Plugs and Cars

DECEMBER 13, 2007

The Detroit News is reporting on the efforts in the Senate to craft a viable energy bill. As presently consitituted, the Senate bill drops the requirement of electricity generators to achieve 15% renewable sources, but includes higher CAFE standards and major provisions for plug-ins, including conversions. Over 200,000 PHEVs.

Plug-in 100

Plug-in Plug Tax Credit Energy 100

Plugs and Cars

FEBRUARY 5, 2007

The Detroit News has the alternative fuel breakdown in the president's budget request, and it isn't pretty. Bush proposes $81 million, which includes $17 million for plug-in hybrid battery grants. Plug-in hybrids and electric cars built with the best possible, most economic, available-now technology. We need cars.

Plug-in 100

Plug-in Plug Hybrid Hydrogen 100

Plugs and Cars

JANUARY 11, 2010

Will MINI E drivers be so loyal to BMW they'll forgo the opportunity to actually purchase a plug-in car? Toyota titillates with its plug-in Prius test program (600 vehicles worldwide over the next few years) as well as an all-electric 50-mile range "small, urban commuter BEV" and a plug-in hybrid concept small car.

Detroit 100

Detroit Mini E Audi BMW 100

Plugs and Cars

DECEMBER 9, 2008

In Congressional testimony last week, Alan Mullaly, head of Ford, committed the company to developing plug-in cars. Nominally, at least, the Detroit 3 are now on board. Tags: Ford plug-in hybrid battery electric car.

Ford 100

Ford Detroit Plug-in Plug 100

Plugs and Cars

APRIL 16, 2007

Plug-in hybrids. Particularly the parts where he blasts detroit lack of leadership and also particularly the Bush administration. From a new interview in Fortune and his new upcoming book, " Where Have all the Leaders Gone ?": What can the auto industry do? I think they're virtually here now."

Plugin 100

Plugin Hybrid Detroit Auto Industry 100

Plugs and Cars

FEBRUARY 2, 2009

The #2 US automaker has made a few plug-in hybrid Escape Hybrids that have been in a test fleet at Southern California Edison for about 18 months. The surprise appearance at the Detroit Auto Show last month of an electric Focus may be evidence of a new day (again) at Ford. But there's a hint of the possibility of delay.

Ford 100

Ford Mini E Detroit Obama 100

Plugs and Cars

OCTOBER 30, 2007

Got2BeGreen reports BYD, a large Chinese firm that is jumping into cars, will be showing a plug-in hybrid, the F6DM, at the Detroit Auto Show. Tags: plug-in hybrid byd. According to this report, it will begin selling next year in China for about $20,000. The PHEV and EV market is wide open. Bring it on!!

Chinese 100

Chinese BYD Detroit PHEV 100

Plugs and Cars

MAY 4, 2008

And the technologies exist right now for plug-in hybrids. The problem is is that we have not been serious about it, and Detroit ended up making investments in SUVs and large trucks because that's where they perceived a competitive advantage and that's where they felt they could make the most profit.

Obama 100

Obama Cars Detroit Plug-in 100

Plugs and Cars

JANUARY 8, 2007

is attending the Detroit Auto Show. So is Detroit. Now Phelan , GM, Paine and Chelsea Sexton, Plug In America's Executive Director, all seem to be on the same page. Tags: chris paine GM electric cars plug-in hybrid plug in america chevy volt chelsea sexton. And he's not the pariah-in-residence.

Volt 100

Volt EV1 GM Detroit 100

Plugs and Cars

APRIL 20, 2007

An incredible pair of stories in the Detroit news here and here. Tags: GM electric car plug-in hybrid electricity. In one, electric drive is seen as inevitable. In the other electricity isn't even mentioned. Thanks for the tip to Felix Kramer of CalCars.

Alternative Fuels 100

Alternative Fuels Detroit GM Fuel 100

Plugs and Cars

APRIL 8, 2007

The Detroit News Autos Insider reports on Ford CEO Alan Mulally's oops moment about Bush's oops moment. "I Tags: Ford George Bush plug-in hybrid Alan Mulally hydrogen. I violated all the protocols. I touched the President.This is all off the record, right?".

