The largest new car dealership chain in the U.S., AutoNation, has informed its dealerships that they are to sell the Chevy Volt at manufacturer’s retail ($41,000) or face immediate termination. AutoNation has 27 dealerships selling Chevrolets nationally. This comes after reports that a lot of dealerships appear to be planning to make up for huge [...]
Government Motors has been busy lately, getting themselves in the news (for good or ill) as they pimp their new government-funded car that will save the world – the Volt. Meanwhile, with dealerships apparently planning to make up for two years of losses by jacking the price on one Volt sale, GM wants to keep [...]
The New York Times ran an opinion story by Edward Niedermeyer, known to us in the EV blogosphere as The Truth About Cars. In that article, Edward runs down the weak economics behind the Chevrolet Volt (a 4-seater and, many conclude, #EpicFail) that can’t even rival its all-electric competition in the Nissan Leaf – which [...]
OK, it’s not electric or hydrogen-powered or even “eco-friendly” in itself, but the Rally Fighter from Local Motors has a lot of other somethings that other electric car companies don’t: a hard-core fan base, open sourced design concepts, and totally local-centered “micro-factory” building. These are all concepts that other car companies eschew in order to [...]
Image via Wikipedia Apparently whenever I publicly announce that I really like a car, it spells instant doom for the vehicle. First, I said that my favorite electric car is the Aptera 2e. Then it was shown that the car basically sucks. Offhandedly, I’ve mentioned liking the Fisker Karma (which is well outside of my [...]
I got this today and wanted to quickly pass it on. If you’re on the Phoenix, Arizona area, you may want to head on over tomorrow and spend some time with the Local Motors team and the Rally Fighter. They recently sold unit number 100, by the way. If you are in the Phoenix area [...]
The Government Accounting Office, which is (supposedly) non-partisan and may or may not have a stalwart track record in accurate accounting,* has released some information that is a little less than reassuring to those banking on the auto industry’s bailout billions being recouped. The GAO interviewed a bunch of experts in the financial and auto [...]
Friends and fellows, you have before you an example of how our current kleptocracy works and why corporatism will fail to bring you any green cars or loan paybacks from bailout queens. The example is a comparison between recent news from Government Motors (GM) and Ford Motor Co. Last year, General Motors was the recipient [...]
Edmunds is reporting that Government Motors says they’ve paid off the last of their bailout money back to the governments of the U.S. and Canada. Apparently, GM’s CEO Ed Whitacre made the announcement along with a lot of other stuff at a press event on April 21. The company also plans to invest a lot [...]
I watched the latest design competition at Local Motors with interest. The open-source concept for automotive design is really cool and the designs for this Pacific Northwest-oriented conceptual contest were both varied and interesting. Some were bizarre, others were conventional and some were in-between. My personal choices for a winner in this competition were torn, [...]
The big news across the blogosphere today was Ford teaming up with Microsoft to install Microsoft Hohm into their electric cars in order to optimize charging with the household circuits and smart grid. Everyone from FutureCars to AutoBlogGreen to Geekopedia reported this. Not surprising, since Ford sent out a huge press release on it. People [...]
I wrote a feature for FutureCars.com on the INGOCAR from Valentin Technologies. The car itself is nice, but not really anything extra-special. What is special is the underlying platform, which has been in development for decades. Ingo Valentin, the man behind the breakthrough, is a mechanical engineer specializing in hydraulics. His chassis/drive train is the [...]
Lots of stuff happening at Chrysler (finally). The company that went into bankruptcy, for which the taxpayer footed the bill, and then emerged with a clean slate so that a foreign company, Fiat, could buy it up has since been floundering around looking for an identity other than “bailout welfare queen with the Italian boyfriend.” [...]
Who killed the Chinese electric car? BYD, apparently. The battery maker-turned-automaker announced that they’ll not be making the E6 as quickly as planned and that the 100 planned models for use as taxis in the area around the company’s HQ may be the only battery-electrics made. This comes, of course, well after their financial projections [...]
Tesla sponsored a concept by the Instituto Europeo di Design of Turin and the well-known design school didn’t disappoint. Assuming all you’re after is EYE candy, of course. The concept, called the EYE, was showcased at the Geneva Motor Show and features some very forward looks and style. A model of the design was on [...]
Most people know about the Toyota recalls for faulty brakes and accelerator pedals. It’s been all over the news, the CEO of Toyota had to appear before Congress to explain his company’s (supposed) lack of response to this “serious safety concern” and whatever else. Meanwhile, Government Motors has recalled 1.3 million vehicles for a potentially [...]
For some reason, this headline is “news.” Probably only to GM-Volt.com, who are all about the Chevy Volt (the Opel Ampera is the Volt’s European sibling). If you didn’t see anything in the headline above to make you wonder why this is news, then… well, I guess I’ll have to spell it out. I was [...]
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