Once More: Honda to Debut Two More Hybrids in 2010

Honda has confirmed, that it will produce the Honda CR-Z and Honda Fit Hybrid for calendar year 2010, both of which will use Honda’s Integrated Motor Assist system. This news follows other reports that have said essentially the same thing since as early as 2007 when we first reported on it. The only actual news with the flurry of blog reports is the 2010 year being attached.

The CR-Z, which debuted as a concept car at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show, is a sporty hybrid and successor to the CR-X, while the Fit Hybrid will obviously be a hybrid version of the popular compact car. Both vehicles will hit the world market before the end of 2010, with the CR-Z getting out the door first.

Honda kept the announcement short and sweet, likely because it isn’t all that surprising. We await more information on both vehicles, possibly at the Tokyo Motor Show in October.

Could Autonomous, Motorized Living Rooms Be the Future of Cars?

People have been talking, speculating and predicting about driverless cars forever, but it’s still fun to take a look at some of the ideas out there — especially when they come from the designers of the Google phone.

San Francisco industrial design firm Mike and Maaike has come up with the atnmbl (which is “autonomobile” minus the vowels). The atnmbl is a driverless, seven-person living room that runs on solar and electric power. Passengers sit back, relax, surf the internet and even enjoy a drink at the bar while the vehicle takes them where they need to go.

The firm calls speed and acceleration “irrelevant considerations,” but the vehicle will have different settings, such as “I’m in a hurry” and “Take the scenic route.”

Mike and Maaike aren’t yet saying our roads will soon be packed with atnmbls (and boy, does that name have to go). They don’t see the vehicle hitting streets until 2040. In the meantime, we will not be holding our breath.

The End of Driving: Mike and Maaike Introduce the Autonomobile (Core77 via Autoblog)

Mini E Driver Reports on First Thousand Electric Miles

Lyle Dennis, editor in chief of the website AllCarsElectric.com, recently posted a review of his first 1,000 miles driving the Mini E all-electric prototype. After three weeks of driving the Mini E exclusively on his 26-mile commute, which blends mostly highway and some city driving, Dennis remains happy and impressed with the car.

Still, the particulars of his experience go a long way toward explaining why electric cars have a ways to go.

First of all, Dennis has been limited by the 110V charger, which manages only a paltry 3.5% of charge per hour. A 100% charge is good for 100 miles of range, according to BMW. He’s managed to get by on this, but eagerly awaits the 240V charging cord that will juice the E faster.

Dennis also calculates the real-world range of the E at more like 70 miles on a full charge when you factor in use of the air conditioner and the temptation to speed due to a “responsive” accelerator. This is still much more than he needs for his commute, but Dennis admits to experiencing “range anxiety” at times.

Also, keep in mind that when Dennis parks at work he merely plugs into normal outlets in underground parking garages, effectively stealing electricity. There are no charging stations, which remains one of the most severe obstacles that electric and plug-in hybrids must overcome. Because of how long it takes to charge and its limited range, the Mini E is effectively useless outside a certain radius.

The First 1,000 Miles of Driving the Mini E Electric Car (AllCarsElectric.com)

Zipcar Adds Electric and Plug-in Vehicles

The car-sharing service Zipcar has announced that it will add an electric vehicle pod in Westminster in the U.K., which will include an all-electric Citroen c1 and a plug-in hybrid Toyota Prius.

Electric cars seem especially suited to Zipcar customers. The company says that 95% of Zipcar trips are under four hours and less than 25 miles, which is well-suited for electric vehicles with a short range. The company sees large-scale use of EVs and plug-ins as ideal for its platform.

Zipcar was the first car-sharing service to offer hybrids back in 2003 and had its first EV — an electrified Toyota RAV4 — by 2004. Since then, Zipcar has added almost 1,000 hybrids and introduced FastFleet in Washington, D.C., which lets government employees use shared fleets.

Because fuel costs are the most dominant and unpredictable variable in Zipcar’s business, it stands to reason that it will look to increase the number of electric cars it uses in the coming years.

North Carolina McDonald's Adds Plug-in Charging Station

A McDonald’s in Cary, N.C., will offer an electric recharging station for plug-in vehicles. Owner Ric Richards has made an effort to build his restaurant using eco-friendly materials and technologies, including a ChargePoint charging station. Cary’s “green” McDonald’s will open July 14.

