New Cars Rombengan 2011 - 2020

From the Associated Press: The 2011 Chevrolet Volt got another marketing jolt Monday, when it received the North American Car of the Year.

The car that runs on electricity for 40 miles before a backup gas engine kicks in beat out the Nissan Leaf, another electric, and Hyundai Sonata in the annual ceremony on the first day of media previews for the Detroit auto show.

The Ford Explorer won the truck of the year, the third year in a row the Dearborn-based automaker nabbed the honor. Truck finalists were the Dodge Durango, the Explorer and Jeep Grand Cherokee.
Forty-nine auto journalists from the U.S. and Canada made the picks. The vehicles are judged on innovation, design, safety, handling, driver satisfaction and value.

It's the latest in a string of accolades for the Volt, which went on sale in limited markets in December and costs $40,280. It was named the Green Car of the Year at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November and Motor Trend and Automobile Magazine named the Volt the 2011 car of the year the same month.

General Motors Co. Vice Chairman Tom Stephens said the Volt "represents the soul" of the new GM, on the rebound after enduring a government-led bankruptcy in 2009. GM sold between 250 and 350 Chevy Volts in December and Nissan's sales totaled less than 10 Leaf sedans in the past two weeks. Production for both is slowly ramping up.

It will be well into 2012 before both the Volt and Leaf, which costs $32,780, are available nationwide. Early demand is strong: About 50,000 people already are on waiting lists.

The Volts are being assembled in Detroit. GM predicts it will sell 10,000 of them in 2011 and between 35,000 and 45,000 in 2012. By way of comparison, Chevrolet sold 187,250 Malibu sedans in the first 11 months of 2010 with sticker prices that start at $21,975.

Stephens said the Volt is not a "science experiment" — but "meant to be a high-volume vehicle" as the industry makes early moves beyond petroleum as a primary fuel source.

Mark Fields, Ford's president of the Americas, said the company reinvented the SUV with the Explorer, basing it on car underpinnings and improving its fuel economy over the old model. Customers, he said, wanted a rugged vehicle that can also handle suburbia.

Awards are often used by automakers in advertising.

Last year's winners were both Ford vehicles: the Fusion Hybrid midsize sedan and Ford Transit Connect. This is the 18th year for the picks.

From the The Californian / Associated Press: This was the year General Motors Co. and Nissan made good on their promise to bring mass-produced electric cars to the market. But don't count on seeing one in traffic soon. Sales so far have been microscopic and they're likely to stay that way for some time because of limited supplies.

GM sold between 250 and 350 Chevy Volts this month and Nissan's sales totaled less than 10 Leaf sedans in the past two weeks. Production for both is slowly ramping up.

It will be well into 2012 before both the Volt and Leaf are available nationwide. And if you're interested in buying one, you'll need to get behind the 50,000 people already on waiting lists.

It's still unclear just how large the market for electric cars will be once those early adopters are supplied. The base sticker price is $40,280 for the Volt and $32,780 for the Leaf, much higher than most similar-sized, gas-powered cars. If those prices rise, it could make them even more of a niche product than predicted. Buyers also are worried that advertised lease deals may not last, and a federal tax rebate of $7,500 could disappear if Congress decides battery-powered cars are no longer a priority.

The first electric car sales were marked with fanfare. The envy of green-car geeks across the country, new owners were treated like rock stars at dealerships. They were greeted by high-level GM and Nissan executives, followed by cameramen and interviewed by local reporters. When they got home, they blogged about their experiences, sent links of newspaper stories to their friends, and stopped to talk to anyone who expressed interest in their new wheels.

Jeff Heeren of Nashville, Tenn., became the sixth Nissan Leaf owner on Dec. 22. Nissan's advertising agency, Chiat Day, followed Heeren and his family around as they picked up their silver-colored Leaf, and have posted a video on the Leaf's Facebook page. Not surprisingly, Heeren is a fan. "What's amazed me the most in driving it is that it's just a car, like any other car," he said.

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From AutoEvolution: Before the European / British brother of GM's Chevy Volt, the Opel / Vauxhall Ampera, has even been released, GM Europe announced it will be replaced by a family of three extended-range electric vehicles within five years, that could potentially be made at General Motors’ Ellesmere Port factory in the UK, said AutoCar in a report.

While the first generation Volt/Ampera will be built in Detroit until 2015, the second generation of the extended range electric vehicles, which are already under development, will probably be manufactured in Europe.

“At that point it will make business sense to ramp up volumes of the Volt and Ampera, and to have several production sites for the ‘EREV’ model family,” said GM Europe president Nick Reilly for Autocar. “We will need one of those factories to be in Europe, and I’m very keen for it to be Ellesmere Port.”

The GM Europe official mentioned that the 2015 Ampera range will include a compact-medium hatchback, a four-door replacement of the upcoming Ampera and a crossover SUV similar to the Chevrolet Volt MPV5 concept that was unveiled at the Beijing Auto Show.

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Tweet this post From the New York Times: The Chevrolet Volt was born with a long to-do list. Resuscitate General Motors and defy critics of the company’s federal bailout. Demonstrate that G.M. can match Toyota’s green might. Prove that plug-in cars are more than a feel-good exercise.

