Definitely scripted, you should watch NEXT–now that’s a funny show because it’s so evident that it’s scripted.

Tong Jian S11 - Click above for image gallery Somehow, we managed to miss China’s first-ever hybrid sports car at the Shanghai Motor Show earlier this year. The car is called the S11 from Tong Jian - which incidentally also seems to be the name of a popular Chinese figure skater - but details on the car’s hybrid powertrain are extremely scarce. China Car Times reports that all four wheels are powered in some manner, but that’s about all we know. It’s obvious that the S11’s designers looked to the Audi R8 and any number of recent Ferraris for design inspiration, both inside and out. As far as we can tell, the resulting mashup isn’t all that bad - minus the one-size-too-small alloy rims and those awkward Audi-esque blades on either side. If CCT’s sources are correct, design work on the Tong Jian S11 has been completed and the hybrid sports car should be headed for production at an unknown plant in Changchun city in short order. Gallery: Shanghai 2009: Tong Jian S11 hybrid sports car [Source: China Car Times ] Filed under: Hybrid , China Tong Jian S11 hybrid sports car attempts to channel inner Audi and Ferrari originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read  |  Permalink  |  Email this  |  Comments

Land Rover LRX Concept - Click above for high-res image gallery Automakers that hope to continue doing business over the next few years need to be increasingly aware of their fuel consumption, emissions and environmental credibility. In deference to this fact, Auto Express in the UK is reporting that Land Rover is moving forward with plans to launch the new LRX compact hybrid ‘ute, possibly with a bit of help from the U.K. government . According to the report, Land Rover will borrow liberally from corporate partner Jaguar’s hardware stable, which is rumored to soon include both hybrid and extended-range EV options. Land Rover’s innovative electric drive rear axle is supposedly on the LRX menu, which would work along with the automaker’s well-known and highly-effective Terrain Response System to put power to the ground wherever possible. If there’s any truth to these rumors, we shouldn’t expect Land Rover to have the hybrid LRX in production until at least two years have passed. In the meantime, the British-built, Indian-owned automaker is set to debut stop/start and regenerative braking on all of its models to improve their environmental performance. Gallery: 2008 Land Rover LRX Concept - Black & Silver [Source: Auto Express ] Filed under: Hybrid , Land Rover , Green Daily REPORT: Compact hybrid Range Rover LRX gets go ahead originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Thu, 25 Jun 2009 08:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read  |  Permalink  |  Email this  |  Comments

Here’s a storyline I have heard before. The Big Three are narrowing the gap on quality. J.D. Power and Associates have just released their annual Initial Quality Study, which measures problem per 100 cars in the first 90 days of ownership. Detroit’s carmakers reduced problems by 10%. Their foreign foes reduced problems by just 8%. When measuring problems per 100 cars sold, no one will notice the difference. And here’s the frustrating part. Ford, General Motors and Chrysler have been improving quality for years. But they rarely beat Honda or Toyota in a brand-wide measure. And they don’t beat them in model-by-model comparisons often enough. Every year, they inch closer. But that doesn’t send the loyal Toyota Camry or Honda Accord owner to a Chevrolet dealer. The top 10 went like this. Lexus was number one with just 84 problems per 100 vehicles and Porsche was No. 2 with 90 problems per 100. Cadillac was third with 91 problems. From there it went: Hyundai: 95 Honda: 99 Mercedes-Benz: 101 Toyota: 101 Ford: 102 Chevrolet: 103 Suzuki: 103 Infiniti: 106 Mercury: 106 The industry average was 108 problems per 100 cars. Every brand not mentioned above did worse. That means all of the new Chrysler’s brands are below average. GM, for its part, did quite well. Cadillac was third among 37 brands. Chevrolet ranked ninth, but was close enough to Ford and Toyota that difference is just about meaningless. Mini finished last. The problem for Detroit is that those overall numbers don’t mean so much. If car buyers compare models, they would find that 10 of Toyota’s cars rank in the top their in their segment, more than any carmaker. Ford had three models getting awards in their vehicle segments while GM had two and Chrysler had one, the slow-selling PT Cruiser. That’s the difference in quality that consumers will see. They will shop for a mid-sized luxury car, for example, and see that the Lexus IS was best-in-class for quality. The Infiniti G-series and Cadillac CTS tied for second, but the Lexus won. To win buyers, that Cadillac needs to leap frog the Lexus. And the American carmakers need to start recording wins, not narrow defeats.

