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Filed under: Manufacturing/Plants, Chevrolet, GM

General Motors made its case to a Detroit City Council committee on Wednesday in a bid to get some property tax brakes for its Hamtramck assembly plant. The Poletown plant is where General Motor is planning to build the Chevrolet Volt beginning in late 2010 and GM told the council that the new production vehicles there would add 550 jobs to the facility. In return for creating those jobs in the city, GM is seeking $136 million in property tax relief on the improvements over the next 25 years. The plant already employs 1,944 people who build the Buick Lucerne and Cadillac DTS. GM is planning on spending $336 million on the plant over the next two years in order to swtich over to the new, smaller ER-EV Volt. The full council is expected to vote to approve the abatements by sometime next week.

[Source: Detroit Free Press]

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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, On Two Wheels

Not long ago, we got some very brief seat-time on an early version of the Quantya electric dirtbike. We had a great time on it, but we never managed to bring it inside our apartment or on our roof. Thankfully, somebody else did, and they documented it all for your viewing pleasure. Our friend Wes Siler over at Jalopnik was the lucky tester and he had plenty to say about the all-electric machine. Like most people, the first thing that Wes seemed to notice was the lack of sound from the two-wheeler, which is not something you’d normally associate with a dirtbike. That’s what led to the indoor antics, we’d imagine.

The latest Quantya Strada is street-legal and is capable of traveling at up to 50 miles per hour. Range? About 25 miles with the standard battery back. All for a cost of $10,700 for the road-going model, a bit less if you’re only interested in riding off the beaten path. Now, let’s see about getting ourselves some seat-time on the new model.

[Source: Jalopnik]

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Filed under: Toyota, AutoblogGreen Exclusive

Bill Reinert, national manager advanced technology vehicles for Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc., is a bit of a showman. As we heard in the morning sessions of Toyota’s Sustainable Mobility Seminar, the world’s got a lot of problems to deal with right now.The afternoon sessions were dedicated to Toyota representatives explaining how Toyota is thinking and responding to these problems. Since the issues are waaaay to big for one company or person or government to do anything about, so don’t expect to hear that Toyota’s about to release the flying car that eats CO₂ as it moves. Still, in the hands of a guy like Reinert, at least the road to trouble is paved with a few laughs (listen to the audio to get the full flavor).

A lot of Reniert’s introduction could be applied to any major auto manufacturer: it’s hard to gauge where the market will be in four or five years (the amount of time it takes to bring new models to market), government regulations mandate all sorts of changes that aren’t always easy to enact, and Toyota isn’t in charge of the fuel supply. They know what they want to be there, but it’s not up to them. As he pointed out, there is no 10,000 psi hydrogen station in the U.S. operating today (the one in Irvine has closed).

There much more after the jump.

Continue reading Toyota Sustainable Mobility Seminar: it doesn’t get much better in the afternoon

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Filed under: Etc., Chevrolet, GM, Honda, Toyota

Bloggers love environmentally friendly cars. Or so it seems, according to research performed by J.D. Power and Associates. The most commonly referenced brands in blog posts over the last six months are Toyota, Honda and General Motors. This shouldn’t come as shocking news, considering that the Toyota Prius, Honda Insight and Chevy Volt are all hot topics right now and are all expected to be thoroughly redesigned or first introduced within the next few years. Naturally, then, these are the brands that are getting the most publicity and are likely the ones that you are most interested in hearing about.

Not all of the blog posts were positive, though, and JDP therefore kept separate numbers for each manufacturer counting how many good things were written about their sustainability and efforts to reduce global warming. The surprising winner of that group was Nissan, though that brand only got two percent of all mentions overall. We blog, they watch, we blog. Fun!

[Source: The Car Connection]

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Filed under: MPG, Ford, European Union, Germany, USA

Are you an American that has been lusting for some European vehicle models lately? Because of the traditionally high fuel prices in Europe, cars there are traditionally more compact and sip less fuel than their American counterparts (the BMW M3 is another story, though). Some of these models belong to American automakers Ford and GM. We already know some European GM models are sold stateside, but what about Ford?

According to Automotive News, Ford is calling its young dealers to improve operations and prepare for a wave of new small vehicles coming to Ford’s lineup within three years. Those cars most likely will be the new European Focus four-door, five-door and coupé-convertible (pictured); the new Fiesta (old new); and the C-Max minivan and Kuga crossover. Compact in size and, at least in my opinion, featuring really good design, these Euro models could provide Ford with a sales boost. In fact, Ford is expecting to sell 700,000 or 800,000 of them per year in the U.S., but probably not all of them at $25,000, though.

[Source: Automotive News (subs. req'd)]

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