(Source: Retuters India & Autoblog)

The family owners of Italian car designer and niche manufacturer Pininfarina SpA have hired Italy’s Banca Leonardo to sell their majority stake in the company, a company source said on Friday.

The decision was taken at the company’s board meeting on Wednesday, the source said. The sale of the 50.7 percent stake held by Pincar, the Pininfarina family company, was foreseen as part of a debt agreement with banks at end of 2008.

“It is a commitment Pincar made with the banks. The family has no intention of leaving completely,” the source said, adding Pincar will no longer be a majority shareholder.

Images via Apture: Multiple flavors of Pininfarina Designed Ferraris

Sure, but who will buy controlling interest of such a storied company? Have you met our Indian friend Tata? Rumors are swirling that Indian giant Tata, new owner of both Jaguar and Land Rover, is reportedly in the hunt to purchase the Pininfarina family’s shares.

Various other companies have been touted as possible partners for Pininfarina, which has designed stylish cars for Ferrari. Pininfarina is working with French financier Vincent Bollore on developing an electric car.

Earlier this week, Pininfarina said Pincar had subscribed its 50.7 percent share of a 70 million euros capital increase. The increase attracted overall 55.6 percent take-up.   The Pincar subscription to the rights issue was also part of the end-2008 agreement with banks, the source said.

However, the reports are painting the pending deal as a partnership rather than a takeover and Tata already has dealings with Fiat, so they’re familiar with the Italian way of doing things.  If a rival took more than a third of Pininfarina’s shares, it could put at risk its contract to April 2011 with Ford Motor Co. Pininfarinia builds the Ford Focus Coupe-Cabriolet at its plant in Bairo, near Turin, Italy. It also has a joint venture with Ford subsidiary Volvo Car Corp. to make the Volvo C70 at a plant in Uddevalla, Sweden.

Let’s see how it all shakes out!

(Source: FHWA-Office of Planning, Environment and Realty)

Recent Events

Secretary LaHood Testifies Before Senate. On July 14, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood testified to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works about transportation’s role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  The Secretary outlined several initiatives that DOT is undertaking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including implementing more stringent fuel economy standards, improving operational efficiency of the transportation system, and addressing VMT growth by encouraging development of livable communities.  A webcast recording of the hearing, along with submitted written testimony from all presenters, is available at: http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_ID=57b8818d-802a-23ad-4d8d-e09cd7cb134a

Moving Cooler Report Released. This new Urban Land Institute (ULI) publication, prepared by Cambridge Systematics, Inc. based in Cambridge, Mass., explores incremental reductions in U.S. carbon emissions that could occur within the transportation sector as a result of a wide variety of transportation- and land use-related actions and strategies to minimize auto use, including more compact development. The full publication is available for purchase on ULI’s website in either electronic (pdf) or hardcopy formats at www.uli.org.

AASHTO Releases “Real Transportation Solutions” Website and Report. AASHTO has released a new website and report focused on strategies to reduce transportation greenhouse gas emissions.  AASHTO calls for limiting growth in VMT to 1% per year, increasing vehicle fuel efficiency, shifting to low- or no- carbon dioxide emitting fuels, and improving efficiency and operations of roadways.  See:http://www.transportation1.org/RealSolutions.

28^th Edition of the Transportation Energy Data Book Released. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Lab has released a new edition of its annual compendium of information on transportation energy use.  Two new tables have been added to the greenhouse gases chapter this year.  A new table on transportation greenhouse gases by mode in 1990 and 2007, based on EPA’s Inventory report, indicates that CO₂ emissions from light duty on-road vehicles increased 20.8% between 1990 and 2007.  CO₂ emissions from medium and heavy duty trucks and buses rose 77.8% in the same period.  Another new table, also based on EPA data, reports the CO₂ emissions from a gallon of gasoline and diesel fuel.  For more information, including a pdf of the report, downloadable spreadsheets, and a link to request a free hard copy, see: http://cta.ornl.gov/data/index.shtml.