I would buy a 4 banger version of anyone of these. I dont live in an area where 0-60 times are important to me. All I care about is owning anyone of these hot looking cars. Add a few after market items to make it look like a GT/SS/RT and you get a great looking car. Might not go fast, but again, not important to me.

MINI E - click above for high-res image gallery Denmark is one of the countries on the leading edge of pushing vehicle electrification. They were one of the first countries to hook up with Better Place to roll out a charging infrastructure. Now, the Danes want to do a test that combines wind power and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology. While wind power is a tremendous renewable resource, the wind often stops blowing. Thus some mechanism is needed to store energy when the wind blows and feeds it back it out when it stops. That’s where the V2G comes in. Electric vehicles could be used as a temporary buffer during calm air periods. Denmark plans a V2G test on the island of Bornholm, a place that already has enough wind turbine capacity to meet 40 percent of its electricity needs, but only gets 20 percent of its power from wind because of inconsistency. Denmark will use plug-in vehicles to evaluate whether capacity utilization of wind power can be improved by feeding power from the cars back into the grid. If the project is successful, more wind turbines will be added with the goal of getting half of Bornholm’s power needs from the wind. Thanks to Mart for the tip! Gallery: Quick Drive: MINI E [Source: The Guardian ] Photos Copyright (C)2008 Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc. Filed under: EV/Plug-in Denmark to combine wind power with vehicle-to-grid in new tests originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Sat, 20 Jun 2009 09:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink  |  Email this  |  Comments

Filed under: Lifestyle , UK , Celebrities World of Top Gear Exhibition opening day - Click above for high-res image gallery From the impossible-to-kill Toyota pickup truck, to the amphibious cars the three presenters created to cross the English Channel, to the Reliant Robbin Space Shuttle they tried to put into orbit, our fondest memories of Top Gear over the years almost always seem to center around the ridiculous vehicular challenges that the show’s producers provide for Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond. Soon, anyone wishing to catch a first-hand glimpse of these machines will get their chance as the U.K.’s National Motor Museum just opened the doors to its new World of Top Gear exhibition. Also on display will be a full-scale reproduction of the stage where Top Gear is filmed before a live studio audience, the infamous Cool Wall, and the Celebrity Lap Time board. Want to know more? Click here to visit the official website and hit the jump to read the press release. Gallery: World of Top Gear Exhibition [Source: National Motor Museum Beaulieu] Continue reading World of Top Gear exhibit opens in UK World of Top Gear exhibit opens in UK originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 20 Jun 2009 09:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink  |  Email this  |  Comments