This isn’t the first McDonald’s to add a charging station, but the last one to appear was more than a decade ago in Phoenix. Likely, the Cary McDonald’s charging station will sit unused until 2011, when the first plug-ins begin to go on sale. Even then, the usefulness of charging a battery during a 30-minute fast-food meal is pretty questionable.

Forgive me for being a stickler, but adding a charging station to a McDonald’s is kind of like a lumber company planting a tomato garden and calling it even. McDonald’s practically invented the factory food system to distribute beef cheaply and efficiently across the country, a process that racks up massive amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. Plus, think of all those idling cars in drive-thru lanes. While a patina of “green” may be the chic thing to do from a marketing perspective, it doesn’t change the fundamental nature of McDonald’s business model.

McDonald’s Deploys Plug-in Car Charging Station (HybridCars.com)

Plug-In Prius Coming in 2012

Toyota will begin production of a plug-in version of the Prius hybrid in 2012 and build between 20,000 and 30,000 cars per year, according to Japan’s Nikkei news. The report states the plug-in Prius will be priced at $48,000, but we find that figure pretty speculative.

The plug-in Prius will use lithium-ion batteries from Panasonic that will provide 12-18 miles of range on purely electric power. These factors weigh against the Japanese automaker, seeing as GM will be out of the gate first with the Volt, which will cost $8,000 less than that speculative price and deliver a better range using its battery.

Five hundred prototypes will be delivered to test fleets later this year, which will give us a better idea of what kind of fuel savings the plug-in Prius will be capable of. Starting at more than double the price of the regular Prius, they’d have to be pretty substantial. Much of the information in this report doesn’t sound remotely practical for Toyota to move forward with, however, and we doubt all the details are 100% accurate. However, it’s probably a safe bet they’re working on a plug-in.

Toyota to Mass-Produce Plug-in Hybrids from 2012 (Reuters via AutoblogGreen)

2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid Video

A lot of people are impressed with Ford’s midsize hybrid. The Fusion Hybrid has an impressive EPA rating and a federal tax credit that makes it less expensive than the competition from Toyota. But how does the Fusion Hybrid rate for detail-obsessed Cars.com reviewer Kelsey Mays? You can find out by checking out his video review.

2010|Ford|Fusion Hybrid

Chevy Volt Charging Port Moved

Looking at a few new images of the Chevy Volt pre-production car that were released this week, the GM Source noted that the company has moved the charging port for the electric motor from a stylized design element on the front fender (see picture below) to a covered input that looks similar to a standard gas cap.

It’s not a big deal to most, but it is one of those practical changes that will make the final Volt a little less futuristic than the concept was. We can’t see the standard gasoline cap in two released images that show the driver’s side in profile. We can only assume it’s on the passenger side’s rear fender. 

Nissan to Unveil New Electric Vehicle Aug. 2

Nissan announced via Twitter earlier today that it would introduce its all-new electric vehicle at an event in Japan on Aug. 2. The EV will go on sale sometime in 2010 and is described as being able to “comfortably seat five people, drive on any American road or highway and have an initial range of 100 miles before recharging.” The picture here is of last year's Nissan Sport Coupe concept, which would be our pick for a sporty EV if there ever was one.

The company had already announced plans to build the vehicle at a plant in Tennessee starting in late 2012 as a stipulation for receiving U.S. federal funds to help develop new green vehicles. Prior to that it will be built in Japan and exported to the U.S. 

Audi Promotes Diesel Engines Over Hybrids

While all the hype may surround hybrids, plug-ins and electric vehicles, Audi has chosen to push clean-diesel engines as an efficient alternative to standard gasoline-powered cars. You’ve probably already seen the ads for the diesel Q7 SUV that the automaker introduced earlier this year, and Audi will also roll out a diesel A3 wagon in late 2009. In campaigns for both cars, the automaker wants to emphasize that diesel vehicles cut oil use substantially.

According to Audi, if a third of Americans drove diesel cars, daily imported oil use would fall by 1.5 million barrels, because diesel engines are 30% more fuel-efficient than gas-powered models. It also points out that roughly half of Europe’s cars are diesels. Right now, diesels make up 3% of U.S. sales, while hybrids account for 2.4%, according to J.D. Power and Associates.

While both types of cars certainly have a lot of room to grow, there are some key issues Audi will not bring up in its drive to sell diesel cars. For instance, while it’s true that some clean-diesel vehicles qualify for tax credits, so do some hybrids. Audi’s point is that the technology for diesel vehicles is here right now, but again, the same can be said of your standard hybrid.