UK Low Carbon Transition Plan Released. The United Kingdom has released its plan to achieve a 34 percent reduction in GHG emissions from 1990 levels by 2020.  Some of the transportation strategies include: calling for the government to purchase vehicles that meet 2015 emissions standards in 2011, investing in low carbon bus technology, providing help to reduce the price of low carbon vehicles, supporting the installation of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, sourcing 10% of transportation energy from sustainable renewable sources by 2020, providing funding in a competition for a “Sustainable Travel City,” funding bicycle programs, and funding rail and bus transportation.  The complete plan is available here: http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/publications/lc_trans_plan/lc_trans_plan.aspx.

RFF Report Released on Adapting Public Infrastructure to Climate Change. Resources for the Future has released a report that assesses climate change threats and the needs it imposes on public sector infrastructure, reviews infrastructure’s capacity for adaptation, and provides policy options for improving infrastructure’s adaptive capacity.  The report is available here: http://www.rff.org/rff/documents/RFF-Rpt-Adaptation-NeumannPrice.pdf.

State and Local News

CA Sea Level Rise Final Report Released. This study, funded in part by CalTrans, the Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and others, analyzes population, property, and infrastructure at risk from future sea level rise along the California coast.  It estimates that with 1.5 meters of sea level rise, about 3,500 miles of highways and roadways along the California coast and San Francisco Bay would be at risk from a 100 year flood, compared to about 1,900 miles of roadways and highways currently at risk.  The full report is available here: http://www.pacinst.org/reports/sea_level_rise/report.pdf

If you have any suggestions for inclusion in future issues of Transportation and Climate Change News, or if someone forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like to receive it directly in the future, please send your suggestions or request to Kathy Daniel at Kathy.Daniel@dot.gov.

Image Courtesy: Nissan via Tree Hugger

(Source: Tree Hugger)

In the days leading up to the unveiling of its flagship Leaf EV, Nissan also unveiled this contact-free charging technology. At the same demonstration where folks got to test drive the EV platform and took-in the iPhone interface, they got to see a working example of induction charging in action.  Induction charging is already a common technology in products ranging from electric toothbrushes and razors to kitchen cooktops and artificial hearts. Our friends at Tree Hugger have now published a nice article, offering the details of this wireless goodness. Here are some interesting details:

• Wireless charging works on the principal of electromagnetic induction, and when two coils (one on the ground and one under the car) come into proximity, a charge can be transfered from a power supply to the battery.
• It takes a few seconds for the primary and secondary coils to recognize each other, but once they do, the system could charge this small EV in three hours.
• Nissan engineers are certain the charging efficiency is as good or better than plugging in, and that induction charging is simple and cheap.

Earlier Tree Hugger reported that Nissan is not only investigating induction charging for stationary applications such as in a garage or parking spot but is also looking at embedding plates into roadways, so that battery powered cars could charge while driving. Induction charging certainly has a ways to go and many questions to answer: what will it do to other devices, are there health risks from long-term exposure, what if you have an artificial heart (which is also powered by induction), not to mention how much efficiency might be lost in transmission?

Click here to read the entire article.

This week is National “Stop on Red” Week, and the Federal Highway Administration has kicked off several activities that highlight how dangerous blowing through a red light can be.  The activities for the week include a special edition of the Campaign’s Safety Focus newsletter, written by 13 red light running victims, survivors and their families and friends.

It has also released a video that can make you think twice before speeding through  the yellow at an intersection.  The video is a collection of actual crashes captured by traffic cameras situated at these intersections.  In one scene, a motorcycle flies through an intersection slamming into a car. In another, a car t-bones a sport utility vehicle.

The Stop Red Light Running Program was created by the Federal Highway Administration in 1995 as a community-based safety program. This campaign raised awareness of the dangers of red light running and helped reduce fatalities in many of the participating communities. The program calls attention to the dangers of red light running each year in the Annual National Stop on Red Week, – a week dedicated to educating Americans about the dangers of running red lights.

