During a webcast held at the Auto Show, John Viera, global director of sustainability and vehicle environmental matters at Ford, acknowledged the threat of climate change and Ford's role in addressing it. "Climate change is real, man has an impact on addressing climate change, and we as a company need to do something about it," he said.
But, he added, simply making more EVs isn't the most productive way Ford can contribute to the solution. Rather, the company needs to improve its entire fleet and especially its best-selling internal combustion engine vehicles, so that it can have a greater impact overall.
At the Detroit auto show, popular trucks, SUVs and luxury vehicles outnumbered high-mileage compact cars, but all vehicle types showed progress toward going green, noted Edmunds' Acevedo. Even the new 2014 Corvette C7 muscle car conserves fuel by switching down from eight cylinders to four on the highway.
"If you're a manufacturer that's not doing it, you're kind of on the outside looking in," he said.
Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC. www.eenews.net, 202-628-6500
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Add CommentOne vehicle that will change a lot of people's minds on PHEV's is the upcoming 2014 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. It will be the first AWD SUV and it seats 7 and has a 38 mile range in EV mode and 35 mpg in hybrid mode which will make it the highest mileage SUV on the planet. It has over 325 ft lbs of torque from TWO electric motors in addition to the 4 cylinder gas engine. That's a lot of torque. There design also lends well to a future in which batteries are swapped out from the middle underside of the vehicle. That's where all the batteries for EV's should reside--safer and allows for the potential for swapping them out.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAt times I think the industry needs to get its head out of its butt. Of all the things listed here, they go above and beyond the horse power any rational hybrid buying person would want. They need to follow Toyota and build cheaper hybrid cars that are reasonably powerful, not excessively. If you want an 800 hp truck, maybe a hybrid is not the right avenue! As a comment on the article, where are the estimated costs? Who is going to spend $10,000 more for a car that will save $500/ year in fuel?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisVehicles that travel in the air is desperately required soon. infrastructure is bankrupting governments . The great destruction is coming. The Georgia stonehenge has it written on the stones. There is no way surface transport can make it in the future.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMuch of the capabilities of SUVs and trucks are not used by drivers. While I'm biking down the road, the overwhelming majority of the SUVs and trucks I see look like they have NEVER been off-road and there is only one person in the car. In addition, hardly anybody is hauling anywhere near the full capacity of stuff you can put in these vehicles, so all that cargo room that people drool over goes to waste most of the time.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf you haul a lot of stuff and/or people most of the time, get a truck / SUV / minivan or whatever. If not, consider buying a car that can provide for 99% or more of your needs and rent a bigger vehicle when you need it. When you think of buying one of these bigger vehicles, ask yourself if you're really buying it out of necessity or just as a status symbol.
For me personally, when people drive by me in a much bigger and / or more polluting vehicle than they need, I have to breathe in extra pollution for no good reason.
You make a point of basic economics that many of us neglect to consider. Buying a tool based on its maximum possible use, especially an expensive one, only makes sense if that tool is used at its maximum capacity most of the time AND if there's no other, better and cheaper way to achieve our intended purposes.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlso, to each his own, but getting a given car for social approval purposes is just giving other people too much power over us.
Completely agreed. Before owning my prius, I had a Ford Ranger, was small, got decent gas mileage (20 mpg) and i could occasionally haul 1 yard of mulch. But the small trucks are disappearing in this country. Ranger .. gone, Chevy S10... gone. I would have loved to have had the option to get a Ranger with a hybrid engine, bet I could have gotten 40 mpg with that too!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe radical right has gone nuts over the Volt. The Volt power train is a great concept and as battery cost comes down, it will provide a platform that GM can expand and prosper from while saving tons of fuel and emissions.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe article already shows VIA is using the idea in its Utility Vehicle offerings.
I have to agree with a lot of what you say. Many people drive SUVs, trucks, and vans who don't need them and never use all their capabilities. I myself, don't need my four wheel drive, high clearance, low center of gravity truck for most (8 months) of the year, but I can't afford an extra, better mileage vehicle to drive in the other eight months. I also can't stay in my home for up to four months of winter (plus gardening center trips in spring and summer). Therefore, you may see me driving my truck in the summer and conclude that I don't need it, but you would be wrong. You are probably right for the majority though.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisjust 50yrs too late !
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Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNew transmission CVT design by BitRaptor. Is a continuously variable transmission CVT gear only (the only one functional in the world), very compact and lightweight, and which could replace the current systems for efficiency, simplicity and costs.
Because this CVT work only with pinions is better the all other systems by efficiency and high torque transmission.
In the web page you will find more explanations, drawings and a short video of a basic prototype.
http://www.bitraptor.com/en_edyson_CVT.html
http://www.bitraptor.com/en_andeguro_bike.html
The first prototype will be ready for tests during this year.
Other possible applications CVT design by BitRaptor are: bicycles, motorcycles, cars, boats, gearboxes, electric motors, steam and wind turbine, as well as a large number of industrial or agriculture applications whenever is necessary some adjustment of the gear ratio.