Green Cars Highlight the DC Auto Show
By autoguy in Hybrid Cars on February 5th, 2010
In a speech at last week’s DC Auto Show, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said “We have to bring back manufacturing [to the US].” We are lagging the Japanese and Chinese. (”It’s startling how much manufacturing is happening in China now.”) That, and weening ourselves off our addiction to foreign fuel, is why the Department of Energy is lending $13 billion to companies and suppliers to research and develop electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids, corn ethanol and agricultural waste fuels, advanced combustion engines, natural gas cars, hydrogen fuel cells, and even modified bacteria that change bio waste into a gas substitute. Of that, $1.4 b will be lent to Nissan America to produce the Nissan Leaf, a plug-in which will be made in Tennessee.
The 2011 Nissan Leaf will get 100 miles per charge and cost about $30,000, though Federal credits may bring this down to $23,000. It charges in 14 hours at 120 volts, 4 hours at 240 Volts, and in a little over 30 minutes at 440 Volts DC (planned for Nissan’s commercial charging stations). The car has its own web service that will direct the driver to the nearest station, as well as provide music and video channels. Plus an iPhone app will allow the driver to check your car’s charge level, and even turn the AC or heater while the car still on the charger. It has 100 horsepower and 210 ft-lbs of torque, but with its electronic shifter and gauges, it wont feel like any car we’re used to. Expect to see them on the road in December, with charging stations opening in Portland, Seattle, Tuscon, Phoenix and Nashville.
Here are some of the other highlights of the auto show.
GEM, a company acquired by Chrysler in 2000, sells neighborhood electric vehicles. A lot of them. They sold 40,000 last year in the US, number one in their category with a 70% market share. A GEM representative calculated that in 2009, their vehicles went about 500 million miles, saving 19 million gallons of gas and 93,000 metric tons of emissions, equivalent to planting half a million trees. Ten percent of vehicle sales are to retirement communities, but they also sell to college campuses, state parks, and municipalities. They have six models available, ranging in price from about $7,300 to $13,000 for the fully-loaded six-passenger model.
Toyota debuted a plug-in hybrid Prius. The regular Prius has a nickle-hydride battery, but the plug-in’s is lithium-ion. It can run for 13 miles on a bone-dry tank, and gets 80 to 100 mpg “if driven correctly,” said Joyce Brew, a Toyota representative. It has the same power train and hybrid synergy drive as the old Prius.
But it doesn’t all have to be “green”, does it? The Viper roadster has a 600 hp engine and 560 ft-lbs of torque. Zero to 60 in under four seconds, and the quarter mile in 11 seconds. Zero to 100, and back to zero in 11 seconds. It tops out at about 198 mph, and has no traction control or stability program (”kid gloves” stuff, said the presenter).