Remember, the number of fatal crashes at traffic signals is rising faster nationwide than any other type of fatal crash.  In 2007 in the U.S., almost 900 people were killed and an estimated 153,000 were injured in crashes that involved red light running. Public costs exceed $14 billion per year, and more than half of the deaths in red light running crashes are other motorists and pedestrians.

Show your Support! Stop on Red!

(Source: AP via NPR)

President Barack Obama signed into law a $2 billion extension for the popular “cash for clunkers” program Friday morning.

The Senate voted to refill the popular car incentive program Thursday, tripling the $1 billion fund that has led to big crowds at once deserted auto showrooms. President Obama signed the bill Friday, extending the program into Labor Day and preventing the 2-week-old incentives from running out.

Car shoppers caught up in the frenzy of the program will have more time now and a $2 billion reason to trade in their old gas guzzlers.

The program gives new-car buyers up to $4,500 toward their purchase if they trade in a less fuel-efficient car or truck. So far, 8 in 10 of the vehicles traded in have been trucks. The three Detroit automakers’ nameplates have accounted for 45 percent of the new-car sales.

Auto industry analyst Aaron Bragman of IHS Global Insight said it was unlikely that demand will remain as high as it is now. Many people who qualified have already bought cars and while the rebates are expected to boost total vehicle sales in 2009, Bragman predicted lower sales next year because many customers have already taken advantage of the incentives.

“You are not going to see a continuation of the frenzied sales pace,” Bragman said. “I don’t think they will use up that money any time soon.”

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: NPR)

Pedal to the metal, Congress sent President Barack Obama legislation Thursday night with an additional $2 billion for “cash for clunkers,” the economy-boosting rebate program that caught the fancy of car buyers and instantly increased sales for an auto industry long mired in recession.

Images via Apture

The Senate approved the money on a 60-37 vote after administration officials said an initial $1 billion had run out in only 10 days. The House voted last week to keep alive the program, which gives consumers up to $4,500 in federal subsidies if they trade in their cars for new, more energy-efficient models.

Without action, lawmakers risked a wave of voter discontent as they left the Capitol for a monthlong vacation.

Supporters of the program hailed its effect on the auto industry — which had its best month in nearly a year in July — as well as its claimed environmental benefits.

“The reality is this is a program that has been working. Consumers believe it’s working. Small-business people believe it’s working. People who make steel and aluminum and advertisers … and everyone who’s involved in the larger economic impact of the auto industry believe it is working,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI).

The legislation had its share of critics, though, most of them Republicans.

“What we’re doing is creating debt. … The bill to pay for those cars is going to come due on our children and grandchildren,” said Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH).

Officials said the program’s initial $1 billion probably already has been spent, but a paperwork backlog prevented an accurate accounting. The additional $2 billion is enough to help consumers purchase a half-million more new cars, they added.

There was no suspense about the outcome in the Senate, where supporters of the legislation focused their energies on defeating all attempts at amending the measure. Passage of any changes would effectively scuttle “cash for clunkers,” they said, since the House has already begun a summer vacation and is not in session to vote on revisions.

An attempt by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) to limit the program to lower and middle-income consumers was jettisoned on a vote of 65-32. Gregg’s call for Congress to offset the $2 billion with spending cuts elsewhere also failed, 51-46.

The Senate’s debate capped an unusually swift response by lawmakers, who were informed scarcely a week ago that the program was quickly running short of money.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: Fortune Magazine via CNN Money)

Images via Apture

When lunch break comes at the construction site between Shanghai and Suzhou in eastern China, Xi Tong-li and his fellow laborers bolt for some nearby trees and the merciful slivers of shade they provide.

Image Courtesy:Fortune

It’s 95 degrees and humid — a typically oppressive summer day in southeastern China — but it’s not just mad dogs and Englishmen who go out in the midday sun.

