade crossing safety. We look forward to seeing you in Louisiana this fall!

Registration Information
You are encouraged to register online for this event.

Online registration will be available until 5:00 pm CST, Friday, November 6, 2009. After this date, please plan to register on-site at the Hotel Monteleone.

Onsite Registration/Information Desk

On-site conference registration will be available at the hotel during the conference. The $125 late fee will be in effect during that time. Check, money order, exact cash and credit card payments will be accepted on-site.

Registration Fees

The registration fee covers all conference functions.

Pre-registration is recommended and will help us in planning and preparing a better conference. If you pre-register, your name tag and program packet will be ready when you arrive at the hotel. The fee is $275 through October 16, 2009. A $125 late fee will be added to registrations received after October 16, 2009.

Payment Information

Please make check or money order (U.S. currency drawn on a U.S. bank) payable to TTI-HRG09. Event Management & Planning (EM&P) also accepts Visa, MasterCard and Discover credit cards. If paying by check or money order, you may register online and then mail your payment to EM&P. EM&P can not invoice; therefore, payment of the conference registration fee must be received prior to admission to the conference. NO PURCHASE ORDERES ACCEPTED.

For payment processing purposes, the vendor identification number for TTI EM&P is 37277277275000. The federal identification number is 74-2270624.

Cancellations

Only cancellations received in writing by EM&P by 5:00 p.m. October 16, 2009, will be refunded, less a $125 handling fee. No refunds will be made after October 16.

Exhibitor Registration

If you would like more information about exhibiting at this conference, please visit the exhibitor web page.

Speaker Information

We extend our appreciation for your acceptance to speak at the 2009 National Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Safety Training Conference. If for some reason you cannot attend we would hope that you could send another person in your place. A letter detailing the specific date and time of your presentation will be mailed to you in the next few weeks. Also included in the letter will be a request for your biographical information, which will assist the moderator in introducing you at the beginning of the session.

Speakers should register online no later than October 16, 2009.

If you have need of further information, please contact Jessica Franklin at j-franklin@ttimail.tamu.edu or (979) 845-5817.

Hotel Reservations

Accommodations have been arranged at the Hotel Monteleone, located at 214 Royal Street in New Orleans, LA. The room block is available November 15-18, 2009. Please refer to “National Rail Conference” when making your reservation.

Government block (prevailing government per diem to be established by September 15, 2009):

• Single: $140 per night current rate
• Double: $140 per night current rate

Discounted Conference Block (Non-Government):

• Single: $185 per night
• Double: $185 per night

A limited number of government rates are available for those guests with proper military or government ID. Please make these reservations as soon as possible to ensure room availability.

To receive special conference rates, individuals should call the Hotel Monteleone directly at (504) 523-3341 or by calling Group Reservations number (800) 217-2033 and identify the event as “National Rail Conference.” Please confirm your room rate when you make your reservation and confirm this rate upon your arrival at the hotel. Please assist us in keeping conference costs down by meeting our room block requirements at this hotel. All reservations for sleeping rooms must be received by October 16, 2009. Reservations received after this date will be accepted on a space available and rate available basis.

For more details about the Hotel Monteleone, please visit their website.

Any attendee not identifying his/her affiliation with the group and not requesting the conference rate prior to check-in cannot be extended the conference rate at a later date or during or after the meeting.

Sponsorship Opportunities

The following is a list of events that will take place during the conference. If your organization would like to sponsor any of the events or make a donation to assist in facilitating any of these events, the cost is listed below. For any event your organization sponsors or makes a contribution to, the organization name will be noted in the program, as well as displayed on a sign at the function. “Themed breaks” are also available for sponsorship.

• Welcome Reception – $20,000
• Continental Breakfast (3) – $2,600 (each)
• Formal Luncheon – $10,000
• Network and Dinner – $27,000
• Daily Morning and Afternoon Breaks – $1,200

If you would like additional information (Program Contents, Speaker Registration, Event Sponsorship), please contact Jessica Franklin at j-franklin@ttimail.tamu.edu or (979) 845-5817.

(Source: Streetsblog)

Sure, knocking the MTA is a favorite local past time, particularly for the politicians and press who are practically guaranteed a “Hallelujah!” chorus for every barb (today’s scandal: fat cat transit workers poised to rake in cost-of-living allowance!!). But despite the MTA’s problems, as Michael Frumin points out on his Frumination blog, the city’s streets and highways can’t hold a candle to the subways when it comes to moving commuters into and out of Manhattan’s Central Business District.

Parsing data derived from 2008 subway passenger counts and the NYMTC 2007 Hub Bound Report [PDF], Frumin writes:

Just to get warmed up, chew on this — from 8:00AM to 8:59 AM on an average Fall day in 2007 the NYC Subway carried 388,802 passengers into the CBD on 370 trains over 22 tracks. In other words, a train carrying 1,050 people crossed into the CBD every 6 seconds.Breathtaking if you ask me.

Over this same period, the average number of passengers in a vehicle crossing any of the East River crossings was 1.20. This means that, lacking the subway, we would need to move 324,000 additional vehicles into the CBD (never mind where they would all park).

At best, it would take 167 inbound lanes, or 84 copies of the Queens Midtown Tunnel, to carry what the NYC Subway carries over 22 inbound tracks through 12 tunnels and 2 (partial) bridges. At worst, 200 new copies of 5th Avenue. Somewhere in the middle would be 67 West Side Highways or 76 Brooklyn Bridges. And this neglects the Long Island Railroad, Metro North, NJ Transit, and PATH systems entirely.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: Green Car Congress)

AeroVironment, Inc. (AV) has been granted a patent (no. 7,444,192) by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for technology that facilitates the optimal charging, management, control and maintenance of battery packs, chargers and electric vehicles (EVs).

AV’s technology is directly applicable to battery packs, chargers and battery-powered EVs that can be linked to the electric utility network and managed by a “smart grid” controller. The technology is designed to gather data from the EV or the charger, and uses the data to determine whether the rate of charge is optimized for the vehicle’s performance, the battery’s long-term health, and the utility’s power availability.

Click the image to enlarge. Document opens in new window

A device employing this technology could create and store a performance profile for the EV and charger. Based on this historical profile, the device could optimize the rate of charge or transmit an alert to the utility or end user.

The technology was developed for AV’s PosiNET system, a Web-based motive power management solution which has been deployed in support of commercial EV fleets in the United States. PosiNET minimizes fleet downtime and optimizes vehicle utilization by providing real-time, predictive and historic reports as well as actionable alerts and equipment usage recommendations to fleet managers.

For passenger EV charging, the system would enable vehicle and grid optimization through grid-tied electric charging systems communicating with utilities via the internet. The system could send alerts and other actionable data to utilities which could then remotely control charge rates using the PosiNET system. The comprehensive information gathered by the system could also be used by the utilities for reporting and analysis. These same capabilities could also be applied by utilities to help enable real-time grid balancing on a local level.

The technology behind AV’s electric vehicle charging solutions emerged after AV’s substantial contributions to the development of the GM Impact, the concept car for General Motors’ EV1, the first modern electric car. AV created a solution combining high-current charging algorithms with intelligent thermal management to safely increase the useful range of electric battery packs. Today, AV’s electric vehicle charging solutions significantly reduce the amount of time required to safely charge electric vehicle battery packs while maximizing their range, performance and lifespan.

Click here to read the entire article.