Chevy Volt Powered With New Technology

The new Chevy Volt is due to hit the market around 2010. The Volt is going to run on electric. General Motors takes a huge leap as they allow the future owner of the Chevy Volt to charge their batteries any time and anywhere.

The new Chevy Volt is going to be empowered with the OnStar technology. Though it is going to be used for the first time in a Chevy, the technology itself is about ten years old. The technology will be helping future Chevy owners a lot as they would be able to charge their vehicles at different times for different utilities. This would also enable them to enjoy the benefits of charging their vehicles at off-peak hours, which would mean that they will have to pay a far lower rate for the services.

The implementation of the OnStar technology is described by the spokespersons of General Motors as a regular check up by the doctor. OnStar takes care of the battery and the temperature. It also takes the cooling system into consideration. Apart from using the OnStar technology for the battery, General Motors is also looking into several other matters. For instance, it is trying to figure out which would be the places from where the owners would prefer to charge their vehicles while they are on the move.

The OnStar technology is still in the testing stage. Important information is constantly being fed to the engineers all the time. Several Volt vehicles are being prepared to take the test against a crash wall, in which a number of them might be destroyed.

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Mercedes open to CNG E-Class imports

Mercedes Benz India is ready to deliver the CNG variant of its E-Class sedan to customers who need them, said Dr Wilfried Aulbur, Managing Director.

“We have a CNG variant and will import it based on demand,” he told Business Line on the sidelines of the launch of the new E-Class here on Sunday.

The downside is that the imported car will attract 104 per cent duty, which will mean that it will be twice as much the latest edition of the E-Class (petrol) that costs Rs 45.89 lakh (ex-showroom Mumbai). The fact that CNG is largely retailed in Delhi and Mumbai also means that the market will be confined to these two cities.

Dr Aulbur said the company would consider assembly of the CNG version if there was adequate demand. The petrol Merc models are E-25 (25 per cent mix of ethanol) compliant while the diesel options can operate on bio-diesel.

Mercedes had earlier conducted a trial run of the CNG-E Class in India. The mileage of the car is estimated to be 18 km a kg. As for the bus business, Dr Aulbur said private operators were not too enthusiastic about buying intercity luxury coaches due to the swine flu outbreak which hit occupancy rates. The company has sold 25 buses so far this year. Incidentally, Mercedes-Benz India opened a new dealership in Jalandhar on Monday.

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BMW rolls out sports car Z4 at Rs 59 lakh

German luxury car maker BMW launched sports car Z4 in India, priced at Rs 59 lakh (ex-showroom), that the company aims to sell about 30-40 units in the next three months of the year. For the current year, across all its models, BMW aims to sell over 3,000 units. Till September, the company has sold 2,738 units, BMW India president Peter Kronschnabl told at a media conference. In 2008, the German luxury car maker had sold 2,908 units in India.

Kronschnabl added that BMW was trying to strengthen its position in the Indian luxury car segment. He was talking to the media at the launch of Z4, its two-seater sports-car powered by a 2,979 cc petrol engine. The launch is part of the company's move to strengthen its position in the Indian luxury car segment.

"With the new BMW Z4 car we want to reach out to new target groups in India who appreciate a pure driving experience, high standard of elegance and value, and suitability for everyday driving and comfort," Kronschnabl said.

BMW is currently competing neck-to-neck with rival German luxury car maker Mercedes-Benz for the top slot in the Indian luxury-car market. During the first eight months of 2009, BMW had sold 2,305 units as against 2,026 units sold by Mercedes. The company's bulk of sales come from its two luxury sedans- the 3-series and 5-series, both currently being assembled at its Chennai plant.

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Mercedes-Benz India to launch three-axle trucks

Mercedes-Benz India is slated to launch three-axle trucks in the next six months to a year. That will will be followed by launching of city buses. Talking to reporters at the launch of New Actros 4841K in Kolkata on Friday, Mr Wilfried Aulbur, managing director & CEO, Mercedes-Benz India said: "We’ve just launched two-axle trucks in India. Trial tests for three-axle trucks are already on and we hope to launch it in the next six months to a year."

Nevertheless, the company hopes to sell about 240 trucks in India during 2009, which is tipped to translate in Rs 145 crore revenue for the company's trucks business. During 2008, the company sold the same number of trucks. It now feels the market will improve only in 2010 when a growth a likely to be witnessed in the truck segment.

Mercedes-Benz is banking on growth in the coal mining segment, where its trucks are being used mainly for over-burden removal – the soil that needs to be removed for extracting coal. Talking about the buses segment, Mr Aulber said: "The economic recession and swine-flu has hit the city buses sector very hard -- the one in which we operate. The private market is very dull. This has forced us to shift focus to state transport agencies and we have started talks with various state governments."

Interestingly, Merc is also looking at a sizeable opportunity across the fire departments of various states and the defence sector. "We have already sold a few trucks to a fire department in Mumbai and are looking at opportunities in the defence sector. The Merc stable offers vehicles that are suited for the defence sector and are in use by some governments. These could be a possibility in India," said Mr Aulbur. In India, the commercial vehicle segment offers about 15% of the total revenue to Mercedes-Benz India while it is 40% globally.

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Test Driving the Electric Ford Focus

At a press event in San Francisco, Ford showed off a prototype of what might be called the Model T of the automaker’s electric car strategy: the battery-powered Focus sedan.

“This is about affordable transportation for the masses — this is not about a small niche,” said Nancy Gioia, Ford’s director of global electrification.

To keep costs down, the Ford Focus and plug-in electric hybrids will be built — in small numbers at first — on what the company calls its global “C” platform, which produces two million cars a year.

“The assembly line in Michigan will produce the battery-electric Focus and also, with minor modifications, the gas Focus,” Ms. Gioia said. “We can change production as the market shifts.”

The Ford Focus will hit the market in 2011 followed the next year by a plug-in electric Escape sport-utility vehicle, which Ford also showed off in San Francisco. Ms. Gioia said she expects electric and plug-in hybrids will account for 10 to 25 percent of the market by 2020.

But the cars seemed almost beside the point as Ford executives focused on their strategy to work with utilities and other groups to create open standards for electric cars and ensure that a charging infrastructure is in place when buyers hit showrooms.

“The worst thing in the world is if a customer buys one of these things and they run into barrier after barrier,” Ms. Gioia said. “If you go to a dealer and get one of these cars and then it takes 45 days to get a charger installed at your house, you’re not going to be a happy camper.”

She noted the there are some 3,000 utilities in the United States in contrast to just a couple in China, where she recently returned from a visit to the country’s five largest cities. Even though China is moving fast to build an electric car industry, she said each city was developing a different electric charging infrastructure.

In laying out their plans, the Ford executives brought a dose of Midwestern realism to California, home to exotic electric carmakers like Tesla Motors and Fisker Automotive.

“We have to create customer demand based on realistic expectations,” Ms. Gioia said. “We don’t want to hype this.”

In fact, Ford has engineered the battery-powered Focus to mimic the driving experience of the gasoline version.

As I drove a blue prototype around the streets of San Francisco, I was hard-pressed to distinguish the car from one I recently rented at an airport. It was quiet, of course, but that burst of acceleration you get from punching the accelerator of an electric car has been moderated.

The Ford executive sitting shotgun told me that software limits the amount of power instantaneously transferred to the wheels so that the car will perform more like its gasoline-powered cousin.

The production electric Ford Focus, which will be powered by lithium ion battery packs, will be based on the more stylish European version of the car. The Focus will have a range of about 100 miles and a top speed of around 90 miles an hour.

Ford has not announced a price for the car.

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