Xi is among a vast army of workers in China — according to Beijing’s Railroad Ministry, 110,000 were laboring on a single line, the Beijing-Shanghai route, at the beginning of 2009 — who are building one of the largest infrastructure projects in history: a nationwide high-speed passenger rail network that, once completed, will be the largest, fastest, and most technologically sophisticated in the world.

Creating a rail system in a country of 1.3 billion people guarantees that the scale will be gargantuan. Almost 16,000 miles of new track will have been laid when the build-out is done in 2020. China will consume about 117 million tons of concrete just to construct the buttresses on which the tracks will be carried. The total amount of rolled steel on the Beijing-to-Shanghai line alone would be enough to construct 120 copies of the “Bird’s Nest” — the iconic Olympic stadium in Beijing.

The top speed on trains that will run from Beijing to Shanghai will approach 220 miles an hour. Last year passengers in China made 1.4 billion rail journeys, and Chinese railroad officials expect that in a nation whose major cities are already choked with traffic, the figure could easily double over the next decade.

Construction on the vast multibillion-dollar project commenced in 2005 and will run through 2020. This year China will invest $50 billion in its new high-speed passenger rail system, more than double the amount spent in 2008. By the time the project is completed, Beijing will have pumped $300 billion into it.

This effort is of more than passing historical interest. It can be seen properly as part and parcel of China’s economic rise as a developing nation modernizing at warp speed, catching up with the rich world and in some instances — like high-speed rail — leapfrogging it entirely.

Last November, as the developed world imploded — taking China’s massive export growth and the jobs it had created with it — Beijing announced a two-year, $585 billion stimulus package — about 13% of 2008 GDP.

Infrastructure spending was at its core. Beijing would pour even more money into bridges, ports, and railways in the hope that it could stimulate growth and — critically — absorb the excess labor that exporters, particularly in the Pearl River Delta, were shedding as their foreign sales shrank more than 20%.

At a moment when the developed world — the U.S., Europe, and Japan — is still stuck in the deepest recession since the early 1980s, China’s rebound is startling. And the news comes just as Washington is embroiled in its own debate about whether the U.S. requires — and can afford — another round of stimulus, since the first one, earlier this year, has thus far done little to halt the downturn. Tax cuts made up about one-third of the $787 billion package, and only $60 billion of the remaining $500 billion has been spent so far.

Proponents of more stimulus are likely to cite China’s example of what a properly designed stimulus program can accomplish. Maybe so. But a closer look at China’s high-speed rail program also reveals some risks that should factor into the “Why can’t we do that?” debate that’s surely coming in Washington.

Last year China Railway Construction Co., the nation’s largest railroad builder, hired 14,000 new university graduates — civil and electrical engineers mostly — from the class of 2008. This year, says Liang Yi, the vice CEO of the CRCC subsidiary working on the Beijing-to-Shanghai high-speed line, the company may hire up to 20,000 new university grads to cope with the company’s intensifying workload. But with the private sector cutting way back on hiring — and university students desperate for work — taking on that many new engineers and managers hasn’t been too difficult.

Consider that the Northeast Corridor, between Boston and Washington, D.C., is served by Amtrak’s Acela train, which clips along at a stately average speed of 79 miles an hour. There’s a lot of talk now, as part of President Obama’s stimulus plan, about upgrading the system and building new, faster lines all across the nation. In his stimulus bill Obama has allocated $8 billion over three years for high-speed rail, and 40 states are now bidding for the funds, with results to be released in September. Among the possibilities, California wants to link San Francisco with L.A. via a high-speed link. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) wants the private sector to get into the act, proposing a high-speed spur to connect Las Vegas with L.A.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: Fortune)

President Obama may call a nationwide high-speed passenger rail network a priority, but it’s going to take a lot more than $8 billion to make it happen.

Though Thomas the Tank Engine earned a loyal following of American children in the 1980s and 1990s through his popular PBS television show, real trains have long been out of favor with the American public. Even Thomas was a British import.