Hydrogen 100

Hydrogen Detroit Ford Plug-in 100

Plugs and Cars

OCTOBER 24, 2007

Joseph White, Wall St Journal Detroit bureau chief, is writing about electric cars again , this time about the majors. Hybrid or All-Electric? Toyota and GM are continuing down their differing hybrid paths. White suggests Honda is lining up with Nissan, seeing a future not in hybrids but rather electric cars.

Honda 100

Honda Nissan Toyota GM 100

Plugs and Cars

SEPTEMBER 12, 2007

From the pricey ads in national magazines devoting serious space to the Volt to today's announcement about the plug-in hybrid Saturn Vue, GM is compelling me to take their expressed interest in plug-in cars seriously. Leaving wiggle room, "2009-ish" brand general manager Jill Lajdziak said Thursday.

VUE 100

VUE Saturn Volt GM 100

Plugs and Cars

DECEMBER 22, 2006

There is more to Dan Neil's recent LA Times column than a favorable review of yet another gasoline-only hybrid. He likes the Nissan Altima Hybrid well enough. Calls it a "Camry hybrid in tight jeans." More important, Neil says, is that it comes from an automaker that had scoffed at "hybridization."

Altima Hybrid 100

Altima Hybrid Gasoline-Electric Lithium Ion Plug-in 100

Plugs and Cars

MARCH 27, 2007

The plug-in hybrid and Phoenix showing on the White House lawn seems a flash in the pan. The president, escorted by the chief executives from Detroit's Big Three, arrived 20 minutes late for yesterday's South Lawn event. They would have President Bush do another event promoting cellulosic ethanol. Bush in 2007.

Alternative Fuels 100

Alternative Fuels Fuel GM Phoenix 100

Plugs and Cars

APRIL 16, 2007

Lutz responds to the sense that GM might be pulling back from its commitment to the Volt that resulted from Sharon Terlep's Detroit News article a month or so ago. (My If you've got hundreds of millions of trouble-free NiMH miles in hybrids and electric cars, why bet the bank on relatively untested if promising lithium?

Volt 100

Volt NiMH EV1 Nickel Metal Hydride 100

Plugs and Cars

DECEMBER 18, 2007

The opening line of the Detroit News story says all you need to know: The House approved a stripped-down energy bill Tuesday and sent it to President George Bush, who is expected to sign the legislation. The reality, however, is no removal of tax breaks for Big Oil; no 15% renewables standard for utilities; no plug-in hybrid incentives.

Energy 100

Energy San Francisco Tax Credit Tax 100

Plugs and Cars

DECEMBER 6, 2006

Will everyone stop replacing their lightbulbs and stop buying hybrids if the next generations are screwed regardless? GM has just given environmentalists a opening with its plug-in hybrid announcement. Will Toyota let GM be first to market with a plug-in? We can still make it worse, but we can't make it stop.

San Francisco 100

San Francisco GM Renewable Detroit 100

Plugs and Cars

DECEMBER 20, 2006

I'm speaking about Mark Phelan, columnist for the Detroit Free Press. Phelan assures us this is conventional wisdom at dinner parties in Detroit, but this "completely unexpected" aside from Toyota surprised him. No, I'm not referring to John McCain or the other remaining defenders of the Iraq adventure, predicated on so many lies.

Tundra 100

Tundra Toyota North Carolina Iraq 100

Plugs and Cars

APRIL 22, 2007

With NiMH batteries - those that provide energy to every hybrid on the road and thousands of all-electric cars - the Volt plug-in hybrid could go into production today. And calls into question just how serious GM is about plug-in cars. Lutz says GM hopes to have one working car by year's end.

Volt 100

Volt NiMH GM Plug-in 100

Plugs and Cars

JULY 13, 2007

Big time neo-Con Frank Gaffney and Arnold supporter actor Rob Lowe took their advocacy for plug-in hybrids to Massachusetts liberal Democrat Ed Markey's House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming yesterday. The Detroit Free Press story headline tells the tale: House talk on plug-in cars erupts Mich.

Detroit 100

Detroit Plug-in Plug Massachusetts 100

Plugs and Cars

JANUARY 31, 2007

The Detroit News story today, Big 3's call for U.S. As Michigan Democrats line up with the most Republicans to protect the Big 3 on CAFE standards, Bush has already disappointed Detroit on the money front: GM, Ford Motor Co. It seems the president, for all his plug-in promotion, isn't allocating dollars commensurate with his rhetoric.

Washington 100

Washington Detroit PHEV Hydrogen 100