All told, the Volt was weighed down with so much political and social baggage that I was surprised it could pull away from the curb.

So for me, it felt great to finally jump into the Chevy, ditch the debates and just drive. And you know what? G.M. has nailed it, creating a hatchback that feels peppy and mainstream yet can sip less fuel than any gas- or diesel-powered car sold in America.

The Volt leaves you grinning with its driving-the-future vibe. Yet the car operates so seamlessly that owners need not think about the planetary gear sets, the liquid-cooled electrons and all that digital magic taking place below.

Just don’t forget to unplug it when you back out of the garage.

And plugging it in is what you’ll want to do, as the Volt was designed with an operating strategy entirely different from other hybrids. It is meant to be driven primarily on the energy stored in its battery; the gasoline engine’s contribution to moving the car is largely indirect, by turning a generator that powers the electric motors once the battery has been depleted.

The Volt, which shares its basic structure with the Chevy Cruze, can readily achieve the top end of G.M.’s estimate for all-electric range: driving gently, I managed 50 miles on a full charge. The next morning, unplugging after a four-hour refill from a 240-volt charging dock, I drove like a normal commuter, covering 41 miles to the Detroit Hamtramck plant where the Volt is built.

Once its central display screen registered the last mile of battery power, the Chevy switched into “extended range” mode, divvying motive chores among the remarkably quiet 1.4-liter gas engine upfront, its dual electric motors and the 435-pound, 16 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery nestled below the floor.

Having delivered the energy-use equivalent of about 112 miles per gallon in battery mode, the Volt continued to have admirable economy with the gas-driven generator supplying the electricity: 44 m.p.g. over all, whipping the E.P.A.’s estimate of 35 city and 40 highway. With its 9.3-gallon gas capacity — premium fuel required — you can exceed 300 miles per tank, in addition to the initial E.V. miles. That’s the crux of how the Volt maintains everyday practicality while affording owners all-electric motoring on short local trips.

After logging 120 miles (60 electric and 60 in gas-electric mode) the Volt returned the no-fudging equivalent of 64 miles per gallon. That average accounts for the 18 kilowatt-hours of plug-in electricity the Volt consumed — just over a half-gallon’s worth of gasoline using the conversion of about 33 kilowatt-hours of energy per gallon.

Unfortunately, if owners want that accurate accounting of combined mileage, including electricity, they’ll have to do it online through the free five-year OnStar account that comes with the car. That’s because the Volt’s trip computer simply measures the gas you use over the total trip mileage, including the initial E.V. miles. Essentially, the computer pretends that the electricity is free and its miles are on the house.

So while the Volt accurately displayed my gasoline economy in extended-range mode (a healthy 44 m.p.g.) it also showed a too-optimistic 84 m.p.g. total after 120 miles because I had burned only 1.4 gallons of gasoline. But count those kilowatts in the battery, and the real average was 64 m.p.g. (The E.P.A. estimates the Volt’s combined gas-electric economy at 60 m.p.g., and its all-electric operation at the energy equivalent of 93 m.p.g.)

The Volt’s vehicle line director, Tony Posawatz, said that G.M. tried to provide useful interactive mileage data, but not so much that readouts would confuse drivers. Software updates may let owners choose more data-rich displays, including cost-per-mile or the so-called m.p.g.e., which converts electrical consumption into its gasoline equivalent.

Still, give the Volt’s engineers their due: 64 m.p.g. is pretty spectacular. That’s a real-world result, and it’s nearly 30 percent better mileage than a Toyota Prius, previously the nation’s highest-mileage hybrid.

Remember, I managed 64 m.p.g. on a 50-50 split of gas and electric driving. Most owners, I think, will do better, determined to drive most of their miles on battery power.

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Tweet this post American talk-show host and car aficionado Jay Leno was one of the first Californian costumers to pick up the new Chevrolet Volt.

Interestingly enough, Leno jumped on the Volt bandwagon several months after saying he wasn't quite in a rush to buy one of the first models.

Watch the video after the jump:

Tweet this post From the International Business Times: General Motors China introduced an electric concept vehicle Sail at the 2010 Guangzhou Auto Show on Tuesday. Under the theme of "Drive to Green and Leading Innovation," it is showcasing 23 production and concept vehicles. Among the products on display are the Sail electric concept vehicle, which is making its global debut, and the Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle, the car maker said.

The Sail electric concept vehicle is powered by a lithium-ion battery with maximum output of 65 kW and maximum torque of 220 Nm. It has a maximum speed of 130 km/h and can go up to 150 kilometers on a single electric charge. It uses regenerative braking to produce additional energy.

"GM is committed to delivering a range of advanced propulsion technologies and offering a portfolio of solutions that will allow our customers to choose the vehicle that best meets their needs," said Kevin Wale, President and Managing Director of the GM China Group. GM's expertise in batteries, electric motors and power controls will enable us to provide the best possible choices when it comes to vehicle electrification technologies, he said.

The Sail electric concept vehicle was developed by Shanghai GM and the Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center (PATAC) in Shanghai, the carmaker said.

Earlier last month, China had said annual production of electric vehicles will hit one million units by 2020 and become world's largest auto market for new energy vehicles, which will hold the key for development of the country's auto industry.
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