Indeed, the fact that an early 20th-century steam locomotive — and not a sleek, high-speed model — so captured the modern young American imagination is an apt commentary on the state of train travel in the United States: The country lags years behind some of its peers.

America has 457 miles of high-speed track from Boston to Washington, D.C. In Japan, by comparison, trains netting speeds up to 188 miles-per-hour cross 1,360 miles of track; France features 1,180 miles of rail to support trains that can travel up to 199 miles-per-hour; and, as Bill Powell’s article, “China’s Amazing New Bullet Train,” shows in the latest issue of Fortune, China aspires to dart even farther ahead with its $300 billion high-speed rail project.

But President Barack Obama hopes to bridge this gap, emphasizing the importance of developing a nationwide high-speed rail network in several of his speeches. Just a month into his tenure, the President successfully urged Congress to dedicate $8 billion of February’s stimulus funds towards the system’s development.

“What we need … is a smart transportation system equal to the needs of the 21st century,” Obama said in a speech in April, the same month the Federal Railroad Administration released its prospectus for the high-speed program, “Vision for High-Speed Rail in America.” “[We need] a system that reduces travel times and increases mobility, a system that reduces congestion and boosts productivity, a system that reduces destructive emissions and creates jobs,” Obama continued in phraseology typical of his rhetoric. But it remains to be seen whether the U.S. government can translate “talk” into “walk” when it comes to high-speed rail.

Last month, 40 states — both individually and in groups — submitted 278 pre-applications for various stimulus-funded high-speed passenger rail projects, amounting to $102.5 billion in requests. Final applications are due August 24, and the FRA will begin distributing funds in September.

Click here to read the entire article. (Hat tip: WTSLosangeles@Twitter)

(Source: BBC)

For five days, millions of people in the Indian city of Calcutta have endured long queues in the stifling heat at bus and taxi stands, metro railway counters and on auto-rickshaw routes.

They are braving both the humidity and the rain in the hope that what has been termed the city’s “great transport mess” will finally be cleared up.

While the difficulties of getting from A to B may be greater now than at any time over the last two decades, the air of the city is much cleaner than before 1 August.

That was when police started seizing all pollution-emitting pre-1993 vehicles to ensure they are kept off the roads in keeping with a Calcutta High Court order.  The decks were cleared for the government to seize the buses, mini buses, taxis and auto rickshaws after the Supreme Court Friday refused to stay the high court order banning commercial vehicles built before 1993.

Images via Apture

Police and Rapid Action Force personnel were deployed in large number to prevent disturbances, as security personnel moved alongside motor vehicles department officials to identify the banned vehicles on the city streets.

Nearly 4,000 private buses, 6,800 taxis and more than 95 percent of the total fleet of 65,000 auto-rickshaws have been barred from the Kolkata Metropolitan Area following the court order.

Meanwhile, following main opposition Trinamool Congress chief and Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee’s accusation that government departments like the police as also the Kolkata Municipal Corporation were running vehicles over 15 years old, Police Commissioner Goutam Mohan Chakraborty said the city police have decided not to deploy such vehicles.

A survey done by the Calcutta-based Saviour and Friend of Environment (Safe) says that around the city’s four most polluted intersections – the Dunlop crossing, the Shyambazar five-point crossing, Park Circus and the Rashbehari Avenue-SP Mukherjee Road crossing – hydrocarbon levels more than halved.

Auto-rickshaw drivers have tried to keep public transport off the roads

That is important because high hydrocarbon levels have been blamed for an increase in liver and kidney illnesses as well as higher level of cancer.

With less traffic on the roads, the oxygen count shot up by around 15 to 20%, leading to a drop in the percentages of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide.

Suspended particulate matter, the main cause of bronchial diseases that makes Calcutta the asthma capital of India, dropped by 50%.

“Calcutta is back to low pollution levels it enjoyed until about 20 years ago,” said Safe’s convenor, Sudipto Bhattacharya.

“The vigil has to continue and none of the 15-year-old vehicles or those older should be allowed to go back on to the streets.”