For a few days now, reports have come out of China that automaker Geely has struck a deal to acquire Swedish automaker Volvo from Ford Motor Co. While it is true that Geely has been at the table negotiating with Ford’s committee in charge of selling Volvo, a Ford official says a deal has not been struck, and that the U.S. automaker is still reviewing bids from other suitors. China Daily reported that a deal was done, and its report was echoed by other news agencies. The Local, a Swedish newspaper in Stockholm, reported that Geely intended to build the XC90 SUV in China and position the company for a move toward a global market. A Volvo spokeswoman Maria Bohlin told the Swedish news agency Tidningarnas Telegrambyra that, “Ford is in charge of the sale. We don’t know anything here.” Ford spokesman Mark Truby said no deal to sell Volvo has been reached, and none is imminent. Ford has been selling off its non-core brands to raise cash and focus the company on the Ford brand worldwide. The company also sells Lincoln and Mercury brands in the U.S. It has already sold Aston Martin to a British investor group, and the Jaguar and Land Rover brands to Indian automaker Tata. Ford has been shopping Volvo since last year. The Swedish brand has come under tremendous sales pressure, and has been losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year for Ford. Swedish managers made a huge mistake a few years ago in fighting Ford executives who wanted to build some Volvos in the U.S. as a hedge against currency swings that have made Volvos pricier than rivals. Too, Volvo’s vaunted reputation for safety has been cut into by other manufacturers. Safety standards imposed on automakers have made automobiles in general much safer, so Volvo’s safety engineering advantages are worth less in the marketplace. The company has also let models like the XC90 SUV get old. And newer models like the redesigned S80 do not pack enough style to appeal to 21st century car buyers. But the Volvo dealer network in Europe and the North America would be very valuable to an emerging manufacturer like Geely, which has designs on the U.S. market. The presence of an established, credible brand like Volvo on the same showroom floor at Geely’s models would give the unfamiliar Chinese brand a big leg up in the toughest consumer market in the world.

General Motors found a buyer for its long-struggling Saab business: Koenigsegg Group AB, a consortium led by Koenigsegg Automobile AB, a Swedish producer of super-exclusive sports cars. The performance carmaker won the bidding, with the deal expected to close in the third quarter. GM, Koenigsegg, and the European Investment Bank will provide funding for new models. Is Saab worth saving? Saab has a couple of decent models, but the Swedish brand has a narrow niche of buyers both in Europe and the U.S. That has been the company’s problem. Saab has fiercely-loyal buyers in the U.S., especially among the college-professor crowd in the Northeast. But GM never found enough of them and Saab was a perennial money loser. Just look at these ugly sales numbers: Saab sales dropped 52% globally in the first quarter. In the U.S., Saab sales were down 55% through May, to 4,600 cars. No one can make a business out of that. Koenigsegg will have to get Saab some new models pretty fast. Saab only has the 9-3 and 9-5. GM hasn’t exactly poured investment capital into the brand. The company says there are some new models in the works. But it’s hard to imagine the lineup getting much bigger anytime soon. What’s more is that Koenigsegg wants to pull 9-5 production into Saab’s plant in Trollhaetten, Sweden. There’s a pitfall there, too. GM struggled with exchange rates exporting out of Sweden. Between the currency problems and the lower prices Saab gets for its premium cars, it’s hard to imagine the company making money, unless the buyer makes big changes. So why would Koenigsegg want it? Maybe some Swedish car guys want to preserve the hometown marque. While I can appreciate the sentiment, this strikes me as a deal that’s similar to when the Phoenix Consortium, a group of British investors, took MG Rover off of BMW’s hands in 2000 and tried to revive it. Rover was the last English car name that wasn’t owned by Americans, Germans, or Malaysians. But Rover was too far gone and by 2005 it was insolvent. It will be up to Christian von Koenigsegg, founder of the company, to avoid the same fate. Saab will have one thing going for it: Koenigsegg will probably care more about investing in the name than GM ever did. That, at least, is a start.

Martin Eberhard has obviously been busy these last few weeks. With a lawsuit currently pending in court against Tesla Motors and its CEO Elon Musk, Eberhard has apparently still had enough time to write an interesting article on the effects of blogging and how it helped build the Tesla Roadster. Specifically, Martin is referring to Tesla’s official blog, the first post of which Eberhard wrote shortly after the Roadster’s official launch back in the summer of 2006. According to Eberhard, blogging promotes transparency and builds credibility, is the ultimate real-time focus group, supports team building and is the single most efficient tool for reaching mainstream media. Those points, along with the importance of a blogger having “a voice,” make up the subheadings of Martin’s article. It’s an interesting read, and if you’re so inclined, click here for the entire posting. [Source: Tendo Communications ] Filed under: EV/Plug-in , Tesla Motors Martin Eberhard: Blogs built the Tesla Roadster originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Sat, 13 Jun 2009 19:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read  |  Permalink  |  Email this  |  Comments