Mr Bhattacharya said that Safe’s findings vindicated the green activists’ stand against older vehicles.

Many other fresh air fans agree with him.

“The sharp drop in the hydrocarbon level proves that older vehicles are the major culprits,” said green activist Subhas Datta, who lobbied the city’s high court to seek the withdrawal of all vehicles older than 15 years.

“They emit unburnt fuel into the air that pushes up the hydrocarbon level to dangerous levels. Let us hope that Calcutta will breathe freely from now on.”

Back in February Calcutta Tramways announced that it would running the buses it operates on a B20 biodiesel blend — a move which, while motivated by financial reasons, is expected to cut pollution from the buses by 35%

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: NY Times & BBC)

Violent, fiery clashes between the police and workers at a South Korean auto factory ended on Thursday after the company agreed to keep half the workers at the plant rather than lay them all off in a restructuring, union and company officials said.

After the concession by Ssangyong Motor Company, South Korea’s fifth-largest automaker, the workers agreed to end their 77-day occupation of the plant, which had virtually become war zone. The confrontation was closely monitored by foreign investors as a test of will both for South Korean unions, known for their militant activism, and for President Lee Myung-bak’s government, which has vowed to ensure more “flexibility” for companies to shed workers at times of economic distress.

Picking his way past the ranks of riot police and the barricaded factory gates, it was Ssangyong’s chief financial officer who came out to break the news to the waiting journalists.

“The 77-day strike is over,” he said.

“Are you relieved?” asked the a reporter.

“It may have come a bit late,” he replied, “but we’re glad it has ended peacefully.”

“We are relieved that we have avoided the worst-case scenario,” said Lee Yoo-il, a court-appointed top manager of Ssangyong. “We hope this is the beginning of reviving our company.”

In a series of raids this week on the plant, about 40 miles south of Seoul, police commandos rappelled from helicopters as workers hurled firebombs. Hundreds were injured. By Wednesday, the police had overrun most of the facility and cornered 500 workers in a paint shop filled with flammable liquids.

Outside the plant, sporadic clashes continued even after the deal was signed. Non-union workers and burly men hired by management for security beat at least one journalist and a few union sympathizers while police officers looked on. One man, with blood flowing from his face, was carried away in an ambulance. Some in the crowd cursed the police, saying they were slow to intervene.

It is the smallest of South Korea’s car makers, and it specialises in making gas-guzzling sports-utility vehicles, including a car often cruelly championed by reviewers for its ugliness, the Rodius. Its niche did not make it best-placed to ride out the global recession.  Ssangyong filed for bankruptcy protection in January as sales fell and debt mounted. Some 2,000 workers have since left the company voluntarily. The company announced a restructuring and cost-cutting program in April that called for the layoffs of 36 percent of the company’s remaining work force, including all 970 workers at the plant here. The workers began occupying the plant on May 22.

Earlier this year Ssangyong’s Chinese backer, the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp, gave up management control and it went into receivership.  The court-appointed managers insisted that for the company to survive they needed to lay off more than 2,500 staff, a third of the total workforce. And that is when the real trouble began.

Many workers did choose temporary redundancy, but 600 of those earmarked for the sack took to the barricades.   “It is bad management and their bad decisions that have caused the problems, but only the workers who are facing the consequences,” said one worker.

The management had attempted to reach a compromise, promising to guarantee 40% of the strikers’ jobs in return for their surrender, but the union stuck to its demand for all jobs to be saved. In the end, the deal they are reported to have accepted does not look all that different to the one on offer earlier.

The compromise between the union and management, which will retain 48 percent of the jobs at the factory, diffused further violence. As the news of the deal spread, workers’ family members and supporters gathered at the factory gates. The workers began to leave the factory on police buses. They were greeted by supporters holding placards and banners and singing labor songs as they stepped off the buses in downtown Pyeongtaek, and workers hugged their tearful wives and children.

Click here or here to read the entire article.